Through Network Now, the agency plans to introduce 20 new routes in areas that currently do not have service, and bring on-demand service to six additional suburbs. Metro Transit is expanding its microtransit service to Roseville and Woodbury this year to provide better connections to regular-route transit.

In Woodbury, that means helping transit users access the new Gold Line, a Bus Rapid Transit (BRT) line that will run along Interstate 94 between downtown St. Paul and Maplewood, Oakdale, Landfall and Woodbury, starting in 2025.

By 2027, Metro Transit plans to have four new rapid bus lines in service and open the Green Line Extension, the light-rail line running from downtown Minneapolis to Eden Prairie that is also known as Southwest LRT.

“We are making a significant investment in our transportation network, so it’s essential that we listen and respond to riders, local partners and community members across the region as we plan for the future,” Met Council Transportation Committee Chair Deb Barber said.

Feedback and input on the plan can be submitted online through Nov. 15. The agency also will hold a series of in-person public information sessions during October. They include 5:30 p.m. Oct. 1 at the Hopkins Pavilion, 11000 Excelsior Boulevard, and 11 a.m. Oct. 8 at Central Library, 300 Nicollet Mall, Minneapolis.

Online meetings will take place at 5:30 p.m. Oct. 7 and Nov. 7.

Attorneys for Kortgard and Pillar Bank did not respond to requests for comment.

In an 11-page complaint filed Sept. 9, after using $7 million of the credit it’s owed to acquire the Lowry Apartments through a foreclosure sale, lender Colliers Funding argued Kortgard is liable for remaining debt associated with the building as a guarantor.

The lawsuit seeks more than $8 million plus interest, late charges, attorney fees and other costs. An attorney for the lender did not respond to requests for comments.

The court appointed a receiver to take over management of the Lowry Apartments last month after tenants complained that the building was unsafe and unsanitary. Other Madison Equities properties have lost major office tenants in recent months, and an attorney for the company warned large buildings could soon be boarded up and left without security.

Madison Equities did not pay the first half of this year’s property taxes on its downtown buildings. The company owes at least $1.7 million in taxes, fees and penalties, and at least $1.6 million more will be due in October.

Crockarell, who died in January, was a controversial figure in downtown St. Paul, engaging in a number of legal battles over decades with the city, other property owners, his tenants and his staff. As he amassed his portfolio, he grew a reputation for buying distressed buildings and offering below-market rents. Kortgard, an attorney, was a business partner.

Superfund sites are investigated to determine the nature and extent of pollution. That has happened many times over the years at St. Regis, leading to the removal of some contaminated soil.

Some EPA studies and reports suggested the cleanup was done or nearing completion, but then the band’s own studies contradicted the EPA data. In the early 2000s, researchers with the University of Minnesota found evidence of a worsening situation that the EPA seemed to miss.

“It’s easy for a lot of people to say, ‘Well, they didn’t know any better when they were poisoning the water…when they were poisoning the land, they didn’t know any better.’ But they really did,” said Leo Anderson, who lived on a section of the Superfund site, as did his grandparents.

“One of the earliest memories I have of living on this site was that if you left a glass of water out overnight, in the morning there was an oil on top of it,” Anderson said.

“We had repeated stories of these companies putting freshly treated creosote wood right next to people’s homes,” he said. “They would pile it as close as they could to your home until you moved out and then they would continue working their way through the whole community. So this was not a mistake.”