Last month I wrote about the ordeal of Pete and Ethel Nelson, who are battling the Metropolitan Council over who will pay to repair their home and yard in the aftermath of an immense sewer reconstruction project. The start of the next phase of the sewer upgrade has been a contentious issue before the Victoria City Council, with council member Kim Roden putting the Met Council’s feet to the fire about improving the way it responds to property owners’ claims of collateral damage. Today, Roden told me she’s pressuring the regional government to take a second look at the struggle of another Victoria property owner, Gary Corwin.

Corwin, a pilot for the airline formerly known as Northwest, has lived on Virginia Shores Circle with his family since 1988. He told Whistleblower that the excavation for the sewer shifted the footings under his deck, cracked his foundation and warped his house to the point that windows and doors don’t open and close. “You can tell it looked like an earthquake,” he said. He estimates the damage at $200,000 to $250,000.

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Helen Pratt knows that the cottonwood tree towering over her Fridley home has been there since at least 1955, when her parents bought the property on Fourth Street N.E. What she doesn’t know is who owns the tree. That question is becoming an increasing worry for her. About five years ago, Pratt noticed that the tree seemed to be “tilting” in an alarming way toward her house.

“If another storm came through, that tree would fall down and it would take my house,” she said.

A few years ago, Pratt talked to city and state employees because the land is adjacent to the entrance ramp for Interstate 694 at University Avenue. Fridley said it belonged to the state of Minnesota. The state of Minnesota said it belonged to Fridley.

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My colleague Sarah Lemagie’s tale of Hoppy the attack cat brought back bad memories for Thomas Buchberger. Buchberger told Lemagie that he still has scars from his September 16, 2007 encounter. It happened while he was walking his dog, a “docile” elderly Australian/German shepherd mix named Walden, a block from their home in Minneapolis’s Linden Hills neighborhood. He said it reminded him of a YouTube video where a tiger attacks an elephant to get at its rider. “It came out of nowhere like this tiger,” Buchberger said. “It would have killed my dog.” Instead, Buchberger told an animal control officer that Hoppy knocked him down and inflicted multiple scratches and punctures on his left quad and both calves.

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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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