News and Current Affairs
Scrap Tire Mulch on Duluth Public Schools’ Playgrounds
Last week Duluth Parents for Healthy Playgrounds presented the results of a test conducted by St. Paul-based Legend Technical Services on a sample of rubber mulch from the playground at Lester Park Elementary School. The test found 12 chemicals listed by the Minnesota Department of Health as “chemicals of high concern,” but the chemicals were at levels not considered hazardous.
From the report’s executive summary:
Our test does not account for possible interactions or “synergistic” effects of the 12 “chemicals of high concern,” nor for carbon nanotubes. Given the variety of chemicals different tire manufacturers use, and the variability of the tire brands in Rubberific mulch, the eight grams from Lester Park Elementary that were tested may account for only a few of the estimated 12,000 tires in the whole playground.
Link to the full report: Scrap Tire Mulch on Duluth Public Schools’ Playgrounds (PDF)
Question 3: Method for setting fee paid to Duluth city councilors
After publishing the Duluth 2015 General Election Sample Ballot, a question arose. We’ve been hearing a lot about ranked-choice voting and Lakeside liquor sales, but what’s the deal with question #3? (more…)
Project manager wanted for 10-month media collaboration
The journalism program at the University of Minnesota Duluth is looking for a part-time project manager to assist in coordinating the “One River, Many Stories” media collaboration project.
Funded through a Knight Foundation Fund grant from the Duluth Superior Area Community Foundation, the project will test ways media collaboration can inspire innovation and nurture engagement among professional journalists, educators and citizen storytellers in the Duluth-Superior community. In April 2016, the media in northern Minnesota and northwest Wisconsin will give special attention to one topic: The St. Louis River. Newspapers, television and radio stations, local bloggers, photographers, videographers, university, college and high school journalism programs, and citizen storytellers will produce news articles, documentaries, podcasts and other media about the historic St. Louis River corridor.
Duluth’s Mark Sertich on CBS Evening News
Tonight Mark Sertich became the second Duluthian to be featured on the CBS Evening News in the past month. Just 18 days after St. Scholastica Saints kicking coach Sister Lisa Maurer was profiled on the program, Sertich was featured in a segment with “On the Road” correspondent Steve Hartman.
Sertich is a 1939 Denfeld graduate and World War II veteran who, at age 94, still plays hockey with a group of Duluth firefighters.
Visit Uptown Superior … or Downtown Superior or the North End
This past summer a new marketing effort was launched in Superior to attract people back to the downtown area, which struggled through a long Tower Avenue reconstruction project in 2013. The strip has seen a number of new businesses spring up on the fancy new avenue, but also still has numerous vacant buildings. It’s a work in progress. The joint effort of “collected businesses promoting each other” to “highlight the diamonds in the proverbial rough” is called Visit Uptown Superior.
Why is the downtown now the uptown? Isn’t “uptown” a word to describe a residential area? Well, this part of Superior is the North End, and people tend to think of north as up … and maybe these businesses intend to “Uptown funk you up.” Let’s not overthink it. Below is the back of a promotional postcard highlighting the collective businesses in said Uptown.
Know Your Duluth Liquor Laws!
- Not in Our Neighborhood, Part 1: Buying Booze in Duluth 1934-1973
- Not in Our Neighborhood! Part 2: The Battles Over the Lakeside Liquor Law, 1973-Today
- The ‘Grande Dame’ of Lakeside (A profile of Myrtle Marshall, whose effort to keep the 1891 law in place has been mythologized.)
- Tempered by Temperance: Duluth & Liquor, 1870-1919 (Includes the creation of the 1891 Lakeside Liquor Law.)
- And Never on Sundays (Covers 1934-1973 liquor issues concerning music, dancing, women, etc.)
#notsaintpaul
So I’m finishing work tonight and my friend says, “meet me at the Brewhouse.” I tasted a flight of three and ordered the dopplebock. The drink coaster just made it too easy for me.
Great American Beer Festival Awards Winners 2015
Don’t get me wrong, I love St Paul, but it appears as though the judges have spoken.
