No selfie stump, but Paul Bunyan Park renovation nearly done

It's been nearly four months since work at Paul Bunyan Park ground to a halt. Now, as nighttime temperatures dip below freezing, crews are rushing to lay concrete before winter.

The park, home to Bemidji's iconic Paul Bunyan and Babe the Blue Ox statues, has been under construction since early this spring as part of a $1.5 million renovation project.

The original plan involved building a small hill, about 2 feet high, raised with boulders in front of the plaid giant. A fake stump in the middle of the hill was intended to give tourists a better angle for photos. But Bemidji residents didn't like the changes.

People called City Hall and sent letters to the Bemidji Pioneer newspaper. Facebook discussions over Paul and Babe got heated. After a crowd opposed to the design descended on a City Council meeting the council agreed to redesign the project at a cost of roughly $65,000.

That was in June, and months later concrete crews are hard at work around Paul Bunyan's feet.

"You can't make everyone happy," said Tim Beaulieu.

Beaulieu spoke while pushing a bull-float (a concrete tool that looks like a broom with a long handle and no bristles) out over the wet concrete on a 30-foot pole, smoothing the rough spots. He's a foreman with Con's Masonry, a concrete subcontractor of Reierson Construction. He smiled when asked about the local outcry and long delays.

"We had plenty of work," he said. "So, we just moved on."

Without the selfie stump and boulders, the park around Paul Bunyan is just concrete now. It's flat, but Beaulieu said it took city engineers months to re-work the grade so that the concrete would drain properly.

In the time it took to finalize the new plaza design, Beaulieu's crew poured concrete for a new set of Bemidji State University dorms, an addition to the Red Lake Senior High School and built a veterinary clinic near the Bemidji airport.

Now they're back at Paul Bunyan's feet, breathing steam in the cold fall morning.

If it had taken much longer, Beaulieu said, crews would have had to mix the concrete with hot water to resist the cold long enough to set.

They started pouring slabs earlier this week, and will finish by Monday. The area's parking area was unaffected by the design changes and was completed earlier this summer.

Nearly four months after construction ground to a halt, concrete is poured at the feet of Paul Bunyan and his blue ox.

A video posted by @john_enger on Sep 30, 2015 at 9:12am PDT