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www.SunThisweek.com January 30, 2015 | Volume 34 | Number 49

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Alternative funding soughtThe Minnesota Chamber of Commerce is proposing the Legislature consider value capture funding for transportation.

Page 2A

PUBLIC NOTICE

Inside this edition are public notices with mintues for Intermediate School District 917 School Board meetings Dec. 2 and Jan. 6.

Page 12A

Child care costs are a burdenGuest columnist Cynthia Bauerly says middle class families paying for child care deserve a tax break.

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Valentine’s mysteryThe Eagan Theater Company is offering a macabre twist to Valentine’s Day with its dinner theater show “My Fatal Valentine.”

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Winter season heats upArea high school sports teams hope to continue their winning ways as January comes to an end.

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District 196 considers referendum

Mid-Winter Fest returns

Medical examiner confirms murder-suicide deaths

Sparking interest

by Jessica HarperSUN THISWEEK

DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

Officials in the Rose-mount-Apple Valley-Ea-gan School District are considering seeking bond referendum and capital projects levy totaling up to $180 million this Novem-ber to fund building up-grades, a new elementary school and new technol-ogy. At a Jan. 26 special

School Board meeting, officials recommended adding onto the district’s three magnet schools and potentially building a new elementary school in the south-central portion of the district to meet the needs of rising enrollment. A potential bond ref-erendum would also pay for the second phase of an addition onto Parkview Elementary School in Lakeville. The first phase

is already underway. The Minnesota Depart-ment of Education in No-vember listed Echo Park Elementary in Burnsville and Oak Ridge Elemen-tary in Eagan as racially identifiable schools. The state defines a racially identifiable school as one where enrollment of mi-nority students at the school is 20 percentage points higher than enroll-ment of minority students

in the entire district. Officials are looking at possibly converting Echo Park and Oak Ridge into magnet schools to bal-ance minority enrollment. Magnet schools are free public schools but differ from other public schools in that they have a fo-cused theme and aligned curricula in science, tech-nology, math, fine arts, language and other areas. Minority students make

up about 50 percent of en-rollment at Echo Park and Oak Ridge, and minority students make up 35 per-cent of district enrollment. This would not be the first time the district turned to the magnet school model as a tool to balance diversity in its schools. Cedar Park and Glacier Hills elementary schools were converted

2nd District challengers line up Democrat Angie

Craig, Republican David Gerson to run against Kline

by Tad JohnsonSUN THISWEEK


Eagan resident Angie Craig said on Monday that she would be stepping down from her lead-ership re-sponsibili-ties as vice p re s i d e n t of global human re-sources at St. Paul-based St. Jude Medi-cal to fo-cus on her campaign as a Demo-crat can-didate for U.S. Con-gress in the 2nd District. On the same day, Re-publican activist David Gerson said he would be challenging U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Burnsville, for the party’s endorsement. Craig said she will re-main with St. Jude, focus-

Apple Valley’s annual festival

runs Feb. 7 by Andrew Miller

SUN THISWEEKDAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

Winter fun is in store next weekend at Apple Valley’s Mid-Winter Fest. Now in its 38th year, the annual celebration hosted by the city’s Parks and Recreation Depart-ment features family-oriented activities from 9 a.m.-2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, centered at the Apple Valley Community Center in Hayes Park. The community center will take on a carnival-like atmosphere during the festival with face paint-ing, cotton candy, inflat-able jumpers and balloon animals. Also planned are an ice carving demo, a DJ dance party, s’mores roasting and horse-drawn sleigh rides in the park. Guests can also try their hands at snowshoe-ing and cross-country ski-ing in Hayes Park, with equipment provided. The medallion hunt, a perennial festival favorite, returns this year for teams of sleuths to search out a medallion hidden in one of the city’s 50 parks. Clues will be posted at

the Apple Valley Commu-nity Center starting at 9 a.m. the day of the festi-val, with a $250 prize for the finder of the medal-lion. Admission is free to all the events; there will be a charge for concessions and some activities such as the kids pizza lunch with city mascot Klond-ike, which costs $5.

Guests who bring a non-perishable food item to the community center for donation to the food shelf will be entered in hourly prize drawings. More festival informa-tion, including details on Mid-Winter Fest’s ath-letic tournaments, is on the city’s website at www.cityofapplevalley.org. Mid-Winter Fest was

started in 1978 with only a few activities and about 100 participants its first year, according to city records. The festival has grown steadily since then, to a peak of about 5,000 participants in the early 1990s.

Email Andrew Miller at [email protected].



Officials confirmed that three people found dead at an Apple Val-ley home Jan. 17 died as a result of a mur-der-suicide carried out by David Crowley, 29. The Hennepin County Medical Ex-aminer’s Office deter-mined that Crowley’s wife, Komel, 28, and their daughter, Raniya Crowley, 5, died of homicide, while David Crowley died of suicide. Investigators found a handgun next to David Crowley’s body when they entered the scene at 1051 Rams-dell Drive. Apple Valley police reported that the three bodies were found in close proximity to each other in the front room of the residence. There were no signs of intrusion or struggle. Investigators have determined the last verified activity from the resi-dence happened in late December. Investigators seized several per-sonal electronic devices and com-puters from the residence. The Da-kota County Electronic Crimes Task

Force is completing forensic analysis of the devices. “The analysis of these devices could provide important informa-tion about this incident,” said Apple

Valley Police Capt. John Bermel, “but that analysis will take time.” The Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension and the Dakota County Sher-iff ’s Office are assist-ing Apple Valley po-

lice with the ongoing investigation. The bodies were discovered in the home Jan. 17 when a neighbor stopped by the house to collect packages that had accumulated near the front door, and saw the bodies inside through a window, according to police. David Crowley, an Army veteran who served in Afghanistan, worked out of the family’s home as a film-maker and is credited as director and writer of an unreleased film called “Gray State,” a trailer for which remains available for viewing on YouTube. Komel Crowley, a registered di-etitian, ran her own business called MindBody Dietitian.

Additional money would fund building improvements, new school, technology

Investigation into shooting continues

Horse-drawn sleigh rides are among the many activities on offer in Apple Valley’s Hayes Park during Mid-Winter Fest. (File photo)

Angie Craig

David Gerson

See 2016, 15A

David Crowley

Komel Crowley

Parkview Elementary School student Nardos Yezihazem and her father, Yezihazem Mesfin, work together to build a tower Jan. 20 during Family Engineering Night. For a story about the event, see today’s Education page. (Photo submitted)

See PLAN, 15A

2A January 30, 2015 SUN THISWEEK - Apple Valley

Lego creations amaze

People of all ages streamed into the community room at the Dakota County Burnhaven Library branch in Burnsville to find themselves as giants alongside the miniature world cre-ated by the TwinLUG Lego exhibit. The event included a scaled city, mosaics and vignettes featuring space ships, Vikings and monsters all made of Legos. Little ones and their parents got to try their hands at building their own creation with Legos. Several members of the TwinLUG, the Minneapolis & St. Paul Lego User Group were at the event. (Photos by Tad Johnson)

Several members of the TwinLUG, the Minneapolis & St. Paul Lego User Group demonstrated the kinds of activities one can complete using the legendary blocks, such as a robot (above left) that can draw on paper and a fairy (above) in flight in front of a waterfall. Little ones got to try their hands at building with Legos, too. (Photos by Tad Johnson)

SUN THISWEEK - Apple Valley January 30, 2015 3A

Minnesota Chamber proposes alternative transportation funding mechanism

by Cyndy BrucatoMINNPOST

Republicans in the Leg-islature and state business leaders aren’t even tak-ing Gov. Mark Dayton’s transportation proposal out for a test spin before declaring it unacceptable. But state business lead-ers do have a tax increase proposal of their own. Dayton’s plan calls for a 6.5 percent per gallon tax on gas at the wholesale level, an increase in license tab fees and registration fees, and a half cent sales tax increase in the seven-county metro area. The response from Sen-ate minority leader David Hann: “The Legislature should take the time to ad-equately define our trans-portation needs, and then come up with solutions that actually address it, without raising taxes.” Legislative Republicans and the Minnesota Cham-ber of Commerce support plans to use general fund revenues and wring ef-ficiencies out of the cur-rent system, a proposal that critics say would fall far short of the $6 billion the state will need over the next 10 years. But the state Chamber of Commerce isn’t entirely opposed to raising taxes to fund transportation. It’s asking the Legislature to consider a “value cap-ture user fee,” essentially a property tax increase on properties that would be enhanced by transporta-tion improvements. “Think of it as a special assessment,” said Bill Bla-zar, the Minnesota Cham-ber’s acting president. “You would have to show that public improvement has raised the value of the property so it’s a benefit test, not speculation.” Blazar said there’s a number of legislators, both DFL-ers and Repub-licans, that “at a minimum

see the need to look at the alternatives.” In 2008, the last time gas tax was raised, the Minnesota Chamber was one of the major players in what eventually turned out to be a 8.5-cent gas tax in-crease. The Chamber even supported the override of Gov. Tim Pawlenty’s veto. That was then. “In the last seven years, I think the way we use the transportation system has changed fundamen-tally,” Blazar said. “Just the number of people who work at home. Secondly, the technological changes — the most prominent is the electric vehicle — and then, third, the fact that you had such a big tax in-crease in 2013.” Move Minnesota, a co-alition of labor and inter-est groups, supports the governor’s plan. “A great first step,” is how spokes-man Darin Broton de-scribes it. Broton predicts move-ment on either raising the sales tax on fuel or a simple percent per gal-lon tax increase. Unlike Blazar, he sees similarities between 2008 and 2015. “This (opposition to gas tax increase) is how the chamber positioned itself in 2008. They didn’t come in until the last minute to support the override,” he said. “What else is sort of similar, a number of re-gional chambers have been pushing for new revenue.” Blazar contends the new revenue is there in the value capture user fee. “We’re optimistic that val-ue capture or something like will be part of the fi-nal legislation.”

MinnPost is a nonprofit, member-supported news site that provides high-quality journalism for peo-ple who care about Minne-sota.

Business BuzzMOM Brands to be sold to Post Holdings Lakeville-based MOM Brands has entered into a definitive agree-ment for the sale of the company to Post Holdings Inc. in a transaction valued at approximately $1.15 bil-lion. The transaction, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close by the third quarter of 2015. MOM Brands produces branded ready-to-eat and natural cereals, hot wheat and oatmeal. The compa-ny’s brands include Malt-O-Meal, MOM’s Best, Better Oats and Three Sisters. MOM Brands Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Chris Neu-gent will continue to lead the MOM Brands business as president, re-porting to Richard K. Koulouris, who is joining Post Holdings Feb. 9 to lead the combined Post Foods and MOM Brands cereal business.

Advanced Elements expands ownership Damon Chmela, Electrical Di-vision manager at Advanced Engi-neering and Environmental Services Inc. in Eagan, has been named an owner of Advanced Elements, the holding company of AE2S, AE2S Construction and additional en-tities. He is one of 13 additional shareholders added in 2014. Ownership is offered to entity employees by invitation from exist-ing shareholders. The invitation is

extended to those who exemplify commitment to a broad spectrum of criteria, including financial un-derstanding and ability, client man-agement, contribution to business development, leadership, character, maturity and technical ability.

Chamber breakfast series includes Zelle Charles A. Zelle, commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Transportation, will be the featured guest at the Feb. 6 Legislative Break-fast Series event sponsored by the Dakota County Regional Chamber of Commerce. “Planes, Trains and Automo-biles: The Future of Minnesota’s Transportation System” will be the discussion theme at the event to be held 7:30-9 a.m. Feb. 6 at The Commons on Marice, 1380 Marice Drive, Eagan. Cost is $25 per person for mem-bers, $30 for nonmembers. A series pass can be purchased for $200. For more information, contact Vicki Stute at 651-288-9201 or [email protected].

Earnings returned Ideal Credit Union has returned 14 percent of its 2014 earnings to members through its VIP Program for the third consecutive year. The program rewarded over 14,500 Ideal members with cash dividends of between $5 and $555. The dividends were automatically

deposited into members’ savings accounts in January. More than $516,000 was returned to members as a result of the program. A total of 3,663 members achieved VIP Plus status, which entitles them to a variety of perks and cost-savings benefits throughout the year. Ideal has paid out over $1.5 mil-lion to members since the program’s inception. The credit union is based in Woodbury and has an office in Eagan.

Wag N’ Wash opens in Eagan Wag N’ Wash Pet Food and Bak-ery opens Jan. 30 at Cliff Lake Cen-tre, 1960 Cliff Lake Road, Eagan. The store offers naturally-made pet foods, toys, healthy treat bakery items, self-wash facility, grooming and more. This is the first Minnesota loca-tion for the Colorado-based fran-chise. Store hours are 9 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Saturday; 10 a.m. to 6 p.m. Sunday. A grand opening is planned March 6-8.

Law firm moves Dougherty, Molenda, Solfest, Hills & Bauer P.A. has moved to the Wings Financial Building in Apple Valley following completion of a full office build-out in the building. The office is located at 14985 Gla-zier Ave.

Business CalendarTo submit items for the

Business Calendar, email: [email protected].

Apple Valley Chamber of Commerce events: • Wednesday, Feb. 11, 8-9 a.m., Joint Chamber Coffee Connection – 360 Com-munities, 501 E. Highway 13, Suite 100, Burnsville. Food shelf donations will be ac-

cepted. Information: Kristy Barse at 952-432-8422. • Thursday, Feb. 19, 4:30-6:30 p.m., Business After Hours – Galaxie Floor Stores – Abbey Decorating Center, 6808 151st St. W., Suite 104, Apple Valley. Burnsville Chamber of Commerce events: • Wednesday, Feb. 11, 11:30 a.m. to 1 p.m., State of the City Address, Ames

Center, 12600 Nicollet Ave., Burnsville. Ad-dress is free; luncheon is $25 and registra-tion is required. Information: Jina at [email protected]. • Thursday, Feb. 26, 6-10 p.m., Bite of Burnsville, Ames Center, 12600 Nicollet Ave., Burnsville. Tickets: $40. Information: Jina at [email protected].


Dedication to the city To the editor: Saturday evening, Jan. 24, Summerhill Coopera-tive of Apple Valley had their annual Chili Night. Invited guest speakers and chili judges were Mayor Mary Hamann-Roland, Police Chief Jon Rechtzi-gel and Council Member Clint Hooppaw and the two gentlemen’s wives. Now, these are really busy people, but, they were willing to take a Sat-urday evening to update a hundred senior citizens on what is going on in the city of Apple Valley. Talk about dedication to their jobs, there are not finer people to be leaders in the state. I can’t even remember who was mayor before Mary. She gets the vote of confidence in each election for the last many years. Thank you to Mary, Jon and Clint for their continu-ing dedication to their city.

