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If you want to schedule a meeting or phone call with me, reach out to Maggie Kohl via email maggie.kohl@minneapolismn.gov or leave a message at 612-673-2204
If you have questions, comments, or concerns please contact Betsy Brock via her email betsy.brock@minneapolismn.gov or cell 612-257-5242
You can also reach me directly at my email latrisha.vetaw@minneapolismn.gov
As most of you know, I have open office hours every Friday at my ward office at 4205 Webber pkwy.
Please feel free to stop in any time between 1-4 pm or email maggie.kohl@minneapolismn.gov to set up another time.
A community meeting on the Upper Harbor project in north Minneapolis will be rescheduled to April 30 because of weather on the original date. Watch the City website for updates.
Tuesday, April 30
5:30 - 7:30 p.m.
Urban Research and Outreach-Engagement Center (UROC)
2001 Plymouth Ave N
The City and the development team, led by United Properties, will share the latest information on this year’s work and discuss a proposal for a health and wellness hub on the site. Attendees will also be invited to give feedback on the proposal.
Located between Washington Avenue and the Mississippi River, Upper Harbor is being transformed to accommodate new places to live and work, a 20-acre riverside park, and a community performing arts center. The City has made improvements in and around Upper Harbor, with street construction expected to wrap up this spring. Land ownership was officially transferred from the City to the Park Board this past fall, paving the way for this year’s work on the Upper Harbor Regional Park.
Watch for updates and read more on the City website.
The 2024 season for Minneapolis Solid Waste & Recycling collection of leaves, brush and other yard trimmings starts the week of April 8. Customers can set properly prepared yard waste at their alleys or curbs next to their garbage carts by 6 a.m. on their pickup day.
Customers can set yard waste out in a reusable container, compostable bags (paper or certified compostable plastic – look for the BPI logo), or bundled with string or twine.
Other requirements
- Reusable containers must be 32-38 gallons in size and 26-32 inches high with sturdy handles. Reusable containers are lifted and emptied by hand; they must be easily managed. Yard waste is not allowed in City-provided containers.
- Each container, bag or bundle must weigh less than 40 pounds.
- Bundled brush and branches must be less than 3 inches in diameter and cut to less than 3 feet long.
Bags marked “biodegradable” or “degradable” don’t meet the State law requirement and are not accepted.
Solid Waste & Recycling crews can’t pick up dirt, soil, sod, stumps, trees, or branches wider than 3 inches in diameter or longer than 3 feet.
Raking leaves into the street is against the law and bad for our lakes, creeks and river.
For questions about leaf and brush pickup, customers can check the City website or call Solid Waste & Recycling at 612-673-2917 Monday-Friday.
Protecting pollinators
Bees often nest in broken stems of plants, and butterflies overwinter in leaf piles. The City encourages gardeners and landscapers to leave yard waste untouched until daytime temperatures are consistently above 50 degrees (mid-April or early May) to protect pollinators.
The City plans to use a National Park Service grant to help address the underrepresentation of African American history among local and national listings of historic places. The City will also use an award from Minnesota’s Arts and Cultural Heritage Fund.
The work will include a context study and the survey of 25 properties associated with African American history in Minneapolis. A context study is a document that describes people, places and events related to a common theme.
The Minneapolis project builds on work that began in 2021 to better understand the people, places and events that are important to the African American community and that helped shape the history of the city.
Minneapolis has approximately 150 listings on the National Register of Historic Places, only three of which are associated with African American history.
Read more on the City website.
Join an online open house April 11 on winter walking and biking.
Public Works staff will present an overview of the Winter Walking and Biking Study, sidewalk snow and ice clearing pilots, and other recent analysis and efforts related to winter walking and biking maintenance. There will be a question and answer period after the presentation.
Winter walking and biking online open house 6 p.m. Thursday, April 11 Join on Microsoft Teams.
Minneapolis is committed to year-round walking and bicycling as safe, accessible and convenient options for its residents and visitors. The City has been working to improve sidewalk and bikeway winter maintenance.
You can read more on the City website about efforts to improve winter walking and biking.
Mayor Jacob Frey, in consultation with City Operations Officer Margaret Anderson Kelliher, has nominated Timothy Sexton to be the City’s new director of the Public Works Department. Sexton currently serves as the assistant commissioner for sustainability, planning and program management for the Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT). The nomination comes after an extensive search that yielded an impressive candidate pool.
