The Hennepin County Board is expected next week to approve $700,000 to repair and restore ancient American Indian burial mounds found near Lake Minnetonka.
In 2015, bulldozers unearthed burial mounds as reconstruction began on Bushaway Road, part of County Road 101. Experts had surveyed the land and thought the burial mounds were located 30 to 50 feet east of the construction site.
Work was halted immediately and plans redrawn at the Breezy Point intersection to nix a roundabout and realign the road, as Hamline University archaeologists worked with the Minnesota Indian Affairs Council to restore the mounds.
Since that initial contract for $345,000 in 2015, county officials say there's still more work for archaeologists, forensic specialists and trained field staffers to recover bone fragments and return them to their initial resting places at Breezy Point Road and County Road 101 in Minnetonka.
A plaque will be placed at the site to memorialize the Indians' remains.
It's not clear how old the remains are, but Minnesota has an estimated 12,000 known mounds that date from about 500 B.C. to 1500 A.D., according to the state archaeology office. Along Lake Minnetonka, 524 burial mounds were mapped in the 1880s.
Road closures ended last fall on the Bushaway Road construction project, which included repaving and widening the century-old road from Minnetonka to Wayzata.
The project added turn lanes, new sewers and a bike and pedestrian trail, and replaced what was supposed to be a temporary bridge over the railroad tracks. Landscaping along the road was done on Earth Day.
If approved, the latest work will push the total cost of the road project over $60 million. It's funded by the county, state, Metropolitan Council and the cities of Wayzata, Minnetonka and Woodland.
Kelly Smith
Edina
Police recognized for DWI enforcement
Two Edina police officers were named among the nation's top DWI enforcers this month by the national nonprofit Mothers Against Drunk Driving (MADD).
Officers Ben Wenande and Jake Heckert received awards at a statewide MADD banquet in Brooklyn Center on April 17.
The Edina Police Department also received the 2017 Outstanding Law Enforcement Agency Award.
Heckert made 159 DWI arrests in 2016, according to Edina police, earning him MADD's Red Medallion Award. Wenande received the Bronze Award for making 34 DWI arrests.
Edina police have won the Outstanding Law Enforcement Agency award two years in a row, Police Chief Dave Nelson said.
MADD was formed in 1980 with the mission of supporting victims of drunken driving and preventing underage drinking.
Miguel Otárola
Spring Park
New brewery opening on Lake Minnetonka
The brewery boom is spreading across Lake Minnetonka, with the latest new brewery set to open in July in Spring Park.
Back Channel Brewing Co., which will be the first brewery in Spring Park and the first on the lake's north side, follows others that have opened in Lake Minnetonka cities such as Excelsior and Wayzata.
It's owned by residents Josh Leddy, Melissa Langseth, Matt "Olie" Olson and Joe Meehan. The brewery is opening in a former dental building near a lake channel, at 4787 Shoreline Drive.
Since the so-called Surly bill, signed into law in 2011 to allow breweries to serve their own beer onsite, more than 100 breweries have opened across Minnesota. About 40 of those taprooms are in the Twin Cities.
For details on the new Back Channel Brewery, go to facebook.com/Backchannelbrew.
Kelly Smith
Hopkins
May Day event to benefit local nonprofits
The Hopkins Center for the Arts is hosting its first May Day street festival Saturday, with proceeds benefiting local nonprofits.
The festival starts at 3 p.m. outside the arts center, 1111 Mainstreet, and will feature outdoor concerts, food trucks, a beer garden and fundraising games.
There also will be a silent auction offering more than a dozen prizes.
The benefit will be capped with a 7:30 p.m. performance by Jefferson Starship, a rock band formed by members of Jefferson Airplane.
Tickets to the show begin at $49 and can be purchased at hopkinsartscenter.com or by calling 952-979-1111.
Proceeds from the festival will go toward the Depot Youth Foundation, Blake Road Corridor Collaborative, Hopkins Activity Center and Hopkins Center for the Arts.
Miguel Otárola
