Monthly Archives: August 2011

Letter from Lakewood Cemetery About Dog Park

LETTER FROM LAKEWOOD CEMETERY ABOUT DOG PARK

Lakewood Cemetery has weighed in on the issue of the sixth district dog park.

The attached letter was written to MPRB President John Erwin by Ronald A. Gjerde, Jr., President of Lakewood Cemetery. In it he states, “Furthermore, because we believe in the preservation of historic sites, we would not be in favor of a dog park being located on Theodore Wirth Historic Site.” To read the entire letter, click on the attached file.

Arlene Fried

Co-founder of Park Watch
20110713151430586.pdf

Sixth District Dog Park C A C Meeting September 12

SIXTH DISTRICT DOG PARK CAC MEETING SEPTEMBER 12

A Reminder:
The 6th District Dog Park CAC will be meeting on September 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Lynnhurst Recreation Center, 1345 W. Minnehaha Parkway.

All are welcome to attend. Time will be set aside for public comment at the beginning of the meeting. For additional information check out the Sixth Park District Dog Park and Citizen Advisory Committee project page on the MPRB website.

Letter from the N P S About the Theodore Wirth House

LETTER FROM THE NPS ABOUT THE THEODORE WIRTH HOUSE

The following letter regarding the Historic Theodore Wirth House is from Dena Sanford, Architectural Historian with the National Park Service National Register Programs, Midwest Regional Office. It is being posted here with permission.

August 15, 2011

Hello, Mr. Chamberlain and Mr. Vreeland,

I was provided your names from Joan Berthiaume, following a request for an interview by a Minneapolis Star Tribune reporter. The topic was the possible establishment of a dog park adjacent to the Theodore Wirth House, on land that is included within that property’s National Register of Historic Places boundary. I am writing to you related to the potential of the Wirth House as a National Historic Landmark, about which I spoke to the Minneapolis Park Board about a year ago.

Following the conversation with the reporter, I would like to obtain additional information on the proposal, and ask to whom I should address a letter regarding that proposal. It is my understanding that there are three proposed locations for the dog park, the other two of which are not on the National Register property, but I am not clear on the exact location of the other two proposed sites.

As you may be aware, the Theodore Wirth House is historically significant to the history of park development in the Minneapolis Park System (which is widely acclaimed in its own right), and is listed at a state level of significance. However, Theodore Wirth was a nationally-recognized person who promoted a form of park development that encouraged public access and use in a way very different from earlier parks, a concept described as the “local park movement.”

This concept also directly influenced the design ethic of his son, Conrad Wirth. As the location of both his home and his office, the Wirth House represents the focus of where Theodore Wirth developed and carried out his concepts of landscape design and public use.

Conrad Wirth, who grew up in the house and would have been intimately familiar with his father’s design philosophy, also became a landscape architect, and a national figure in the National Park Service. Conrad Wirth was a key administrator in the planning and design of the Civilian Conservation Corps program of the 1930s, and later brought about a sea change in NPS perceptions about providing the public with access into the National Parks– very different from that espoused at the beginning of the 20th century.

The landscape surrounding the house, with its open lawn setting interspersed with vegetation and trees, is an integral component of the National Register nomination. Both the house and landscape are highly intact, which greatly assists in conveying the importance of the property associated with both Wirth men. Should the National Historic Landmark nomination proceed, retaining a very high level of integrity is an important element in the evaluation process.

While I am currently unaware of the parameters and details regarding the discussions about establishing a dog park near the Theodore Wirth House, as stewards of such an important resource, I am confident that the Minneapolis Park Board is taking into account the importance of sensitive treatment and preservation of the property.

Placement of a dog park that is not within the National Register boundary would ensure that the landscape associated with these nationally important men remains intact. In this way, the citizens of Minneapolis, the state of Minnesota, and the greater American public can appreciate and learn from this irreplaceable resource, and the role that Minneapolis played in the national evolution of public park landscape design.

I have previously sent this message to other district commissioners –Ms. Wielinski, Ms. Tabb, and Mr. Bourn– along with a few other people on this message who may also be interested in this issue: Mr. Jon Mueller, current National President of the American Society of Landscape Architects (ASLA), and Bruce Lemke, the current president of ASLA in Minnesota.

Thank you,

Dena Sanford

Architectural Historian

National Park Service
National Register Programs,
Midwest Regional Office

Cc: Joan Berthiaume

Walks, Talks, and Upcoming Events on the River

WALKS, TALKS, AND UPCOMING EVENTS ON THE RIVER

The Minneapolis Riverfront Partnership has announced the following events:

Tuesday, August 30, 2011: Broadway to Boom and Back, River Ramble. 5-7 PM, meet at MPRB parking lot.

