Plymouth: South Shore Drive Bridge Replacement

Comment: We cross this rustic bridge to and from church. It will be rustic no more


South Shore Drive Bridge Replacement

Excerpt:

The South Shore Drive project is located from 10th Avenue to the City of Medicine Lake and from the City of Medicine Lake to the cul-de-sac, and 13th Avenue from South Shore Drive to Nathan Lane.

The improvements will include a full depth mill and overlay for this project. A full depth mill and overlay will remove the entire bituminous surface, between 4-6 inches in the area, to the existing gravel section that is between 17 to 37 inches deep. It is proposed to install and grade approximately two inches of recycled aggregate material to direct storm water runoff off of the new street and to bring the new street to the proper elevations. Finally, it is proposed to install four inches of bituminous on the aggregate material. In most cases the street widths will be installed to match the existing widths, which are generally 22 to 25 feet wide, with some areas between 33 and 40 feet wide.

Map - Street view

Brazen armed robbery of Plymouth bank

Masked men rob US Bank in Plymouth

Excerpt:

Two masked men robbed the US Bank at 4105 Lancaster Lane N. in Plymouth at about 6:45 a.m. Monday, authorities say.

The robbery occurred as bank employees were opening the bank for business. The two robbers, one armed with a semi automatic handgun and the other a knife, forced bank employees to the vault, where they held a handgun to a bank employee's head and demanded money.

After receiving an undisclosed amount of cash, the robbers bound and blindfolded the bank employees in the vault, then fled the bank.

One robber is described as a black male, approximately 5 feet, 8 inches to 6 feet tall with a heavy build, wearing dark clothing and a black ski mask. The other robber is described as a black male, approximately 5 feet, 8 inches to 5 feet, 10 inches tall with a slim build, wearing dark clothing and a dark mask.

These bank robbers are believed to be responsible for the Aug. 4 robbery of the Wells Fargo Bank in Champlin and the attempted robbery of the TCF Bank in Chanhassen on Aug. 30.

Comment: Location. 1.2 miles from our house.

Plymouth Minnesota

We moved to Plymouth MN in June 1996 - 13 years ago. I'm thankful for a house that us handicapped friendly - all my needs on one level. This pic was taken on New Year's eve 2008

The full Where I've lived collection is here.

Winter not over

Today started at about 35 degrees with a gloomy heavy foggy mist. We gassed up the car as we were done to 1/16 of a tank and I did not want to have to fill up on the way home.

We anticipate a long commute home!

I checked my tractor last night and I have 1/4 of a tank. So I should be good to plow tonight (or perhaps tomorrow morning).

Snow pics (02/27/09)

Comment: Kathee and I got out at about 6:15: I plowed snow (my driveway and Mrs. F's next door). Kathee cleared the walks, steps, and porch. The green thing is my trusty John Deere (now 9 years old). I snapped these photos from my open garage door as we left for work and from my car window (looking back at the house). It was 2 degrees this morning.

-23 Plymouth MN 1/15/2009

Comment: At 6:45 a.m.

Updated: We had low air in our right rear tire and stopped at Jerry's Service Center (Plymouth) to have it filled up. We were able to pull into their warm garage. Derrick (attendant) filled all tires. Thanks Derrick!

Coldest we've seen

Comment: This is our 12th winter here and tomorrow (if the expected overnight low is reached) will be the coldest that we've experienced. Tonight on the way home from church it was minus 11.

Custom Ice House stolen

Custom-Made Ice House Stolen Off Medicine Lake

Excerpt:

Tyler Vandal and his father, Mike, were ready to go ice fishing this week. They had all their gear and they had a very special ice house to go to.

But they ran into one big problem -- someone else thought their ice house was cool and stole it right off the ice.

...

It wasn't just any ice house. Tyler and his dad bought the navy-colored shell and spent about $12,000 customizing the inside of it. They put in basswood and black walnut, along with bunks to sleep three people and a heater for the space.

"It was a good project for him and I to get into, and we put a lot of work into it," said Mike. "And it took a while. I probably had about a dozen hours in the wood-burning I did on this side."

Inside the house, there were drawings of fish and other things burned into the wood. All the work took three months.

Comment: Local news near my house

Skater goes through ice on Medicine Lake

Skater falls through ice of Medicine Lake

Excerpt:

A skater who fell through thin ice was pulled from Medicine Lake in Plymouth Sunday and rushed to North Memorial Medical Center in Robbinsdale.