BOB CRAWFORDApple Valley

Lebanon Hills panel was effective To the editor: As a member of the Lebanon Hills Regional Park Master Plan Citi-zens Advisory Panel I feel compelled to respond

to recent letters criticiz-ing the review process. I do not feel the scope of the panel was as limited as described. The County Board asked for review and comment on three major elements of the plan: trails; recreational use areas; and natural re-sources. We met 10 times,

beginning with a review of the panel’s scope of work; an overview of the park history and issues related to its ecological health; use data and trends; and other background information. Staff and consultant in-formation was helpful, not controlling. We then spent several meetings discuss-ing the main subject areas. Discussions were open and civil and all members had an opportunity to ask questions and state their opinions. Members’ com-ments on the process at the last meeting were quite positive. Regarding the recom-mendations, we were able to reach consensus or near consensus on many items. On some issues there was disagreement. The board

was given information on the full range of panel re-sponses. It should also be noted that the panel made several recommendations that varied considerably from the draft staff rec-ommendations, including the type and degree of development in use areas; the need to give greater priority to issues of natu-ral resource stewardship and habitat restoration, maintenance, funding, volunteerism, and educa-tion; and the routes and surfaces for several pro-posed trails. Members represented a range of interests, experi-ence, backgrounds and viewpoints. The panel was meant to provide an additional opportu-nity for public comment and should be viewed in that context. I believe the group approached its job in a serious and thought-ful manner and its rec-ommendations ought to be respected and carry at least as much weight as those of the Stakeholder Master Plan Task Force of 14 years ago. Their ideas were not cast in concrete, nor will the recent panel’s ideas be considered sa-cred. The future of Leba-non Hills Regional Park will continue to involve a thoughtful balancing of competing needs and in-terests. I believe the panel made a positive contribu-tion to that discussion.

WAYNE SAMESEagan

Trail to nowhere To the editor: Lebanon Hills Re-gional Park is going to be bulldozed to make room for a County Board- and staff-recommended 10-foot wide flat asphalt trail through the hills of the park with expanded devel-opment at every trailhead. The citizen panel proceedings have been concluded. The result, an eight-month-long, $200,000 process that was tightly controlled by staff, is that the proposed draft has become a final plan. Meetings were dominated by consultants with no op-portunity to implement any citizens concerns. I personally have al-most been run over by bi-cyclists going 20 mph on these flat asphalt trails. I thought the park was sup-posed to be for people and nature. I hope that the county finds a way to use all the buckthorn trees that will be killing the natural vegetation of the park. I guess we do not need people, trees or ani-mals in our parks. BETTY FEDDEEagan

What to do after a car accident To the editor: On Jan. 14, my dad was on his way out to our house

Letters

Letters to the editor policySun Thisweek welcomes letters to the editor. Submitted letters must be no more than 350 words. All letters must have the author’s phone number and address for verification purposes. Anonymous letters will not be accepted. Letters reflect the opinion of the author only. Sun Thisweek reserves the right to edit all letters. Submission of a letter does not guarantee publication.

OpinionChild care costs straining Minnesota families

Met Council has been effective despite complaints

by Cynthia BauerlySPECIAL TO SUN THISWEEKDAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

Child care strains the budgets of many families in Minnesota, where the average cost of all-day care for one child is $901 a month, or $10,812 per year. These costs make Minnesota the fourth-most expen-sive state in the nation for child care. Gov. Mark Dayton wants to cut taxes for working families who are struggling to afford quality care by expanding the state’s Child and Dependent Care Credit. We were able to meet some of those who would benefit when the governor an-nounced his plan last week. Tameya Clark was forced to make a tough decision a few years ago because she couldn’t afford the high cost of child care for her son, Diante. So, like many other Minnesotans, Tameya decided to leave her job as an executive assistant to stay home and take care of Diante, now 5. “With my son in child care full time, over half of my income was going to pay

child care costs,” Tameya said. “This left us very little money to afford family bills and expenses.” Michelle and Jake Steffan faced a similar choice last year when they had their second son, Linden. The Steffans decided Michelle would temporarily stop working as a physical therapist to stay home with Linden, now 9 months old, and his brother, Xavier, 3. Michelle wants to return to work part-time, but the $425 weekly cost for child care is a concern. “Anything I make working would go away immediately to put both boys into day care,” she said. “So I’ve been home for about a year.” The Child and Dependent Care Cred-

it helps working families pay for care by letting them claim part of the expense on their state tax return. Dayton’s plan ex-tends the credit to more families and in-creasing the credit for most who qualify. That would help the Steffans, who don’t qualify now but would receive a credit of $1,200 under the governor’s proposal. “I love what do. I am really ex-cited to go back to work,” Michelle Stef-fan said. “And this tax credit will really help make that possible.” The governor’s plan will save real money for thousands of Minnesota fam-ilies with young children or other depen-dents, such as aging parents and family members with disabilities. The plan: • Extends the credit to 92,000 new Minnesota households (for a total of 130,000) • Increases the maximum credit to $2,100 (from the current $1,440) • Puts an average of nearly $480 back in the pockets of families who qualify • Allows more middle-class families to qualify by increasing the income cap

from the current $39,000 to $124,000 (for those with two children) Strengthening our middle class in this way is good for everyone. Families win when parents and caregivers can balance their responsibilities – at work and at home – in a way that make financial sense for them. And we all win when Minneso-tans can keep working while they build a family and ensure their children are well cared for while they work. “Now that my son is in kindergarten, I will be able to go back to work,” said Tameya Clark. “The child care tax credit will offset the cost of before and after cost for Diante.” Dayton’s plan increases economic se-curity for thousands of Minnesotans. It is a $100 million investment in our work-ing families, and in the future of our state.

Cynthia Bauerly is the commissioner of the Minnesota Department of Revenue. Columns reflect the opinion of the author.

by Don HeinzmanSUN THISWEEK


You are going to hear a lot from leg-islators on how to fix the Metropolitan Council this session. It has limited power to tax, and it has power to run sewer, water, mass transit highways and parks systems and to help plan and regulate growth in the seven-county metropolitan area. The Met Council has around 4,200 employees, and in 2012 it had an expen-diture budget of almost $780.31 million. If you live in Hennepin, Ramsey, Washington, Anoka, Carver, Dakota and Scott counties, the council’s deci-sions could affect you. The council has approved Thrive MSP 2040, which will guide the growth of the region. The sticky political point is the 17-member council and its chair are all appointed by the governor. You’ll hear that the council should be elected or at least it should have some elected officials on it. Defenders of the appointed pro-cess say the council is accountable to an elected governor. It’s clear, however, that the concept of a regional planning council and its run-ning of the transit, sewer, parks and wa-

ter systems has been accepted by most lo-cal governmental leaders and city staffs, with the exception, perhaps, of cities on the fringe. There are two uprisings against it now. One is coming from the influential Kenilworth corridor area in Minneapo-lis that opposes the proposed light rail line from Minneapolis to Eden Prairie that the council must approve to get fed-eral funds. Proposals for the line, which would cross a channel connecting two lakes, suggest it could run in a tunnel or on a bridge. The other opponents are county com-missioners from Scott, Dakota, Carver, Washington and Anoka counties who are upset with the council’s transporta-tion committee’s allocation of transit funds. How does the council affect you? Steve Dornfeld, former government reporter for the Star Tribune and St. Paul Pioneer

Press and Met Council’s former director of public affairs, recently described how the council and its influence have grown since it was started in 1967. It operates the metro sewer system, which is far different today than in the 1960s when contaminated water was run-ning into the Mississippi River and Lake Minnetonka, and private wells in the in-ner ring suburbs contained sewage waste. The council operates the Metropoli-tan bus system, different than in 1970, when the council bought Twin City Lines and its 635 buses that were 15 years old; 86 were banned from public streets. It operates the regional park system that has saved valuable land near waters from being turned into housing devel-opments, shopping centers and sanitary landfills. Through the use of an imaginary line, it has prevented housing developments from leapfrogging all over the region area and preventing urban sprawl. The opposition proposes that the council be elected and be more account-able to the public. They suggest perhaps a hybrid council of half elected and half appointed, that terms be staggered and that local officials have some say on the appointees. Meanwhile, the public, mostly un-

aware of the council, is not pressing for a change. Why not? Because it’s working. If it were elected, it could become po-liticized and we’d have the gridlock as members would make decisions involv-ing tradeoffs: I’ll vote for your park if you’ll vote against the Southwest Light Rail, or I’ll vote for a road in your dis-trict if you’ll vote for extending the sewer lines. Some, like Myron Orfield, who draft-ed the 1994 bill that created the current composition of the Met Council, says such horse trading is just part of the Democratic process. Gov. Mark Dayton has just appointed a new council chair, Adam Duininck, who has the right credentials for this time in the council’s growth. He should realize that for the most part, the council’s job of coordinating and planning the growth of the region largely is accepted by the general public. Don Heinzman is a columnist for ECM Publishers. He can be reached through [email protected]. Columns reflect the opinion of the author.

Sun Thisweek

ColumnistDon Heinzman

Guest

ColumnistCynthia Bauerly

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See LETTERS, 5A


Letters News

at the stop sign at Cedar Avenue and 140th Street in Apple Valley waiting for the light to change when a man driving a white Es-calade rammed right into the back end of his car. Needless to say they both got out of their vehicles, exchanged information, and since dad’s car was still drivable, both went on their way. I called the man’s insur-ance company and gave them all the information only to find out later that the “gentleman” gave my dad all false information. Now my dad has to go through his insurance company and pay the de-ductible. Now I know some will say that he should have called the police (he does not have a cellphone), asked to see the guy’s driv-er’s license, actual insur-ance documents, but my dad is 88 years old (he will be 89 in April) and was very shook up at the scene. It’s just another ex-ample of someone taking advantage of the elderly. It is my hope that what goes around comes around for that guy. This is a warning for all those who get in an accident to call the police and ask to see the other driver’s actual documenta-tion.

PAM GREERApple Valley

Addiction awareness important To the editor: I was honored to re-cently attend the commu-nity discussion regarding addiction and recovery on Jan. 15, at Hosanna Church. It was hosted by the Lakeville Area School District and Community Partnership and Hazelden

Betty Ford Foundation, among others. As a father, a community member, and a legislator, William Moy-ers’ openness to share his struggle with addiction, his recovery, and his cur-rent work with the Ha-zelden Foundation was appreciated. The devastating im-pacts of alcohol and drug abuse can happen to any individual. It is up to us, as a community, to not only teach our children to make responsible choices in order to prevent great tragedy from occurring in our community and in their lives, but also be informed on how to pro-vide help and support. I’m thankful for individuals such as William Moyers, who are open to sharing their experience to bring understanding and sup-port in dealing with abuse and recovery issues. Thank you to Lakeville Area Schools, Lakeville North Principal Marne Berkvam, Hosanna Church and our commu-nity partners for creating and planning the event and furthering the discus-sion of alcohol and drug abuse and its impacts on our community, workplace and families. I’m proud to represent our district.

Rep. JON KOZNICK R-Lakeville

End human trafficking To the editor: In last week’s State of the Union address, Presi-dent Obama laid out an ambitious domestic agen-da for his final two years in office. He also touched on foreign policy, saying “if there’s one thing this new century has taught us, it’s that we cannot separate our work at home from challenges beyond our shores.” Unfortu-nately, one such issue that

crosses national boundar-ies – modern slavery and human trafficking – was not mentioned. The president has been in India this week, home to the highest number of slaves in the world. Parti-san talking heads would have us believe there are no points of agreement between the new Congress and the president, but end-ing modern-day slavery is an achievable goal that everyone can get behind. I fully expect our elected leaders, U.S. Rep. John Kline as well as Sens. Al Franken and Amy Klobu-char, can and will work together to marshal our nation’s resources and dip-lomatic power to end this crime once and for all. AMY E. LINDQUISTLakeville

Trail plan needs to change To the editor: In this and other news-papers there are more ar-ticles related to Dakota County trail plans that sound like a sales pitch to the public. The senior planner for Dakota County says that “sometimes it’s a little overwhelming.” What is overwhelming is the lack of honest and transparent communica-tion regarding the cost and funding sources for “Greenway Trail Plans.” The destruction and lack of attention to natural re-sources and wildlife and spending millions paving through natural resources is more than overwhelm-ing. It may be as easy to bike around Dakota County as it is to drive – maybe six months a year. Current roads and bridges need development and repair more than we need miles of bike trails that cost even more to build and main-

tain. Current parks and natural resource manage-ment should be a priority over development and de-struction for paved trails. Chris Hartzell, Dakota County senior project manager, said: “It’s got some pretty crazy topog-raphy,” in regard to Spring Lake Park Reserve and the plans to have trails go through prairie and wood-ed areas, cross ravines and have two bridges (costing over a million each), add-ing to the cost that has not been clearly communi-cated along with ongoing maintenance costs. There has been over-whelming negative public comments for years from past meetings regarding trail plans. Elected offi-cials who have made the decisions on the plan have ignored the 90-95 percent negative comments docu-mented on the Dakota County website. Some of the past articles pub-lished in the Star Tribune also have pages of nega-tive comments regarding the plans on their website. Joe Atkins did a Facebook poll about the plan for paving parks for bike trails that was communicated to the county commissioners with many more (again 90-95 percent) negative com-ments and lack of sup-port. Please communicate honestly to our public citizens before it is too late for several of our county parks and before the con-tinued overspending con-tinues on these project plans. Trust has been lost with the lack of attention to public citizens (the major-ity) who have been voicing their opinions and lack of support for this plan.

PATRICIA LUETHEagan

LETTERS, from 4A

Creek to be restored in Farmington

Vermillion tributary

returning to a more natural

state by Andy Rogers

SUN THISWEEK


During this summer’s 195th Street reconstruc-tion project, Dakota County has plans to restore Middle Creek, which is part of the Ver-million River Watershed, to a more organic state. In the early 1900s, the land in the area was drained creating the un-natural form of Middle Creek, which is a similar situation to several of the tributaries of the Vermil-lion River. “Streams that are in this ditch form do not have the best quality be-cause sediment accumu-lates downstream from the erosion in the banks,” said Travis Thiel, water-shed specialist with Da-kota County. There is also little habitat for fish and other wildlife. The new version of the creek will feature a more winding state to mimic its natural form and func-tion. In addition to the re-routing of the creek, it will be excavated slightly deeper and it will have a floodplain. When the water level is higher due to rain or melting snow, the area surrounding the stream will provide a place for the water to go.

Following the rerout-ing, the creek will be seeded and stabilized and the former creek bed will be filled in. The creek is west of Meadowview Elementa-ry. The project will be synchronized with the road reconstruction proj-ect during summer when students are not present. Thiel said there’s a possibility of creating a path along the creek where students can learn about stream restora-tion and other biological and ecological informa-tion, which will be paid through existing grants. Thiel would still need it approved by the Vermil-lion River Watershed Joint Powers Organiza-tion, but the Farmington School Board supported the plan. The Department of Natural Resources want-ed to return the stream back in its original wind-ing pattern in 2006, but landowners worried about back flooding and the project was aban-doned. When the 195th proj-ect was implemented, Thiel saw an opportunity to redesign the restora-tion project and satisfac-torily address the flood-ing situation. There will also be an overflow pond added on the west side of the creek as part of the 195th proj-ect.