Thursday, September 15, 2011: Central River Forum, Focus on the East Bank (including A Mill plans). Mill City Museum, time to be announced.

Tuesday, September 27, 2011: Upper River Forum, Above the Falls 2011, Development Research and Recommendations. 5-7 PM, MPRB Headquarters.

For the complete announcement with further details, go to:

http://us2.campaign-archive2.com/?u=f422ad6d15811d3277abbc34d&id=01c3927ccf&e=c0bbaeccb7

Old Minneapolis Lumberyard Needs $1 million-plus Cleanup to be Park

The following article by Tom Meersman was published in the Star Tribune on August 19, 2011:

OLD MINNEAPOLIS LUMBERYARD NEEDS $1 MILLION-PLUS CLEANUP TO BE PARK

A former lumberyard purchased for a future riverfront park contains lead, arsenic, mercury, petroleum and other hazardous compounds in its soil that will cost more than $1 million to clean up.

The 11.3-acre parcel, along the Mississippi River north of the Plymouth Avenue Bridge, is seen as a key piece of a long-range plan by the Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board to dramatically reshape the mostly industrial corridor north of downtown into recreational green space.

Park officials said they had the land tested for pollutants ahead of time and knew it had problems when they bought it for $7.7 million in June 2010. Some of them could stem from uses on the site back to the 1880s. Park Board President John Erwin said the cleanup price tag comes as “no surprise.”

Updated plans for the property, long occupied by Scherer Brothers Lumber Co., surfaced at a Park Board meeting earlier this month and are posted on the board’s website. Sealed bids for the first phase of the cleanup were opened Thursday and are not public until they’ve been evaluated.

The Minneapolis Riverfront Development Initiative, working with community groups to develop riverfront plans, calls the property a vital “entry point to the trail and park system for kayaks, bikes, skiers and runners,” and a “significant urban hub.”

LEGACY OF POLLUTION

It may not be the last time that pollutants are encountered in the push to redevelop much of the 5 1/2-mile stretch on both sides of the upper Mississippi between the Stone Arch bridge and the city’s northern boundary.

“Because this was the industrial part of town along the river, this is where the pollution is,” said Park Board Commissioner Liz Wielinski, who represents the area. “In order to reclaim this riverfront, we know we’re going to have to do cleanup and it’s just the cost of doing business.”

Scherer Brothers owned the property since 1934. It’s just north of Boom Island Park, on the northeast side of the Plymouth bridge. Different consulting firms took soil samples and analyzed them for various pollutants in 2009 and 2010 and found a number of “hot spots” that exceed state and federal standards.

The land contains six buildings, built between 1936 and 1985, that contain asbestos and lead paint. Soil contaminants came from underground petroleum tanks that leaked and at least one area where lumber was treated with hazardous compounds, said Cliff Swenson, the Park Board’s director of design and project management. Other pollutants likely came from fill that was added over the decades and hazardous materials from coal storage, shingle firms and sawmills that occupied the land from as far back as the 1880s.

THE JOB AHEAD

Most of the land is covered with asphalt or concrete, Swenson said, so contaminants in the top few feet of soil underneath are not suspected of polluting the river.

Cleanup costs involve demolishing buildings, removing the concrete and asphalt, excavating and disposing of contaminated soil and regrading the site.

Cleanup funds come from about $350,000 from a special environmental response fund from Hennepin County, and $1 million from federal economic stimulus funds.

Arlene Fried, co-founder of Minneapolis Park Watch, said her group of volunteer citizens raised concerns about cleanup costs before the Park Board bought the land. At the time, she said, the board approached the issue in a “sneaky” way and her group suspected a “sweetheart deal” would let the lumber company unload the polluted property at an advantageous price.

Those concerns subsided because “everyone felt it was such an important piece of property that everything else fell away,” Fried said.

Erwin said an appraisal before the purchase confirmed that the negotiated price was reasonable and that getting the land and cleaning it up is a bargain for Minneapolis taxpayers.

“The acquisition costs and demolition and cleanup costs are not coming out of local property-tax dollars,” he said. Virtually all of the purchase price is coming in installments from the state Legacy Fund, Erwin said, which taps a portion of state sales taxes dedicated to parks and trails.

