“We want them to feel good about this event," said 3M Open Tournament Director, Peter Mele. "This is their neighborhood. This is going to be their golf tournament going forward for a lot of years, so we want them to embrace and feel good about it. It’s going to be a lot of good for Blaine and the county and the Twin Cities area.”
At an open house, city emergency response and tournament officials answered questions about traffic and safety impacts of the 3M Open. TPC Twin Cities hosts the tournament the first week of July.
[/su_column]Hundreds of people who live on or very close to the course may have to drive or even park in different places for several days. Dean Miller lives in Deacon's Walk on the course. He's anticipating the possible changes.
“I haven’t studied this map too much but there’s limited entrances depending on where you live within the community. You can’t really drive any place, so there’s going to be quite a bit of walking, I would guess,” Miller said.
City leaders are working with neighboring law enforcement agencies to add help. Blaine City Emergency Management Director Dan Pelke said although all of the city's planning is on track, it's still the first year.
“I think everybody understands the importance of this tournament. It’s exciting. It’s bringing a big thing to Blaine, and one of the parting things I left with everyone is: ‘Hey, if you could just be patient with us, this is the first year,’ because this is the first time we’ve had an event of this size in Blaine,” Pelke said.
