St. Louis Park High senior Alexandra Wertz shook hands with New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman as junior Annie Shapiro, center, and junior Leora Goldbatt looked on after the three students asked him questions during his visit to his alma mater St. Louis Park High School Saturday, May 10. (CRAIG LASSIG - SUN NEWSPAPERS)

This past year was one of honors and celebrity visits in St. Louis Park, but also some challenges.

The St. Louis Park School District faced budget worries but won a referendum that will raise more than $1 million per year and an $11 million bond issue for capital expenses, technology and security. The school district and also benefited from a famous alum's visit.

Thomas Friedman, a New York Times columnist who has won the Pulitzer Prize three times, returned to his alma mater for a St. Louis Park Public Schools Foundation fundraiser in May. Friedman waived a speaking fee, allowing the foundation to raise more than $30,000.

In front of a full auditorium of more than 700 audience members at St. Louis Park Senior High, Friedman discussed his memories of St. Louis Park, his outlook for the global future and brushes with world leaders and bombings while working in the Middle East.

Former residents and filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen returned to their hometown to shoot a film inspired by their experiences growing up in St. Louis Park. Filming for "A Serious Man" wrapped up in November at B'nai Emet Synagogue. Bar mitzvah and funeral scenes were shot at the synagogue. Filmmakers installed new carpet and a chandelier in the sanctuary but otherwise did not need to make many changes to the building to fit the period.

The film is intended to appear similar to the way St. Louis Park looked in the 1960s, when the Coen brothers lived there. The main character is a physics professor dealing with family and work problems who seeks advice from rabbis. The Coens grew up in a Jewish family whose parents worked as professors.

Fellow politician and St. Louis Park native Al Franken also returned to his hometown. Franken held fundraisers in the city for his U.S. Senate race, which had not yet been resolved as this issue went to press.

Franken, who now resides in Minneapolis, has been locked in a recount contest with incumbent Norm Coleman. The former "Saturday Night Live" writer and actor lived in northwest St. Louis Park and attended schools in the city for a number of years. He graduated from The Blake School, a private school with campuses in Hopkins, Wayzata and Minneapolis.

St. Louis Park also ended up on a national television show when TLC's "American Chopper" shot a section of an episode at Schussler Creative Laboratory in October.

Paul Teutul, Sr., and Mikey Teutul unveiled a new motorcycle the Orange County Choppers built to resemble a bright red 1957 Chevy. The idea for the bike came through working with Schussler Creative founder and CEO Steve Schussler, who developed the concept for the Rainforest Café in his St. Louis Park home and is now developing a concept for the Orange County Choppers America's RoadHouse.

Schussler owns a large classic 1957 Chevy that he used to feature on business cards. His Chevy occupied part of the stage during the show's taping in his St. Louis Park laboratory's parking lot.

The same day of the show's taping, children at Cedar Manor Intermediate Center got to meet Jared Fogle, known for a decade's worth of Subway restaurant commercials. Fogle spoke at no cost to the school in an effort to promote healthy lifestyles among students and combat childhood obesity. As the recipient of a Healthy Kids Grant from St. Louis Park-based Park Nicollet and Golden Valley-based General Mills, the school holds regular activities to promote healthy habits.

St. Louis Park also continued its tradition of bringing home high-level awards. For the third year in a row, the city earned recognition as one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People by America's Promise Alliance. St. Louis Park Senior High School landed on a Newsweek list of the nation's best high schools again and also was featured in U.S. News and World Report.

The city won a national award for its website design from the national Association of Government Webmasters and earned a rare AAA bond rating, an honor bestowed upon less than 10 cities in the state. Rating agency Standard & Poor's called St. Louis Park one of the metro's most desirable suburbs, pointing to its proximity to Minneapolis, affordable housing stock, redevelopment efforts, good tax base growth and the city's financial planning. The report also praised the city for its low debt. The new rating will allow the city to borrow with lower interest rates.

The city also received a prominent award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

The police association award honored the city's efforts to collaborate with other west metro police departments along with other St. Louis Park departments, like public works and the parks and recreation department, to crack down on graffiti. The city developed a crime-fighting software program called GraffitiNet. The database allows police departments to share details on tagging and suspects. St. Louis Park won the 2008 Community Policing Award for cities in the 20,000 to 50,000 population range.

