Briefs: Eagan to hold swap for Halloween costumes

The city of Eagan is offering a Halloween costume drop-off and swap next month — an opportunity for parents looking to clear last year's outfits from their closets, get them to new users and score bargains on costumes for this year.

People can drop off their gently laundered kids' costumes from 6 a.m. to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 7 to 10 at the Eagan Community Center, 1501 Central Pkwy.

They'll receive a ticket to come back to the community center and shop for a "new" reused costume from 10 a.m. to noon Oct. 12.

Burnsville will spend $1.7 million next year to resurface about 10 miles of residential streets that were built in the 1980s and early 1990. The surface of the streets has deteriorated prematurely, and the city is not planning to reconstruct or rehabilitate them for five to 15 years. The resurfacing will extend the life of the streets by 10 to 15 years, the city said. The streets to be resurfaced are all over the city.

"We do not know the exact cause of the surface failures that many communities like Burnsville are experiencing from streets of this vintage,'' Public Works Director Steve Albrecht said. "We believe that the issue may be a result of the bituminous mixtures specified and used during that period. Both streets reconstructed and originally built during that era that are experiencing the issue.''

Besides overlaying the deteriorating streets, the city plans to rebuild 6 miles of streets in 2014.

Burnsville's Maintenance Facility at 12713 Frontier Court will accept hazardous waste from Dakota County residents between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m. Sept. 28.

Materials accepted include household hazardous waste items such as batteries, fluorescent lights, gasoline, paint, lawn chemicals and propane cylinders. Other items accepted include appliances, electronics, textiles, shoes, tires, bicycles and documents for shredding.

Dakota County is working to prevent infant deaths by encouraging day-care providers and parents to put babies down to sleep on their backs to keep their airways clear for safe breathing.

The coming week has been declared Safe Sleep Week by Gov. Mark Dayton. To raise public awareness about the issue, the county will present comments by officials including Lucinda Jesson, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Human Services, at 11 a.m. Monday, Sept. 23, at the home of day-care provider Theresa Raasch, 3401 Kentwood Court, Burnsville.

For more information, call Dakota County at 651-554-5759.