At MnDOT, Sexton leads a staff of 350 people and provides strategic direction for all modal programs (freight, rail, waterways, aeronautics, transit, walking, biking, shared mobility), research and innovation, asset management, and sustainability and public health.
If approved for the position of Public Works director, Sexton will oversee a department with more than 1,100 employees who build, operate and maintain the City’s public infrastructure and deliver critical services, including solid waste and recycling collection, safe drinking water, street maintenance and emergency sewer and road repairs.
The City Council’s Climate & Infrastructure Committee has set a public hearing for April 18 on the nomination.
Read more on the City website.
If you own a home in Minneapolis, you can now apply for funding to help make it more energy efficient.
Owners of homes from one to four units can apply for 0% loans (which means you don’t have to pay interest) and up to $14,000 in grants for certain home improvement projects that save energy. You can combine these City funds with utility rebates and other grants.
About the program
The Green Cost Share program is a funding program helping reduce the cost of rooftop solar and energy efficiency projects in Minneapolis.
Eligible projects include:
- High-efficiency heating and cooling systems.
- Insulation and air sealing.
- Energy Star windows.
- Heat pump electric water heaters.
- Solar.
Who can apply?
This new offering is open to property owners of one-four unit homes. This includes townhomes, twin homes, condominiums, and properties held in a trust.
- Minneapolis properties.
- The property must have an energy audit in the last three years.
- The grant amount varies by income level and location in Minneapolis.
Apply for the home energy efficiency grants on the Center for Energy and Environment website.
If you have young children in your household, you know that with children come germs and illness. While adults know handwashing is an important way to stop the spread of infection, sometimes kids need a little help.
The City of Minneapolis has put together a fun video to teach children the best way to clean their hands and prevent the spread of germs all year round.
Share the video with your children about outsmarting germs by washing their hands.
The City has awarded its first round of opioid settlement money to organizations combating the opioid crisis. The City is expected to receive about $18 million over the next 18 years from national settlements with opioid distributors and manufacturers.
The awardees of the funding will focus their work on treatment, long-term recovery and prevention to reduce disparities in the number of overdose-related deaths and emergency room visits.
Awardees
The awardees represent diverse needs of the Minneapolis population. They’ll increase access to opioid treatment.
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Access Healing: A significant portion of the funding will go toward safer and more supportive culturally specific recovery housing facilities.
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Comunidades Latinas Unidas En Servicio (CLUES): The program will focus on serving Latino youths and their families. They have outpatient chemical health practitioners and therapists. They provide both substance use and mental health services.
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Generation Hope: The work is focused on addressing addiction, mental health and the associated stigma within the East African community with a strong emphasis on empowering individuals in recovery through workforce development.
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Greater Minneapolis Council of Churches: The project will launch new services to meet culturally specific needs. It will launch a mother-led support network and Nar-Anon program.
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Minnesota Somali Community Center.
Read more about the awardees and their services on the City website.
The City is now recruiting members for boards and commissions. We’re looking for applicants with a diversity of backgrounds and experiences representing the demographics of Minneapolis to strengthen the work of the City. City boards and commissions offer a direct way for residents to advise City leadership about topics important to them. Translation and interpreting are available so all residents can participate.
Applications will be accepted through March 31.
City boards and commissions with openings include:
- Arts Commission.
- Bicycle Advisory Committee.
- Capital Long-Range Improvement Committee.
- Community Commission on Police Oversight.
- Minneapolis Workforce Development Board.
- Pedestrian Advisory Committee.
- Southside Green Zone Council.
People can apply and stay up to date on vacancies, position descriptions and timelines by visiting the City website.
Read more about the openings and about some of our boards’ and commissions’ accomplishments on the City website.
The City would like your input on the accessibility of its programs and services. Please take the survey by April 14 on resident perceptions about the City’s compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act and accessibility more broadly.
Your feedback will help as the City updates its ADA Action Plan.
You can take the survey in English, Spanish, Somali, Hmong or Oromo.
We will also hold community engagement sessions in May and June. Watch the City website and future newsletters for more details and ways to participate.
For reasonable accommodations or alternative formats please contact the Neighborhood and Community Relations Department at 612-673-3737. People who are deaf or hard of hearing can use a relay service to call 311 at 612-673-3000. TTY users call 612-263-6850. Para asistencia, llame al 311. Rau kev pab 311. Hadii aad Caawimaad u baahantahay 311.
Community members perform essential work for public health: building healthier communities in our city. To honor those who do this important work, you’re invited to the Local Public Health Heroes event April 17.
