Six years after her fall, Mounds View's mermaid statue may rise again

The Mounds View mermaid may rise again.

Six years after she was taken down from her rooftop perch at the Mermaid Entertainment and Event Center, a 38-foot fiberglass mermaid statue will soon be restored and made ready for a new life back near her old spot, Mounds View Mayor Zach Lindstrom said.

"We're going to get ready to bring her back," he said.

The re-emergence of the city's beloved giant statue got underway Thursday when Lindstrom and Mounds View resident Dan Mueller met at the Mermaid Event Center. There, with a bit of ceremony orchestrated and photographed by Lindstrom, Mueller purchased the statue for $1 from a representative of the Triple Shift Entertainment company, which owns the Mermaid center. The statue has lain in the company's parking lot — on wooden pallets, under a brown tarp — since its removal in 2018 due to concerns that she was sinking into the roof.

Mueller said he was surprised by the mayor's news that they could buy the mermaid, but he gladly agreed to help out. Mueller, the husband of former Mounds View Mayor Carol Mueller, has a long history with the mermaid statue as well as the Mermaid bowling alley, bar and restaurant. He met his wife at the Mermaid 47 years ago, and in the 1970s while weathering a storm from a gas station across the street, Mueller and a friend saw the original mermaid get blown off of the roof.

"It blew her across Highway 10," Mueller said. He and some friends picked up the statue and took it back to the bowling alley and event center. He doesn't know whatever became of it, but says a new mermaid that's both heavier and larger took the place of the original.

Mueller said he was a frequent visitor to the Mermaid back then. It had live music in the basement on Friday and Saturday nights: "It was just a fun place to go."

When the mermaid statue came down in 2018, it felt like a bit of city history had been lost.

"It's funny because you travel to different places and you talk to complete strangers and a lot of time, you tell people you're from Mounds View and they go, 'Isn't that where the mermaid is?' We were always proud," he said. "I just want her back in Mounds View. And I think a lot of people do."

Mayor Lindstrom said he's been working on a plan to restore the mermaid for many months.

"Finding someone to work on 30-foot mermaids is not an easy thing to do," he said.

He wondered if a new mermaid could be cast, but after seeing a bid for $100,000 he focused his efforts on restoring the original.

At a League of Minnesota Cities meeting last year, Lindstrom met a council member from Blue Earth, home of the Jolly Green Giant statue. The city had recently fixed it up using a company from New Ulm. Lindstrom called the shop and its owner came out to examine the mermaid before agreeing to take on the job.

The mermaid will soon be trucked to his New Ulm shop with the expectation that it will cost $30,000 to repaint, repair and fully restore the statue. It should be ready by next spring or early summer.

The city will soon designate the statue a historic landmark, Lindstrom said. The council's Community Engagement Committee will launch a "Save the Mermaid" campaign to raise funds for the statue's restoration. Lindstrom said the city might chip in if private funds are insufficient.

Lindstrom said restoring the mermaid has become a personal mission of his and could provide a boost for businesses.

"Bringing her back will be something that will be good for the economy of Mounds View," he said before giving a nod to another roadside attraction in Darwin, Minn. "This is our ball of twine."