The community policing philosophy encourages police departments to form partnerships with other departments and with community members and stakeholders to solve problems.

Eleven cities are currently working together on the graffiti problem as a result of St. Louis Park's efforts, St. Louis Park Police Chief John Luse said.

The courts are taking the issue seriously and the city is having success with prosecutions and with obtaining restitution, the chief added.

In March, firefighters responded to a blaze in a St. Louis Park home in the 1400 block of Oregon Avenue, but not in time to save homeowner Paul Hoenack.

However, rescue workers credited two passersby with saving the lives of neighbors Harvey and Helen Vinitsky.

The couple's house sits within 10 feet of Hoenack's, just south of Interstate 394 and west of Louisiana Avenue. The fire consumed Hoenack's home and likely would have jumped to the Vinitsky residence if not for the help of two I-394 motorists who stopped to investigate.

Geoff Grassle of Wayzata and Brian Dingman of Zimmerman each drove to the origin of the flames. They could not enter Hoenack's house because of the heat, according to accounts by the Vinitskys and Fire Chief Luke Stemmer. After reporting the fire, the men turned their attention to waking up Helen and Harvey and ensuring their safety.

The Vinitskys remembered Hoenack as a friendly neighbor who always was willing to help them out - a neighbor anyone would want.

Two homicides were also reported in the city in 2008.

The first occurred July 24 at a Sholom Community Alliance property near Highway 169, when a Brooklyn Park man alleged shot his wife numerous times in the property's parking lot.

Michael Collins Iheme, 51, is in custody on $1.5 million bail on murder charges.

According to a criminal complaint, a witness told St. Louis Park Police during a 911 call that she heard two gun shots, turned and saw Iheme standing behind a nearby car with a gun. The victim was attempting to pull her car out of a spot next to the witness's vehicle. However, after the shots were fired, her vehicle went forward into the side of the witness's car, over the curb and down a small hill through a fence bordering Highway 169. The witness said Iheme followed the vehicle and fired several more shots inside.

On Dec. 16, police found the body of a Shoreview woman in a St. Louis Park apartment.

In response to a call from a relative, police visited Clarence Henry's apartment in the 3600 block of Lynn Avenue and found Susan Marie LeVoir, 44, dead from a single gunshot wound.

Henry apparently fled and committed suicide during a police chase in Illinois Dec. 17, St. Louis Park police said. Illinois State Police, Hennepin County authorities and St. Louis Park police are investigating.

The St. Louis Park Police Department also dealt with the death of a former department officer, Paul Johnson-Reuben.

Authorities recovered the remains of Johnson-Reuben in March after he was among five security contractors kidnapped in Iraq in 2006.

His family said in a statement, "Paul touched the lives of many and cared about everyone. He was adventurous, fun-loving and his ever-present smile will be missed."

Reuben often displayed an upbeat spirit as a St. Louis Park police officer and smiling came easily for him, Luse said in an interview shortly after the kidnapping.

"It's easy to characterize Paul as just a likable, happy, easygoing fellow who always had a smile on his face," Luse said.

St. Louis Park faced significant court challenges in 2008 in the form of a dispute over its pawnshop ordinance and a conflict resulting from the city's failed wireless Internet plan.

A Hennepin County judge ruled in the city's favor last summer in a case in which Pawn America sued in an effort bar the city from imposing a moratorium on new pawnshops in the city while staff reviewed zoning ordinances relating to the businesses.

Pawn America had planned to open a store at the former Trestman Music Store, 5600 Excelsior Blvd. The moratorium prevented the company from opening a St. Louis Park store, and the lawsuit's dismissal upheld the city's moratorium. The new zoning regulations were not challenged.

The ruling details evidence supporting what it calls "the crux of Pawn America's argument" that the city singled them out. The judge agreed with the city's argument that an ordinance affecting only one project does not mean that it was arbitrarily enacted. The judge's ruling also stated that Pawn America could not use the property on Excelsior Boulevard as a pawnshop because of an ordinance that went into effect last February.

In the Wi-Fi case, the city of St. Louis Park sued Arinc, its network installer, after declaring the company to be in default of its contract after deadlines went unmet.