The man was found in the water about 3 p.m. after another skater spotted a hat floating in the water and called police at 1:50 p.m., the Hennepin County Sheriff's Water Patrol reported.

When pulled from the water, the man had no pulse and was not responsive to resuscitation attempts, but authorities offered no more information about his condition Sunday evening.

Water Patrol personnel found him about 600 yards from shore, said Sgt. Chris Mathisen of the Sheriff's Department.

The man was wearing ice skates and had a camera around his neck, Mathisen said.

The victim, who authorities believe was visiting from out of town, has not been identified pending notification of relatives.

The area where he was skating, near French Regional Park off Rockford Road, had been open water on Saturday and froze overnight, Mathisen said.

Comment: We saw the news trucks there this afternoon. This is the same area of the lake where 2 trucks went through in February 2007. Trucks through thin ice

Franken challenges this ballot

One challenge headed to the state so far in Plymouth


Excerpt:

The bubble beside Norm Coleman’s name appeared to have both an X and a squiggle in it, but the Al Franken campaign wants the state Canvassing Board to rule on whether it should count. That’s the only challenge in the special envelope in Plymouth so far, according to Sandy Engdahl, the city clerk and the official running the city recount.

The Canada geese milling on the grounds and parking lot of Plymouth City Hall were oblivious to the gaggle of election officials and observers inside. The drone of “Franken” and “Coleman” was accompanied by the swishing of paper in Medicine Lake Room A. Early on, Engdahl had to admonish some candidate representatives from trying to tell her counters how to count. Clearly, she said, the recount watchers are “very passionate,” but she has to remind them of everyone’s roles in this civic drama.

Eight of the 24 precincts had been counted by 1:45 p.m., and the only challenged ballot, in Engdahl’s view, was clearly a vote for Coleman. Nevertheless, the Franken campaign was allowed to seek a second opinion.

Comment: How a Franken representative might think this is not a Coleman vote is beyond me!

I'm so blessed ... I live in Plymouth MN

Best places to live: Plymouth, MN

Excerpt:

Topnotch schools, good jobs, affordable housing, low crime, an active outdoor culture - yep, they're pretty much all here. Plymouth could have become just another Twin Cities suburb, but more than 50,000 jobs keep residents working there.

Home prices are within reason: The typical three-bedroom, two-bath house goes for $350,000. The city's main school district is ranked among the top three in the state, and for culture, Plymouth's open-air amphitheater, the Hilde Performance Center, hosts numerous summer concerts. Residents are a quick drive from the Mall of America, the nation's biggest mall.

And did we mention the outdoors? Plymouth boasts more than half a dozen sizable bodies of water. Of course, this being Minnesota, winter can be brutal: January's average low temperature is about 13°F. But when the mercury plummets, the locals get busy. In February the city hosts a Fire & Ice Festival that includes mini-golf, bowling and basketball - all right on the ice.

Comment: I'm actually surprised! To my Brother (who lives in Maple Grove): I'm glad I don't live in that slum (joking!)!

Snowy morning

We had 3-4" of snow yesterday and woke up today to another 3". I took these from my tractor.

Kathee on MacBook:

Claire Holmquist - grading roses

Featured in the Star Tribune yesterday

Plymouth's Busch: Peddling roses

Excerpt:

For the past week, he and his employees at Len Busch Roses in Plymouth have labored 60 to 80 hours, harvesting, bundling and shipping roses to more than 800 florists and supermarkets in the Upper Midwest.

The last of the bouquets will get shipped out today, ensuring that hopeless romantics and henpecked partners can deliver the freshest of buds to their beloveds Feb. 14.

Comment: Image copywrite Star Tribune. Claire and her husband Phil are members at Fourth Baptist Church. Len Busch Roses

More fun on the ice

Rachel and I drove out on Medicine Lake late this afternoon. Pics:

Maryanne, the artist

We had a great time out on the ice. We drove at about 35 mph straight N and exited at Clifford French park.

Coyotes invade my neighborhood

Coyotes invade metro suburb

Excerpt:

In the heart of a Plymouth neighborhood, the Johnson's backyard attracts the birds, the bunnies and Thursday afternoon around lunchtime.

"I grabbed the camera and took a picture of it," said Stephanie Johnson.

A coyote stopped by their backyard.

"Oops there it is," said Johnson thumbing through the photos on her camera.

Stephanie Johnson captured Minnesota's most plentiful large predator from just inside her home.

She spotted it prancing along the tree line while the temperature hovered around zero.

"Kind of scary now, it's still cool."

