Star Tribune from Minneapolis, Minnesota • Page B3

TUESDAY, JULY 31, 2007 STAR TRIBUNE TWIN CITIES B3 around the metro Photos by ELIZABETH FLORES Tim Flynn, gang unit commander for St. Paul police, taught sportsmanship at a football camp at the West Side Boys and Girls Club. Flynn, who played football at the University of St. Thomas and coached at St. Thomas Academy, said the main purpose is to keep kids out of gangs.

Lester Patton, 13, got a pat on the back from officer Jim Falkowski after scoring a touchdown at the football camp. One officer said it was the first time in 10 years he had seen this kind of interaction. Kids and cops play for love of the game About 40 youngsters in St. Paul saw a different side to the police on Monday. The boys and girls joined members of the Police Gang Unit at a football camp at the West Side Boys and Girls Club.

The camp continues today, and on Wednesday, a group of them will head to Mankato to see the Vikings at training camp. The kids are getting instruction in football by some officers who have played and coached the game. Another camp is being offered next week at Johnson High School. Said Cmdr. Tim Flynn: clinic is a hook for them to come, and a time for us to teach them to make good First Lady to be at conference on youth issues First Lady Laura Bush will appear later this week at a youth issues conference at the University of Minnesota, the school announced Monday.

Bush will spend time Friday at the Helping Youth conference on the St. Paul campus. The conference is focused on sharing strategies pertaining to youth literacy, teen violence and drug and alcohol abuse. The university has invited 300 people representing education, foundations, faith- and community-based organizations, research institutions and service organizations. Similar regional conferences have been held since a national conference in 2005, an effort the First Lady helped develop.

The initiative is aimed at raising awareness about youth development challenges. visit coincides with the Republican National summer conference in Minneapolis. It was not immediately clear whether she would appear at that gathering as well. ASSOCIATED PRESS Bush Ramp at junction of I-35E, I-694 may open Wednesday This may well be the week when the ramp from northbound Interstate Hwy. 35E to westbound Interstate Hwy.

694 opens. Weather permitting, the Minnesota Department of Transportation plans to open the ramp on Wednesday. Since April, motorists northbound on I-35E trying to go west on I-694 have been directed to a temporary ramp at Edgerton Street, then back to I-694. The temporary ramp will be closed and removed when the ramp from northbound I-35E to westbound I-694 reopens. The new ramp was built as part of the Unweave the Weave project in the Little Canada and Vadnais Heights area.

TIM HARLOW 6 94 .7 5 mil i tt a a a Va a i i I rs a wy 3 5 I rs a wy 6 9 4 a hi ee 36 6 1 6 9 4 6 9 4 3 5 3 5 a i RI A a board names Joseph Opatz to lead Normandale Joseph P. Opatz, a college administrator in Brainerd, and former state House member, was appointed president of Normandale Community College on Monday by the Minnesota State Colleges and Universities Board of Trustees. Opatz, 55, will take over leadership of the college in Bloomington on Sept. 17, MnSCU announced in a news release. He replaces Katherine Hiyane- Brown, who is leaving to become a community college president in Washington state.

Opatz is vice president for academic and student affairs at Central Lakes College in Brainerd. He was the interim president at Central Lakes College in 2005-06, and he has served as a state representative from St. Cloud. STAFF REPORT GOAL OF FREE SHUTTLE SERVICE IN SIGHT Unlike previous downtown circulator plans, which required a hefty public subsidy, the current shuttle plan poses minimal costs. because the service will piggyback on existing local bus routes.

But that means the service start until express buses move off the mall. And that happen until neighboring Marquette and 2nd avenues are reconstructed so their express bus capacity is tripled. That work may not finish until 2012, unless some key grants allow completion by late 2009. The project also will carry a benefit for mall users. Metro Transit says it will devote its pending order of 150 hybrid gas-electric buses to routes serving the mall.

That means that those eating and drinking at sidewalk cafes or merely walking on the mall will have more quiet and less pollution. Using existing mall buses The shuttle works because Metro Transit has buses from southwest and northeast Minneapolis that end their routes on the mall. That means that drivers have to distinguish for fare purposes between riders getting on for a few blocks and those staying on the bus for long hauls. Riders will be able to board faster without paying fares, and service will be sped up by stopping only every other block. Under current bus schedules, SHUTTLE FROM B1 weekday free service intervals would be every 7 1 2 minutes northbound and every 10 minutes southbound.

Riders who want to wait could board any bus for the normal 50-cent downtown fare, getting service every two to three minutes. The original plan for mall shuttle service called for splitting the cost of more than $2 million between the city, which approved its share, and Metro Transit. But Charlie Ferrell, who chaired a circulator task force, said the subsidy never gained enough political support from the Metropolitan Council. Although that plan would have delivered better service, he said, have to give credit to the city and their consultants for creative ideas in trying to make the best use of available assets with the current The shuttle plan includes beefed- up transit stops on S. 13th Street at the Convention Center, with clearer information about the shuttle at shelters.

the street, it needs to be clearer to said Charleen Zimmer, a consultant to the city for the transportation plan. Steve Brandt 612-673-4438 BRUCE BISPING Passengers waited for their buses to pull up at a stop on Marquette Avenue in downtown Minneapolis on Friday. THE SHUTTLES WILLALLOW RIDERS TO HOP ONTO A FREE BUS ANYWHERE ALONG A 12-BLOCK STRETCH OF THE MALL BETWEEN WASHINGTON AVENUE AND THE MINNEAPOLIS CONVENTION CENTER..