Star Tribune
George Floyd family fund accepting grant applications to help businesses, nonprofits
Billy Jones is hopeful that $500,000 in grants from George Floyd’s family will support the businesses at 38th and Chicago, an area struggling to recover since Minneapolis police officers killed Floyd there in May 2020.
He opened Onyx Coffeehouse there in April “to connect community members in all walks of life, people who typically probably wouldn’t cross each other’s paths.” But Jones has heard about many people staying away from the intersection known as George Floyd Square — whether out of fear or respect.
“I’m definitely applying,” he said. And even if the grant money goes toward surrounding organizations, he added, “a win for my neighbor is a win for me.”
Floyd’s relatives, community leaders and civil rights attorneys Ben Crump and Jeff Storms announced this week the opening of the grant application process for the Ward 8 Community Benevolence Fund to support Black- and minority-owned businesses and organizations in the neighborhood where Floyd was murdered.
Floyd’s family donated $500,000 to the fund — from its $27 million civil settlement with the city of Minneapolis — to uplift the local people and institutions harmed by systemic racism. The fund is now accepting applications for grants that, among other purposes, would support the renovation or expansion of businesses, training initiatives, and programs for arts and civil rights awareness.
“What we hope to accomplish first and foremost is to get funds in the hands of those businesses in the Ward 8 community near where George was murdered that were impacted so heavily following George’s murder,” said Storms, who is president of the fund’s board. “And we’re also looking to get money in the hands of nonprofits that benefit that area and work in that area.”
Sam Willis Jr. is eager for his and other businesses in George Floyd Square to receive more support. He was preparing to open his restaurant Just Turkey when the pandemic hit. Then Floyd was killed. The opening was delayed until that fall, and he received $50,000 from the city. But he lamented that the stretch still suffers from a loss of customers and “looks like a Third World country.”
“I’m going to look into it and do the best I can to … go through the process,” he said of the grants.
The grant application guidelines will be discussed during a town hall meeting from noon to 1:30 p.m. Jan. 27 with fund board members and City Council President Andrea Jenkins. The event will be held at the University of St. Thomas School of Law, 1101 Harmon Place, Room MSL238. Reservations are recommended by emailing info@theward8fund.org.
Applications must be submitted to the fund’s website, and grants will be funded at the levels of $5,000, $10,000 and $25,000, but larger grants will also be considered.
“I hear from businesses and community members quite frequently, and people are frustrated with the sort of level of support that has been offered to this community,” said Jenkins.
She praised Floyd’s family for donating funds to help the community.
DULUTH – The Minnesota and Wisconsin transportation departments will make upgrades to the Richard I. Bong Memorial Bridge in the summer of 2025, in preparation for the structure to become the premiere route between this city and Superior during reconstruction of the Blatnik Bridge.
Built in 1961, the Blatnik Bridge carries 33,000 vehicles per day along Interstate 535 and Hwy. 53. It will be entirely rebuilt, starting in 2027, with the help of $1 billion in federal funding announced earlier this year. MnDOT and WisDOT are splitting the remaining costs of the project, about $4 million each.
According to MnDOT, projects on the Bong Bridge will include spot painting, concrete surface repairs to the bridge abutments, concrete sealer on the deck, replacing rubber strip seal membranes on the main span’s joints and replacing light poles on the bridge and its points of entry. It’s expected to take two months, transportation officials said during a recent meeting at the Superior Public Library.
During this time there will be occasional lane closures, detours at the off-ramps, and for about three weeks the sidewalk path alongside the bridge will be closed.
The Bong Bridge, which crosses the St. Louis River, opened to traffic in 1985 and is the lesser-used of the two bridges. Officials said they want to keep maintenance to a minimum on the span during the Blatnik project, which is expected to take four years.
Red Wing will celebrate the grand opening of its first permanent set of pickleball courts next week with an “inaugural play” on the six courts at Colvill Park on the banks of the Mississippi, between a couple of marinas and next to the aquatic center.
Among the first to get to play on the new courts will be David Anderson, who brought pickleball to the local YMCA in 2008, before the nationwide pickleball craze took hold, and Denny Yecke, at 92 the oldest pickleball player in Red Wing.
The inaugural play begins at 11 a.m. Tuesday, with a rain date of the next day. Afterward will be food and celebration at the Colvill Park Courtyard building.
Tim Sletten, the city’s former police chief, discovered America’s fastest-growing sport a decade ago after he retired. With fellow members of the Red Wing Pickleball Group, he’d play indoors at the local YMCA or outdoors at a local school, on courts made for other sports. But they didn’t have a permanent place, so they approached the city about building one.
When a city feasibility study came up with a high cost, about $350,000, Sletten’s group got together to raise money.
The courts are even opening ahead of schedule, originally set for 2025.
REDWOOD FALLS, MINN. – A truck crashing into a school bus left nine with minor injuries Wednesday morning in rural Redwood County, a statement from the Redwood County Sheriff’s office said.
The bus driver, serving the Wabasso Public School District, failed to yield when entering the intersection of County Road 7 and 280th Street, the statement said.
Deputies received word of the crash around 8:15 a.m. and identified the bus driver as Edward Aslesen, 72, of Milroy.
The nine injured passengers on the bus were transported to local hospitals, the statement said.
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