Stenglein to leave office, will lead Downtown Council

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Hennepin County Commissioner Mark Stenglein, who represents most of North and Northeast Minneapolis, says he will resign June 1 to take over leadership of the Minneapolis Downtown Council.Stenglein said there will be a special election for county commissioner, but it will be timed to coincide with the general election Nov. 6, with the same filing and primary-election dates as the general election.The big difference, he said, is that the winner of this election won’t have to wait until January to start work, he or she can be sworn in right away.The county commissioner seat, he said, can stay vacant between June 1 and the election. The staff will stay on through that time, he said, and the commissioners from neighboring districts—Mike Opat and Peter McLaughlin—are “always here, for anything that would be an emergency” requiring a commissioner’s attention.Stenglein said he was happy in his job and not looking for a change, but the Downtown Council people approached him.“I’m passionate about the city,” he said. “This is a really wonderful opportunity.”Among the highlights he has noted during his time in office:“The bridge is on schedule,” he said. “We were able to save the Minneapolis library system by combining it with Hennepin County’s (system).” And the recent changes at Hennepin County Medical Center have been “a huge joy,” and have reduced the county’s financial commitments there.He said his work as chair of the board’s Budget and Capital Investments Committee was particularly rewarding, as the county weathered “the worst recession since the Great Depression, all without massive layoffs and with a flat levy.”And, “there’s not a better feeling” than watching the Hiawatha Line light-rail train and the Northstar line coming in to the new ball park.Is there anything he won’t miss about the job?“Some of the nasty phone calls,” he said.He said he thinks a lot of people will run for the county commissioner position. Continue Reading

DDONE lawsuit is tossed out

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“We’d like to be [operating] in 2013,” Minneapolis’ then Solid Waste and Recycling Division Director Susan Young said a year ago, about the city’s and Hennepin County’s proposal to replicate the co

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MPCA delays shredder plan

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The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has put the brakes on relaxing emission-control standards for the metal shredder at the Northern Metal Recycling plant on the Mississippi River just so

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800 W. Broadway tax forfeits, would have been YWCA+

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“We went for a home run, and we struck out.”That’s how Erik Hansen, the City of Minneapolis project coordinator for Broadway Plaza, described the latest chapter in what he calls the “high risk, high reward” story of redevelopment along West Broadway.On Sept. 15, Hennepin County seized the property at 800 West Broadway because of delinquent property taxes. Once the centerpiece of a proposed $70 million development that would have included a YWCA fitness center, retail shops, offices and off-street parking, it’s now among several contiguous properties to change hands because of unpaid debt.The developer on the project, Great Neighborhoods! Development Corporation (formerly American Indian Neighborhood Development Corporation), has a 30-year history of successful city partnerships, developing a shopping center and other business property in South Minneapolis. A Great Neighborhoods subsidiary had purchased all the property on both sides of Aldrich Avenue N between West Broadway and 21st Avenue N. The 800 building, which would have been the site of the fitness center, was owned by a corporation that was co-owned by the Great Neighborhoods subsidiary and the YWCA of Minneapolis. Continue Reading