Email Andy Rogers at [email protected].


Minnesota parents to Congress: maintain ‘No Child Left Behind’ testing

by Devin HenryMINNPOST

Tameka Jones’ daugh-ter graduated from St. Paul’s Central Senior High last year and went to Prai-rie View University in Tex-as — and both mother and daughter worry she might have underestimated col-lege’s difficulty. “I don’t know if she’s at the same level as the other students,” Tameka Jones said last Wednesday. “Her first semester wasn’t that great, and I think that she had a false sense that she was on the ball because of her schooling in Minne-sota. Now that she’s some-where else, she’s like, wait, hold up, I didn’t know all of the things that I needed to know to be here at this time.” As congressional efforts to reform the bruised and beaten No Child Left Be-hind law began in earnest last Wednesday, Jones and a group of parents and educators from Minnesota were in Washington to ask lawmakers to preserve a key component of the law: the standardized testing designed to give educa-tors, parents and lawmak-

ers more insight into the strengths and weaknesses of America’s schools. For the group, black women with children in Minneapolis or St. Paul schools, educators in train-ing or alumni themselves, testing is tantamount to a civil rights issue: the re-sults of the tests give par-ents and administrators the chance to compare student progress against school districts around America, and provide a goldmine of information about the achievement gap that has consumed inner-city schools and minority students. Minnesota Rep. John Kline, R-Burnsville, the chairman of the House Education and Workforce Committee, said main-taining a testing require-ment is likely to be part of his panel’s NCLB reform package, and the Obama administration has said it hopes for the same. The is-sue is still up in the air in the GOP-controlled Sen-ate, where lawmakers held a hearing on testing last Wednesday. “We want to be sure to be kept aware of how

our children are doing in schools,” Khulia Pringle, a teacher-in-training, said. “Without that data, there is no way for us to know how our kids are doing individually, how they’re doing compared to their peers, how they’re doing nationally, how teachers are doing. So it’s critical.”

Shining a light Under NCLB, school districts are required to test their students on math and reading annually be-tween third and eighth grade and once on each subject in high school. NCLB doesn’t mandate one national benchmark by which to judge stu-dent progress — states are given the power to do that. But when the federal government began issu-ing states waivers from the law’s penalties in 2012, it said states needed to show “college and career readi-ness” for their students, and their testing schemes must align with that goal. States still determine what that means, but the federal government can review their decisions. The results of the test-

ing, which are made pub-lic, have helped illuminate the performance gap be-tween suburban schools and those in inner cities, and between whites and students of color — an area of particular concern for Minnesota. Jones, Pringle and oth-ers came to Washington last Wednesday with the Minnesota branch of a group called Students for Education Reform to talk to members about the im-portance of testing stan-dards for their kids and their communities. Latasha Gandy, the group’s managing director in Minnesota, said test re-sults are a tool parents can use to identify schools that are the best fit for their children. “Before this was avail-able to me, I would have sent my kid to the nor-mal neighborhood school, the school bus stopped at the stop on the corner and they would have went there,” she said. “And I would have thought they were getting everything they deserved, like I did for so many years. But the test makes me understand how

my child can do there.” Zina Fizer, a parent of a student from St. Louis Park High, said the law’s national standards give parents and policy makers a way to compare where students and schools are relative to their peers, not just within a district but nationwide. “I’ve always appreci-ated the standardized test-ing because it let me know where my child was,” she said. “I was able to de-termine how he ranged and rated all across the nation. If that part goes away, then that makes the parent ignorant of where their child is, and then you can’t intervene if you don’t know.”

Over-testing NCLB testing has been controversial for any num-ber of reasons: before the waivers, tests were deemed to be a high-stakes game with funding on the line. Some teachers groups have complained about over-testing (an argument advocates say is misplaced: NCLB testing mandates haven’t changed, though states have added regi-mens of their own on top of them), and some parent groups have begun leading movements to have their children opt out of the tests. That’s where, for these parents, the idea of testing as a civil right comes into play. Chris Stewart, the di-rector of outreach for the group Education Post, ar-gued that testing, as a tool for assessing large-scale student progress, is not a new concept, but only be-came controversial when it started exposing a ra-cial disparity in education. Fizer said some people would rather ignore data showing underperforming schools than try to change the status quo. “(Testing) shows that there is gap, it shows that there isn’t equity as we said there was,” she said.

“You get rid of the tests, you get rid of the evidence,” Stewart said.

Kline: Keep

testing Senate Republicans held a hearing on testing on Wednesday after releas-ing a draft NCLB reform bill last week. The draft was thorough, but the committee chairman, Ten-nessee’s Lamar Alexander, left two possible options for testing: maintaining the annual test mandate or turning it over to states to overhaul as they please. Kline said his commit-tee’s version of NCLB reform will include an an-nual testing requirement, but he wants to remove the penalties that forced states to adopt proficiency stan-dards. He equated the test-ing question to the debate over Common Core, the controversial standardized education benchmarks many states have adopted to win an NCLB waiver (Minnesota is not a Com-mon Core state). He said states should be allowed to coordinate their educa-tion standards, “but it is entirely wrong for the fed-eral government to try to manage that.” Even if there isn’t a national standard, Kline said he recognized the im-portance of standardized tests in assessing states’ education progress and in quantifying the achieve-ment gap. “I do think it’s impor-tant that there be testing,” he said. “I think it’s im-portant that you can get enough data so that you can disaggregate it, that is, you can peel it apart to make sure that you’re not leaving behind certain groups.”

MinnPost is a nonprofit, member-supported news site that provides high-quality journalism for peo-ple who care about Minne-sota.

Death Notices

www.northfieldfuneral.com

Obituaries

Obituaries

College news Iowa State University, Ames, Iowa, fall dean’s list, from Apple Valley – Caitlin Brown, Shannon Dewitte, Eric Flaming, Rebecca Guenther, Erik Johnson, Alexander King, Szumei Leow, Joseph Ma-licki, Jill Muehlbauer, Lindsey Ruszczyk, Erica Schiebel, Selia Schneider, Matthew Schul, Bryan Sullivan, Hailee Tsurusa-ki, Parker Zeilon. St. Olaf College, Northfield, fall dean’s list, from Apple Valley – Amanda Bauer, Chris-topher Casey, Stephanie Diamond, Jack Frederick-son, Kaylen Guzzi, Taylor Hermundson, Jonathan Lenz, Caroline Loe, Mat-thew Mittelsteadt, Lydia Narum, Molly Nelson, Matthew Seitzer, Nicole Valencia. Hannah Ruszczyk, Eastview graduate, is studying this semester in Florence, Italy, through the study abroad program at Drake University, Des Moines, Iowa. University of Wiscon-sin-River Falls, fall dean’s list, from Apple Valley – Danielle Bloch, Jack-son Groskreutz, Megan Reily, Hailey Smith, Anna Udenberg, Rachel Young. University of Wiscon-sin-Stevens Point, fall honors list, Caitlin Lock-ard, of Apple Valley. University of Wiscon-sin-Eau Claire, fall dean’s list, from Apple Valley – Ivy Arora, Britta Bollum, Hannah Brandel, Kylee Gannon, Jordan Gilb-ertson, Tyra Guldseth, Rachel Haugen, Marissa Leners, Kollin Michels, Mara Reed, Sadie Shel-don, Adam Sink, Stephen Sutherland, Elizabeth Thooft, Alexsandra Wen-zel. College of St. Scholasti-ca, Duluth, fall dean’s list,

from Apple Valley – Abby Ceglar, Meghan Keegan, Samuel Sandquist. Minnesota State Uni-versity Moorhead, fall dean’s list, from Apple Val-ley – Mollie Day, Shannon Deutsch, Molly Dziekan, Tim Gilitiuk, Katie Gr-undstrom, Eric Krupke, Taylor Orman, Dominic Paczkowski. University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, winter graduates, from Apple Valley – Casey Ad-kins, B.S.M.E., mechani-cal engineering; Rachel Holt, B.S.N., nursing; Ross Nelson, B.B.A., busi-ness administration. Erika Wielenga, of Ap-ple Valley, will play for the women’s swimming and diving team at the Univer-sity of Minnesota, Morris for the 2014-15 season. Matthew Barker and Bryan Barker, both of Apple Valley, were part of a team of Black Hills State University students working with the Hill City Chamber of Commerce to design a five-year strategic plan to foster tourism in the city. The two are busi-ness administration-tour-ism and hospitality man-agement majors at Black Hills State, Spearfish, S.D. St. Cloud State Univer-sity, fall dean’s list, from Apple Valley – Joshua Hirman, Tyler Schmidt, Ashley Terry, Myles Witcher. University of Wiscon-sin-Stout, December grad-uates, from Apple Valley – Steven Chamberland, B.S., packaging; Jeffrey Gebert, B.S., business ad-ministration. Augustana College, Sioux Falls, S.D., fall dean’s list, from Apple Valley – Haley Schoeneck-er, Jennifer Wilson.

To submit college news items, email: [email protected].

College News


by Andy RogersSUN THISWEEK


The walls at the Ram-bling River Center in Farmington have been decorated thanks to the ef-forts from students at the Dakota County Technical College. Graphic design stu-dents taking an advanced Photoshop course at DCTC recently donated 12 pieces of artwork to the Rambling River Center, a drop-in facility providing programming for adults 50 and older located at 325 Oak Street in Farmington. The largest donation was a 8-by-20-foot mural showing historical photo-graphs depicting different areas in Farmington. The artwork included several photo montages of Farmington layered with inspirational quotes. Oth-ers highlight specific areas of Rambling River Center such as the coffee center, model railroad center and puzzle center. The students received the chance to work on the real-world project with professional expectations while the Rambling River Center was able to deco-rate its facility with profes-sional work. “This has bene a great opportunity for my stu-dents — an educational situation where they have a client, Nicole (Gor-man, recreation supervi-sor),” said Connie Larson, DCTC graphic design in-structor. “I usually back off once the students get the project.” The students stayed in touch with Gorman and took responsibility until the products were com-plete. Gorman requested art-work that would reflect historical Farmington as well as recent history. She was able to use a number of photos from Farming-ton’s annual community calender contest and his-torical photos from the Dakota City Heritage Vil-lage. The artwork was deliv-ered to Rambling River Center in December. City staff plans to con-tinue a partnership with projects between Farm-ington and DCTC as there are still a few empty walls in the Rambling River Center. Larson’s class is working on different proj-ect this semester, but is en-

couraged by the possibility of collaborating again. “We’ll continue work-ing with this,” Larson said. “Just to see their working hanging up always makes them feel marvelous.” The value of the art-work is estimated at ap-proximately $4,698 if it were created profession-ally. When brainstorming creative ways to decorate the Rambling River Cen-

ter, Gorman learned that the Rosemount Parks and Recreation Department acquired artwork from the DCTC for its Community Center and City Hall. “We have many pieces of art in these buildings,” Larson said. “Probably the most impressive is the history wall in the Com-munity Center.”

Email Andy Rogers at [email protected].

The largest piece of artwork donated by Dakota County Technical College was an 8-by-20-foot mural depicting several prominent locations in Farmington. (Photo sub-mitted)

Dakota County Technical College students studying ad-vanced Photoshop donated more than $4,000 worth of artwork to the Rambling River Center in Farmington. (Photo submitted)

Some of the artwork depicts specific areas of the Ram-bling River Center, such as the area where residents com-plete puzzles. (Photo submitted)

DCTC donates artwork to Rambling River Center Pieces feature photos of current, historical Farmington

U.S. Service Academies nominations U.S. Sen. Al Franken has nominated the following local students for admis-sion to a U.S. Service Academy. Jacob Biehn, of Burnsville, U.S. Mer-chant Marine Academy. He is the son of Brian Biehn and Kim Schueller and is currently a senior at Apple Valley High School. He participates in both varsity football and track and field. He also serves as a volunteer for Feed the Home-less. Andrew Carter, of Burnsville, U.S. Military Academy at West Point. He is the son of Pamela Jagow and is currently a senior at Apple Valley High School. He participates in varsity cross country, long distance track and Alpine skiing. He also serves as a volunteer at Padraig’s Place. Morgan Hierlmaier, of Apple Val-ley, U.S. Air Force Academy. She is the daughter of Tim Hierlmaier and Jennifer Born and is currently a senior at East-view High School. She participates in soccer and band, and is a member of the National Honor Society. She has served as a girls soccer coach and as a tutor at Scott Highlands Middle School. If chosen for an appointment, the stu-dents will enter this summer and be part of the class of 2019. Each year, Franken nominates quali-fied young Minnesotans to the four U.S. Service Academies. The individual ser-vice academies make the final admission decisions and begin notifying nominees of their status in February.

Community Education District 196 Community Education will offer the following classes. To reg-ister, or for more information, call 651-423-7920 or visit www.district196.org/ce. Delectable Truffles: Chocolate Can-dies for all Occasions, 6-9 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, Scott Highlands Middle School, $27 plus $12 to instructor. Open Woodshop: All Ability Levels, 7-9 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4 to March 18, Levi Dodge Middle School, 4200 208th St. W., Farmington, $72. Winter Workshop: Rustic Twig Furni-ture, 9 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, Scott Highlands Middle School, $129, $15 each additional person. Photography Level 1: Peter Wong, 6:30-9 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 18 to March 11, Falcon Ridge Middle School, $99. Beginning Spanish, 6-7:30 p.m. Mon-day, Feb. 9 to March 16, Scott Highlands Middle School, $65. Travel Showcase: Extended Tours, 6-8 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, Scott Highlands Middle School. Free. Windows and Siding, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Wednesday, Feb. 4, Scott Highlands Middle School, $15, $5 each additional person. Family Dance (parents and children ages 1-4), 10:30-11:15 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11 to March 18, South Suburban Evangelical Free Church, $49, $25 addi-tional child. Skippers (ages 3-4.5), 9:30-10:15 a.m. Wednesday, Feb. 11 to March 18, South Suburban Evangelical Free Church, $69.

