Around the state: New Spam Museum opens in downtown Austin

After a year of work, the new Spam Museum will open in downtown Austin on April 22.

"We're just really excited to get the doors open," said Nicole Behne, Hormel Food Corp.'s marketing director for grocery products.

Inside the new temple to the legendary canned export, visitors will find some refurbished exhibits and several new ones. At 14,000 square feet, the new museum is about the same size as its former spot near Hormel's corporate headquarters.

But the space is more interactive, Behne said, with spots for photos and games — including one that plays with the steps of filling, baking and canning the pork product.

Austin officials hope that putting the city's biggest tourist attraction downtown will bring more visitors to nearby businesses.

The museum, which has billed itself as "the world's most comprehensive collection of spiced pork artifacts," attracts tens of thousands of visitors each year. Behne declined to give a more specific figure.

But for its 125th anniversary, she said, Hormel has set a big goal for the new space: 125,000 visitors in the first 12 months.

The price of protecting Fargo and Moorhead from floods is increasing.

The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has been working for years on a $1.8 billion project that would protect the two cities from periodic floods along the Red River of the North. Last week, the Flood Diversion Board of Authority updated the estimated price of the project to $2.1 billion.

The diversion plan calls for using a 36-mile trench and a dam across the river to push spring floods away from the city. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources is studying the possible environmental impact of the proposal before the state gives its approval for the dam. A judge this week threw out a court challenge to the route's selection process.

Jennifer Brooks

Duluth Mayor Emily Larson announced last week that she's proposing the city put $500,000 toward making city buildings and lights more energy efficient.

That savings would go into a special fund to make buildings and other parts of city property more energy efficient, too.

"This investment pays for itself twice over, in 10 years time," Larson said in her announcement.

City Property and Facilities Manager Erik Birkeland said that besides financial savings for taxpayers, the project "also has an environmental component of reducing our carbon footprint."