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AUGUST 2012Vol. 29 No. 6 21,000 CirculationYour Neighborhood Newspaper For Over Twenty YearsINSIDEFeatures.2‘Elevated Beer’ tobring craft beer, wineto Hiawatha this fallEco-friendly policiesat BecketwoodNews.3Xcel releasessubstation designNews.5New regulationsguide area boatersFeature.7Longfellow's handfound at Park BoardCraft beer and wine lovers in the Longfellow area will have another source to choose from when Elevated Beer,Wine and Spirits opens this fall at 4135 Hiawatha Ave. Tom Boland and Ryan Widuch, co-owners of the plannedliquor store, got their start with home brewing. (Photo by Stefanie Berres)By JAN WILLMSCraft beer and wine lovers inthe Longfellow area will have another source to choose from whenElevated Beer, Wine and Spiritsopens this fall at 4135 HiawathaAve.Tom Boland and RyanWiduch, co-owners of theplanned liquor store, got theirstart with home brewing.“We learned a lot about beerthat way,” Boland said. “We havebeen involved in the communityfor awhile, and this place is an opportunity to put in a different,new and exciting retail side ofthings.”Boland said their location is aformer coffee shop and deli,known as Hiawatha Joe’s, whichhas been closed for a couple ofyears.Although the two producedhome brews for the past three orfour years, their dream to go commercial with a production brewery for their own beers is currentlyon hold. Instead, their store willoffer not only craft brews andwines but other products as well.“We will focus on a wide se-lection of beer and product expertise,” explained Boland. “Ourstaff will show customers around,and those customers can learnabout craft beers and wines.”Although many are welcoming the new business to the area,there are some concerns about Elevated Beer’s proximity to a daycare center and the traffic it mightbring to the neighborhood.Steve Krause, owner of Minnehaha Lake Wine and Spirits, admits that some of his motives inquestioning the new business inthe area are selfish.“I already compete with sixother liquor stores in a two-mileradius of my store,” he said. Headded that he sits on a community advisory committee for theMinnehaha area. The group did“We will focus on a wideselection of beer andproduct expertise.”- Elevated Beer, Wine and Spiritsowner Tom Bolandextensive community outreach,soliciting input on redevelopmentof the Hiawatha Corridor.“Not one responder ever saidthat we need another liquorstore,” Krause said, “not one. Noone feels our community is underserviced in that area.”A current ordinance statesthat no liquor store may operatewithin 300 feet of a church orschool. Krause said the intentionis to separate consumption of alcohol from children. But that ordinance does not cover daycarecenters, and one is two doorsaway from the proposed liquorstore and will share its parkinglot.“The daycare owner is Muslim, and had he known a liquorstore would be adjacent, hewouldn’t have opened there,”Krause said.“I don’t want or need anothercompetitor, but beyond that,there are better uses for that retailspace,” Krause continued. “But asa landlord, the building ownerhas a mortgage to pay and needsto rent to anyone willing to payrent. I see both sides. No one isevil in this issue.”Another Longfellow businessowner said he had concerns withpanhandlers and transients in thearea, but he blames the city fornot including daycare centersunder its ordinance.As for Adam Aded, owner ofRuwayda Child Care Center, heindicated that he is not againstbusiness, but against a liquorstore in the area.“I care about the whole area,”he said. “My house is also nearby.”He said he signed a lease forthe daycare operation in October2011. The center has four shiftsand serves a total of 360 children,from the age of six weeks to 12years. It is open seven days a weekfrom 6 a.m. to 10 p.m.Continued on page 4

Eco-friendly policies cutting waste at Becketwood1885 University Ave.St. Paul, MN 55104651-645-7045Publishers:Calvin deRuyter, Tim NelsonManaging Editor:Denis WoulfeAdvertising:Denis Woulfe - 651-917-4183Colette Mullenmaster - 651-494-8047Photographer:Stefanie BerresProduction/Illustrations:Bob WasilukContributing Writers:Iric Nathanson, Deborah Brotz,Jane McClure, Tesha M. Christensen,Sherri Moore, Tom Gilsenan,Jan WillmsNow, communicate with theLongfellow/NokomisMessenger electronically!Now it’s easier than ever to keep in touchwith the Messenger. Letters to the editorand news releases for publication can besent via e-mail at denisw@aplacetoremember.com. Be sure to send copy in thebody of the e-mail, and please markwhether the copy is a letter, a news releasefor publication, or perhaps just yourthoughts on the last issue. Don’t forget towrite!By IRIC NATHANSONThe large trash barrels are disappearing from Jason Brenny’skitchen.There were