END-OF-YEAR DEADLINE

Gil Gabanski, who works for Hennepin County’s contaminated lands unit, said the stimulus money must be spent by the end of the year, so the cleanup project is on a fast track. Removal of hazardous wastes from buildings and demolition will begin shortly after Labor Day, he said, with excavation and removal of contaminated soil to follow beginning about mid-October.

Some acreage that’s farther from the river may become part of the envisioned regional park or could be sold eventually for residential, commercial or mixed-use development, according to long-range plans.

“That river, it’s a gem,” Wielinski said. “It’s going to be a great place to have a lot of parks and make the river a focal point in the city again. I think that’ll be fabulous.”

Public Meeting for Parade Parkway

PUBLIC MEETING FOR PARADE PARKWAY

The Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board (MPRB) will host a public meeting to review plans for the reconstruction of Parade Parkway on August 22, 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at Kenwood Recreation Center, 2101 W. Franklin Ave.

Parade Parkway is a short segment of street from Dunwoody Boulevard to Kenwood Parkway and is in need of reconstruction. The improvement project is included in the MPRB 2011 Capital Plan for Parkway and Parkway Lighting.

Members of the public are invited to review the plans prior to construction.

6th District Dog Park C A C Rescheduled

6TH DISTRICT DOG PARK CAC RESCHEDULED

The August 22 meeting of the Sixth Park District Dog Park Citizen Advisory Committee (CAC) has been canceled. The CAC will meet instead September 12 at 6:30 p.m. at the Lynnhurst Recreation Center, 1345 W Minnehaha Parkway.

All are welcome to attend. Time will be set aside for public comment at the beginning of the meeting.
For additional information check out the Sixth Park District Dog Park and Citizen Advisory Committee project page on the MPRB website.

M P R B 2011 Photo Contest

MPRB 2011 PHOTO CONTEST

There’s still time to submit your photos into the Picture a Park Photo Contest! Grab your camera and head to your favorite park! Or, sift through old photos from any time of year! The deadline for entries is Sept. 5!

New in 2011 is the Peoples’ Choice Awards! Take part by voting on your favorites on National Camera Exchange’s Facebook Page!

Complete contest rules can be found at http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=1227 or learn more by reading the news release!

August 17, 2011 Park Board Meeting

HEADS-UP FOR THE AUGUST 17, 2011 PARK BOARD MEETING

5:00 P.M. REGULAR BOARD MEETING. The meeting will be held in the boardroom at Park Board headquarters, 2117 West River Road, just north of Broadway Pizza.

5:30 P.M. OPEN TIME. Speakers need to sign up before 3:00 p.m. the day of the meeting.

The complete agenda, with staff reports, for the MPRB Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 is at http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=37&calid=790

MPRB meetings are telecast live from 5-9 p.m. on the City of Minneapolis Government Meeting Channel 79 on Comcast cable and online at http://www.minneapolismn.gov/webcasts.

The regular meetings are retelecast on Channel 79 at 1 p.m. Saturdays and 5 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of each month. Webcasts for the recent two months are posted two to five business days after the meeting and are available for viewing under “Webcast Archives” at http://www.minneapolismn.gov/webcasts.

The Park Board’s website is http://www.minneapolisparks.org. The phone number is 612-230-6400.

Arlene Fried

Co-Founder of Park Watch

Heads-Up for the August 17, 2011 Park Board Meeting

HEADS-UP FOR THE AUGUST 17, 2011 PARK BOARD MEETING

5:00 P.M. REGULAR BOARD MEETING. The meeting will be held in the boardroom at Park Board headquarters, 2117 West River
Road, just north of Broadway Pizza.

5:30 P.M. OPEN TIME. Speakers need to sign up before 3:00 p.m. the day of the meeting.

The complete agenda, with staff reports, for the MPRB Board of Commissioners’ meeting on Wednesday, August 17, 2011 is at http://www.minneapolisparks.org/default.asp?PageID=37&calid=790

MPRB meetings are telecast live from 5-9 p.m. on the City of Minneapolis Government Meeting Channel 79 on Comcast cable and online at http://www.minneapolismn.gov/webcasts.

The regular meetings are retelecast on Channel 79 at 1 p.m. Saturdays and 5 p.m. on the second and fourth Wednesdays of
each month. Webcasts for the recent two months are posted two to five business days after the meeting and are available for viewing under “Webcast Archives” at http://www.minneapolismn.gov/webcasts.

The Park Board’s website is http://www.minneapolisparks.org. The phone number is 612-230-6400.

Arlene Fried

Co-Founder of Park Watch