FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
06/16/2016
Contact:
Carolyn
Marinan, Communications, 612-348-5969
Webber Park Library design
The board approved the design for a new Hennepin County Library-Webber Park in North Minneapolis. The design is for a free-standing 8,300-square-foot library building. It will be built on a 1.4-acre site located between 44th and 45th avenues north. The total budget for the project is $12 million, but costs are expected to be closer to $10 million. Plans for the new library include improved services, collaborative gathering spaces, an early literacy learning environment, a refreshed book collection, plus DVDs and CDs with world language resources, more public computers, improved work spaces, sustainable design, parking for cars and bicycles and an outdoor reading and gathering space.
County to offer additional recycling grants to cities
The county is increasing funding to cities for recycling and organics recycling programs for food and nonrecyclable paper waste. More than $3 million will be available for metals, paper and plastics recycling, and more than $400,000 for organics recycling in 2015. The funds will be distributed to each city based on the number of households that receive curbside recycling and curbside organics services. In 2016, approximately $3.2 million will be available for recycling and $300,000 for organics recycling. These funds will put the county’s program in compliance with state requirements that half of additional SCORE funding be spent on organics recycling. This will help support the development of city organics recycling programs. About one-third of the trash currently discarded is organic material, but less than two percent of households have organics collection services. Improvements to organics collection will help the county reach the state’s 2030 requirement that at least 75 percent of waste generated in the county be recycled.
Board appoints member to Lower Minnesota Watershed District
The board appointed David Raby to a three-year term on the Lower Minnesota Watershed District Board. The watershed district coordinates the management of the water and related land resources in the watershed that drains into the Lower Minnesota River from the north and south bluffs of the river to the confluence of the Mississippi River at Fort Snelling.
To apply for a citizen advisory board position visit www.hennepin.us/advisoryboards.
Contract approved for girls' treatment program
The board approved a four-year contract with Nexus Diversified Community Services to provide treatment programming to as many as 12 girls, ages 14 and older, who have a history of serious psychological, psychiatric and behavioral issues. The program will be based at the Hennepin County Home School, in Minnetonka. Some facility improvements also will be needed at Cottage 1, and in the administration building. This program is designed after similar successful programs that Nexus operates in other states to meet the needs of difficult to place adolescent girls who have not been adjudicated as delinquent but have typically failed multiple placements in residential treatment. Until now, they have had to be placed out of state with very limited access to their families. The Nexus program will be operated under contract by the county Human Services and Public Health Department and licensed by the State Department of Human Services as a secure mental health program.
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Look for more news on the Hennepin County website at www.hennepin.us/news.
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