Apple Valley Rotary celebrated three outstand-ing local middle school students at its regular meeting Wednesday, Jan. 21. The January Students of the Month honored in-cluded: Isabelle Vevea of Fal-con Ridge Middle School is described as a “very helpful student and a joy-ous student who can light up a room.” Isabelle par-ticipates in choir, dance and is a Salvation Army volunteer bell-ringer. Amanda Jackson of Valley Middle School was noted for being “inquisi-tive and genuinely inter-

ested in her classes. She is willing to work with any-one or on her own.” Elisa Asani of Scott Highlands Middle School has been a spelling bee finalist, two-year Word Master participant, mem-ber of the Math Club and a participant in the Prom-ising Young Writers pro-gram. Faculty at District 196’s three middle schools selects students for this honor, which includes a personalized plaque and recognition at a Rotary meeting, to which their families are also invited for breakfast. The Student of the

Month program was start-ed in fall 2013 as a way to acknowledge students who go above and beyond academically and person-ally – those who strive for excellence in the classroom and in their community. Participating schools in-clude Scott Highlands, Falcon Ridge and Valley middle schools. Apple Valley Rotary meets at 7 a.m. Wednes-days at Valleywood Golf Course, 4851 McAndrews Road. Visitors are wel-comed and encouraged; as a guest, breakfast is complimentary. For more information, visit AppleV-alleyRotary.org.

Education

Education Briefs

Apple Valley Rotary celebrates Students of the Month

Apple Valley Rotary President Bruce Nordquist congratulates the club’s January Students of the Month (from left) Isabelle Vevea, Amanda Jackson and Elisa Asani. (Photo submitted)


Parkview students hands-on with engineering Hundreds Parkview Elementary School students and their families participated Jan. 20 in Family Engi-neering Night, an event presented by The Works Museum and sponsored by Flint Hills Resources. The event fea-tured a variety of fun science, technol-ogy, engineering, and math (STEM) activities for families to do together. STEM educators from The Works Museum of Bloomington brought their programming and expertise in-side the halls of the school in Lakeville that is part of the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District, where families participated in kid-friendly engineering activities. Students mas-tered the art – and engineering – of building bridges out of candy, con-structing mini catapults and wiring circuits. “Providing children and their fami-lies with a memorable hands-on learn-ing experience is really gratifying,” said Jill Measells, CEO of The Works Museum. “It’s a unique opportunity to keep our young learners engaged outside the classroom. These special moments couldn’t happen without

the support of our generous sponsors. We’re proud to partner with them to help inspire the next generation of in-novators, engineers and creative prob-lem solvers.” “Students have limited in-class op-portunities when it comes to learning about the engineering design process and how engineers use math and sci-ence to solve problems,” said Scott Lindemann, vice president and manu-facturing manager at Flint Hills Re-sources. Lindemann started his career as a chemical engineer after receiving his degree from the College of Science and Engineering at the University of Minnesota. “Flint Hills Resources employs hundreds of Minnesota engineers and skilled workers and believes in sup-porting quality hands-on experiences for youth in our community,” Linde-mann said. More information about the Flint Hills is at www.pinebendrefinery.com. More information about The Works Museum is at www.theworks.org.

Parkview Elementary School student Connor Voigt and his grandfather, David Strand, work together to build a structure out of Dots and toothpicks Jan. 20 during Family Engi-neering Night. (Photo submitted)

Education


Inside the mind of a student Class reveals what issues young people think are important



For many, life is about getting from one place to the next – home, school, work, hockey practice, the grocery store and home again. This past semester, Rosemount High School juniors in the College Writing and Research Class looked beyond the ordinary to analyze and develop solutions to prob-lems or issues facing the community. Homelessness, illegal underage drinking and un-healthy eating were among the issues students had on display last week during parent-teacher conferenc-es. The diverse project top-ics also examined student use of iPads, whether or not Irish Field should be converted to synthetic turf and food insecurity. “We wanted them to se-lect a topic that they care about,” said RHS English teacher Heather Traeger, who is teaching the col-lege credit course with In-ver Hills instructor Derek Tellier. “I was impressed with the students and how much they took ownership of their projects.” In addition to making presentations, the students were required to write an informative essay, argu-mentative essay and anno-tated bibliography. Some students created videos to accompany their project. She said the class, in ad-dition to teaching research and writing methods, aims to help them learn how to follow through on a large

project. Traeger said one stu-dent, who is often nervous about public speaking, had no problem delivering his presentation since he knew his material so well. The project aimed to help students go beyond their typical research methods after they had a chance to question com-munity leaders during a panel discussion and inter-view those in the commu-nity, such as Rosemount Middle School principal Mary Thompson, Mayor Bill Droste or even their own peers. Another goal was to make the school and broader community aware of the issues. Samantha Kisner in-cluded information about her research regarding community resources for those facing homelessness to the Irish Update. She said many people are unaware of the impor-tant services available for families in Rosemount. Her goal was to spread the word about the work being done by the Rose-mount-Apple Valley-Ea-gan School District and 360 Communities Family Resource Center, such as their food shelf, counsel-ing services, clothing do-nations and much more. She hopes her message will reach those who need help and encourage people to donate their time or money to those in need. She said district offi-cials told her that an es-timated 100 students in the district are homeless throughout the year. She said 50 percent of Dakota

County’s homeless popu-lation are children. Students Jennifer Busho and Sara Purfeerst said they did a lot of re-search and writing for this project. Busho tackled the issue of unhealthy eating at fast food restaurants, hoping to get students and adults thinking about the choices they make. She said 41 percent of teens eat at least one meal at fast food restaurants each day. While she said that many restaurants are of-fering healthy choices, she said it’s not a guarantee people will choose those items. “People should really think about not having the extra bacon or other condiments,” Busho said. “Those are some of the big calorie stuff.” She said unhealthy eat-ing has consequences oth-er than health problems heightened by obesity. She said it can contribute to depression and take away from family time as it’s better to share home-cooked meals together. Purfeerst analyzed stu-dent use of district-issued iPads, which are being used in 46 District 196 classrooms as part of a beta project to test the de-vice’s effectiveness in im-proving student learning. Of the 112 students she surveyed at Rosemount High School and Scott Highlands Middle School, 78 said the iPads were very helpful, 20 said they were a little helpful, 14 said they could have done without an iPad, while no one said

the iPads were not helpful. Purfeerst said she was surprised that the students used the iPads almost ex-clusively for school work, though some did occa-sional non-school related activities that are allowed. “I feel if they use it cor-rectly, the students won’t need to be off task,” she said. She attributed this ad-herence to school work to the rules of use that are clearly set forth by the dis-trict. Of the comments she received, most students said the greatest benefit was the iPad’s ability to or-ganize their notes and as-signments and keep track of deadlines. “It’s easier to get things (written) down for me,” Purfeerst said. “Without an iPad, I might forget the homework.” She also said the abil-ity of teachers to com-municate with students was improved, especially on emergency snow days when classes are canceled. Another student said that without a computer at his home, he was able to complete tasks on the iPad that he wouldn’t have been able to do otherwise. Other benefits includ-ed improved note-taking and access to information through Internet searches. Community members who are interested in find-ing out more about the research projects can con-tact Traeger at [email protected].

Email Tad Johnson at [email protected].

Open house at Saint Mary’s U Saint Mary’s University of Min-nesota will host an open house from 5-7 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 3, at its Apple Valley Center at 14200 Cedar Ave. Saint Mary’s began offering graduate school courses in Apple

Valley during the summer and fall of 2003. Since then, Saint Mary’s Apple Valley Center has expanded to include bachelor-completion and master’s degree programs in busi-ness and police science as well as

advanced degrees in education. For more information on the open house or courses offered in Apple Valley, call 612-238-4551 or visit smumn.edu/applevalley.

Rosemount High School students Jennifer Busho and Sara Purfeerst presented their projects in the College Writing and Research Class during parent-teacher conferences last week. (Photo by Tad Johnson)

Education


SportsConference hoops leaders performing as advertised

AV boys, Eastview girls hold 2-game

leadsby Mike Shaughnessy


Apple Valley’s boys and Eastview’s girls were the preseason favorites in South Suburban Confer-ence basketball, and so far neither has done anything to disprove the prognosti-cations. In fact, neither has lost a conference game. Both have two-game leads and, barring late-season slumps, are on pace to re-peat as league champions. Here’s a status report on the two leaders:

Eagle boys Apple Valley’s players and coaches have spent some time talking about avoiding a late-season malaise. Last year, coach Zach Goring said, the Eagles got a little stale and it might have been why they didn’t return to the state tournament. Apple Valley lost to Cretin-Der-ham Hall in the Class 4A, Section 3 championship game. “We’ve talked about staying sharp every game, no matter who we’re play-ing,” Goring said. “We’re going to get every team’s best effort, and we have to continue to get better at what we’re doing.” Goring has been look-ing for better defense from his team, because the Eagles have already estab-lished they can score. They might have hit a bench-mark in Tuesday’s 78-68 victory over Lakeville South. The Cougars have two dangerous scorers, guard Jack Sorenson and forward Brenon Larson-

Gulsvig, and Goring said before the game his team’s goal was to hold the two to fewer than 40 points. So-renson led South with 22, but the Eagles were able to hold Larson-Gulsvig to 11. For one night, at least, mission accomplished. Sophomore guard Gary Trent Jr. led Apple Valley with 28 points, almost ex-actly his season average. Tre Jones had 12 points, Riley Parham 11 and Brock Bertram nine. Apple Valley, 18-1 overall and 11-0 in the conference, has a power-ful starting lineup with Trent, Jones, Bertram, Jordan Bolton and Cam-eron Kirksey. The Eagles also have had contribu-tions from reserves such as Parham, Austin Korba and Steven Christiansen. Because they get valuable minutes from their re-serves, they’re able to play at a quick pace – their pre-ferred style – for a longer time. “Riley Parham, for example, gives us energy. He’s a good defender and he can score,” Goring said. “That means if Kirksey gets into foul trouble we can go to Riley without a dropoff.” The Eagles hold a two-game lead over Shakopee in the South Suburban and are at least four games ahead of all the other teams. If there’s a poten-tial pitfall ahead, it’s that they will be on the road a lot. Six of their last seven regular-season games are away from home.

Lightning girls Eastview could have fallen into a tie for first place in South Suburban girls basketball if it lost to Eagan last Friday, but the Lightning wasn’t about to

let that happen. Eastview raced to a 17-point lead by halftime and went on to win 75-42. After a 79-27 victory over Burnsville on Tuesday, Eastview is 16-1 overall and 9-0 in the league, two games ahead of Eagan and Lakeville North. Since a narrow escape against Rosemount (a 46-43 victory Jan. 6), the Lightning has won six in a row by an average of 33 points. Eagan likes to press whenever possible, but that’s a strategy the Light-ning has seen from oppo-nents such as Hopkins and Lakeville North. “Eagan does a good job with that full-court press,” Eastview coach Melissa Guebert said. “The key to handling it is for all five players on the floor to keep their composure. When we broke their press, we were able to get some good shots.” Like the Apple Valley boys, the Eastview girls are concentrating on im-proving their play regard-less of who they’re facing. Eastview also goes eight or nine players deep, giv-ing it the leeway to go to the bench to replace some-one who’s struggling or in foul trouble. “That’s why I’m care-ful to talk about individu-als who are playing well because right now, every-body is,” Guebert said. “I think I have eight or nine girls who can come in. Allie Pickrain is some-one who gives us depth at guard, and Emma Sinn is a solid player. “Hana Metoxen, one of our starters, doesn’t have huge stats, but I’m telling you she’s someone I want on the floor in a close game.” The Lightning’s leading

scorer, senior guard Madi-son Guebert, dropped in 24 points against Eagan and 25 against Burnsville. In the Burnsville game, Madison Guebert made five three-pointers, Rachel

Ranke made four and Eri-ka Schlosser hit three. Eastview returns to action Friday at home against Lakeville North. The Lightning defeated North 49-37 in its first trip

through the conference schedule.

Email Mike Shaughnessy at [email protected].

Eastview’s Paula Garcia guards Eagan’s Tamira McLemore during the Lightning girls’ 75-42 victory last Friday. (Photo by Mike Shaughnessy)

Lindsay blazes winning trail at BuckApple Valley/

Rosemount skier places in top 10by Mike Shaughnessy


Burnsville/Shakopee sophomore Jack Lindsay was the boys medalist and Lakeville North ninth-grader Bailey Servais was girls runner-up Friday at the Buck Hill Invite, a high school Alpine skiing meet that attracted more than 300 varsity competi-tors. Edina was the boys team champion and Still-water won the girls title. Stillwater also won the Varsity Cup, awarded to the top overall combined boys/girls program. Lindsay had the fastest time on each of two runs on the boys course, and his combined time of 44.73 seconds put him about half a second ahead of the runner-up, Edina ninth-grader Andrew Shideman. Eagan/Eastview ninth-grader Luke Doolittle (fourth, 45.65) and Apple Valley/Rosemount sev-enth-grader Croix Turner (seventh, 46.76) also fin-

ished in the top 10 in the boys race. Chloe Townsend of Edina was the girls cham-pion with a combined time of 50.93. Servais was sec-ond in 51.53. Others in the top 10 included Eagan/Eastview ninth-grader Erin Burns, who was ninth in 53.55. Eagan/Eastview placed sixth of 22 boys teams even though its top skier, Tommy Anderson, did not race. Other top-50 finish-ers for Eagan/Eastview were Josh Doolittle, who was 27th overall, Austin Anderson, who was 38th, and Jesse Schnuckle, who finished 42nd. With his top-10 individ-ual finish, Turner led the Apple Valley/Rosemount boys to 14th in the team standings. Aaron Ahlberg (47th) also placed in the top 50 individually. Burnsville’s boys team placed 15th, with Lindsay the lone Blaze skier among the top 50 individuals. Blaze senior Jon Garbe was fourth overall after the first run but missed a gate on his second run, costing him time and lead-ing to a 77th-place finish. Lakeville South was

19th in the boys team standings, with seventh-grader John Olson the Cougars’ top individual in 69th place. Cory Bock placed 22nd in 48.67 for Lakeville North, which has only six varsity skiers and placed 22nd among the boys teams. Eagan/Eastview was seventh in the girls team standings, with Burns (ninth) and Claire Hefko (27th, 57.33) placing in the top 50 individually. Servais led Lakeville North to eighth place. Kathryn Kossack (47th, 1:00.77) was the Panthers’ No. 2 skier. Hannah Rost (14th, 54.47) and Ashlynn Baumgartner (25th, 57.03) were the Cougars’ top in-dividual skiers. Apple Valley/Rose-mount finished 15th in the girls team competition, led by Chelsi Serba (31st, 57.77) and Angela Bodine (45th, 1:00.58). Fiona Chow and Jay-na Adams were 49th and 52nd for Burnsville, which was 17th of 22 girls teams.


