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Staff photos Brian Larsen Blessed with great weather—not too hot and not too cold--more than 1,000 people enjoyed the Tofte July 4th festivities. Food vendors, games for kids, live music, and booths filled with many items for sale were available to the public. The longest line for food was the one manned by the Tofte firefighters and EMS workers. While many people milled about, some danced to the good vibrations and sounds of the South Paws, a local band with two “kids” from the West End, Steve Johnson and Al Oikari, making up half of the band.

Traps will be set by survey staff now through July The Minnesota Department of Agriculture (MDA) will set approximately 20,000 traps this year looking for spongy moth ( Lymantria dispar), formally known as gypsy moth. The traps will be set throughout the eastern half of the state and in far northwestern Minnesota as part of a “western rotation.” This work is part of the MDA’s annual trapping survey program and is designed to protect Minnesota’s forests and urban areas from new infestations of spongy moth by detecting potential problem areas for future treatments.

The West End Garden Club is pleased to announce that their annual flower show will be held in a new location this year. It will take place at Waves of Superior Cafe Surfside Resort ballroom, Tofte, on Saturday July 15 from 1:00 - 5:00 p.m.

Tom Morse tmorse@ northhouse.org For almost a decade, North House has wrestled with a tough decision— the iconic Yellow house’s foundation was shifting in opposite directions, and the building used first as staff office and now as a school store was being ripped in half. Countless repairs to the roof had been made over the years, and the question became: how much money do you invest in a building that no longer fits your needs? And then, is there some way to give the building a second life? First, North House reached out to Hamilton Habitat and the Cook County HRA to see if the building might be useful in the effort to add more housing in the community, but both organizations were unable to take on a structure that would potentially require significant work.