North metro town briefs: Free admission for 3M golf tourney

Admission is free for this week's 3M Championship at the TPC Twin Cities golf course in Blaine.

Pro-amateur rounds are set for today, July 31, and Thursday, Aug. 1. Championship play begins Friday and continues on Saturday and Sunday.

Public parking is available at the Anoka County-Blaine Airport, and shuttles will be offered.

The tournament will donate $1.3 million to benefit healthcare programs at Allina Health.

For more information, go to www.3mchampionship.com.

The city of Blaine will host its 12th annual Citizens Academy for residents interested in learning more about police and fire department operations. The eight-week course will be held from 6:30 to 9:30 p.m. on Wednesdays from Sept. 4-Oct. 23.

The academy provides an overview of the structure and operations of the police, fire and community standards departments. Topics will include police use of force, firefighting, crime prevention, housing maintenance, and fire and police investigations.

For more information, contact Wende Ferguson, support services manager, at 763-785-6112 or e-mail at wferguson@ci.blaine.mn.us.

Hwy. 10 resurfacing in Anoka will narrow the roadway to one lane in each direction between Fairoak and Seventh avenues throughout August.

The $7.3 million project will include drainage improvements, curb-and-gutter replacements, ramp work and the rehabilitation of several bridges.

Motorists are encouraged to use alternate routes and adjust their schedules in order to avoid delays.

Weather permitting, the project will be complete by late-October.

Work on County Road 81 in Brooklyn Park and Crystal has closed access on the east side of the 63rd Avenue intersection and will close the west side in early August, a county official said.

The east side should reopen in early August and the west side by early September, before schools open, said Paul Backer, the county's construction project engineer. He said the intersection, which dipped, is being raised about four feet to improve sight lines and provide a smoother ride on the four-lane artery, which will have some lanes closed.

The $9.8 million project extends from the south edge of Crystal Airport more than a mile to near Interstate Hwy. 694. Backer said two homes and a dozen commercial buildings, including an old motel, were bought and removed for the project.

Work began March 13 and will be substantially done by November 2014, with landscaping – about 100 trees will be planted – continuing into the summer of 2015. The project's general contractor is Landwehr Construction of St. Cloud.

The Plymouth Parks and Recreation Department is offering free "Entertainment in the Parks" through the summer. Events in the coming days include: • 7 p.m. Thursday, Aug. 1, Star of the North Concert Band at Hilde Performance Center, 3450 Plymouth Blvd; • 6:45 p.m. Monday, Aug. 5, Zoomobile: Cool Animals of the North, Hilde Small Stage; • 7 p.m. Aug. 7, Water Ski Show at Parkers Lake Park, County Rd. 6 and Niagara Lane.

Members of the Haitian Initiative (HI) team will be at Feed My Starving Children's Coon Rapids location, where they'll join in packing meals of the kind they eat after practice in Haiti. For many, FMSC says, these are their only meal of the day.

The meals were formulated in 1993 by food scientists at Cargill and General Mills in order to reverse and prevent malnutrition. They consist of rice, soy, dehydrated vegetables and a flavoring fortified with 20 vitamins and minerals.

Joining the players at FSMC will be their host families and representatives of three organizations that help make the HI soccer program possible: Healing Haiti, the Sanneh Foundation of St. Paul, and Latitude.

The HI team finished second out of 11 teams in the Gold division of boys U-14 play.