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.
”If we leave the conference room after a meeting and somebody leaves trash on the table, Susie’s the person to grab the trash and put it in the trash can,” said Chris LaCivita, who served as campaign co-chair along with Wiles.
Another of her three posts on X this year was in the closing days of the campaign, clapping back after billionaire Mark Cuban remarked that Trump didn’t have ”strong, intelligent women” in his orbit. After Wiles’ selection as White House chief of staff, Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida, a Trump backer, quipped on X that the president-elect had chosen a ”strong, intelligent woman” as his chief of staff.
She can control some of Trump’s worst impulses
Wiles was 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. At one point late in the campaign, when Trump gave a widely criticized speech in Pennsylvania in which he strayed from his talking points and suggested he wouldn’t mind the media being shot, Wiles came out to stare at him silently.
Trump often referenced Wiles on the campaign trail, publicly praising her leadership of what he said he was often told was his ”best-run campaign.”
”She’s incredible. Incredible,” he said at a Milwaukee rally earlier this month.
Star Tribune
Prolific record-breaking angler Art Weston, with help from Minnesota’s Nolan Sprengeler, caught 54-inch muskie on Mille Lacs
To that Sprengeler yelled back, “I know!”
After netting the fish, the fishermen looked at each other and Weston remembered shouting in excitement, “It’s long!”
In similar fashion, Sprengeler responded, “I know!” telling Weston “I think this is the one.”
After measuring and taking photos, the massive muskie was released safely.
Sprengeler, who didn’t respond to requests for comment Thursday, is no stranger to huge muskies. In November 2021, Sprengeler, of Plymouth, landed a massive muskie of his own on Mille Lacs that measured 57 3/4-inch and weighed 55 pounds and 14 ounces. For that catch, Sprengeler and two friends had to break the ice for about 100 yards to get his boat into open water on the lake’s west end.
The weather was more cooperative during the most recent trip.
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.
