Star Tribune
Senate committee approves Zelle for second term as Met Council chair
A key Senate committee voted Wednesday to reappoint Charlie Zelle as chair of the Metropolitan Council, the often controversial planning agency that oversees public transportation, wastewater treatment, regional parks and affordable housing in the Twin Cities metro area.
The Senate Transportation Committee approved Zelle’s reappointment on a voice vote. He must still be confirmed by the full Senate, but no date has been set for a final vote.
Zelle, a 67-year-old St. Paul native, was named chair of the Met Council by Gov. Tim Walz in 2019. He has since dealt with safety issues on Metro Transit and ongoing challenges related to construction of the $2.7 billion Southwest light-rail line.
The Southwest project, which is slated to connect downtown Minneapolis and Eden Prairie beginning in 2027, has been plagued with delays and cost overruns, and is now being reviewed by the Office of the Legislative Auditor. Though much of Southwest’s planning occurred before Zelle’s tenure, he has faced criticism that the Met Council lacked transparency in its handling of the project.
“The trust is lacking,” said Sen. John Jasinski, R-Fairbault, ranking minority member of the Transportation Committee. “I’m hearing frustration from both sides of the aisle.” He added that his criticism wasn’t personal.
Zelle responded that Jasinski’s comments “are taken to heart. There is opportunity for improvement.”
The Met Council recently announced creation of a Regional Transit Infrastructure division to provide a more “consistent and robust approach” to complicated infrastructure transit projects, like Southwest and the planned Blue Line light-rail extension to the northern suburbs.
Zelle said the new division is related to feedback from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) and the Legislative Auditor on how to better plan and build light-rail and bus rapid transit projects. The division’s executive director, who has not been named, will report to Zelle.
The Transportation omnibus bill currently being honed at the Legislature calls for a Metropolitan Governance Task Force to make recommendations on the Met Council’s structure by Feb. 1, 2024. The group will likely discuss whether council members should be elected, rather than appointed by the governor.
Regarding safety issues on the existing transit system, Zelle noted that a new chief, Ernest Morales III, has been named to lead Metro Transit’s police force, and that the Met Council has implemented a comprehensive safety plan. He said safety and security are top issues for the council and added that “we are making good progress.”
Zelle remains chair of his family business, Jefferson Lines, a Minnesota-based intercity bus company. He said he’s been advised that his position is not a conflict of interest. He stepped down as president and CEO of the company in 2012 when he was appointed MnDOT commissioner by Gov. Mark Dayton.
Zelle said he wants a second term with the Met Council to capitalize on the “complicated lessons” he’s learned, particularly from the Southwest project.
“The biggest lesson is that we need to do more work at the very beginning of a project,” he said, “because once it starts, it’s like, ‘Wow, you can’t stop the train.’ “
Twin Amur tigers born at Como Zoo in August now have names — Marisa and Maks.
Two long-time volunteers who have worked with zookeepers to care for and teach the public about the zoo’s big cats came up with the names, the first to be born at the St. Paul zoo in more than 40 years.
Marisa, a name that the volunteers found to mean “spirited and tenacious,” call that a perfect reflection of her personality. The name also carries special significance for the Como Zoo community, as it honors a retired zookeeper of the same name who was instrumental in the care of large cats during her 43 years at the zoo, Como Zoo and Conservatory Director Michelle Furrer said.
The male cub has been named Maks, which is associated with meanings like “the greatest” or “strength and leadership.” The volunteers felt this was an apt description of the male cub’s confident demeanor and growing sense of leadership, Furrer said.
“Marisa and Maks aren’t just names; they’re a fun reminder of the passion and care that keep us committed to protecting wildlife every day,” Furrer said.
The newborns and their first-time mother, 7-year-old Bernadette, remain off view to allow for more bonding time, zoo officials said. The cubs’ father, 11-year-old Tsar, has been a Como resident since February 2019 and remains on view.
Fewer than 500 Amur tigers — also known as Siberian tigers — remain in the wild as they face critical threats from habitat loss, poaching and human-wildlife conflict, the zoo said.
Much of the wood waste in the metro area is sent to a processing site near Pig’s Eye Lake in St. Paul, where it is stored before being burned to produce energy at the St. Paul Cogeneration plant downtown.
Cogeneration provides power to about half of downtown and was originally built to manage elm-tree waste in response to Dutch elm disease. The plant burns approximately 240,000 tons of wood each year, according to Michael Auger, senior vice president of District Energy in St. Paul.
Jim Calkins, a certified landscape horticulturalist who has been involved in discussions about the problem, said he thinks using wood for energy is the most logical solution.
“The issue is, we don’t have enough facilities to be able to handle that, at least in the Twin Cities,” Calkins said. “So there has to be dollars to support transportation to get the wood to those places, or in some cases, to upgrade some of those facilities such that they are able to burn wood.”
Plans are in place to convert Koda Energy in Shakopee to burn ash wood, which could potentially handle around 40,000 tons of wood waste, but that would take around two years to establish, according to Klapperich.
In some areas of the state, cities have resorted to burning excess wood waste because they felt they had no other option. Open burning wood releases a lot of carbon into the air, Klapperich said.
Weary from the rat race nature of practicing commercial law, Danielle Miller had long dreamed of starting a new professional life as a bookstore owner. When the Lincoln, Neb., resident saw a space at St. Paul’s Union Depot, she moved to make her dream a reality. She and her husband now call the Macalester-Groveland neighborhood home.
Eye On St. Paul recently visited with Miller in her sun-drenched store, Story Line Books, to talk about what spurred her to leave the law behind and lose herself in shelves of books. This interview was edited for length.
Q: So, you’ve opened a bookstore, in Lowertown. Are you a little crazy?
A: That’s been the reaction. There’s been a lot of “Really? Lowertown?” There’s been a lot of that. It’s a little unnerving.
Q: Why decide to just up and move to St. Paul?
A: We travel a lot; we travel all over the world. And we go to bookstores. We were here visiting [my husband’s] parents in Woodbury, and we drove down Randolph because we like to eat at Due Focacceria. And we saw this building that had “For Sale” on it. It was a 900-square-foot retail spot on the bottom and an apartment above. And I was like, that is the European bookstore dream, right? I looked it up online, but it got scooped up. A week later, I was looking again and this [Union Depot space] was the first post.
I was immediately in love. The next time we were up here, we made arrangements to come and see it. And I told my husband, “You should probably get a job in St Paul.”
Q: Back up a few steps. Why this compulsion to open a bookstore when you were a working attorney?
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