Aaron Ahlberg of Apple Valley/Rosemount almost loses control but recovers and finishes his run at the Buck Hill Invite last Friday. (Photo by Mike Shaughnessy)

It’s the South Suburban grind

Apple Valley’s Josie Segar (left) and Burnsville’s Sloane Taylor battle along the boards for the puck during a South Suburban Conference girls hockey game Tuesday night. The Eagles’ Rachel Goodman (17) moves in to collect the loose puck. Apple Valley won 4-1 and improved its record to 6-17-1. (Photo by Mike Shaughnessy)

Eagan finishes 4th at True Team stateby Mike Shaughnessy


Minnetonka won its second consecutive state Class AA True Team boys swimming and diving championship, while Ea-gan had the highest finish of the three South Subur-ban Conference teams in the meet. Eagan was fourth at Saturday night’s True Team finals at the Univer-sity of Minnesota Aquat-ic Center, moving up one spot from its finish in the 2014 state meet. The other two SSC teams to qualify for the finals, Prior Lake and Lakeville South, were seventh and eighth in the 12-team field. Stillwater and Eden Prairie placed second and third. Eagan scored 1,629 points, more than 300 behind Eden Prairie but about 35 ahead of fifth-place Edina. Eagan did not win any events at Saturday’s Class AA finals but had a strong showing in relays

as well as a second-place finish in diving by junior Nic Lemieux. Lemieux scored 417.30 points in the 11-dive com-petition, trailing only Stillwater’s Colin Eason, who scored a meet-record 461.80. Eagan ninth-grader Jordan Nguyen finished sixth with 350.35. Parker Lemke, Quen-ton Steffen, Eli Broman and Sam Zenner finished third in the opening event, the 200-yard medley relay, finishing in 1:40.14. Jas-per Appleton, Lemke, Tal Shub and Broman were third in the final event, the 400 freestyle relay, in 3:15.61. Zenner, Apple-ton, Shub and Mac John-son added a fourth place in the 200 freestyle relay in 1:29.46. The winning team in each relay – Eden Prai-rie in the 200 medley and Minnetonka in the 200 and 400 freestyle – set a meet record. In individual swim-ming events, Lemke tied for third in the 200 free-

style in 1:46.13 and placed third in the 100 back-stroke in 53.87. Broman placed 10th in the 200 individual medley in 2:02.95 and eighth in the 100 butterfly in 53.56. Zenner was third in the 50 freestyle in 21.81, an event in which Jordan Greenburg of Eden Prai-rie set a meet record of 21.32. Appleton finished eighth in 22.45. Appleton added an eighth place in the 100 freestyle in 48.93. Ze-nner finished 12th in that event. Steffen placed 11th in the 100 breaststroke. Eagan, which is unde-feated in South Suburban Conference dual meets, took on Farmington on Tuesday night at Dakota Hills Middle School. The Wildcats’ next meet is Fri-day, Feb. 6, at Rosemount.



2 Years In A Row!

Kraig J. HaenkeCPA, L.L.C.

offices in St. Louis Park & Lakeville

952-540-0153

We don’t just prepare your taxesWe manage your 1040

Transit open houses The Dakota County Regional Rail Authority and its partner agen-cies are undertaking a comprehen-sive review of transit service in the Cedar Avenue Transitway. Open houses will be held: • Monday, Feb. 2, 3-5 p.m., Ce-dar Grove Transit Station, 4035 Nicols Road, Eagan, MN 55122 • Wednesday, Feb. 4, 4-6 p.m., Apple Valley Transit Station, 15450 Cedar Ave. S., Apple Valley. Staff will be available to dis-cuss the Cedar Avenue Transitway Implementation Plan, and input is welcome on existing and future transit needs in the Cedar Avenue Transitway. ADA complementary paratran-sit and dial-a-ride service is avail-able. Riders can call 651-602-5465 to reserve a ride. Those who are unable to attend

but would like to learn more about the project and provide feedback are encouraged to visit the project’s website, www.cedartransitway.com.

360 Communities hosts luncheon Burnsville-based nonprofit 360 Communities is hosting its annual Domestic and Sexual Violence Awareness Luncheon from 11 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 13, at Brackett’s Crossing Country Club in Lakeville. The event brings together com-munity leaders, law enforcement, and concerned citizens to shed light on the issues of domestic and sexu-al violence. Cost is $30. To register or for more information, visit www.360Communities.org.

Informational meeting for Lebanon Hills in Apple Valley A gathering of citizens is sched-uled from 7-8:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 5, at Falcon Ridge Middle School, Lecture Room A, 12900 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley. The meeting is open to anyone concerned about the future of Leb-anon Hills and will include infor-mation from the revised Lebanon Hills Draft Master Plan and how to provide input to the County Board and Planning Department. The meeting is hosted by Wilder-ness in the City. For more informa-tion, email [email protected] or visit http://wildleba-nonhills.org.

Apple Valley man injured in I-35E rollover

An Apple Valley man was injured in a one-vehi-cle crash Jan. 25 in Stearns County. Adam C. Eull, 36, was driving west on Inter-state 94 at about 10:40 a.m. when his Ford F-150 pickup truck drifted off the roadway onto the right shoulder, entered the ditch, hit a sign and then drove through the high-way fence, the State Patrol said. Eull suffered “non-life-threatening” injuries and was transported to St. Cloud Hospital for treat-

ment. No alcohol was de-tected in Eull’s system, the State Patrol said, though it’s unknown if he was wearing a seatbelt at the time of the crash. The State Patrol’s inci-dent report listed damage to Eull’s truck as “moder-ate.” Road conditions were dry on the four-lane divid-ed highway the morning of the crash. The Melrose Police Department assist-ed the State Patrol at the scene.

—Andrew Miller

An Apple Valley man was hospitalized with seri-ous injuries last weekend following a late-night, one-vehicle crash on Inter-state 35E in St. Paul. According to the Minnesota State Patrol, 36-year-old Anthony C. Smith was driving a Cadil-lac DeVille north on I-35E near Pennsylvania Avenue at about 2 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 24, when his vehicle went into the ditch and rolled, coming to rest in the median. Smith’s Cadillac was traveling “at a high rate

of speed” when the crash occurred, the State Patrol said. Road conditions were wet on the six-lane, divided highway near downtown St. Paul. The Cadillac was to-taled in the crash and was towed from the scene. Smith, the vehicle’s sole occupant, was not wearing a seatbelt, and alcohol was detected in his system af-ter the crash, the State Pa-trol said. Smith was taken to nearby Regions Hospi-tal for treatment.

—Andrew Miller

I-94 crash lands Apple Valley man in hospital

MVTA transit ridership strong The Minnesota Val-ley Transit Authority (MVTA) saw record rid-ership again in 2014, with a total of 2,812,265 rides, up 3.9 percent from 2013. “The MVTA is very pleased with our 2014 ridership growth,” said MVTA Board Chair and Apple Valley Council-member Clint Hooppaw. “There is terrific potential in our suburban areas and we provide an excellent service,” he said. “The ad-dition of such amenities as Wi-Fi on our buses, additional service to the University of Minnesota and operation of the Met-ro Red Line have all con-tributed to our growth.” Highest ridership routes are MVTA’s Route 460 (Burnsville to/from downtown Minneapo-lis), which accommo-dates some 15 percent of MVTA’s ridership; Route 477 (Apple Valley to/from

downtown Minneapo-lis), which accommodates some 13 percent of MV-TA’s ridership; and Route 444 (local service between Burnsville/Savage/Cedar Grove and Mall of Amer-ica), which accommodates just less than 10 percent of MVTA’s ridership. Two local routes (Route 438 – Eagan Cir-culator, and Route 440 – Apple Valley/Minne-sota Zoo/Cedar Grove/VA Medical Center) and one all-day route (Route 475 between Apple Val-ley/Cedar Grove and the University of Minnesota) experienced the greatest ridership growth. Route 438 ridership in-creased from 7,376 in 2013 to 12,996 in 2014 (up 76 percent); Route 440 rider-ship increased from 28,786 to 43,039 (up 50 percent) and Route 475 increased from 48,843 to 60,698 in 2014, up 29 percent.

MVTA’s average daily ridership reached a high in September at 11,198 rides. Metro Red Line, ser-vice operated by the MVTA under contract to the Metropolitan Council and funded by the Coun-ties Transit Improvement Board, increased rider-ship from 130,733 in 2013 (with slightly more than six months of service since it opened on June 22, 2013) to 265,514 in 2014. “The economy proved stronger in 2014, and gas prices plummeted, but rid-ership remained strong,” said MVTA Executive Director Beverley Miller. “We saw an increase in rides through the Cedar Grove Transit Station with the opening of Twin Cities Premium Outlets,” she said, “and ridership to the University of Minne-sota continues to grow.” Service changes in 2015 include the integration of

the Prior Lake and Shako-pee BlueXpress Commut-er service and the Shakop-ee Circulator (Route 496), addition of service to the University of Minnesota from Prior Lake and Sha-kopee, new service to/from downtown Minneapolis from the Marschall Road Transit Station in Shakop-ee, additional peak-period service between the Rose-mount Transit Station to downtown Minneapolis, a potential-rider study of the entire MVTA ser-vice area, and a study of service needs in northern Scott County. MVTA is the public transportation provider for residents and busi-nesses of Apple Valley, Burnsville, Eagan, Prior Lake, Rosemount, Savage and Shakopee. Call 952-882-7500 for transit infor-mation or visit www.mvta.com.

News Briefs

Area residents are among a group of 25 that won a $5,000 prize by playing the Lottery’s Mega Millions game. Winners include Michael Bonfig, Apple Valley; Todd Hast-ings, Burnsville; Aaron Lombaro, Eagan; Megan Anderson, Farmington;

Kimberly Blesener, Lake-ville; and Marcia Hendrix, Mendota Heights. The group claimed the prize on Jan. 9. The win-ning ticket was purchased at Glenn’s One-Stop, 12908 Minnetonka Blvd. in Minnetonka.

Area residents are Mega Millions lottery winners

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2015


LEGAL NOTICES

NOTICE OF MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE SALE

THE RIGHT TO VERIFICATION OF THE DEBT AND IDENTITY OF THE ORIGINAL CREDITOR WITHIN THE TIME PROVIDED BY LAW IS NOT AFFECTED BY THIS ACTION.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that default has occurred in conditions of the following described mort-gage:

DATE OF MORTGAGE: October 17, 2007MORTGAGOR: Julian Horton, a

single person and Ellyse Gillem, a single person.

MORTGAGEE: JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.DATE AND PLACE OF RE-

CORDING: Recorded October 23, 2007 Dakota County Recorder, Document No. 2552130.

ASSIGNMENTS OF MORT-GAGE: Assigned to: Bayview Loan Servicing, LLC. Dated September 6, 2014 Recorded September 18, 2014, as Document No. 3030163 and by Document Dated 8/20/2014 and Recorded 11/03/2014 as Doc-ument No. 3036927.

TRANSACTION AGENT: NONETRANSACTION AGENT’S

MORTGAGE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER ON MORTGAGE: NONE

LENDER OR BROKER AND MORTGAGE ORIGINATOR STATED ON MORTGAGE:

JPMorgan Chase Bank, N.A.RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE

SERVICER: Bayview Loan Servicing, LLCMORTGAGED PROPERTY AD-

DRESS: 15082 Dunwood Trail, Apple Valley, MN 55124

TAX PARCEL I.D. #: 01.76900.06.031LEGAL DESCRIPTION OF

PROPERTY: Unit No. 31, Common Interest Community No. 241, Prai-rie Crossing Villas, Dakota County, Minnesota.

COUNTY IN WHICH PROPERTY IS LOCATED: Dakota

ORIGINAL PRINCIPAL AMOUNT OF MORTGAGE: $156,000.00

AMOUNT DUE AND CLAIMED TO BE DUE AS OF DATE OF NO-TICE, INCLUDING TAXES, IF ANY, PAID BY MORTGAGEE:

$175,709.80That prior to the commence-

ment of this mortgage foreclosure proceeding Mortgagee/Assignee of Mortgagee complied with all notice requirements as required by stat-ute; That no action or proceeding has been instituted at law or other-wise to recover the debt secured by said mortgage, or any part thereof;

PURSUANT to the power of sale contained in said mortgage, the above described property will be sold by the Sheriff of said county as follows:

DATE AND TIME OF SALE: March 20, 2015 at 10:00 AMPLACE OF SALE: Sheriff’s Of-

fice, Law Enforcement Center, 1580 Hwy 55, Lobby #S-100, Hast-ings, MN to pay the debt then se-cured by said Mortgage, and taxes, if any, on said premises, and the costs and disbursements, includ-ing attorneys’ fees allowed by law subject to redemption within six (6) months from the date of said sale by the mortgagor(s), their personal representatives or assigns unless reduced to Five (5) weeks under MN Stat. §580.07.

TIME AND DATE TO VACATE PROPERTY: If the real estate is an owner-occupied, single-family dwelling, unless otherwise pro-vided by law, the date on or before which the mortgagor(s) must va-cate the property if the mortgage is not reinstated under section 580.30 or the property is not redeemed under section 580.23 is 11:59 p.m. on September 21, 2015, unless that date falls on a weekend or legal holiday, in which case it is the next weekday, and unless the redemp-tion period is reduced to 5 weeks under MN Stat. Secs. 580.07 or 582.032.

MORTGAGOR(S) RELEASED FROM FINANCIAL OBLIGATION ON MORTGAGE: None

“THE TIME ALLOWED BY LAW FOR REDEMPTION BY THE MORTGAGOR, THE MORTGAG-OR’S PERSONAL REPRESEN-TATIVES OR ASSIGNS, MAY BE REDUCED TO FIVE WEEKS IF A JUDICIAL ORDER IS ENTERED UNDER MINNESOTA STATUTES, SECTION 582.032, DETERMIN-ING, AMONG OTHER THINGS, THAT THE MORTGAGED PREM-ISES ARE IMPROVED WITH A RESIDENTIAL DWELLING OF LESS THAN FIVE UNITS, ARE NOT PROPERTY USED IN AGRICUL-TURAL PRODUCTION, AND ARE ABANDONED.”

Dated: January 14, 2015Bayview Loan Servicing, LLCMortgagee/Assignee of MortgageeUSSET, WEINGARDEN AND LI-EBO, P.L.L.P.Attorneys for Mortgagee/Assignee of Mortgagee4500 Park Glen Road #300Minneapolis, MN 55416(952) 925-688837-14-008488 FCTHIS IS A COMMUNICATION FROM A DEBT COLLECTOR.

Published in Apple Valley

January 23, 30, February 6, 13, 20, 27, 2015

339627

NOTICE OF MORTGAGE FORECLOSURE SALE

THE RIGHT TO VERIFICATION OF THE DEBT AND IDENTITY OF THE ORIGINAL CREDITOR WITHIN THE TIME PROVIDED BY LAW IS NOT AFFECTED BY THIS ACTION.

NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN, that default has occurred in conditions of the following described mort-gage:

DATE OF MORTGAGE: October 26, 2009MORTGAGOR: Keith R. Porath

and Renae A. Porath, husband and wife.

MORTGAGEE: Mortgage Elec-tronic Registration Systems, Inc..

