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Eric Wenzel joins us today to talk about Coats of Kindness, a charity in St. Paul. The local nonprofit started six years ago based off a cancer event and pay-it-forward initiative at Eric’s church. His kids were involved from the beginning and...

 

This Sunday, November 11th is Veteran's Day (although the federal holiday is on Monday, giving many the day off). In honor of the day, and in honor of all those who have served this great country, the Lowry Avenue Bridge is going to be lighting up with the colors red, white, and blue. The bridge will be lit with said American theme from Saturday the 10th until Monday the 12th.

 

The Lowry Avenue Bridge just reopened in late October and is fitted with programmable LED lights that give the city freedom to light the bridge many different ways. The bridge will be changed based on city events or holidays. 

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The dreaded emerald ash borer has been discovered in Minneapolis. The Minnesota Agriculture Department confirmed the infestation of four trees at Tower Hill Park, not far from known infestations in St. Paul and Falcon Heights. The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board will cut down the trees before spring and intensify efforts to find other diseased trees.

This is not an unexpected turn of events. With the discovery of the green beetles last spring in St. Paul and later in Falcon Heights, officials are trying to slow the spread. A widespread and expensive infestation could threaten the state's 940 million ash trees.

Last year, 82 diseased trees were found and removed in the South St. Anthony Park neighborhood of St. Paul and one tree in Falcon Heights. Earlier this year, crews in St. Paul began cutting down 355 nondiseased boulevard ash trees in other parts of the city as part of a broader strategy to slow the spread of the beetle. The Como Park neighborhood is experimenting...

Eagan is striking a preemptive blow against the emerald ash borer. The city's weapons of choice? An $89,000 grant and some chainsaws.

Come spring time, Eagan city workers will be evaluating boulevard trees and removing any that have defects which could make them attractive to the emerald ash borer. If a tree is deemed vulnerable, the resident will get an offer for a city worker to remove it to help stave off the nasty beetle. Residents with vulnerable trees on their property, provided they're on boulevards where the city has the right-of-way, will be able to get replacement trees free. The types of trees to be offered are hackberry, honeylocust, bicolor oaks and Kentucky coffee trees.

Minneapolis, Saint Louis Park, and Eagan MN received the 3 largest of 15 grants awarded by the Minnesota Department of Agriculture from...

The Minnesota Department of Agriculture has awarded $1.9 million in grants to cities and organizations to arm themselves in the fight against the destructive emerald ash borer.

The emerald ash borer was first found in May in the St. Anthony Park neighborhood of Saint Paul. It has since been discovered in Falcon Heights and on the University of Minnesota's St. Paul campus. More than 100 infested ash trees have been destroyed so far.

St. Paul will get $723,000 to help manage infestation in the city. The University of Minnesota will get $200,000, and Falcon Heights will get $77,400 to fight the pest. The Agriculture Department also awarded $875,000 in grants to 15 cities and agencies to prepare for infestation, including Minneapolis, Minnetonka, Roseville and St. Louis Park.

The St. Paul City Council recently adopted an ordinance declaring the emerald ash borer a public nuisance, which gives the city the authority to inspect trees on private...

Now that the holiday storm has dumped piles of snow on the Twin Cities, colder weather is moving in, which will make it even more difficult for public works crews to remove the snow and ice from roads.

In Minneapolis, streets are fairly clean on busier streets. High-demand on-street parking areas will likely have curbside snow and ice until it warms up a little. Some potholes are forming alreadyand may not get filled immediately.

In Saint Paul, roads east of Snelling are good, while those to the west are a little rough still. Some St. Paul streets were missed during the snow emergency because of new plow drivers. If your road in St. Paul isn't cleared soon, might want to let them know.

There is a bright spot amidst the storm. Officials in St. Paul and Minneapolis are praising residents for heeding snow emergency warnings called on both Christmas...

Will it be a white-out Christmas? If you've been paying any attention, you know that a snowstorm threatens to turn last-minute shopping and holiday travel into possibly dangerous tasks. The forecast indicates there could be the deepest Christmas snows on record across Minnesota and parts ot the midwest, with the storm already well started as I write this and expected to linger well into Saturday.

The storm is capable of dropping 16 to 22 inches from Iowa to the Arrowhead. The heaviest snow is predicted for central and northern Minnesota. The snow will likely be heavy and wet, so be careful as there will probably be a lot of ice on the roads. Wind gusts could exceed 20 mph.

Will it really be Snowmagedon? Will the Doomsnow hit us as hard as they say? Time will tell, but the weather forecast guarantees that snow emergencies will be declared in Minneapolis and St. Paul over the holiday weekend. That will require most cars parked on streets to be moved at least once or be towed away at significant...

It is the winter solstice, the shortest day and the longest night. Even as the days grow longer from here on out, the cold season has just officially begun. Because of the unseasonably warm weather we had well into fall, the lake ice in Minnesota which has normally frozen solid... really hasn't yet. Especially when it comes to lakes in the southern half of the state.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources recommends that there be at least five inches of ice to support snowmobiles or ATVs and more than double that before it will support a car or truck onto a lake. In smaller lakes, there is less of a danger and ice has likely been able to form thick enough to support some of these activities. But the ice is dangerously thin in many places.

Just ask Dan Fruechte of Swanville, as his manufactured fish house has fallen partially through the ice on Long Lake. Equipped with a flat-screen TV and stereo, the house was worth about $15,000 and has maintained so much water damage it is totaled.

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At long last, the Hiawatha light rail line is finally complete. The last planned stop, the America Boulevard Station located in Bloomington at 34th Avenue, opened on Saturday. And it opened ahead of schedule, as the work wasn't even supposed to be finished until January.

The $3.3 million station was included in the original plans for the light rail line, but its construction was deferred when the south end of the 12-mile route was redesigned, said Bob Gibbons, director of customer services for Metro Transit. Money to build the new station came from the Bloomington Port Authority, Hennepin County, Metropolitan Council and the federal government.

The new station is northeast of the Mall of America and a short distance from Bloomington Central Station. Three hotels, an office complex and large long-term parking lots are located nearby. The area is being redeveloped and Bloomington MN officials view the new station as a key...