All hail the eco-heroes of Apple Valley

For the sake of the polar bears, shouldn't they just drink tap water?

Scott Swanson uses an environmentally friendly geothermal heat pump to keep his cabin toasty.

So, when Apple Valley decided to build a third municipal liquor store, Swanson, the city's liquor operations director, suggested the new store be heated by such a pump.

The store, which quietly opened to the public a few weeks ago, has geothermal heat, as well as LED lights, water-based paints, Energy Star appliances and skylights to harvest as much daylight as possible. It is the first commercial building in the state to apply for Green Globes certification, which eventually would be issued by the Green Building Initiative, a nonprofit dedicated to promoting environmentally sustainable building practices.

"In the city of Apple Valley, we want to become more energy-efficient," Mayor Mary Hamann-Roland said. "We are very proud of this new store."

The 15,000-square-foot building, at 157th and Pilot Knob Road, near the Cobblestone Lake development, features a large wine section, a walk-in beer cooler and a tasting bar. The bar's countertops are made of recycled glass — shiny blue chips once were Skyy vodka bottles, Swanson said.

The store was budgeted at $4.9 million, and Swanson said it came in under budget, but he doesn't know yet by how much.

Not everyone is excited about the new liquor store, though. Blogger and Apple Valley resident Bill Roehl said the city should get out of the liquor business. But if it had to build a new store, he said, it should have been in one of the empty retail establishments around town.

"I don't think it's worth ($4.9 million) for a building that might not be successful," said Roehl, whose south-metro-based blog is at lazylightning.org.