hi I'm Chris vote and welcome to lakeside news weekly your guide to news and events going on in the lake minnetonka area long lake will be facing a major county road 112 reconstruction project in 2017 city council member marty schneider gave a project overview at the Long Lake Area Chamber of Commerce's January member meeting the presentation is a way to help local businesses get ready for the upcoming project we've invited Christy mortar from the county to just give us say a rough overview of what the construction schedule is for phase 1 as it's called will begin sometime in spring of 2017 but we really want to prepare our community well in advance with resource availability with different types of strategies so that as a business owner in the area we will be prepared come spring of 2017 I'll talk a little bit about that after Christy presents so I'll turn it over to you Christy and you can kind of give us an update on schedule we've been working with the city we've had a public advisory committee over the last year just working on some of the detailed design elements recently had a public open house meeting in November where we primarily had the the staging layout so really the approach we're going to take to constructing the road displayed and all that information is also on the website so i encourage you to to visit the website and view those drawings as well at this point we're working towards a ninety percent plan we plan to have that done in about februari and then final plans are estimated to be complete in april of this year once those are complete go to the City Council for plan approval December of this year is when we would advertise the project for contractors to provide bids generally that's about a month that that's open for them to put together estimates and then we'll have a bid opening in January of 2017 so we'd be looking at really have our next public meeting with the community with the businesses march or april of next year before construction starts just to give you a background on the county so I'm the project manager while we're in design so once we transition to construction we have a construction division so there's going to be a new project engineer assigned to the project so at that meeting will have the the construction team there and I'll be there as well to answer questions our website will be updated so you'll know who to contact and once construction starts they're going to come out all the businesses give you business cards make sure you know to give them a call if you're having any concerns or questions or issues mill to Willow really is programmed to be complete that first construction season and then some of the work from mill to Cemetery Road will go into 2018 we worked with the City Council this summer and developed a plan to provide two-way traffic during construction so you're going to have access there are some larger underground storm culverts that will likely require you know a weekend closure or something to construct those but there'll be plenty of notification just to make sure everybody knows when those are happening and also if there's there's going to be utility work so if there's any impacts to water you'll be notified of any of those impacts as well the big concern of course was how traffic was going to be halted or at the time the consideration was for just traffic going one way so you know I'd like to say that my experience with the county has been one of working in a cooperative way I feel that they're very open to helping us if we articulate the need as was the case with the two-way traffic so again we want to make sure that we keep in touch with the county they're always available to be reached out to or you can reach out to me and we can interact but we really want as best we can to see them as a partner and I think they've shown some good faith over the last year year and a half to be part of that solution as opposed to an adversary so thank you kristy for that part of what we'd like to do is make sure from a city perspective county perspective when needed that we're available and we realize that not everybody can come to every meeting but still may want to be updated certainly the key dates of worry or concern initially as Christy mentioned are kind of that April to september-october that that sort of segment of time during construction season in 2017 and we want to be well prepared to you know again be ready lmc see is now on facebook be sure to LIKE or friend us so you can keep up with all the happenings at MCC or to watch one of our latest videos you located just off the waters of lake minnetonka in the heart of Excelsior the Excelsior amusement park opened on May thirtieth 1925 inspired by New York's Coney Island this park featured dozens of attractions including a ferris wheel a carousel penny arcades and a large wooden roller coaster called the cyclone park was owned and run by Fred W Pierce who was an established amusement park operator and roller coaster builder the park was at the peak of its popularity in the 1940s and 50s and by the 1960s it became a teen hangout one of the parks most popular events was Axl day based on the TV show Axl and his dog the special day featured free rides and of course a visit from Axl himself by 1968 the cyclone had to be completely rebuilt due to safety concerns rides had begun to creek and the building fronts appeared shabby the eventual decline began and the park officially closed in 1973 the original site now consists of condominiums maynards restaurant and the Bayside drill the carousel has been preserved and is still in operation at valleyfair in shakopee while the Excelsior amusement park remains a thing of the past it is still captivated the hearts and minds of Lake area residents from generations welcome back to lakeside news weekly now it's time to preview some upcoming events going on in the ln-cc member cities here's the lakeside community calendar ice madness is coming to nelson park in long lake on saturday februari 20th the ER no rotary is hosting this wonderful wintery community day that is jam-packed with outdoor fun for all ages show off your skills and race events and fuel up with some hot chocolate before the fat tire bike race fun kid activities will be going on all day at the winter village after a fun day warm up next to the bonfire and then join us at the Red Rooster for great live music and more for more information on ice madness go to or no rotary com the sixth annual spring garden fair will be held on saturday March 12 from 830 a.m. to three pm this event is designed for gardeners of all levels novice and masters alike it will be held at the south shore center 5735 Country Club Road in shorewood Minnesota vendor registration is due by March second for more information go to ww south shore center org do you know of an upcoming event going on in Lake area email us at ln-cc at MCC dash TV DET VAR g leg-side News returns in a moment here's what's coming up on first responder TV I'll head to the South Lake Minnetonka Police Department to talk with the new police chief mike meehan a mother who lost her son to a drug overdose is using her foundation to help those affected by addiction will give you an update on scams that have been targeting citizens in the lake area will talk with st. bonifacius fire chief Shane Weber about how to ensure your home is safe on safety source first responder TV airs daily on LM C C's channel 12 well there you have it news and events happening around the lake minnetonka area for more information about lmc see or to learn more about programming go to our website at wwlp.com