The picture shows the coyote near their compost pile. She took the picture, it slipped around the corner and as gracefully as could be, jumped the neighbor's fence.

"Either a fox or a coyote, we have wetland in the backyard and it wonders through the backyard," said Dawn Swanson who lives down the street.

Plymouth police say the neighborhoods are prime habitat, full of wetlands, wildlife and plenty of forested cover.

This latest sighting is the only one we know of that neighbors have caught on camera, but it's likely not the only one around.

Comment: This is about a hundred yards from my house. Map below:


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Ice Shanties slide show

Medicine Lake Ice Shanties: Community on ice


Comment: Audio slide show from the Star Tribune. Tomorrow will be a good day to check this out! See last week's posting.

Another slide show from the Minnesota Post

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Saturday plans:

1. Our garage opener finally died. We had hoped it would make it to Spring, but today it conked out. Tomorrow, very early (between 7 and 9 am - no sleeping in tomorrow!), Superior Garage Door will be here to replace it. (It's been acting up for a year (January 19th, 2007). I am having a half horsepower Liftmaster w. battery backup installed.
   
2. My nice recliner is going in to Yankee Furniture Restoration for repairs. Roger loaded it in the truck last night and we just need to drive it down to Plymouth (Hwy 55) and drop it off.
   
3. Blood donation at noon.
   
4. Study for the Singles Bible Study at the library (Ephesians 1:3-14).
   
5. I hope to see Rachel before dinner while it is still light. I want to drive her down to see the Ice Shanties.
   
6. Rachel is coming for dinner.
   

Medicine Lake Art Ice House Shanties

How thick is the ice?

I called Harties to check. He informed me that the ice is 16"-20" thick with no dangerous areas on the lake.

Comment: Dan S and I connected this morning to review the Metro Womens Center website. Then we took a drive down to Medicine Lake to check out the Art Shanty project. The temperature was -10!

The ones I liked:

1. The "office scene". We enlisted a bystander to sit in the office. He in turn took our picture.
   
2. The "refrigerator" house. The walls are festooned with refrigerator doors. It's like "the viewer is inside the refrigerator ... the inside of the house is the the outside of the refrigerator".
   
3. The yellow house is the "ice taxi stand". The artist is "Kate". The taxi stand has decorated ice taxis to take patrons on a tour of the lake.
   

I'm about ready to leave to take Kathee down to view. It's worth the trip! See yesterday's post for details!

Update: We just returned ... but I did not have my camera with me:

Kathee calls this one the "Party Shanty". It was off the trailer and in motion. It is powered by pedal-power.

The spaceship is still under construction but advanced beyond the time of this photo. The middle section swings (not sure why!) and the dome is now completed.

Art shanties back on Medicine Lake

Art shanties turn arctic temps into an art form

Excerpt:

Out on Medicine Lake in Plymouth, it doesn't matter if you're dancing, quivering or using your own exhalations to save your nose. Frozen tears and snot turn everyone out here into a cousin of Yukon Cornelius, that dude from "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer" who carried his ax and a peppermint preoccupation all the way to Antarctica.

Comment: More: www.artshantyprojects.org. They say the ice is as thick as it has been in three years. Access at Harty Boat Ramp.


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Harty's Boats & Bait
(763) 546-6711
1920 Medicine Lake Blvd E Plymouth, MN 55441-4235

I hope to take some photos tomorrow

Ice fishing on Medicine Lake

Comment: I took this picture several years ago. Today some are driving on the lake, but it hasn't been cold enough for a sustained enough time for me to be comfortable driving on Medicine Lake.

Sam Macalus: Plymouth Metrolink's 500,000th rider

Plymouth Metrolink rewards 500,000th rider

Excerpt:

It's easy for one day to blend into another when a person follows the same routine day after day, but Friday, Dec. 7, broke the pattern for one area resident.

When Plymouth Metrolink pulled into Plymouth's Station 73 Park and Ride Friday afternoon and Sam Macalus stepped off the bus, he was greeted by Plymouth Transit Coordinator Bernie Maciej and a series of camera flashes.

Macalus was the 500,000th rider on Plymouth Metrolink in 2007.

...

The bus-stop celebration came as a complete surprise to Macalus, who lives in Maple Grove and rides Metrolink on his way to the University of Minnesota, where he's a student.

"It's really nice to be able to get downtown so fast," Macalus said. "It's faster than driving, and I'm never stuck in traffic."

Comment: Sam worships with us at 4th Baptist. The print edition of the Sun Sailor had a picture of Sam on the front page today!