Star Tribune
Maple Grove to expand community center into Life Time building
Maple Grove has reached an agreement with Life Time to take over its athletic club building and use it to expand the city’s community center. In exchange, the city will acquire land for the fitness chain to build a new facility.
City officials on Thursday announced the deal, which includes Maple Grove purchasing 17.5 acres of land for Life Time’s new athletic country club and other mixed-use development, south of Hwy. 610 at the intersection with Interstate 94. The land is part of the broader 100-acre Minnesota Health Village development, anchored by Maple Grove Hospital and medical offices.
Under the agreement, the city would acquire Life Time’s existing 70,000-square-foot building, which is connected to the Maple Grove Community Center. City officials plan to use nearly $11 million in capital funds to complete the deal. Life Time is seeking tax incentives for its new development, which would bring the city’s cost to $17.5 million.
City Administrator Heidi Nelson said the acquisition will add to the city’s $104 million, years-long plan to renovate its community center. The first phase, which is now underway, includes adding a third sheet of ice and expanding parking. Construction is expected to begin next year to renovate the aquatics area.
Voters in 2022 approved a local option sales tax to fund $90 million of the project, with state bonds and private contributions helping pay for the rest.
Nelson said the city could use the Life Time space for its teen center, a gymnasium and fitness equipment. The community center and Life Time already share indoor and outdoor pools. She said once the deal is approved, the city would enter into the design process for the space and finalize more details.
“We are excited to bring the fullest vision of the Maple Grove Community Center project to life,” Mayor Mark Steffenson said in a news release.
While Life Time constructs its new facility, the company would lease its current space so residents can continue using the fitness center. The company has yet to provide details on its plans for a new health club in the Minnesota Health Village area, which will be considered by the Maple Grove Planning Commission at its Nov. 25 meeting. The City Council would then consider the real estate agreement and tax abatement request on Dec. 2.
DULUTH – Two people are dead from gunshot wounds, according to the Duluth police, who were summoned to the house on the 6000 block of Tacony Street for a welfare check Thursday afternoon.
Neighbors in the West Duluth neighborhood said a woman lives at the house with her teenage son, but that they kept to themselves. Duluth police and crime-scene investigators were on site during the early evening.
According to the department, it remains an active investigation.
Officers at the scene could not provide more information but did confirm that the shootings are not related to the three-day string of burglaries on the east side of Duluth.
With a ceremonial groundbreaking on Thursday afternoon, the city of Woodbury began construction of its $330 million water treatment plant to scrub city water of PFAS chemicals.
It’s the city’s largest capital improvement project ever, and the plant when completed and turned on in 2028 will be the largest of its kind in Minnesota, capable of cleaning 32 million gallons of water daily.
“We are dedicated to ensuring that we provide clean drinking water to our community for now and for generations to come,” Mayor Anne Burt said, speaking to a group of city staff, elected officials, and others at the M Health Fairview Sports Center fieldhouse, where officials gathered for a ceremony and speeches after the nearby groundbreaking.
The new plant will be located at Hargis Parkway east of Radio Drive, adjacent to East Ridge High School.
The city expects to pay roughly 10% of the plant’s cost, said Jim Westerman, assistant public works director. The remainder will be covered by the $850 million settlement 3M reached with the state of Minnesota in 2018 for the contamination of groundwater under the east metro.
Originally estimated to cost up to $400 million, the plant’s total cost came in lower due to competitive bidding, Westerman said.
The plant will require 17 miles of new pipelines to connect the city’s wells. Installation of those pipelines began in August and will continue over the next four years along existing roads.
A temporary treatment plant opened in 2020 continues to scrub groundwater at nine city wells that have levels of PFAS above state health department guidelines. Once the new plant comes online, the temporary plant will be shuttered and its equipment either moved to the new plant or auctioned off, Westerman said.
WASHINGTON — President-elect Donald Trump has named Susie Wiles, the manager of his victorious campaign, as his White House chief of staff, the first woman to ever hold the influential role.
Wiles is widely credited within and outside Trump’s inner circle for running what was, by far, his most disciplined and well-executed campaign, and was seen as the leading contender for the position. She largely avoided the spotlight, even refusing to take the mic to speak as Trump celebrated his victory early Wednesday morning.
She was able to do what few others have been able to: help control Trump’s worst impulses — not by chiding him or lecturing, but by earning his respect and showing him that he was better off when he followed her advice than flouted it.
”Susie is tough, smart, innovative, and is universally admired and respected. Susie will continue to work tirelessly to Make America Great Again,” Trump said in a statement. “It is a well deserved honor to have Susie as the first-ever female Chief of Staff in United States history. I have no doubt that she will make our country proud.”
Trump went through four chiefs of staff — including one who served in an acting capacity for a year — during his first administration, part of record-setting personnel churn in his administration.
Successful chiefs of staff serves as the president’s confidant, help execute a president’s agenda and balance competing political and policy priorities. They also tend to serve as a gatekeeper, helping determine whom the president spends their time and whom they speak to — an effort Trump chafed under inside the White House.
The chief of staff is ”absolutely critical to an effective White House,” said Chris Whipple, whose book ”The Gatekeepers” details how the White House chief of staff role shaped and defines a presidency. ”At the end of the day the most important thing is telling the president what he doesn’t want to hear.”
Wiles is a longtime Florida-based Republican strategist who ran Trump’s campaign in the state in 2016 and 2020. Before that, she ran Rick Scott’s 2010 campaign for Florida governor and briefly served as the manager of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman’s 2012 presidential campaign.
