North metro town briefs

Choirboys will hold breakfast fundraiserThe Land of Lakes Choirboys will sing and host a pancake breakfast fundraiser from 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. March 13 at the Land of Lakes Choirboys building, 6437 Norris Lake Road, Elk River.

Donations will be accepted. For more information, call 763-213-8105 or go to www.lolcb.org.

'Music Night' takes the stage March 11"Music Night in the Heights" is scheduled for March 11 at Murzyn Hall in Columbia Heights.

The event is open to the public -- to participate or to listen -- and will run from 7 to 10 p.m. in LaBelle Lounge. Signup begins at 6:45 p.m.

Murzyn Hall is located at 530 Mill St. For more information, call 763-706-3733.

COON RAPIDS

City managers in panel discussionThe ABC League of Women Voters will host a panel discussion of local city managers at the league's monthly meeting March 14 at Coon Rapids Civic Center. The public is invited to attend.

The meeting will begin with a social and refreshments at 6 p.m. followed by the program at 6:30 p.m.

The Civic Center is located at 11155 Robinson Drive NW. For more information, e-mail Katherine Whelchel at kathiew7contacts@gmail .com.

Hoops fundraiser to help at-risk teens"Hoopin' It Up for Hope," a fundraiser to benefit the TreeHouse programs for at-risk teens, will feature a free-throw shooting tournament at several west-metro sites.

Teams of five will compete in five-minute head-to-head free-throw contests, with the "Final Ultimate Shoot-out" to be held at the March 20 Timberwolves game at Target Center.

Community events are being held at several sites, including:

• Plymouth: 1 p.m. March 19 at Wayzata East Middle School, 12000 Ridgemont Av., Plymouth. Check-in begins at noon.

TreeHouse has seven locations in the Twin Cities serving nearly 1,500 teens each year. For more information on its programs, go to www.treehouseyouth .org.

Recyling centers now accept electronicsHennepin County now will recycle household electronics at the county's drop-off centers.

Materials accepted include computer disks, DVDs, CDs, Blu-ray discs, videocassettes, audio cassettes, game cartridges, Secure Digital (SD) memory cards, flash drives, plastic cases and jewel cases, ink-jet and laser toner cartridges, and vinyl records.

The county says it has the first local recycling centers to accept a wide variety of electronic media. How much media is now thrown into the trash is not known, but the county anticipates the new recycling service will boost overall recycling totals.

Hennepin County drop-off centers are located at 8100 Jefferson Hwy., Brooklyn Park and 1400 W. 96th St., Bloomington.

Hours are 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Tuesdays, Thursdays and Fridays; from 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Wednesdays, and from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturdays.

Recycling forum on Tuesday in CrystalHennepin County will hold a forum Tuesday in Crystal on how residents can increase their efforts at recycling and composting.

Research indicates that residents could recycle twice as much waste as they now do.

The forum will taken place from 6-8 p.m. at the Crystal Community Center, 4800 Douglas Drive N., Crystal.

Meeting tonight on City Center studyThe city of New Hope has scheduled an open house for tonight to give residents and city officials a chance to hear results from the New Hope City Center Transit Oriented Development Study and to discuss preliminary ideas for the redevelopment of the area around the intersection of Winnetka and 42nd avenues.

The open house will begin at 7 p.m. at New Hope Village Golf Course clubhouse, 8130 Bass Lake Road. For details, go to www.ci.new-hope.mn.us/citycenterstudy.

HOPKINS

Helping Paws to hold foster care open houseHelping Paws will hold an open house Saturday at its Hopkins training center for people who want to learn more about providing foster care for animals that will become service dogs for people with disabilities.

Current foster caregivers will talk about the work, which Helping Paws says requires commitment and compassion but no experience.

The open house is scheduled for 9 to 11 a.m. at the Helping Paws Training Center, 630 12th Av. S., Hopkins.

For more information on Helping Paws, go to www.help ingpaws.org.