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Hastings Creamery struggles with regulators

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HASTINGS, Minn. — The Metropolitan Council will temporarily cut off sewer service for a dairy processing company that dates back more than a century, putting the plant’s owners in a tough spot with customers and milk suppliers.

The regional agency says the Hastings Creamery has been out of compliance with its industrial wastewater permit and a recent leak placed a strain on the city’s treatment plant.

“The ongoing release of prohibited materials is putting the wastewater treatment plant in imminent danger and could compromise the health and safety of the Hastings community,” read a statement from the Met Council Saturday evening.

“We have unfortunately recorded six notices of violations of industrial waste permits from the Hastings Creamery in the past seven months. As a result, we are suspending its ability to discharge industrial waste for treatment at the Hastings Wastewater Treatment Plant.”

The creamery processes 150,000 pounds of raw milk each day, purchased from dairy farmers in Minnesota and Wisconsin. It produces a variety of dairy products, some under the Hastings Creamery label and some for other companies and grocery store chains.

“When things are fully staffed, there’s 35 to 40 people that work here. On top of that there’s another 45 farm families that wouldn’t have anywhere to go with their milk,” Justin Malone, one of the creamery’s owners, told KARE.

Malone, a third-generation dairy farmer, bought the creamery with three other farmers two years ago. He pointed out it’s already a tough time in the dairy industry, as some farmers have had to dump milk because they can’t find any processing plants with the capacity to accept it.

That’s one of the reasons the Minnesota Dept. of Agriculture is monitoring the situation, out of concern for producers that would be affected if the creamery decides to stops buying their milk.

Malone said he and his partners were unaware at the time they bought the 1955 plant that the average wastewater discharge had been out of compliance with the Met Council’s standards since 2013.

“We weren’t aware that was in violation of the permit. We’re not blaming that on anyone. We’re just trying to partner with Met Council and get things where they can be okay.”

Once the plant loses its connection to the city sewer system, the only way to stay in operation will be to collect the wastewater on site and truck it to a different wastewater treatment plant that’s equipped to handle the water that comes from the creamery.

The Met Council will continue to monitor the outflow from the plant and may reconnect it to the sewer system after 30 days if enough conditions are met.

“We have a two-year plan to change how the wastewater leaves the creamery. We’re just wanting to try to get to that point without having to shut down, because it’s going to be rally hard on everybody,” Malone said.

The Met Council monitors the levels of FOG — fats, oils, and grease — coming from the creamery, and checks to see if the wastewater is PH-balanced. The long-term solution is to build a small treatment plant at the the creamery, which would cost more than $900,000.

Rep. Shane Hudella, a Republican who represents the Hastings area, said the creamery’s dairy store is part of the fabric of life in the Mississippi River town. Many families, including his own, buy their milk there.

“If it closes it would be pretty tragic news because the creamery’s been a staple in our community for decades and decades,” Rep. Hudella told KARE.

“I would really love to appeal to the chair of the Met Council and Governor Walz to step in and give us a week to figure out what the issues are, and how we can fix them. They want to be compliant.”

Malone said the discharge from the creamery is from milk and cream that is released when changing the machinery from one product to another. There’s also a certain amount lost when the sanitizer fluid moves through the equipment.

“That’s how a creamery operates. You’re flushing lines. You’re changing different kinds of milk, one percent, two percent. You have sanitizers that are flushed out, and you have milk that’s flushed through the lines when you start up again.”

The Met Council’s emergency order cited an incident over Mother’s Day weekend when the water at Hasting wastewater treatment plant turned white, and staff photographed a thick, creamy froth in the aerator section of the plant.

According to the agency’s document, the staff said one of the tanks leaked milk into the sewer system because of a faulty valve. The company was unaware of the leak until a couple of days later and couldn’t determine how much milk escaped the tank.

That led the Met Council staff to estimate the size of the leak by testing the concentrations of milk in samples collected at the wastewater plant and comparing it to how much water the plant used during that time period. The agency came up with an estimate of 169,000 gallons of milk leaked across a 16-hour period between May 12 and May 13.

The staff said the amount would be different if both cream and milk entered the system, guessing it would be 10,000 gallons of whole milk and 5,000 gallons of cream. 

The company’s industrial wastewater permit is tied the Met Council Waste Discharge Rule 406.04, which bars the discharge of “any wastewater containing fat, wax, tallow, grease, or oil of animal or vegetable origin in excess of 100 milligrams per liter, that has a potential to solidify, become viscous, or become water insoluble, and is likely to cause obstruction to the flow in public sewers or cause interference or pass-through.”



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Kare11

Free Wi-Fi now available in public parks in Golden Valley

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The city of hoping to bridge the digital divide by making sure more people have access to the internet.

GOLDEN VALLEY, Minn. — Whether or not you have internet available at home, you can now get online when visiting several parks in the city of Golden Valley. 

In a news flash, city leaders said they hope to “bridge the digital divide” by making sure anyone can access the internet. They also hope it encourages more people to spend time in city parks and community events, and that event organizers can use Wi-Fi to promote and manage events happening at parks. 