From the Great American Beer Festival, Duluth takes two awards!
To me, it’s gotta be extra special bitter. (How often can a drink coaster be mightier than the billboard)?
- Silver – Double Porter | Bemidji Brewing Co., Bemidji (Baltic-style porter)
- Bronze – Lonely Blonde | Fulton Beer, Minneapolis (English-style summer ale)
- Silver – 14° ESB | Bent Paddle Brewing Co., Duluth (extra special bitter)
- Silver – Procrastinator Doppelbock | Fitger’s Brewhouse, Duluth (German-style doppelbock or eisbock)
- Silver – Pumpkin Grinder | Mankato Brewery, Mankato (pumpkin)
- Silver – Size 4 | Steel Toe Brewing, St. Louis Park (session India pale ale)
- Bronze – Firebrick | August Schell Brewing Co., New Ulm (Vienna-style lager)
Minnesota North Shore Fall Colors Report 2015
With today the first day of fall there is no better time to post the MN Fall Colors map for 2015. We are really starting to see pockets of great colors in Duluth and along the North Shore. You can also use the MN DNR interactive map by clicking here to help track the colors as they change. What are you seeing in your area? Post you favorite tree picture as it changes in the comments.
Mayor Ness banned from Labor Temple’s Wellstone Hall for life
From the Sept. 16 issue of Labor World:
Without opposition a motion was made, seconded, and carried to ban Don Ness from the Duluth Labor Temple’s Wellstone Hall for life.
Puppy Love: East End Dog Park folks need fence help
My dog Nero pleads with you! The Duluth City Council approved the East End Dog Park for Riley Road, and the buyers of Morgan Park Middle School have offered up the chain-link fencing. We just need muscles and some tools to help get that fencing down.
Info can be found at duluthdogparks.com. If you have a few hours and a love of puppies, show up Friday, Sept. 18, and/or Saturday, Sept. 19, both days starting at 9 a.m. Come when you can and stay as long as you are able.
Items needed: People, ladders, socket sets/ratchets, work gloves, people, bolt cutters, crescent wrenches and people!
Duluth 2015 Primary Election Results
With 41 out of 41 precincts reporting, Emily Larson and Chuck Horton are the winning candidates in the mayoral race, advancing to the General Election in November. Jay Fosle and Janet Kennedy advance in the Fifth District City Council race.
Duluth Mayor
(Top two candidates advance to General Election)
Emily Larson – 5,456 | 67.32%
Chuck Horton – 1,505 | 18.57%
Howie Hanson – 732 | 9.03%
James Mattson – 177 | 2.18%
John Socha – 111 | 1.37%
John Howard Evans – 51 | 0.63%
Thomas Cooper – 45 | 0.56%
Robert D. Schieve – 27 | 0.33%
Fifth District Duluth City Councilor
(Top two candidates advance to General Election)
Jay Fosle – 945 | 56.08%
Janet Kennedy – 671 | 39.82%
Allan Beaulier – 44 | 2.61%
Derrick Ellis – 25 | 1.48%
At-large Duluth School Board Member
(Top two candidates advance to General Election)
Renee K. VanNett – 3,351 | 44.70%
Alanna Oswald – 2,437 | 32.51%
Jim H. Unden – 1,708 | 22.79%
District Two Duluth School Board Member
(Top two candidates advance to General Election)
David Kirby – 1,044 | 58.65%
Charles Obije – 461 | 25.9%
Jane Hammerstrom Hoffman – 275 | 15.45%
R.I.P. Norm’s Beer & Brats, Cedar Lounge as it once was and the Loading Zone in all it’s glory
A few notes on Superior bars:
Norm’s Beer & Brats held a “Final Bash” over the weekend. According to its Facebook page, the bar will be moving early next week. “The old building will still be open for business tomorrow for tacos (since last week got all kinds of messed up with the power outage), and all week including Friday and Saturday,” reads a post published today. “Our new home is currently known as the Cedar Lounge. Be sure to check it out!”
