DULUTH, Minn. — From polluted to pristine. This is a story of a new waterfront recreation area in Duluth that opened, or rather reopened, this summer.

It took millions of dollars, coordinated efforts, and lots of hard work to help it come back to life. 

“I think we’re all proud of what this has become,” said Cliff Knettel with Duluth Parks and Recreation.

Cliff is talking about Spirit Lake in the St. Louis River area of Duluth. It’s likely you haven’t visited before, because there wasn’t much to see.  Long ago it was a stopping point for the Anishinaabe people. It became a central part of trading and led to the industrialization of the city of Duluth.

Along with that came US Steel. The company operated a plant there until 1981. However, decades of production contaminated the water and land with heavy metals, putting the St. Louis River on the EPA’s area of concern list. In 2010, through the Great Lakes Legacy Act, a plan was hatched to clean it up.

“All in, it was $185 million to get through all those phases of design, investigation, feasibility, actually implementing, so it’s a very large investment from EPA and US steel, those are the two entities that were contributing financially,” said Mark Loomis, with the U.S. EPA – Great Lakes National Program Office.

Remediation started in 2020. Dredging, capping and restoring habitat all while maintaining water depth for the fisheries. Loomis said the work was nearly 24/7 for 38 months.

“We built over two miles of trails, ADA accessible, dedicated fishing areas, pause points, there’s a landing area for kayaks,” He says. “There was a large area, actually a mud flat, that we actually excavated, removed material to create open water. It’s a very unique part of this project.”

The city of Duluth owns much of the shoreline and this project has opened up access for many people who didn’t have it before. If you’re not familiar with the area, this is on the west side of town, not near the lakefront.

“We’re actually working with the St. Louis River alliance and our own parks and rec staff to offer programs that we couldn’t offer before like fishing, like paddling, like nature hikes, like educational opportunities, so those are happening right now and we’re super excited about that,” said Knettel.

The cleanup will eventually lead to the St. Louis River being delisted as an area of concern, but the biggest win for those involved is seeing the space go back to what it should be.

“Watching the people come back to the site, kind of breathing life into it and the river is there and wildlife is responding.  Those are the things that really kind of drive me professionally and personally,” said Loomis.

 The E-P-A said it worked closely with tribal communities to preserve the cultural significance during the project. Signage that explains the history and process of the project will go up next summer.  

ROGERS, Minn. — In the west metro suburb of Rogers, police are urging caution after a rash of thefts in the past week.

“We’ve had 10 vehicle thefts, four burglaries,” Captain Jeff Beck with the Rogers police department said. “They’re looking for the simple items of credit cards or cash or something they could quickly get rid of.”

Beck says the department’s investigators don’t believe thieves are looking to steal cars, simply the items inside. There’s a frustrating angle to this for them – people are simply leaving their car doors unlocked, allowing thieves access.

“They’re just simply walking down the street and seeing what vehicles are open and then taking the opportunity to steal from them,” he said.

“Our residents are feeling secure, and might not think that that type of crime is occurring out here, or it’s less out here, and that’s causing some of the problem,” Beck continued.

Thieves are also taking things that can give access to homes.

“Taking garage door openers out of the vehicles, opening the garage,” Beck said. “Then stealing out of the vehicles that were in the garage or items that they could get their hands on quickly and disappearing.”

Beck says the department is actively looking into this and has increased patrols both in rural and more populated areas of the city. Despite that, he says thieves move quickly, making it hard for them to catch thieves in the act.

It’s why he says the department needs the public’s help to stop this – and it starts with a simple check to make sure your car is locked at night.

“We need our citizens, not just in the city of Rogers, but everywhere, to start thinking about this as they’re going to bed at night, to make sure that we don’t give them this easy opportunity,” Beck said.

ST PAUL, Minn. — Friends of the woman who was shot and killed in Lowertown Wednesday night say she had a personality that sparkled.

They say she moved into the Lowertown Lofts Artist Cooperative in February and fit right in. They say she was welcoming, leaving her door open for her neighbors to walk in and chat. They told KARE 11 she had a lot of energy and wanted to make her community a better place.

She was working on one of the co-ops projects, painting a mural in a loading dock space ahead of the St. Paul Art Crawl next weekend, when she was killed.

“One of the most cold-blooded things I’ve ever seen in my life,” said St. Paul Police Chief Axel Henry.

Henry said surveillance video shows she was on her knees painting when it happened. He said her murder appears to be random and one of the most “atypical homicides” he has seen.

“The evidence that we have, this was not something that was driven by a conflict or fight or a previous association,” Henry said “I’ve never seen anything like that even in a movie. It is awful. Every murder we have in the city is awful they’re all terrible, I don’t want to make a comparison that way, but in that sense, it’s atypical in a way that I just in almost 30 years I’ve never seen.”

Mayor Melvin Carter was also shocked to hear about her death.

“One of the most cold-blooded, one of the most brazen acts that I’ve ever seen in this community,” he said. “We extend our deepest condolences to the family and friends of the deceased.”

Henry said officers quickly identified the vehicle and driver in the suspected shooting and found that vehicle at a home in Bell Plaine.

He said officers established a perimeter, working toward an arrest.

“At approximately 6:30 [Thursday] morning, prior to us even making any contact with the address. The person that we suspected of this crime exited the house and our officers approached him. That person was armed with a handgun,” he said.

Henry said officers shot and killed the suspect. The Bureau of Criminal Apprehension is investigating the officer-involved shooting. The two officers involved are on standard leave.

Family of the suspect identified him as 29-year-old Seantrell Murdock, a father of four.

Police haven’t released the name of the victim or suspect yet.

“It’s a heartbreaking end all around,” Carter said.

Henry said they will compare the gun involved in the shooting and the one the suspect was holding to confirm if it was the same gun used in the Lowertown shooting.

Henry and Carter both talked about the need to make sure people who shouldn’t have guns don’t have them. Henry said this case has all kinds of hallmarks and flags that will be released in the coming days.

“We have rules and regulations on both the state and federal level that talk about what we need to do about who can have guns. Talk about the kind of mental health we need to have to possess firearms,” Henry said. “As the evidence comes out in the next few days, I hope we use this as an opportunity to really revisit how serious we are as a state and a country of the types of violence that have become all too common.”

“The members of our community who have no place with a firearm that we are doing everything we can as a community to work together to ensure that they don’t,” Carter said.

Henry said they will release the victim’s name as soon as they make sure all of her family has been notified.