DATE AND PLACE OF RE-CORDING: Recorded November 20, 2009 Dakota County Recorder, Document No. 2697846.

ASSIGNMENTS OF MORT-GAGE: Assigned to: Bank of America, N.A. successor by merger to BAC Home Loans Servicing, LP . Dated December 2, 2011 Recorded December 19, 2011, as Document No. 2837502.

TRANSACTION AGENT: Mortgage Electronic Registra-

tion Systems, Inc.TRANSACTION AGENT’S

MORTGAGE IDENTIFICATION NUMBER ON MORTGAGE:

100061907000126375LENDER OR BROKER AND

MORTGAGE ORIGINATOR STATED ON MORTGAGE: Summit Mort-gage Corporation, a Minnesota Corporation

RESIDENTIAL MORTGAGE SERVICER: Bank of America, N.A.

MORTGAGED PROPERTY AD-DRESS: 12892 Forest Court, Apple Valley, MN 55124

TAX PARCEL I.D. #: 01.15300.01.090 and 01.01500.79.023LEGAL DESCRIPTION OF

PROPERTY:Parcel I:Lot 9, Block 1, Broner Woods,

Dakota County, Minnesota. PID No. 01-15300-090-01

Parcel II:That part of the East Half of the

Southwest Quarter of the South-east Quarter of Section 15, Town-ship 115, Range 20, Dakota Coun-ty, Minnesota described as follows:

Beginning at the Northeast cor-ner of Broner Woods, according to the recorded plat thereof; thence North 89 degrees 20 minutes 31 seconds East (assumed bearing) along the Easterly extension of the North line of said Broner Woods 15 feet to the West line of Nordic Woods Eighth Addition, according to the recorded plat thereof, thence South 0 degrees 38 minutes 14 seconds East along said West line 120 feet to the Easterly extension of the South line of Lot 9, Block 1, said Broner Woods; thence South 89 degrees 20 minutes 31 seconds West along said Easterly extension 15.01 feet to the Southeast corner of said Lot 9; thence North 0 de-grees 38 minutes 04 seconds West along the East line thereof 120 feet to the point of beginning, Dakota County, Minnesota.

PID No. 01-01500-023-79COUNTY IN WHICH PROPERTY

IS LOCATED: DakotaORIGINAL PRINCIPAL AMOUNT

OF MORTGAGE: $206,564.00AMOUNT DUE AND CLAIMED

TO BE DUE AS OF DATE OF NO-TICE, INCLUDING TAXES, IF ANY, PAID BY MORTGAGEE:

$227,664.28That prior to the commence-

ment of this mortgage foreclosure proceeding Mortgagee/Assignee of Mortgagee complied with all notice requirements as required by stat-ute; That no action or proceeding has been instituted at law or other-wise to recover the debt secured by said mortgage, or any part thereof;

PURSUANT to the power of sale contained in said mortgage, the above described property will be sold by the Sheriff of said county as follows:

DATE AND TIME OF SALE: March 19, 2015 at 10:00 AMPLACE OF SALE: Sheriff’s Of-

fice, Law Enforcement Center, 1580 Hwy 55, Lobby #S-100, Hastings, MN

to pay the debt then secured by said Mortgage, and taxes, if any, on said premises, and the costs and disbursements, including at-torneys’ fees allowed by law sub-ject to redemption within six (6) months from the date of said sale by the mortgagor(s), their personal representatives or assigns unless reduced to Five (5) weeks under MN Stat. §580.07.

TIME AND DATE TO VACATE PROPERTY: If the real estate is an owner-occupied, single-family dwelling, unless otherwise pro-vided by law, the date on or before which the mortgagor(s) must va-cate the property if the mortgage is not reinstated under section 580.30 or the property is not redeemed under section 580.23 is 11:59 p.m. on September 21, 2015 unless that date falls on a weekend or legal holiday, in which case it is the next weekday, and unless the redemp-tion period is reduced to 5 weeks under MN Stat. Secs. 580.07 or 582.032.

MORTGAGOR(S) RELEASED FROM FINANCIAL OBLIGATION ON MORTGAGE: None

“THE TIME ALLOWED BY LAW FOR REDEMPTION BY THE MORTGAGOR, THE MORTGAG-OR’S PERSONAL REPRESEN-TATIVES OR ASSIGNS, MAY BE REDUCED TO FIVE WEEKS IF A JUDICIAL ORDER IS ENTERED UNDER MINNESOTA STATUTES, SECTION 582.032, DETERMIN-ING, AMONG OTHER THINGS, THAT THE MORTGAGED PREM-ISES ARE IMPROVED WITH A RESIDENTIAL DWELLING OF LESS THAN FIVE UNITS, ARE NOT PROPERTY USED IN AGRICUL-TURAL PRODUCTION, AND ARE ABANDONED.”

Dated: January 13, 2015Bank of America, N.A.Mortgagee/Assignee of MortgageeUSSET, WEINGARDEN AND LI-EBO, P.L.L.P.Attorneys for Mortgagee/Assignee of Mortgagee4500 Park Glen Road #300Minneapolis, MN 55416(952) 925-688818 - 14-008628 FCTHIS IS A COMMUNICATION FROM A DEBT COLLECTOR.


January 23, 30, February 6, 13 20, 27, 2015

339620

INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 917

REGULAR MEETING MINUTES

DECEMBER 2, 2014This is a summary of the In-

termediate School District 917 Regular School Board Meeting on Tuesday, December 2, 2014, with full text available for public inspec-tion on the district website at www.isd917.k12.mn.us or the District Office at 1300 145th Street East, Rosemount, MN 55068.

The meeting was called to or-der at 5:15 PM. Board meeting was held at 1300 145th Street East, Rosemount, MN in the 917 Board Room. Board members present: Dick Bergstrom, Bob Er-ickson, Ron Hill, Jill Lewis, Dan Cater, Deb Clark, Vanda Pressnall, Melissa Sauser, Joanne Mansur, and administrators were present. Also present Richard and Chelsie Saintey. Absent: none. Good news reports were presented. The following Consent Agenda items were approved: minutes, person-nel, donations, bills to be paid, in-vestment report, and wire transfers. Reports: Valerie Dosland, Lobbyist for the Intermediates reported on the upcoming legislative session. Overview of SUN Program present-ed by Melissa Schaller, Dave Stoll and Jennifer Hetland.

Adjournment at 6:45 PM.

Published in Apple Valley, Lakeville,

Burnsville/EaganJanuary 30, 2015

341968

SUMMONSSTATE OF WISCONSINCIRCUIT COURTOUTAGAMIE COUNTYCASE TYPE: Small Claims Case No.: 14SC3852Younis Zaidan940 E. Capitol Dr.Appleton, WI. 54911Plaintiff(s)vs Fatima & Alaaeldeen Ahmed15671 Finch Ave.Apple Valley, MN. 55124Defendants(s)

TO THE PERSON(S) NAMED ABOVE AS DEFENDANT(S):

You are being sued by the person(s) named as Plaintiff(s). A copy of the claim has been sent to you at your address as stated in the caption above.

The lawsuit will be heard in the following Small Claims court:

Outagamie County CourthouseTelephone Number of Clerk of

Court: 920-832-5131Courtroom/Room Number: “H”,

Human Services Building, 410 South Walnut Street, Appleton, WI. 54911, on February 23, 2015, at 2:30 p.m.

If you do not attend the hear-ing, the court may enter a judgment against you in favor of the person(s) suing you. A copy of the claim has been sent to you at your address as stated in the caption above. A judgment may be enforced as pro-vided by law. A judgment awarding money may become a lien against any real estate you own now or in the future, and may also be en-forced by garnishment or seizure of property.

You may have the option to An-swer without appearing in court on the court date by filing a writ-ten Answer with the clerk of court before the court date. You must send a copy of your Answer to the Plaintiff(s) named above at their ad-dress. You may contact the clerk of court at the telephone number above to determine if there are other methods to answer a Small Claims complaint in that county.

Dated: January 13, 2015By: /s/ Younis Zaidan


January 23, 30, February 6, 2015339526

CITY OF APPLE VALLEYNOTICE OF PUBLIC

HEARING PROPOSED REZONING, ZONING AMENDMENTS, AND SUBDIVISION IN THE

CITY OF APPLE VALLEYNOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that

the Planning Commission of the City of Apple Valley, Dakota County, Minnesota, will meet at the Munici-pal Center, 7100 147th Street West, on Wednesday, February 18, 2015, at 7:00 p.m., or as soon thereafter as possible. The purpose of the meeting is to hold a public hear-ing on a proposed rezoning from Planned Development No. 849 to Planned Development No. 856/zone 3, amendments to Planned Development No. 856 to establish uses and performance standard for commercial/retail uses in zone 3, and preliminary plat to subdivide an existing outlot into one (1) lot and one (1) outlot.

Said hearing relates to property generally located on the northeast corner of Pilot Knob Road (CSAH 31) and 155th Street West, with an area of approximately 5.5 acres, and legally described as follows:

Outlot B, APPLE VALLEY EAST FAMILY 2ND ADDITION, Dakota County, Minnesota

NOTICE IS FURTHER GIVEN that these proceedings are institut-ed by South Shore Development, Inc., and Primrose School Fran-chising Company. All interested parties will be given an opportunity to be heard at said time and place.

DATED this 23rd day of January, 2015.Pamela J. Gackstetter, City Clerk

Published inApple Valley

January 30, 2015342014

INTERMEDIATE SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 917

REGULAR MEETING MINUTES JANUARY 6, 2015

This is a summary of the Inter-mediate School District 917 Regu-lar School Board Meeting on Tues-day, January 6, 2015, with full text available for public inspection on the district website at www.isd917.k12.mn.us or the District Office at 1300 145th Street East, Rose-mount, MN 55068.

The meeting was called to order at 5:15 PM. Board meeting was held at 1300 145th Street East, Rosemount, MN in the 917 Board Room. Board members present: Dick Bergstrom, Bob Erickson, Ron Hill, Jill Lewis, Dan Cater, Deb Clark, Vanda Pressnall, Melissa Sauser, Joanne Mansur, and ad-ministrators were present. Absent: none. Good news reports were presented. The following Consent Agenda items were approved: minutes, personnel, donations, bills to be paid, investment report, and wire transfers. Recommended actions approved: Temporary Em-ployee Report; Accounts Receiv-able Aging Report; Revised Budget for 2014-2015; CTIC Agreement; Resolution for Paraprofessional Week; Superintendent’s Contract for 2015-2018; change start time for all future 917 School Board meetings to 5:00 PM, with the ex-ception of Board work sessions. Adjournment at 6:18 PM.

Published in Apple Valley, Lakeville,

Burnsville/EaganJanuary 30, 2015

341966

PUBLISHYOUR LEGALNOTICE HEREEmail legal notices for publication to [email protected] days anddeadlines vary. Call 952-392-6829 for more information.

Fitness after 50Jim Fisher is pictured on one of the workout machines at his Welcyon, Fitness after 50 franchise in Burnsville. (Photo by John Gessner)

Local entrepreneur

finds his missionafter stroke

by John GessnerSUN THISWEEK


Jim Fisher used to be a fair-weather workout en-thusiast. He’d hit it hard for a month but backslide when the travel and de-mands of his job as a com-pany president mounted. In 2012, Fisher had a stroke. Through rehabilitation, he regained his ability to walk, drive and stand for long periods. And Fisher rededicated himself to physical and nutritional fitness. “I’m down about 60 pounds from my maxi-mum weight,” the 56-year-old Apple Valley resident said. “I know that my joints and everything else benefitted greatly from that. I played softball a summer ago for the first time in 25 years and felt great doing that, and I’m able to spend time with my family and my friends doing things that I wasn’t able to do before.” Fisher also left his job with a sign and screen printing company to look for business opportuni-ties on his own. Through a franchise broker he learned about an Edina-based chain of health clubs called Welcyon, Fit-ness After 50. In December Fisher opened the first Welcyon location south of the river. Welcyon is the Twin Cit-ies’ first health club chain for people 50 and older, he said. The new location is in the Summit Oaks Square mall at county roads 11 and 42 in Burnsville. “I was fortunate enough to have access to equipment to do it on my own,” said Fisher, who has two daughters, 17 and 24, with his wife, Teresa. “And I’m a self-driven person, and really driven after my

stroke. Not everyone can do it on their own. They need guidance.” Welcyon was founded by Tom and Suzy Boer-boom. Tom is president and chief operating of-ficer of Welcov Health-care, which owns senior health-care facilities. Suzy is a former nurse, and the couple formerly owned some Curves health clubs for women, Fisher said. “Working in all those different environments, they found that the over-50 demographic is under-served from a fitness per-spective,” Fisher said. “No one’s focusing on them and providing them the high-touch, consultative approach to fitness.” His club is staffed by six Welcyon-trained coaches. Each new client gets three orientation workouts to acclimate them to the equipment and set their re-sistance levels, Fisher said. Clients range from al-ready fit workout junkies to people who lapsed over the years to those who have never worked out and may have joint replace-ments, arthritis or coro-nary disease, Fisher said. “We’re here to help them digest this in bite-sized pieces and help them crawl at first, then walk, then walk faster,” he said. “Some of them may never run. They may never get to those stand-up ellipti-cals down on the end, and that’s OK.” Welcyon offers strength, cardio, balance, stretching and nutrition training. “The fact of the mat-ter is, we lose 10 percent of our muscle mass every decade from 30 on if we don’t do anything to main-tain it,” Fisher said. “And strength training isn’t something that the 50-plus demographic tends to do.” Welcyon offers smart card-driven strength equipment that records re-sistance levels and reps for each user and automati-cally increases the resis-

tance for the next session after a user exceeds the usual number of reps. “We work with a mem-ber to build their profile,” Fisher said. On average, he said, Welcyon members in-crease their strength by 50 percent in the first three months and double it in a year. “Doubling your strength can mean I can lift that bag of water-soft-ener salt out of my trunk and carry it to the house now,” Fisher said. “Or it could mean I’m able to do things outside, garden, and do other things. It can mean a lot of different things. But what it does mean is that my muscles aren’t continuing to atro-phy, my bone density isn’t going down, and by build-ing strength, you’re also increasing your metabolic rate at rest. If you add more muscles than you do fat, your body’s going to burn more calories just at a resting heart rate.” Other club features in-clude low-impact cardio equipment (no treadmills, Fisher said), standing and seated elliptical machines and recumbent bicycles with video courses to fol-low. The club offers a regi-men of five stretching routines and a regimen of balance exercises that strengthen ankle and leg muscles, Fisher said. Nutrition counseling is also provided. “You can’t treat one and not treat the other and get great results,” he said. “After 50 it is very hard to work out hard enough and long enough to be able to overcome a bad diet.” The Burnsville club is at 14635 County Road 11. More information is at www.welcyon.com/burns-ville.

John Gessner can be reached at (952) 846-2031 or email [email protected].