The annual Local Public Health Heroes Awards recognize the critical role community partners fulfill in making Minneapolis a healthier place. Local Public Health Heroes help support the Health Department’s vision that healthy lives, health equity and healthy environments are the foundations of a vibrant Minneapolis.
Please join us for a resource fair and ceremony to honor our local public health heroes. Lunch will be provided at no charge.
Local Public Health Heroes event Resource fair at 11 a.m., award ceremony at noon Wednesday, April 17 Public Service Building, Room 100, 505 Fourth Ave. S.
If you haven’t already, you can still enter the lottery by March 31 for the chance to buy a $30 tree for your Minneapolis property. The City will offer 1,000 low-cost shade and evergreen trees to help grow the city’s tree canopy. The trees range from 3 feet to 8 feet tall.
The City is especially focused on adding trees in the Green Zones as those areas have some of the lowest tree cover in the city. We encourage anyone who owns property in the Green Zones to enter the lottery.
If you’re selected
If you’re selected in the lottery, you can buy one or two trees per address. You’ll get an email in April with information on how to order.
Tree pickup will be May 18 and 19 (subject to change). You’ll get an email with the pickup location.
Register for the lottery online.
Learn more about the City Trees program.
The City of Minneapolis has launched a multi-year recruitment campaign for hard-to-fill positions in 911 and the Police Department. We’re looking for talented, community-oriented people to apply for public safety careers like 911 call takers and police officers.
Cities across the country are grappling with staffing shortages in critical public safety departments. Minneapolis is competing with local governments across the state and U.S. to recruit and retain officers.
Imagine yourself making an impact in Minneapolis. Find your potential while building a strong career.
Learn more on the City website.
Minneapolis Animal Care & Control relies on volunteers to help feed, exercise, play with, train and clean up after the animals in the shelter. Volunteers can make a huge difference for the animals in the shelter.
Opportunities
Volunteer opportunities include:
- The Animal Safety Net Program: Short and long-term care for animals facing displacement from their families from medical emergencies, disasters, domestic violence and other reasons.
- Foster care: A temporary home to save lives and reduce the stress for animals in transition.
- Rehabilitation: Working with staff to rehabilitate animals in physical, mental or behavioral crisis to help them safely return to the community.
- Dog walking and running: Every animal gets out of its kennel or cage every day. Volunteers walk dogs three times a day.
- Cat cuddling: Volunteers give cats 1:1 socialization and exercise daily.
- Dog play groups: Dog play groups let dogs learn good behavior from other dogs.
- Matchmakers: Specially trained volunteers work with customers to help them find the perfect pet for their family.
- Administrative projects: Volunteers who may not be able to work directly with animals can still help us.
See the City website for ways to help and requirements for volunteering.
The City Council adopted a resolution recognizing April 1-7 as Food Waste Prevention Week in the City of Minneapolis. The resolution recognizes that nearly 128,000 tons of food is wasted in Minneapolis each year, and that wasting food also wastes the water, fuel and resources used to produce and transport it and deal with it when it becomes trash. Instead, the resolution notes equity and financial benefits of ways to use, share and compost more food.
Community members and businesses both play an important part in reducing food waste in our City. Preventing food waste saves money, reduces hunger in our communities, and is the No. 1 personal action we can take to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
Prevent wasted food
Here are just a few ways to limit wasted food:
- Plan menus for the week.
- Buy smaller quantities.
- Eat leftovers.
Learn more ways to prevent wasting food.
The reconstruction of Hennepin Avenue South between Douglas Avenue and West Lake Street begins April 1. The two-year project will improve the corridor for all users from Interstate 94 to Uptown. This year’s construction is from West Lake Street to 26th Street. Upgrades to underground electric and gas utilities were accomplished this past winter to make room for the project. Next year, the construction area is from 26th Street to Douglas Avenue. Crews will continue replacing underground utilities in advance of next year’s construction, from Franklin to Douglas Avenue.
The project is an opportunity to update Hennepin Avenue to meet the public’s current and future needs. The new, multimodal design improves space for people walking, riding transit, biking and driving. The layout also provides space for enhanced stations being built for the future METRO E Line, a new Bus Rapid Transit line that will largely replace Route 6 in December 2025.
Once construction begins April 1, Metro Transit buses on Hennepin Avenue will be detoured to Lyndale Avenue via Lake Street or 31st Street and 24th Street.
More information:
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