St. Louis Park will recoup about $1 million for its failed solar-powered Wi-Fi system under a settlement the City Council approved. St. Louis Park will also retain ownership of about eight miles of fiber and other underground equipment installed by Arinc. The city, in turn, will be responsible for removing all aboveground equipment and poles. Pole removal cannot begin until spring after the ground thaws.

Nearly 500 poles were installed throughout St. Louis Park and more than 300 of them contained Wi-Fi equipment like radios and solar panels. City officials planned to remove equipment from the poles by the end of January 2009. Pole removal would wrap up by next August.

The city of St. Louis Park has a history of facing problems relating to water in the city.

Contamination from the defunct Reilly Tar & Chemical Corp. in particular prompted the city to close its wells and open new ones years ago, and the area was declared an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site.

In January, an EPA investigation of another water-related Superfund site began.

After finding high levels of chemical vapors, federal officials brought in a mobile lab and experts to study an area centered around Highway 7 and Wooddale Avenue. The city's municipal water was not affected but officials were concerned that vapors from the chemicals, compounds commonly found in dry-cleaning and degreasing products, could rise through the soil into basements and through foundation cracks.

The EPA oversaw air testing of about 270 St. Louis Park homes and installation of about 40 residential mitigation systems to remove chemical vapors from beneath homes. The agency spent about $1 million investigating and mitigating vapors. Officials said they do not suspect the old Reilly Tar factory related to the newer Superfund site.

The city's municipal water did have a problem when water testing this year found radium levels exceeding state health standards in one of its six water treatment plants.

The city responded by adding and then removing manganese in liquid form, a process the city already used at three other plants and which cut radium levels significantly. The manganese acts like a magnet to attract the radium. Removing the manganese then also removes radium.

The city is also in the midst of a multi-year project to rehabilitate its water plants. Long-term exposure to radium can increase a person's odds of developing cancer but officials said the short amount of time in which radium exceeded state standards should not pose a great threat.

The city of St. Louis Park also has a history of reinventing itself and 2008 was no exception. Work on the massive West End redevelopment project at Highway 100 and Interstate 394 got underway and will continue in 2009.

The West End will include 375,000 square feet of retail space, 32,000 square feet of second-story office space, a theater and a proposed 150-room hotel. The developer would like to create three to four office towers for more than 1 million square feet of office space in a subsequent phase. A separate development nearby has won city approval for a seven-story, 124-room Homewood Sweets hotel, an extended-stay facility affiliated with Hilton Hotels.

Developer Duke Realty has announced that Kerasotes Theaters will have a 14-screen movie theater on the site. Roundy's has been selected to house a grocery store with a strong emphasis on specialty items. The retail project is projected to open in the fall of 2009.

The council also worked on smaller developments, such as the five-story Wooddale Pointe senior housing and business complex at West 36th Street and Wooddale Avenue and a proposed mixed-use development that would replace Al's Bar and Anderson Cleaners at France Avenue and Excelsior Boulevard.

The multi-building Hoigaard Village project in the area near West 36th Street and Highway 100 is underway, and two buildings have been completed. The units will be rented instead of sold as condominiums until the housing market improves. A medical office company has leased one of the commercial sections of the mixed-use project. Work on two more buildings has not yet been scheduled.

Work on other projects, such as Park Nicollet's Melrose Institute at Beltline Boulevard and Monterey Drive, is also underway. That project, an eating disorders institute, is expected to open in early 2009. Work on Park Nicollet's Frauenshuh Cancer Center on the Methodist Hospital campus is also underway and is expected to wrap up in 2009.

Comment on this story at our website, www.mnsun.com.

St. Louis Park also continued its tradition of bringing home high-level awards. For the third year in a row, the city earned recognition as one of the 100 Best Communities for Young People by America's Promise Alliance. St. Louis Park Senior High School landed on a Newsweek list of the nation's best high schools again and also was featured in U.S. News and World Report.

The city won a national award for its website design from the national Association of Government Webmasters and earned a rare AAA bond rating, an honor bestowed upon less than 10 cities in the state. Rating agency Standard & Poor's called St. Louis Park one of the metro's most desirable suburbs, pointing to its proximity to Minneapolis, affordable housing stock, redevelopment efforts, good tax base growth and the city's financial planning. The report also praised the city for its low debt. The new rating will allow the city to borrow with lower interest rates.