Apple Valley residents Rick and Lise Anderson were recently recognized by insurance company West Bend for their volunteerism with Kids ’n Kinship. The nonprofit was pre-sented a $10,000 award on behalf of the Andersons, who have mentored two boys over a period of eight years. In addition, Rick Anderson collects, refurbishes and sells bicycles at his annual May bike sale and has donated proceeds of $46,000 to Kids ’n Kinship over the years. Rick Anderson, of PCG Agencies in Apple Valley, has represented West Bend for 32 years. From left, Lise and Rick Anderson; Jan Belmore, director, Kids ’n Kinship. (Photo submitted)

Kids ’n Kinship receives grant


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INDEX

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classifieds• Wheels 1010-1070• Sporting 1510-1580• Farm 2010-2080• Pets 2510-2520• Announcements 3010-3090• Merchandise 3510-3630• Sales 4010-4030• Rentals/Real Estate 4510-4650• Services 5010-5440• Employment 5510-2280• Network Ads 6010

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1020 Junkers& Repairables

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5370 Painting &Decorating

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5170 Concrete/Mason-ry/Waterproofing



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5000 SERVICES

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Residential Painting30+ Years ExperienceFree Estimates952-334-5902

5380 Plumbing

SAVE MONEY - Competent Master Plumb-er needs work. Lic# M3869.

Jason 952-891-2490


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◆ ROOF SNOW & ICE REMOVAL

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TOPSIDE, INC. 612-869-1177 ◆Insured Lic CR005276 ◆ Bonded

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5410 Snow Removal

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A Good Job!! 15 yrs exp.Thomas Tree Service

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5500 EMPLOYMENT

5510 Full-time

Are you a Sales Represen-tative interested in Tech-nology? Are you looking for an exciting new sales opportunity? If so, then look at what New Hori-zons has to offer.www.newhorizonsmn.com

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Send resume to: [email protected]

Great opportunity to join the Luther family of dealerships at our state of the art facility. Significant income potential selling on an open show floor. Top sales consultants producing over 30 deals per month. Join our team of customer focused con-sultants that have earned us numerous VW awards and a 4.9 rating on Google!Be proud of what you sell with Motor Trend and North American Car of the Year award winners, top safety picks, high mpg cars, and Consumer Reports best picks.Aggressive pay plan, monthly bonuses, and significant factory pay-outs, plus great benefits including 401k, medical, and dental. Auto Sales experience preferred. We will train the right candidate with non-automotive retail sales experience. Email Tim Wilkins at [email protected] or ap-ply online. Select “Burns-ville Volkswagen” from dealership list.

Child Care

BUILD A CAREER THAT MAKES A DIFFERENCE! New Horizon Academy in Richfield is now accepting resumes for:LEAD TEACHERS. Can-didates must be qualified under MN Rule 3. Previous experience and a 2/4 year degree is a plus. Reward-ing work environment, health/life insurance, 401K & much more! For more information/schedule an interview contact Aimee at

612-292-5437 or [email protected]

Finish Carpenters$4000 Hiring Bonus for

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area. 612-328-3140 to schedule an interview.

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FT Customer Service

RepresentativeSouth of the river In-dependent Insurance Agency looking for a licensed FT Customer Service Representative. The position will be ½ time personal lines support and ½ time commercial lines sup-port. Position designed for a self-motivated individual with strong verbal and written com-munication skills. Prop-erty/casualty license REQUIRED. Apply to [email protected]

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5510 Full-time 5510 Full-time

5520 Part-time 5520 Part-time

5530 Full-time orPart-time


18/8 Solutions Inc has openings for the position Java Developer Analyst with Master’s degree in Comp Science, Engg (any),Comp Apps ,Technology, Buss Ad-min or related and 1 yr of exp to develop, create, imple-ment and modify web services, spring security across theproject in all web app ,business layer & data mgmt components of multi-tiered web based system over J2EE architecture using JPA,JSP/HTML and Java script technologies .Analyze user needs and develop s/w solutions. Design s/w or customize s/w for client use with the aim of optimizing operational efficiency.Work location is Woodbury, MN area with required travel to client locations throughout USA.

Please mail resumes to z6043 Hudson Rd, Suite 300 L, Woodbury, MN 55125

or email: [email protected]




5520 Part-time5520 Part-time5520 Part-time

5510 Full-time 5510 Full-time5510 Full-time

5520 Part-time 5520 Part-time

5510 Full-time

FT Diesel Mechanic$1000 Hiring Bonus!

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5510 Full-time

Nuss Truck & Equipment in Burnsville is accepting

applications for the following position:

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5520 Part-time

General Office Cleaning3 times per week, approx. 1 hour per day. Govern-ment office. Rosemount. Up to $25/hr. Exp. only. Must pass background check. Reply to [email protected] EEO Employer

NEWSPAPER DELIVERY

Do you have some spare time on Thurs/Friday?Earn some extra cash! ECM DISTRIBUTION is looking for you! We currently have motor routes in Burnsville, Eagan, Apple Valley, Rosemount, Farming-ton, Lakeville. A typical route takes 1 to 2 hours. Motor routes require a reliable vehicle. Delivery time frames are long enough to allow flexibility for your schedule. Give us a call for more details.

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PT Housecleaning So. of the river. Must have own transp. 952-892-6102

5520 Part-time

Provincial Bank, in Lakeville is seeking the following position:

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Applications available at:

20280 Iberia Ave. Lakeville

Send resume by fax to 952-985-5218

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provincialbank.comEOE

Reimbursed Senior Volunteer Position

Lutheran Social Service of MN is seeking Volunteers 55+ years to serve in our Senior Companion Pro-gram by providing friendly in-homes visit to elderly adults. Our volunteers re-ceive a tax-free hourly sti-pend, mileage reimburse-ment & other benefits. Contact Melissa Grimmer at 651.310.9443 or [email protected]


Part time/Full time CDL drivers looking for supple-mental income moving utility trucks both locally and multi-state. Flat-tow-able car preferred. Great retirement work. Call 859-361-9953

Pharmaceutical Indepen-dent Marketing Field Rep. Self employed. Flexible. 10-20 hrs/week. Must enjoy working with people. Generous commission based income/bonuses. 651-214-4970

5540 Healthcare

Tutor & PCA needed. Two boys 10&12 in Elko. M-F approx 2:30-9:30. More hrs avl in summer. $13+ start DOQ. N/S. 612-501-7490


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into magnet schools in 2007 after they were add-ed to the list of racially identifiable schools three years earlier. “Both have been very successful and have been recognized nationally,” said Tony Taschner, com-munications director for District 196. “Magnets are often looked at by districts to create racial balance and offer more school choice options.” Since then both have become more racially bal-anced and experienced significant improvements in student achievement, officials say. Cedar Park Elementa-ry was one of 22 schools in the state to receive a Celebration School des-ignation by the Minneso-ta Department of Educa-tion last December. The designation is part of the state’s Multiple Mea-surement Rating system, which replaced No Child Left Behind. All schools receive an MMR score, but only those that have higher concentrations of pov-erty and receive federal Title I funding may also receive an MMR desig-nation as a Reward, Cel-ebration Eligible, Con-tinuous Improvement, Focus or Priority school. Last year, Cedar Park, Glacier Hills, Oak Ridge and Echo Park were named as Celebration Eligible. Though officials are looking at potentially turning Oak Ridge and Echo Park into magnet schools, no official deci-sion has been made. Dis-trict officials have been meeting with parents to discuss whether they sup-port the idea of a magnet school and if so, what theme they prefer. Echo Park and Oak Ridge are not the only schools district officials hope to address with a potential bond referen-

dum. Officials also rec-ommended upgrading security equipment at all schools, reconfiguring entrances or moving the main office at all 18 ele-mentary schools and five middle schools to better route visitors, create a small greeter area at all five high schools and Da-kota Hills Middle School, and expand parking lots at 16 schools. Officials also recom-mended technology up-grades to district build-ings including expanding Wi-Fi capacity, main-taining interactive class-room equipment and replacing outdated tele-phone systems. Officials recommend-ed spending an estimated $50 million to purchase additional tablets and other devices for students to use in the classroom. Officials are consider-ing seeking a $40 million capital projects levy to cover this cost. All of the district’s potential projects would need board approval before moving forward. District officials plan to survey residents and collect additional infor-mation before deciding whether to pursue these projects and a potential referendum. If the board decides to seek a referen-dum, it would likely go to voters in November. If voters approved a $180 million bond ref-erendum and capital projects levy, homeown-ers would see a small in-crease in their property taxes, said Jeff Solomon, finance director for Dis-trict 196. Taxes on the average valued home of $250,000 would likely increase by about $144 between pay-able 2015 and payable 2016, which is about $12 more a month.

Jessica Harper is at [email protected] or facebook.com/sun-thisweek.

PLAN, from 1A

ing on key initiatives such as diversity and inclusion, veteran hiring and work-force development with key colleges and universi-ties. She has held her cur-rent job role for the past four years with responsi-bility for all aspects of the 16,000 St. Jude Medical employees globally. Craig joined St. Jude Medical in 2005 as vice president of corporate re-lations with responsibility for health policy, govern-ment affairs, investor rela-tions, public relations and internal communications, according to the company. In 2010 that role ex-panded to include re-sponsibility for corporate human resources, and in 2012, she assumed her cur-rent role leading the newly centralized global human resources organization. Craig has led numer-ous initiatives in human resources that St. Jude officials say have fostered collaboration and partner-ship across the company, strengthened the com-pany’s organizational ca-pacity and reinforced the company’s culture around

the globe. She was credited for helping lead the company through significant growth and the integration of sev-eral acquisitions. Prior to working at St. Jude Medical, Craig spent more than 10 years at London-based ortho-pedics company Smith & Nephew. She led corpo-rate affairs in addition to communications, public relations and government affairs. She was based in Lon-don, and Memphis, Tenn., during her tenure with Smith & Nephew. Craig is a board mem-ber of Open Arms of Minnesota, Women Win-ning, and a member of the Eagan Rotary. She also serves as a precinct chair in Senate District 51 for the DFL Party. She has served on the boards of the St. Paul Area Chamber of Com-merce, LifeScience Alley and the Twin Cities Amer-ican Heart Association, as well as chairwoman of the Twin Cities Go Red cam-paign. She is the current chairwoman of the Ad-vancing Sciences Break-fast for the AHA. Craig has a bachelor

of arts degree in journal-ism from the University of Memphis and began her career as a newspaper re-porter in Memphis. She is married with four boys.

Gerson Gerson, who lost the Republicans’ endorsement vote in 2014, said he has a plan in place to fund-raise and win an expected endorsement battle with Kline. “I recognize that many will judge the strength of my campaign purely on our ability to fundraise and I am building a plan to do exactly that,” he said in a statement. Among Gerson’s top priorities are repealing the Affordable Care Act, sim-plifying the tax code and eliminate special inter-est loopholes and reining in out-of-control deficit spending. “People want an alter-native to politics-as-usual. They want a government that works for their fami-lies and their communities. They want a leader that will represent them,” he said. Gerson ran against Kline in the 2012 primary

when the incumbent cap-tured 85 percent of the vote. Gerson, an engineer who works for aerospace company Meggitt PLC, portrayed himself as a more conservative candi-date than Kline. Kline, 66, a 25-year vet-eran of the Marine Corps and chairman of the Edu-cation and the Workforce Committee, won his sev-enth term in the House in 2014 with 56.1 percent of the vote to former state Rep. Mike Obermueller’s 38.8 percent. Kline, who also serves on the House Armed Ser-vices Committee, first won election by defeating in-cumbent Rep. Bill Luther in 2002. It was the third Kline-Luther matchup. He then defeated a string of Democrat candi-dates that included former Burnsville City Coun-cil Member Teresa Daly, former FBI agent Coleen Rowley, Iraq War veteran Steve Sarvi, former state Rep. Shelley Madore and twice defeated Eagan at-torney Obermueller.

Email Tad Johnson at [email protected].

2016, from 1A

Give Kids a Smile offers free dental care at area locations Free dental care for up to 6,000 children in need will be available at dental offices across Minnesota during the Minnesota Dental Association’s 13th annual Give Kids a Smile event. Patients seeking ap-pointments should be 18 years or younger and be accompanied by a parent or legal guardian. People interested in scheduling an appointment can call United Way 211 (just dial 2-1-1), or the statewide toll-free number 1-800-

543-7709. Local dental clinics participating in Give Kids a Smile include: The Dental Specialists.com, 40 Nicollet Blvd. W., Burnsville. Event date: Feb. 6. Office hours: 7 a.m. to 2 p.m. Services offered: Root canals. Phone: 952-746-4519. Park Dental Ridges, 40 W. Nicollet Blvd., Burnsville. Event date: Feb. 6. Office hours: 1-5 p.m. Website for direc-tions: parkdental.com/ridges#ad-image-0. Ser-

vices offered: Exams, cleanings, fluoride, seal-ants, X-rays, fillings, ex-tractions. Phone: 952-898-0990. Eagan Valley Dental, 4555 Erin Drive, Suite 180, Eagan. Event date: Feb. 5. Office hours: 2-6 p.m. Services offered: Exams, X-rays, cleanings, sealants, fluoride, fillings. Languag-es: Spanish. Phone: 651-681-9044. Park Dental Eagan, 1895 Plaza Drive, Suite 130, Eagan. Event date: Feb. 6. Office hours: 7-11

a.m. Website for direc-tions: www.parkdental.com. Services offered: Exam, cleanings, fluoride, sealants, X-rays, extrac-tions, fillings. Phone: 651-454-2700. Metro Dentalcare Eagan, 1965 Cliff Lake Road, Suite 102, Eagan. Event date: Feb. 6. Office hours: 12-4 p.m. Services offered: Exams, clean-ings, fluoride varnishes, sealants, X-rays, fillings, extractions. Languages: Spanish. Phone: 651-452-4828.


theater and arts calendar

family calendar

To submit items for the Arts Calendar, email: darcy.

[email protected].

Books David Housewright, 1-2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 7, Burn-haven Library, 1101 W. Coun-ty Road 42, Burnsville. The award-winning author will talk about what’s next for private investigator Mac McKenzie. Housewright will sign and sell his books. Information: 952-891-0300. Meet the Author: Susan Follett, 6:30-8 p.m. Tuesday, Feb. 17, Rosemount Commu-nity Center, 13885 S. Robert Trail. Follett, author of “The Fog Machine,” a novel that explores the price of freedom in racially charged Mississippi in 1964, will lead a panel discussion fo-cusing on her debut novel and the inspiration behind it. Follett will sell and sign her book. A Black History Month program presented by the Rosemount Area Arts Council. SouthSide Writers, Sat-urday workgroup for aspiring writers, offering critique, sub-mission and manuscript prep-aration information, support and direction, 10 a.m. to noon, Wescott Library, 1340 Wescott Road, Eagan. Information: 651-688-0365.

