Star Tribune
A $100K gift jump-starts efforts for new public arts program in Fridley
Officials in Fridley have long contemplated starting a public arts program. A $100,000 donation from a resident is now pushing that idea forward.
“We want to elevate our community,” said Mayor Scott Lund. “And elevate public comment about Fridley.”
On Monday, the City Council will hear the first reading of an ordinance that would create the north metro suburb’s first arts commission. Work to form a nonprofit to oversee it is underway. The city also is in talks with the Rice Creek Watershed District and an artist to create a water-themed installation to go up in Moore Lake Park, where the city will finish a $6 million renovation this year.
“Art has such a value to the image of a city,” said Scott Hickok, Fridley’s community development director.
The idea for an arts program first surfaced in 2018 when the city opened its civic campus housing City Hall, police and fire, and other city services in a splashy building on the site of the former Columbia Arena. The city used some of the rebates it received from Xcel Energy to create a sculpture in the building’s atrium. The 26-foot sculpture sitting atop a large hockey puck features letters from the former ice center’s sign used to spell the word “incomparable.” It was the first effort to bring art to the city.
Momentum stalled until an anonymous Fridley resident gave the city money and rekindled the effort.
Last fall, Fridley asked the public to place dots on an interactive map on the city’s website to share ideas of where they’d like to see art and what kind. City leaders reached out to other communities with similar arts programs for advice. A task force was assembled to compile a report for the City Council, set up a structure for planning, reviewing and accepting art, and form a nonprofit called the Fridley Creative Arts Foundation to oversee donations and partner with other organizations.
No city money has been allocated for the arts initiative, but the idea is gaining interest.
An artist has told the city that she believes Moore Lake Park would be an ideal spot for one of her creations. The city is set to meet with her April 12 and the artist will likely be commissioned in June to officially kick off the Fridley’s art program, Hickok said.
Beyond that, there is no timetable for the build-out, the mayor said.
“We plan to take it slow,” Lund said, “We are laying the groundwork and doing it right.”
But the the long-range plan envisions artwork throughout the city of about 31,000.
“We have world-class Medtronic, a first-rate hospital and a 128-acre nature center,” Lund said. “It will be nice to have public art throughout the community.”
It’s the season of pumpkin patches, haunted mazes and Halloween hayrides on farms across Minnesota, a bucolic tradition for generations of families but one that is subject to very few safety regulations either in the state or across the country.
That became apparent following an accident at a hayride earlier this month that left a 13-year-old boy dead. According to the Stearns County Sheriff’s Office, Alexander “Xander” Steven Mick was run over by a wagon pulled by a tractor at the Harvest of Horror Haunted Hayride in St. Augusta. The incident occurred at about 7:30 p.m. on Oct. 12.
Regulations of these types of businesses vary greatly based on location and business model, with often minimal oversight, said Rusty Rumley, senior staff attorney at the National Agricultural Law Center. For example, a pick-your-own-pumpkin patch would have very few regulations, but a wedding barn venue where food is served would be subject to far more, he said.
“For a lot of things like the hayrides and stuff like that, it really doesn’t fall in anybody’s jurisdiction,” Rumley said.
With few rules, farm operators turned “agritourism” entrepreneurs often have to establish their own safety measures as they welcome hoards of families — many with small children — to their properties and allow them to interact with large farm equipment and animals.
Minnesota law grants agritourism businesses immunity from liability due to the inherent risks present in environments with farm animals and machinery. Exceptions to the law include negligence, willful or wanton disregard for safety, knowledge of dangerous conditions on the land and intentional injuries. The Stearns County Sheriff confirmed that it is investigating the Harvest of Horror, but has not provided additional details.
”It’s still an open investigation,” said Chief Deputy Dan Miller. There is no county licensing requirement for hayrides, Miller said.
While some agritourism operations will inspect their farm vehicles, there is no legal requirement to do so. Other types of rides, like at amusement parks, are subject to inspection by the Minnesota Department of Labor and Industry.
Star Tribune
St. Paul celebrity chef Justin Sutherland pleads guilty to threatening to shoot girlfriend
Another man exited the building and told police that he and Sutherland have been longtime friends. He told police that Sutherland moved into the building a week earlier and was planning to open a restaurant there. In the meantime, the friend said, Sutherland was living there in an apartment.
Sutherland texted him that day and said he and his girlfriend had been fighting. The friend said he was on the way to help calm things down.
The “visibly shaking and crying” girlfriend told police she and Sutherland have been a couple for the past two years, and they were arguing about him telling her that they were not going to a music festival.
She also said he was taking out on her the trouble he was having with neighbors acting racist toward him. That’s when she called her sister. She said he squeezed her neck briefly with both hands and said, “I want you dead.”
She said she ran to a neighbor’s home to use a phone, and Sutherland walked out of the building with a handgun and told her he would shoot her if she returned. As she approached him, the girlfriend continued, Sutherland pointed the gun at her and then hit her in the chest with the weapon. She said she put up her hands and said, “Don’t shoot me.”
She said the friend soon arrived and disarmed Sutherland, who screamed at her that he wanted her dead. She described the gun to police and said he has other firearms in the residence.
Gamers will soon have a space to escape to a virtual world for a bit at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport, now that the Metropolitan Airports Commission has approved a lease for company Gameway Inc. to build a new lounge in the airport.
Gameway is a company that specializes in offering video gaming hubs in airports, and already has lounges open at airports in Los Angeles, Charlotte, Dallas and Houston.
The space is about 3,000 square feet, and would include cushioned seating for casual gaming, competitive e-sports gaming, virtual reality consoles, “privacy business pods,” and high-speed internet, according to the proposal laid out on Oct. 7.
The Airport Commission also considered awarding the space to another company, Gate Escape, but instead went with Gameway, Anne Saxton, the commission’s interim director of concessions and business development, said at the Oct. 7 meeting. The company is based out of Tigard, Ore.
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