The city also received a prominent award from the International Association of Chiefs of Police.

The police association award honored the city's efforts to collaborate with other west metro police departments along with other St. Louis Park departments, like public works and the parks and recreation department, to crack down on graffiti. The city developed a crime-fighting software program called GraffitiNet. The database allows police departments to share details on tagging and suspects. St. Louis Park won the 2008 Community Policing Award for cities in the 20,000 to 50,000 population range.

The community policing philosophy encourages police departments to form partnerships with other departments and with community members and stakeholders to solve problems.

Eleven cities are currently working together on the graffiti problem as a result of St. Louis Park's efforts, St. Louis Park Police Chief John Luse said.

The courts are taking the issue seriously and the city is having success with prosecutions and with obtaining restitution, the chief added.

In March, firefighters responded to a blaze in a St. Louis Park home in the 1400 block of Oregon Avenue, but not in time to save homeowner Paul Hoenack.

However, rescue workers credited two passersby with saving the lives of neighbors Harvey and Helen Vinitsky.

The couple's house sits within 10 feet of Hoenack's, just south of Interstate 394 and west of Louisiana Avenue. The fire consumed Hoenack's home and likely would have jumped to the Vinitsky residence if not for the help of two I-394 motorists who stopped to investigate.

Geoff Grassle of Wayzata and Brian Dingman of Zimmerman each drove to the origin of the flames. They could not enter Hoenack's house because of the heat, according to accounts by the Vinitskys and Fire Chief Luke Stemmer. After reporting the fire, the men turned their attention to waking up Helen and Harvey and ensuring their safety.

The Vinitskys remembered Hoenack as a friendly neighbor who always was willing to help them out - a neighbor anyone would want.

Two homicides were also reported in the city in 2008.

The first occurred July 24 at a Sholom Community Alliance property near Highway 169, when a Brooklyn Park man alleged shot his wife numerous times in the property's parking lot.

Michael Collins Iheme, 51, is in custody on $1.5 million bail on murder charges.

According to a criminal complaint, a witness told St. Louis Park Police during a 911 call that she heard two gun shots, turned and saw Iheme standing behind a nearby car with a gun. The victim was attempting to pull her car out of a spot next to the witness's vehicle. However, after the shots were fired, her vehicle went forward into the side of the witness's car, over the curb and down a small hill through a fence bordering Highway 169. The witness said Iheme followed the vehicle and fired several more shots inside.

On Dec. 16, police found the body of a Shoreview woman in a St. Louis Park apartment.

In response to a call from a relative, police visited Clarence Henry's apartment in the 3600 block of Lynn Avenue and found Susan Marie LeVoir, 44, dead from a single gunshot wound.

Henry apparently fled and committed suicide during a police chase in Illinois Dec. 17, St. Louis Park police said. Illinois State Police, Hennepin County authorities and St. Louis Park police are investigating.

The St. Louis Park Police Department also dealt with the death of a former department officer, Paul Johnson-Reuben.

Authorities recovered the remains of Johnson-Reuben in March after he was among five security contractors kidnapped in Iraq in 2006.

His family said in a statement, "Paul touched the lives of many and cared about everyone. He was adventurous, fun-loving and his ever-present smile will be missed."

Reuben often displayed an upbeat spirit as a St. Louis Park police officer and smiling came easily for him, Luse said in an interview shortly after the kidnapping.

"It's easy to characterize Paul as just a likable, happy, easygoing fellow who always had a smile on his face," Luse said.

St. Louis Park faced significant court challenges in 2008 in the form of a dispute over its pawnshop ordinance and a conflict resulting from the city's failed wireless Internet plan.

A Hennepin County judge ruled in the city's favor last summer in a case in which Pawn America sued in an effort bar the city from imposing a moratorium on new pawnshops in the city while staff reviewed zoning ordinances relating to the businesses.

Pawn America had planned to open a store at the former Trestman Music Store, 5600 Excelsior Blvd. The moratorium prevented the company from opening a St. Louis Park store, and the lawsuit's dismissal upheld the city's moratorium. The new zoning regulations were not challenged.