Update: It seems the Norm’s / Cedar Lounge deal fell through. (more…)
You can’t put a campaign sign there
One of the more clever Facebook pages of recent times has to be “You can’t put a campaign sign there,” which launched on Sept. 9. The candidates probably didn’t place the signs themselves, of course, but it’s still amusing.
After three days, Chuck Horton leads the race with seven allegedly illegal sign placements, followed by Howie Hanson and Karl Spring, who each have just one. (That’s just counting the gallery images; it looks like there are also a few “visitor posts” that aren’t in the gallery.)
That’s quite a lead for Horton, but at this stage Perfect Duluth Day’s prognosticators still think it’s too close to call.
Missing Person: Sheila Lou St. Clair
The Duluth Police Department is seeking the public’s assistance in locating a missing person — Sheila Lou St. Clair. She is a 48-year-old Native American female, 5’5″ tall, 125 lbs., with black hair and brown eyes. St. Clair has not been seen since sometime before Sept. 1 in the area of the 100 block of West Third Street. If you know St. Clair’s whereabouts call 911.
Google Fiber Update
USA Today reports Google Fiber is considering three new cities for its high-speed Internet service: San Diego, Irvine and Louisville.
Don’t worry, Duluth is in line for a new project: Google Chopped Liver.
Lutsen New Gondola
Lutsen Ski Resort began erecting a new $7-million gondola on June 23. It should be operational by the 2015-16 ski season. Above you can see they are sticking with the iconic red for the new eight-passenger gondola, which will speed up the gondola lines.
Duluth 2015 Primary Election Sample Ballot
Keep in mind:
District candidates will appear on the ballot only in the specified districts. Duluth City Council District 5 represents West Duluth and neighborhoods farther west. Duluth School Board District 2 represents the Endion, Congdon, Chester Park and Kenwood areas.
NorShor Theatre renovation funding in order, ready for approval
The city of Duluth announced in a news release today the restoration Duluth’s historic NorShor Theatre could begin before the end of 2015, with a grand reopening expected in mid 2017, now that the project has finalized its funding sources.
David Montgomery, Duluth’s chief administrative officer, shared details with the City Council during its Monday committee-of-the-whole meeting. He said none of the funding will come from property taxes. (more…)
Save the LS&M Railroad for the enjoyment of future generations
The struggling Lake Superior & Mississippi Railroad in West Duluth has persevered against all odds as a scenic, historic railroad since 1980 despite receiving virtually no public subsidies. Running on the very first tracks to enter Duluth, dating back to 1870, 145 unbroken years of history are on the line right now. A dedicated all-volunteer group, none of whom has ever received a paycheck, is keeping this history alive. The railroad costs the city virtually nothing, has proven to be largely self-sufficient, and is an irreplaceable treasure that needs community input in order to survive the massive cleanup now being planned for the U.S. Steel site near Morgan Park. The two newspaper columns linked below will shade things in a bit for you. Take a trip on the LS&M during one of the next six weekends or you just might miss your chance, forever.
Duluth Budgeteer: Save the train for future generations
Duluth News Tribune: Massive cleanup plan emerging for U.S. Steel site in Duluth
Duluth cat potentially ready to freak out
The latest Duluth dateline in The Onion newspaper reports “It impossible to tell what sounds will freak out cat.” Apparently, “there seemed to be no clear pattern to the animal’s responses,” according to local pet owner Wendy Vogl. “I can slam the front door and he’ll just sit there licking himself, but then he’ll hear thunder and run out of the room immediately.”
Grassy Point Trail closed?
Does anyone know why the Grassy Point trail is blocked off about halfway down and what the time frame is for reopening? My daughters and I were bummed when we couldn’t get down to the water this morning.
Shredded tire mulch: Soft and safe or dirty and dangerous?
This Eyewitness News report from July covers the controversy of shredded tire mulch on playgrounds in Duluth. Cory Kirsling, father of a Lester Park Elementary School student, has started a GoFundMe page to raise money to have the mulch tested “for heavy metals, VOCs, off-gassing and leaching, toxins and carcinogens.” His page notes, “a local lab will collect the samples from our school’s playground, and we will share the research with everyone.”