five when Brennywas hired as the chef at the Becketwood Cooperative two yearsago. “Now, there are only two left.Soon, we will be down to justone,” said Brenny who managesdining services for members of theWest River Parkway senior co-op.Brenny has been able to eliminate the trash containers becausealmost everything that leaves hiskitchen is composted or recycled.Becketwood is ramping up its efforts to combat waste in responseto a new set of eco-friendly policies adopted by the cooperativelast year.The policies were incorporated in the Strategic Imperatives, afive year plan intended to guidethe operation of the 210 unithousing complex. “Environmentalsustainability is important forthose of us who live here, and weknow it will be important to thebaby boomers who will start looking for housing options as theyprepare to retire. People will wantto live here if they know we arepromoting a green ethic,” saidCarol Mockovak, who helpeddraft the Imperatives plan andnow co-chairs Becketwood’s Environment Committee.Mockovak explained that theco-op had started promoting eco-The Longfellow/Nokomis Messenger is amonthly community publication in theLongfellow and Nokomis areas of Minneapolis, owned and operated bydeRuyter-Nelson Publications, Inc. All correspondence should be sent to the Messenger, 1885 University Ave., #110, St. Paul,MN 55104. Editorial and advertising offices can be reached at 651-645-7045. Ourfax number is 651-645-4780.All rights reserved. The contents of theMessenger cannot be reproduced withoutexpress written permission of the publisher. Copyright 2012.BUY LOCAL!Jordan Sullivan, one of Brenny’s assistants, is starting to fill the newcomposting bin. (Photo by StefanieBerres)Becketwood’s chef, Jason Brenny, is shown here with Ruth Halvorson, who chairs the Co-op’s Food Committee (onthe left) and Carol Mockovak, who co-chairs the Environment Committee. Brenny is able to compost and recyclevirtually all the waste leaving his kitchen, including these food utensils and containers. (Photo by Stefanie Berres)friendly practices even before thefive year plan had been adopted.“We were already composting andrecycling on an individual basisbut we wanted to take that to anew level. We knew that our dining room was making too large acontribution to the landfills so westarted looking for a new approachthat could maximize opportunitiesfor kitchen waste recycling.After considering several options, Becketwood selected a newvendor, Eureka Recycling, that offered composting as well as recycling services. Eureka, a TwinCities-based non-profit, collectsfood scraps and other compostable materials, includingpaper products, and transportsthem to a local commercial composting facility where they aremade into dirt.“In the past, we were able tocompost vegetable scraps fromour own kitchens by hauling thescraps out to the large compostingbins behind our main parkinglot,” Mockovak said. “Now, withEureka, we are able to bring allour kitchen scraps from our apartments in compostable bags downto small bins in our basementwhere the bags are collected byEureka each week. And, most significantly, Eureka is able to collectvirtually all of the waste fromJason’s dining room, includingpaper napkins and disposablefood containers.”Mockovak acknowledged thatthe new recycling system is somewhat complicated. “There is alearning curve for all us,” she said.“Now, with this new system, we arenot able to recycle some the plasticcontainers that we used to put inthe recycling bins. There is a codingsystem on the containers that tellsus whether we can or cannot recycle them, so we are educating people here about using the codes.”In order to help educate Becketwood members about the newrecycling policy, the cooperativeput on a “Trashy Art Show” thisspring. Jerry Nordstrom, who organized the show, acknowledgedthat the title sparked some interesting conversations in the Becketwood hallways. “It was a show andit was about trash, but was it art?That is a very fluid term,” saidNordstrom, who serves as the coop’s in-house art curator.“I knew that a new system forthe disposing of things would becomplicated, and no list or chartwould tell the story graphicallyenough,” Nordstrom added. “So,to make things clear, we created amassive display of actual trash. Itshowed what kinds of things wentinto which containers. As this wasset up near where people got theirmail, everyone in the buildinghad a whole week to learn and review the system.”Continued on page 5MESSENGERCOUPON-CUTOUTSThe Twin Cities Outstanding Gourmet Grocery Store!5615 CHICAGO AVE. SOUTHLocal EventSaturday, July 28th from 11-5Please join us in sampling our favorite local products.Recipes and tips will be offered throughout the store.612-824-2430www.kowalskis.comPage 2August 2012 Messenger www.LongfellowNokomisMessenger.com