Exhibits Art Fete, an exhibit by the Burnsville Visual Arts Society, is on display through Feb. 8 in the art gallery at Ames Center, 12600 Nicollet Ave., Burnsville. Information: 952-895-4685.

Events Valentine’s Day Couple’s Dinner, Rosemount American Legion, 14590 Burma Ave., Rosemount. Cost: $40 in ad-vance, $45 at the event. Dinner available 5-8 p.m. Reservations requested. Information: 651-423-3380. Love Me Tender Weekend, Feb. 13-14, Mystic Lake Ca-sino, Prior Lake. Information: mysticlake.com/lovemetend-er15.

Music Caribbean Soiree with Socaholix, 7:30 p.m. Satur-day, Jan. 31, Lakeville Area Arts Center, 20965 Holyoke Ave., Lakeville. Tickets: $20 in advance, $23 at the door. Infor-mation: 952-985-4640. Marilyn Manson’s The Hell Not Hallelujah Tour, 8 p.m. Fri-day, Feb. 6, Mystic Showroom, Mystic Lake, Prior Lake. Tick-ets: $49 and $57. Contact the box office at 952-445-9000 or visit mysticlake.com for more details. Music from the Heart Con-cert by the Bells of the Bluffs Handbell Ensemble, 2 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 8, First Presby-terian Church, 503 W. Sixth St., Red Wing. Doors open at 1 p.m. for socializing and silent auction. Refreshments follow concert. Pure Classics Concert by the Dakota Valley Symphony & Chorus, 3 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 8, Ames Center, 12600 Nicollet Ave., Burnsville. Tickets: $5-$20 at the box office and Tick-etmaster.com.

Theater “Ole and Lena at the State Fair,” 7:30 p.m. Feb. 6-7 and 2 p.m. Feb. 8, Lakeville Area Arts Center, 20965 Holyoke Ave., Lakeville. Tickets: $18. Infor-mation: 952-985-4640. “Honk!” presented by Chil-dren’s Castle Theater, 7 p.m. Feb. 13-14 and 20-21 and 2 p.m. Feb. 14-15 and 21-22, Lakeville Area Arts Center, 20965 Holyoke Ave., Lakeville. Tickets: $13. Information: 952-985-4640.

Workshops/classes/other International Festival of Burnsville Planning Commit-tee: Get involved with the July 2015 festival; choose from en-tertainment, marketing, public-ity, sponsorships, and general event planning. Visit www.in-tlfestburnsville.org or contact [email protected]. The Eagan Art House of-fers art classes for all ages,

www.cityofeagan.com/index.php/recreat ion/eagan-art-house, 651-675-5500. Teen Poetry Jam/Rap Bat-tle, 4-5 p.m. the first Tuesday of each month at Apple Valley Teen Center, 14255 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley, 952-953-2385. Ages 12-18. Dan Petrov Art Studio, Burnsville, offers oil painting classes with continuous enroll-ment in fall/winter semester for beginners, intermediate and advanced oil painting students. Information: Dan Petrov, www.danpetrovart.com, 763-843-2734. Drawing & Painting (adults and teens) with Christine Tier-ney, 9 a.m. to noon Wednes-days, River Ridge Arts Building, Burnsville. Information: www.christinetierney.com, 612-210-3377. Brushworks School of Art Burnsville offers fine art education through drawing and painting. Classes for adults and teens. Information: Patricia Schwartz, www.BrushworksS-choolofArt.com, 651-214-4732. Soy candle making class-es held weekly in Eagan near 55 and Yankee Doodle. Call Ja-mie at 651-315-4849 for dates and times. $10 per person. Presented by Making Scents in Minnesota. Country line dance class-es held for intermediates Mon-days 1:30-4 p.m. at Rambling River Center, 325 Oak St., Farmington, $5/class. Call Mar-ilyn 651-463-7833. Country line dance class-es on Wednesdays at the Lake-ville Senior Center, 20110 Holy-oke Ave. Beginners, 9-10 a.m.; Intermediate, 10 a.m. to noon. $5/class. Call Marilyn 651-463-7833. The Lakeville Area Arts Center offers arts classes for all ages, www.lakevillemn.gov, 952-985-4640. Rosemount History Book Club meets 6:30-8 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month at the Robert Trail Library. Infor-mation: John Loch, 952-255-8545 or [email protected].

To submit items for the Family Calendar, email:

[email protected].

Friday, Jan. 30 Family fun night fundraiser for St. Joseph School, 5:30-8:30 p.m., Church of St. Jo-seph, 13900 Biscayne Ave. W., Rosemount. Information: http://school.stjosephcommunity.org/parish_family_fun_night.

Saturday, Jan. 31 Farmington Community Expo, 9 a.m. to noon, Farming-ton High School, 20655 Flag-staff Ave. Free admission. Clarity for the Chaos of Family Life parenting work-shop, 9 a.m. to noon, Trin-ity Evangelical Free Church, 10658 210th St. W., Lakeville. Cost: $10 per person or $15 per couple. Register online at www.trinityefc.net. Indoor winter farmers market, 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., Ea-gan Community Center, 1501 Central Parkway, Eagan. Fea-tures winter produce, breads, meats, sweet treats and more. Information: Eagan Parks and Recreation at 651-675-5500.

Tuesday, Feb. 3 Open house, 1-3 p.m., Saint Mary’s University of Min-nesota, 14200 Cedar Ave., Apple Valley. Information: 612-238-4551.

Thursday, Feb. 5 Burnsville Park Nicollet’s Dementia Caregiver Support Group, 10 a.m., on the third floor in the administration con-ference room, 14000 Fairview Drive, Burnsville. No registra-tion required. Information: Con-nie at 952-993-8739. Adopted Friends open gym, 12-2:30 p.m., Saints Sports Academy, 9913 214th St. W., Lakeville. Friendship, support and fun for adoptive families. Information: www.ad-optedfriends.com or [email protected]. Free divorce clinic, 1-4 p.m., Galaxie Library, 14955 Galaxie Ave., Apple Valley. Get help with divorce paperwork

using Minnesota I-Can. Pre-sented by the Dakota County Law Library, Legal Assistance of Dakota County, the Minne-sota Justice Foundation, and volunteer attorneys and law students. Registration required. Call 952-431-3200. Minnesota Native Plant Society meeting, 7 p.m., Dakota Lodge at Thompson County Park, 360 Butler Ave. E., West St. Paul. Topic: “Rare Plant Conservation at the Min-nesota Landscape Arboretum” by David Remucal, the Minne-sota Landscape Arboretum’s curator of endangered plants. Information: www.mnnps.org. Lebanon Hills informa-tional meeting, 7-8:30 p.m., Falcon Ridge Middle School, Lecture Room A, 12900 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley. Will include information from the revised Lebanon Hills Draft Master Plan and how to give input to the County Board and Planning Department. Hosted by Wilderness in the City. Infor-mation: [email protected] or http://wildleba-nonhills.org.

Friday, Feb. 6 Forever Wild Family Fri-day: The Man Who Loved Snow, 7-8:30 p.m., Lebanon Hills Visitor Center, 860 Cliff Road, Eagan. All ages. In the Heart of the Beast Puppet and Mask Theatre shares the story of “Snowflake” Bentley, the first person to photograph a single snow crystal. Free. Registra-tion requested. Information: www.co.dakota.mn.us/parks. Course number 5049.

Saturday, Feb. 7 “Lose 20 lbs. in 30 days Weight Loss Challenge” by Essential Health Chiropractic, 9 a.m. to noon, 1964 Rahncliff Court, Suite 100, Eagan. Cost: $10-$25 depending on if you would like the book with the event. RSVP by calling 952-432-3833 or registering on eventbrite.com “Lose to Win-Health Makeover.” Citizens Climate Lobby of Dakota County meeting,

10 a.m. to noon, Jo Jo’s Rise and Wine, 12501 Nicollet Ave., Burnsville. Information: 952-920-1547 or [email protected]. Youth Ice Fishing Contest, noon to 2 p.m., Valley Lake Park, 16050 Garrett Path. For ages 13 and under. Bring your own fishing equipment and bait. Free. Sponsored by the Lakeville Knights of Columbus. Lincoln Day High Tea, 1 p.m., Mendakota Country Club, 2075 Mendakota Drive, Men-dota Heights. Speaker: Law professor and Lincoln scholar Michael Stokes Paulsen. Cost: $25. Reservations required by Feb. 1 to Kaki Frost via email at [email protected]. Spon-sored by Metro Republican Women (www.metrogopwom-en.org).

Ongoing Emotions Anonymous meetings, 7:30-9 p.m. Tues-days at SouthCross Commu-nity Church, 1800 E. County Road 42 (at Summit Oak Drive), Apple Valley. EA is a 12-step program for those seeking emotional health. All are wel-come. Information: http://www.emotionsanonymous.org/.

Blood drives The American Red Cross will hold the following blood drives. Call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or visit red-crossblood.org to make an ap-pointment or for more informa-tion. • Feb. 3, 12:30-6:30 p.m., Shepherd of the Valley Luther-an Church, 12650 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley. • Feb. 3, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Threads & Inks, 20137 Icenic Trail, Lakeville. • Feb. 5, 1-6 p.m., Mt. Oliv-et Assembly of God Church, 14201 Cedar Ave. S., Apple Valley. • Feb. 5, 1-7 p.m., Berean Baptist Church, 309 E. County Road 42, Burnsville. • Feb. 7, 10:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Burnhaven Library, 1101 W. County Road 42, Burnsville.

by Andrew MillerSUN THISWEEK


The Eagan Theater Company is adding a ma-cabre twist to Valentine’s Day with its mystery din-ner theater show “My Fa-tal Valentine.” The interactive play, which will be presented at Feb. 13-14 at Brianno’s Royal Cliff Center in Ea-gan, offers guests a night of comedic fun, a roman-tic Italian dinner and a chance to put their ama-teur crime-solving skills to the test, said Amy Kamarainen, the show’s director and an Eagan Theater Company board member.

The fictional setting for “My Fatal Valentine” is the Heartthrob Books ro-mance convention, where one author will be award-ed the “Loveknot Award” for romance author of the year. Things do not go as planned when the winning author is shot, and it’s up to guests to help solve the crime. Actors and audience interact throughout the performance, start-ing when guests walk through the door. After questioning characters and considering clues offered throughout the play, guests will fill out secret ballots with their guess as to who perpe-

trated the crime. “The character receiv-ing the most votes is elect-ed the ‘perp’ and deter-mines the surprise ending of the play,” Kamarainen said. Tickets for the play are $38 and are available on the theater group’s website, www.etc-mn.org. The ticket price includes a chicken and pasta din-ner; there also will be a cash bar. Show times are 6 p.m. both nights. Brian-no’s Royal Cliff Center is located at 2280 Cliff Road in Eagan.

Email Andrew Miller at [email protected].

Eagan Theater Group presents mystery dinner theater Feb. 13-14

April Bailey, left, and Oksana Steinke are among the cast of Eagan Theater Com-pany’s “My Fatal Valentine,” an interactive murder-mystery play written by Eileen Moushey. (Photo submitted)

A murder on Valentine’s Day


ThisweekendThisweekendFifth-grader in ‘Goodnight Moon’ Cole Spanovich, a fifth-grader at Cherryview El-ementary in Lakeville, performs as Mouse in the Stages Theatre Company’s production of “Goodnight Moon: The Musical.” Performances run through Feb. 16 at Stag-es Theatre in Hopkins. Tickets are $16. For more information, visit www.stagestheatre.org.

The Lakeville Area Arts Center is taking on the vibe of a Caribbean island party when it plays host on Jan. 31 to a concert by the Socaholix, a band specializing in high-energy soca, calypso and reggae. The event seeks to capture the atmosphere of a tropical night club with candle-lit tables, drinks and soca dancing. Tickets for the 7:30 p.m. event are $20 and are available at www.LakevilleAreaArtsCenter.com or in person at the arts center located at 20965 Holyoke Ave. in downtown Lakeville. For more information, call 952-985-4640. (Photo submitted)

Caribbean soiree

The Golden Dragon Acrobats will present their “Cirque Ziva” show on Feb. 13 at the Ames Center in Burnsville. The fast-paced and colorful show has been touring nationally since 2011, and showcases traditional Chinese acrobats, dance and costumes, ancient and contemporary music, and modern theatrical techniques. Tickets range from $20 to $40 and can be purchased in person at the Burnsville venue’s box office, by phone at 800-982-2787 and online at Ticketmaster.com. (Photo submitted)

Acrobatic wonders

Cole Spanovich

From the Archives

One lesson to be learned from the history of American science-fiction literature: Robots never go out of style. This photo from the Sept. 8, 1980, edition of Thisweek News shows the Nelsen family of South St. Paul standing happily beside a robot-themed mailbox built by Gerry Nelsen for a project in his apprentice plumbing class. While Nelsen’s facsimile of a mechanical man may not have been programmed to attend to the family’s every whim (like every good robo-butler should), a permanent smile plastered across the robot’s face at least gave the appearance of cheerful enthusiasm for its singular duty of housing the family’s daily deliveries.

Lakeville Parks and Recreation Lakeville Parks and Recreation will offer the following activities. Reg-ister at www.lakeville-rap-connect.com or in person at 20195 Holyoke Ave., Lakeville. Nickelodeon Universe Mall of America, Bloom-ington: Purchase all-day discount wristbands for $25 online at www.lakev-ille-rapconnect.com or at the Lakeville Parks & Recreation office in City Hall, 20195 Holyoke Ave., Lakeville. Pick up tickets at City Hall. Winter snowshoe hike, ages 6 and up, families encouraged, noon to 1:15 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 2, Ritter Farm Park, 19300 Ritter Trail, Lakeville. Snow-shoeing followed by hot cocoa. Snowshoes includ-ed. Cost: $8. Public skating sched-ule: Dec. 20 to Feb. 16 (weather permitting), 4-9 p.m. Monday-Fri-day; 2:30-9 p.m. Tuesday and Thursday (Dakota

Heights); 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Saturday; noon to 8 p.m. Sunday. Holiday schedule: 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Feb. 16. Map of outdoor rinks – A map of outdoor rinks is at www.lakevillemn.gov, or call 952-985-4600 to have a map mailed. Inclement weather – Call the hotline at 952-985-4690, option 1. A decision on the status of rinks will be made one hour before the scheduled opening of rinks. Snowshoe rental – Snowshoes are available to rent. Call 952-985-4600 to reserve a pair or for more information and availabil-ity. Cost: $3 per pair per day, three-day minimum on weekends. Deposit: $75 per pair. Three sizes to choose from (up to 150, 200 and 275 pounds). Pick up and return snowshoes at: Lakeville City Hall, 20195 Holyoke Ave. Mon-day-Friday, 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m.

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