town square

Shakopee may not have gotten the Vikings stadium, but it is becoming the place where old Twins and Vikings stadiums go to die.

The City Council voted this month to buy hundreds of Metrodome seats, replacing the Met Stadium ones that have been used for decades at its Schleper Stadium.

The council will buy 650 Metrodome seats, which have been ripped out before demolition of the downtown facility.

The city is still deciding what to do with its castoffs, but officials say that they will likely keep a few "for nostalgia" and sell the rest.

Details will be released later this year.

Five buses and two transit stations are being equipped with Wi-Fi south of the river.

The Minnesota Valley Transit Authority (MVTA), as a demonstration project, has installed the service at the Burnsville and Eagan stations for 90 days.

Buses included are 4692, 4693, 4048, 4049 and 4946, identified with a Wi-Fi symbol near the passenger boarding door.

Those buses are used on routes that include 436, 440, 445, 460, 464, 465, 470, 472, 476, 477, 480 and 484.

Drivers have cards with the network name (MVTA Public Wi-Fi) and password (openMVTA).

MVTA covers a swath of suburbs from Rosemount to Savage.

Everyone is welcome later this month as Metropolitan Council Chairwoman Susan Haigh delivers her 2014 State of the Region speech.

The council is in the midst of a 2040 planning process, and Haight is expected to provide an update.

The council seeks RSVPs at www.metrocouncil.org by Fridady, as seating is limited.

For more information, visit the website, call 651-602-1140 or e-mail public.info@metc.state.mn.us.

With a new director in place, Scott County's libraries are seeking to close entirely for a day for staff training and team building.

The county board was to be asked this week for a day off, likely a Friday.

It's a chance for new chief Jacob Grussing to "connect with the library team," the memo added. Such closures are "common practice within the public library business and among the Metropolitan Library Service Agency (MELSA) library systems."

Friday, Feb. 28 was suggested as a day of least customer impact because the branches aren't open much on Fridays anyway.

A woman described as having quietly served as Prior Lake's "director of taste" has been honored by the chamber of commerce.

Assistant City Manager Kelly Meyer was named Business Person of the Year this month at the Wilds Golf Club in Prior Lake.

"She is the person who says, 'How and what steps do we need to do to make this work?' What a positive attitude she has," said the chamber's executive director, Sandi Fleck.

She is the city's "director of taste," Fleck said, having designed the wave pattern on the city's sidewalks and overseeing planters, benches, streetlights and the like.