Crosstown construction refugee Mary VanSlooten is moving across the highway to Richfield, after reaching an agreement with the Minnesota Department of Transportation in April that committed the agency to buying her south Minneapolis home and paying her moving and closing costs on her new place, according to my report today. MnDOT’s West Area Manager, John Griffith, wasn’t able to track down the agency’s cost until this morning. Here’s what Griffith told me in an email:

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While its effect on the population of workers in hard-hats is still hard to detect, the flow of the stimulus spending is now bubbling up everywhere. A boulder squashed the stairs that descended from St. Paul’s West Side to the river, but $2 million in stimulus spending will help them rise again. The St. Paul City Council also likes this businessman’s plan for January tomatoes enough to endorse spending $500,000 for a hydroponic greenhouse.

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis, the City Council is putting $2 million of its $3.6 million stimulus “community development bonus” into the long-vacant Shubert Theater on Hennepin Avenue, a decision that got a big thumbs-down from the Star Tribune’s online poll. U.S. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi stopped by the city this week to tout the benefits of a relatively modest stimulus project, the $107,000 grant for summer jobs for 43 young people at the American Indian Opportunities Industrialization Center and Career Immersion High School.

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The big ticket stimulus projects keep emerging - to wit, the U.S Army Corps of Engineers’ $70 million fortification of the Mississippi River in Red Wing, as reported by my colleague Dave Shaffer. I’ve pretty much given up on the state’s official stimulus home page for a running list of where the money is going in Minnesota. The most recent news release is more than two months old. So is the “citizen summary” with estimated allocations for Minnesota.

Fortunately, plenty of interested people are setting up their own guides to stimulus spending. I learned today about a site set up by a coalition of groups, including OMB Watch and Common Cause, called States for a Transparent and Accountable Recovery. The Minnesota recovery page has links to individual agencies’ lists of projects. Here’s what this group had to say about the state of Minnesota’s stimulus site:

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Last month, I described the plight of those living in the 4300 block of Stevens Avenue South, a neighborhood literally on the slide, thanks to some unexpected troubles during the massive 35W reconstruction project. Jake Weyer at the Southwest Journal spoke to neighbors about what it’s like living on this eroding frontage road. The Minnesota Department of Transportation is predicting that life on the block will stabilize by the end of the summer.