West news briefs: St. Patrick's Church plans big garage sale

St. Patrick's Catholic Church will hold its 28th annual garage sale Sept. 17-19. The sale will feature 20,000 square feet of furniture, household goods, antiques, bikes, clothing, sporting goods, toys, seasonal items and more. A special preview will be held Wednesday from 5:30 to 9 p.m.; admission is $3 Wednesday evening and free the other two days.

The sale will continue Thursday from 8:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. All items will be half off on Friday from 8:30 a.m. to noon, followed by a $3 bag sale from 12:30 to 3 p.m. Friday. St. Patrick's Church is at 6820 St. Patrick's Lane, at the corner of Gleason Road and Valley View Road. For more information, go to www.stpatrick-edina.org or call 952-941-3164.

Sherri Knuth, policy and outreach manager for the League of Women Voters Minnesota, will speak to the Edina chapter about "Money in Politics" on Saturday, Sept. 20.

Knuth, an attorney, was the primary author of the state league's recent report "The Tip of the Iceberg: How Minnesota's Campaign Finance Laws Limit Transparency."

The program will take place from 10 to 11:30 a.m. at Edina City Hall.

The league will also present the following candidate forums, all to be held in the council chambers at Edina City Hall:

• 7 p.m. Monday, Sept. 22: House District 49A candidates.

• 7 p.m. Tuesday, Sept. 30: Edina City Council candidates.

The forums will be rebroadcast on EDINA 16 and will be available for online viewing on the city's website, edinamn.gov. For more information, go to www.lwvedina.org.

The League of Women Voters-Golden Valley will host the second "Constitution Conversation" at the Ridgedale Library, 12601 Ridgedale Dr., Minnetonka, from 6:45 to 8:45 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 25.

The topic will be "A Discussion of Personal Liberties." The series is offered in partnership with the Hennepin County Library and the city of Golden Valley, and funded by the Minnesota Humanities Commission.

The meeting will start with a showing of the PBS Series "Constitution USA," with Peter Sagal. Small-group discussions will follow. The meeting will conclude with reports to the full group summarizing the discussions.

Learn how to build a portable stack-brick oven and fire it up to make flatbreads, pizza and breads at Gale Woods Farm in Minnetrista.

The class will be held 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Saturday, Sept. 27, and will be taught by award-winning baker David S. Cargo. The class will include dough-making and baking and best of all, eating.

The cost of the class, hosted by the Three Rivers Park District, is $80. Reservations are required by Wednesday, Sept. 24. Call 763-559-6700 to make a reservation and reference activity number #437402-00. This program is for ages 14 and over.

The city of Minnetonka and the Tree Trust nonprofit are conducting an inventory of ash trees in Minnetonka and need volunteers to help.

The city is looking for 15 to 20 volunteers to help conduct inventories of ash trees in neighborhoods throughout the city. While the city already has established an inventory of ash trees in rights of way and in maintained areas of city parks, it wants to extend that to maintained areas on private property to help determine future programs and services to help residents deal with emerald ash borer.

A school forest, a 5K Fun Run, horse-drawn wagon rides, creepy-crawly lizards and a giant climbing wall will be featured when St. David's Center in Minnetonka hosts its ninth annual Get Out and Grow! Fall Festival on Saturday, Sept. 27. The festivities will take place on and around the grounds of St. David's Center, 3395 Plymouth Rd.

Check-in and registration will begin at 8 a.m.; the 5K Fun Run will begin at 9 a.m. To register for the race (there is a fee) and more details, go to www.stdavidscenter.org/fallfestival.

Freewill donations will support outdoor education at St. David's Center.

A new cleanup program will take place in Orono this year. From 9 a.m. to noon on Saturday, Oct. 4, Orono residents can drop off household garbage, including furniture, construction debris and junk scrap metal thanks to volunteers from the Navarre Community Initiative.

Residents can drop off items at the city of Orono's municipal parking lot between Shoreline Drive (Hwy. 15) and Lyric Avenue. The fees are $30 per cubic yard for construction debris and $16 per cubic yard of household waste, including furniture and large bulk items to which specific charges apply. There will be no fee for scrap metal dropped off at the site.

Hennepin County is also sponsoring a household hazardous waste disposal from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. Oct. 2-4 at the Shorewood Public Works facility, 24200 Smithtown Rd.

For more information, go to www.hennepin.us/residents/recycling-hazardous-waste/collection-events.

Plymouth will host a workshop this week and next week on buckthorn and other invasive plant species to help residents slow their spread.

The workshops will be held from 10 a.m. to noon Sept. 17 at Ferndale Open Space, 4th Avenue and Brockton Lane, on buckthorn, and from 5-7 p.m. Sept. 25 at Lake Camelot Park, 14105 County Road 47, on buckthorn, oak wilt, Dutch elm disease and oriental bittersweet. Two other sessions were held Sept. 12 and Sept. 16. Residents will learn how to identify the invasive plants and remove them from yards.

For more information about the workshops, call forestry technician Lara Newberger at 763-509-5945.

The hourlong program will be held at 7 p.m. Thursday, Sept. 18, at the Richfield Community Center, 70th and Nicollet. For more information, go to Facebook.com/Richfield Garden Club Council or call Susan Rosenberg at 612-866-2683.

STAFF REPORTS