Get the low-down the the Fargo-Moorhead Main Avenue Bridge replacement project Tuesday at the Chamber of Commerce of Fargo Moorhead.
The chamber is hosting an open house at its headquarters, in the Heritage Hjemkomst Interpretive Center, 202 1st Ave. N., Moorhead, from 5 to 7:30 p.m.
A formal presentation by project engineers will be given at 6:30 p.m.
The project includes removing the existing bridge structure and constructing a new bridge beginning in this spring. The new Main Avenue Bridge will be longer, wider and taller, designed to enhance mobility, safety, and flood control. Local traffic will be impacted for up to 18 months as the project is completed.
This public meeting is an opportunity to receive up-to-date information regarding the project, its scope, timeframe, prospective traffic impact and detours, and how the new bridge will enhance economic and riverfront development in Fargo-Moorhead and the surrounding region.
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Going, going, gone
Pifer's Auction Co. of Fargo has sold its first items on its new online auction site, www.pifers.com .
The site was launched last month.
"Monday was an exceptional day because we had active bidding up to the last minute on a Lund boat," said Kirsten Dockter, director of operations for Pifer's On-Line Auction Service. "It was a situation where both the buyer and seller had a good experience."
The boat, outfitted with a 90-horsepower Mercury motor, went for $5,500.
Pifer's Auction Co., founded in 2001 by brothers Kevin and Peter Pifer, sold nearly $7 million in property in its first year in business.
Ready to make waves
Rich Dombeck pictures lazy summer days spent floating on a Minnesota lake.
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The local businessman is the inventor of Fun Raft, a product he hopes will supplant inflatables as the choice of those who enjoy solitude in the sun under gentle waves.
The puncture resistant, 4-foot-by-8-foot Fun Raft retails for $399. Dombeck is having the product built by ShoreMaster Inc., a Fergus Falls, Minn.-based subsidiary of Otter Tail Corp.
It's on display at the Red River Valley Sportsman's Show, which runs through Sunday in the Fargodome.
Helping local kids
Raggedy Ann and her friends will be helping kids get well at MeritCare Children's Hospital, thanks to a program by Kohl's Department Stores.
This spring's Kohl's Cares for Kids campaign is donating 100 percent of net profits from the sale of the book "Raggedy Ann and Rags," a plush dog, and Raggedy Ann and Andy dolls, to 46 children's hospitals across the nation, including MeritCare.
The items are sold at all Kohl's stores, including the Fargo location at 4444 13th Ave. S.W., for $5 each.
MeritCare is in its third year with the Kohl's program. In the first two years, the hospital received $37,313 in donations, said Darren Huber, a MeritCare spokesman.
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That money was used to buy an overhead bed warmer for the neonatal intensive care unit and for distraction equipment, such as multicolored lights, dolls, bubbles and play toys used during treatment, Huber said.
Child life specialists in the Children's Hospital use the objects to distract children while they undergo procedures that are uncomfortable or painful, he said.
Eat, drink, be merry
Cynthia Herfindahl, owner of Cynthia's Custom Cakes, just wants to remind area residents that she's simply looking for a buyer, not looking to shutter the downtown Fargo fixture.
Herfindahl says business dropped off at at the café, bakery and espresso bar at 524 Broadway shortly after she made the announcement.
The only increase in calls, she said Friday, came from people offering to cure her carpal tunnel syndrome -- the reason she's preparing to leave cake decorating as a full-time job.
Nice. But she'd rather see the shop on the corner keep Fargo-Moorhead residents plied with hot coffee, tasty cookies and specialty cakes.
"My goal is to keep this open for downtown," she said.
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So, if you like baking, coffee and sweets, give her a call -- whether you want to buy a cake, or the whole shebang.
Taking a TRIP
Paul Diederich, president of Fargo's Industrial Builders Inc., has been elected to the executive committee of The Road Information Program.
TRIP is a national nonprofit transportation research group based in Washington, D.C. It researches, evaluates and distributes economic and technical data on highway transportation issues.
Diederich is also chairman of the highway division of the Associated General Contractors of America.
Readers can reach Helmut Schmidt at (701) 241-5583 or Gerry Gilmour at (701) 241-5560