The ruling details evidence supporting what it calls "the crux of Pawn America's argument" that the city singled them out. The judge agreed with the city's argument that an ordinance affecting only one project does not mean that it was arbitrarily enacted. The judge's ruling also stated that Pawn America could not use the property on Excelsior Boulevard as a pawnshop because of an ordinance that went into effect last February.

In the Wi-Fi case, the city of St. Louis Park sued Arinc, its network installer, after declaring the company to be in default of its contract after deadlines went unmet.

St. Louis Park will recoup about $1 million for its failed solar-powered Wi-Fi system under a settlement the City Council approved. St. Louis Park will also retain ownership of about eight miles of fiber and other underground equipment installed by Arinc. The city, in turn, will be responsible for removing all aboveground equipment and poles. Pole removal cannot begin until spring after the ground thaws.

Nearly 500 poles were installed throughout St. Louis Park and more than 300 of them contained Wi-Fi equipment like radios and solar panels. City officials planned to remove equipment from the poles by the end of January 2009. Pole removal would wrap up by next August.

The city of St. Louis Park has a history of facing problems relating to water in the city.

Contamination from the defunct Reilly Tar & Chemical Corp. in particular prompted the city to close its wells and open new ones years ago, and the area was declared an Environmental Protection Agency Superfund site.

In January, an EPA investigation of another water-related Superfund site began.

After finding high levels of chemical vapors, federal officials brought in a mobile lab and experts to study an area centered around Highway 7 and Wooddale Avenue. The city's municipal water was not affected but officials were concerned that vapors from the chemicals, compounds commonly found in dry-cleaning and degreasing products, could rise through the soil into basements and through foundation cracks.

The EPA oversaw air testing of about 270 St. Louis Park homes and installation of about 40 residential mitigation systems to remove chemical vapors from beneath homes. The agency spent about $1 million investigating and mitigating vapors. Officials said they do not suspect the old Reilly Tar factory related to the newer Superfund site.

The city's municipal water did have a problem when water testing this year found radium levels exceeding state health standards in one of its six water treatment plants.

The city responded by adding and then removing manganese in liquid form, a process the city already used at three other plants and which cut radium levels significantly. The manganese acts like a magnet to attract the radium. Removing the manganese then also removes radium.

The city is also in the midst of a multi-year project to rehabilitate its water plants. Long-term exposure to radium can increase a person's odds of developing cancer but officials said the short amount of time in which radium exceeded state standards should not pose a great threat.

The city of St. Louis Park also has a history of reinventing itself and 2008 was no exception. Work on the massive West End redevelopment project at Highway 100 and Interstate 394 got underway and will continue in 2009.

The West End will include 375,000 square feet of retail space, 32,000 square feet of second-story office space, a theater and a proposed 150-room hotel. The developer would like to create three to four office towers for more than 1 million square feet of office space in a subsequent phase. A separate development nearby has won city approval for a seven-story, 124-room Homewood Sweets hotel, an extended-stay facility affiliated with Hilton Hotels.

Developer Duke Realty has announced that Kerasotes Theaters will have a 14-screen movie theater on the site. Roundy's has been selected to house a grocery store with a strong emphasis on specialty items. The retail project is projected to open in the fall of 2009.

The council also worked on smaller developments, such as the five-story Wooddale Pointe senior housing and business complex at West 36th Street and Wooddale Avenue and a proposed mixed-use development that would replace Al's Bar and Anderson Cleaners at France Avenue and Excelsior Boulevard.

The multi-building Hoigaard Village project in the area near West 36th Street and Highway 100 is underway, and two buildings have been completed. The units will be rented instead of sold as condominiums until the housing market improves. A medical office company has leased one of the commercial sections of the mixed-use project. Work on two more buildings has not yet been scheduled.

Work on other projects, such as Park Nicollet's Melrose Institute at Beltline Boulevard and Monterey Drive, is also underway. That project, an eating disorders institute, is expected to open in early 2009. Work on Park Nicollet's Frauenshuh Cancer Center on the Methodist Hospital campus is also underway and is expected to wrap up in 2009.

Comment on this story at our website, www.mnsun.com.