“The new Wi-Fi allows residents and visitors to stay connected while enjoying the outdoors. Whether for work, education, or leisure, this access supports more connected community,” the city news flash states. 

The service was funded with a grant from Hennepin County. 

The parks with Wi-Fi are: Brookview, Gearty, Hampshire, Isaacson, Lakeview, Lions, Medley, Schaper, Scheid, and Wesley. You can access the wifi by selecting GV-NET and accepting the terms and conditions. 



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New amphitheater in Shakopee to open summer of 2025

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Live Nation will operate the new amphitheater that will hold around 19,000 people.

SHAKOPEE, Minn. — There is excitement in the city of Shakopee as construction crews continue working on a 19,000-seat amphitheater near Canterbury Park.

This week, the city of Shakopee and developers announced Live Nation will operate the new amphitheater and the plan is to start hosting concerts in the summer of 2025.

“This is the largest amphitheater in Minnesota,” Shakopee Director of Planning and Development Michael Kerski said. “We’ve been told the plan with Live Nation is to hold between 30 and 45 shows in a normal season.”

Kerski says 2025 will be an abbreviated season because the concert venue will likely open later in the summer. The amphitheater is one piece of a larger entertainment district that is being built next to Canterbury Park.

“This is one of the largest redevelopments in the state,” Kerski said. “The site is over 140 acres. There is 28 acres still open for development.”

Besides the amphitheater, the entertainment district will include shops, restaurants and hotels.

City leaders are hoping this new entertainment district will reaffirm Shakopee’s commitment to being a premiere entertainment hub in the Twin Cities.

“We have Valleyfair. We have Canterbury Park with live racing and they have a card room, Mystic is just down the road,” Kerski said. “We have the Renaissance Festival. We’re used to big events.”

The Twin Cities music scene already features several unique live music venues, but developers believe this new amphitheater fills a void in the market.

There are other outdoor amphitheaters in the market, including The Ledge Amphitheater in Waite Park and Vetter Stone Amphitheater in Mankato, which each hold a few thousand people. 

Target Field can also host outdoor concerts with a capacity of around 40,000 people, but Kerski says this new venue will bring big-name acts to the Twin Cities who are looking for a large permanent outdoor venue to host their shows.

“There will be great seating, skyboxes, a big lawn with beer gardens, things that just don’t exist at any of those other amphitheaters or facilities,” Kerski said.

“This venue is really designed around the customer and experience and the artist experience. The back of the house is really important for artists as they travel all over the country. The developers on this project wanted to have a facility in the back of the house where artists can relax and get ready for an event.”



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City of St. Paul condemns troubled Lowry Apartments

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The building, located at 345 Wabasha, has been a magnet for crime and drugs. An inspection on Dec. 9 found the Lowry Apartments unfit for human habitation.

ST PAUL, Minn. — A troubled St. Paul apartment building has been condemned, with city inspectors declaring it unfit for human habitation. 

The Lowry Apartments are one of the Capital City’s biggest headaches, a magnet for crime and drugs. An inspection on Dec. 9 documented a lack of fire protection systems, inoperable heating facilities, active plumbing leaks, electrical systems that had been damaged or tampered with, and overall unsanitary conditions, among other things. A condemnation notice was immediately issued. 

Being condemned means that all residents of the 134-unit affordable housing building must evacuate immediately. Included in the notice is a list of 25 action items/repairs that must be completed before the Lowry Apartments can reopen. Most are significant, making it unlikely residents will be able to return anytime soon. 

The troubled building is owned by Madison Equities, St. Paul’s largest downtown property owner, which is in the process of trying to sell off most of its portfolio after the death of long-time owner Jim Crockarell in January. Court documents say commercial real estate group Frauneshuh partnered with the Halverson and Blaiser Group to manage the property and act on behalf of the owner with tenants and other third parties after the building was placed into receivership in late August. 

“The building has been in decline, rapidly, since the owner died,” said resident Megan Thomas when KARE visited the Lowry apartments in August. “There’s a risk of violence, there’s a risk to health, I found a cockroach in an ice cube in my freezer last week because they are everywhere.” 

Thomas has since moved from the building because of living conditions. 

During that visit, the problems were obvious: The front door to the building was wide open, leaving the Lowry Apartments vulnerable to squatters, drug dealers, and others who were not residents. Windows were broken, plumbing leaked and the elevators were inoperable. 

Residents were blindsided when a foreclosure notice appeared on the building in mid-August, leaving them wondering where they would go. The city of St. Paul stepped in to broker a receivership for the property, but it appears now that action was not enough to stem the tide of problems that plague the Lowry Apartments.  

Hiding from the cold is what Jaelynn Hoggard is used to as a resident of the Lowry Apartments in Saint Paul. 

“My body can’t handle the cold, like my pacemaker feels the cold and everything,” said Hoggard. “I saw them posting it on the door, like the condemned notice. And my heart just shot into my stomach.”

Jaelynn is disabled and says there are times the elevators don’t work. Because of the living conditions, she had to give back her service animal.

“That was the hardest thing to do,” she said.



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