ST. PAUL – After four years and around $310 million spent restoring the state Capitol, Rep. Matt Bliss, R-Pennington, urges local citizens to take in this weekend’s grand re-opening festivities in St. Paul.
The Capitol will host a wide range of festivities this Friday through Sunday to officially celebrate the grand re-opening of the 112-year-old St. Paul building as a massive refurbishing is completed.
A ribbon-cutting ceremony will kick things off at 9 a.m. Friday. Events will start early in the morning last well into the night all three days. There are offerings planned for citizens of all ages, including everything from a Kids Zone to cocktails on the Capitol’s newly reopened balcony. Tours will be available and a number of musical performances are scheduled. The Capitol chandelier will be raised each day at 8 p.m. and a fireworks show will take place at 9:30 p.m. Saturday.
Bliss said organizers anticipate 100,000 people could attend the weekend festivities.
“The Capitol is over a century old and really was showing signs of age, to the point it literally was crumbling,” Bliss said. “But the restoration work that has been done is phenomenal and now it will stand another hundred years. You really need to see it with your own eyes to get a full appreciation for the detailed work and the public spaces that have been reclaimed.”
The restoration project itself included repairing a deteriorating marble exterior, addressing life safety concerns, increasing access for the disabled, updating mechanical systems and generally making the building more user-friendly to the public.
A complete itinerary and more regarding the August weekend of grand opening events is available at www.mn.gov/mymncapitol.
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