St. James wins infrastructure funding

ST. JAMES – The Minnesota Public Facilities Authority has announced $23.4 million in water infrastructure loans and grants for St. James and several other Minnesota cities.

“I am thrilled St. James was included in this round of PFA funding,” said Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Vernon Center. “Clean water is one of the most important services government can provide to its citizens, and the St. James projects are long overdue.”

St. James will receive $9.7 million to replace aging sewer and water mains in conjunction with a Minnesota Department of Transportation project to reconstruct Highway 4.

A Clean Water Revolving Fund loan of $2.95 million and a Drinking Water Revolving Fund loan of $3.76 million will cover the costs associated with the Highway 4 projects. The 20-year, 1% loans are expected to save a combined $631,583 when compared to the costs of market-rate financing.

A separate legislative appropriation will provide a grant of $3 million to cover the cost of street and utility improvements in the northwest portion of St. James.

Man shot, wounded at funeral

CLOQUET (AP) — One man was shot and a suspect was arrested after a shooting Friday on an American Indian reservation in northern Minnesota that prompted a lockdown of tribal offices and a school.

The shooting happened at around 10 a.m. during a funeral at a Head Start building gymnasium on the Fond du Lac Band reservation, police said. The suspect apparently shot an attendee in the head, and that man was taken to a hospital, said Derek Randall, the interim police chief in Cloquet, which abuts the reservation and is near Duluth.

Randall said initial reports suggested the shooting was at the school gymnasium, but authorities later learned it happened at the community center, WDIO-TV reported.

The suspect was restrained by funeral-goers until police arrived, and officers recovered a rifle that they believe was used in the attack, said Randall. He said investigators don’t believe it was a random attack.

Randall said the suspect was a 28-year-old Minneapolis man. The victim, a 45-year-old man from Minneapolis, was in Essentia Hospital. Randall said he didn’t believe the man’s wound was life-threatening.

The shooting prompted lockdowns of tribal offices and the reservation’s school, but the lockdowns were later lifted and employees were sent home, said band spokeswoman Rita Aspinwall.

She said the suspected shooter is not among the band’s roughly 4,200 enrolled members.