Don is just a dad who likes to play in the snow, so every year he makes a giant snow sculpture in his South Minneapolis front yard for his children, daughter Victoria (11) and son Donny (10).  This year Spongebob SquarePants on a big chair adorns his lawn and he was performing maintenance on him as I passed by on the way home from the US Pond Hockey Championships so I stopped to ask him about it.  If you would like to see SpongeBob he is just off the intersection of 52nd Street & 28th Avenue in Minneapolis.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0ujp9t8X21I[/youtube]

If the forecasters are correct, we’re headed toward another Snowmageddon, with 4-8 inches of snow likely.

All the more reason to become a fan of the Minneapolis Snow Emergency Facebook Fan Page.

Add me as a friend, and I’ll let you know when a Snow Emergency is declared. When that happens, if you park in the street, you’ve got to follow the parking rules. If you don’t, I might have to have you towed away (actually, your car. I leave you where you’re at.)

I’ll share the info you need to avoid an expensive ticket and tow.

There’s a pretty great video here, too.

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MN Winter Landscape at Sunset, by danakosko

KSTP asks, “Have you ever wondered where the snow goes when it’s plowed?” I’m kind of ashamed to say that I’ve actually never thought about it. I was just glad it was gone.

According to Minnesota Department of Transportation officials, after trucks move the snow, it gets dumped off a short section of Interstate 94 in Minneapolis.

Storage sites are hard to find, so MnDOT officials are actually keeping the dumping location a secret.

“The city has a storage site, but we don’t like to advertise that. We can have a problem with illegal dumpers; it’s a very small site. If it gets filled up, we can’t do our job for tax payers,” explained Mike Kennedy with the Minneapolis Public Works Department.

To give you an idea how much these secretive snow depositories have to hold—it takes about 150 truckloads just to clear Nicollet Mall.

Secret snow storage site? Illegal snow dumping? Exciting!

Also: At the end of the clip on KSTP, it is mentioned that snow and ice removal will be impacted by budget cuts. I’m a bit worried about what that means.