Metro briefs: Fort Snelling event Sunday marks Dred and Harriet Scott Day

Dred Scott, a slave who was brought to Fort Snelling in 1830 by Army surgeon John Emerson, met and married Harriet there. The couple lived in Minnesota for only a few years, but their time in a free territory at Fort Snelling was key to the lawsuit they later filed for their freedom. The U.S. Supreme Court rejected their claim in 1857, stating that as slaves they were not citizens and had no standing to sue — a ruling that helped precipitate the Civil War.

The Dred and Harriet Scott Day program Sunday will include music, performances and a panel with Lynne Jackson, a descendant of the Scotts and founder of the Dred Scott Heritage Foundation. The event will discuss their fight for freedom and their contribution to the abolition of slavery. For more details, go to mnhs.org/event/2533.

KELLY SMITH

A group of youthful Minnesotans showed off their musical chops on a national radio program that hit the airwaves last week.

Hosted by Christopher O'Riley, NPR's "From the Top" is a weekly one-hour classical music program of interviews and performances featuring young musicians from around the country. The program taped the episode last month at the Ordway Center for the Performing Arts in St. Paul. It's available online at www.fromthetop.org and will air at noon Sunday on KSJN 99.5 FM.

Among the musicians showcased are Emma and Jacob Taggart, Blaine siblings who performed a piano duet; the College in the Schools Stillwater Concert Choir of Stillwater; Emma Richman of Minneapolis; Evren Ozel, also of Minneapolis; and Anders Peterson of Northfield, according to the program's news release.

Hannah covington

The Washington County Board, which has spent most of 2016 with four members, will welcome a fifth commissioner on Tuesday.

Stan Karwoski, previously Oakdale's mayor, will take the seat Ted Bearth occupied until his death in March. Karwoski won a special election in November to fill the remainder of Bearth's term through 2018.

The swearing-in ceremony will take place at 3:30 p.m. in the fifth-floor boardroom at the Washington County Government Center, 14949 62nd St. N., Stillwater.

Later, commissioners will vote on the county's 2017 budget proposal, which includes a property tax levy increase of 3.49 percent. Many homeowners will pay only a few dollars more because new construction has broadened the tax base.

In September, commissioners cast a preliminary vote in favor of the increase, identical to those in 2015 and 2016, to pay for employee compensation and services needed as the county's population grows.

Kevin Giles

A community solar garden that will be installed in Edina next year has reached its limit on residential subscriptions, with 66 families subscribing to a portion of the clean energy facility.

For-profit Cooperative Energy Futures was chosen by the city to develop a solar energy array that will be installed on top of the city's Public Works Building, 7450 Metro Blvd. When completed, it likely will be the largest rooftop solar garden in Minnesota, the company states.

Residents who subscribed to the solar garden will pay Cooperative Energy Futures for the solar energy produced by their portion of the array each month. In return, utility company Xcel Energy will credit the subscriber for the same amount of production on their energy bill.

Cooperative Energy Futures urged residents who were not able to subscribe to the solar garden to add their names to a waiting list at cooperativeenergyfutures.com/ csg-waiting-list/.

Miguel Otárola