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TribuneDakota County

Farmington | Rosemountand the surrounding areas

www.dakotacountytribune.comNovember 21, 2013 • Volume 129 • Number 38

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INDEX

Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . 4A

Announcements . . . . . 8A

Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 12A

Public Notices . . . . . . 13A

Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 14A

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SPECIAL INSERT

OPINION

THISWEEKEND

SPORTS

Make funding reliableMinnesota K-12 education funding should be reliable, predictable and equitable.

Page 4A

Windows into women’s worldThe Burnsville Performing Arts Center is hosting a new exhibit from the women’s art group LaFeminine.

Page 19A

Blazing Cats win state title Burnsville/Farmington/Lakeville won its first state adapted soccer championship on Saturday.

Page 12A

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Ring in the holidaysInside this edition is a special section loaded with information about holiday-related events in Dakota County.

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Groups help abusers reform Breaking the cycle starts with admission of using violence

by Theresa MalloySUN THISWEEK

DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

With a number of do-mestic violence-related deaths across Minne-sota, people are left to wonder how it is pos-sible relationships can become so violent and fatal. Because each case is different, the root of do-mestic violence remains unclear, and contribut-ing factors include me-dia messages and mental illness. A majority of the bat-terers have witnessed do-mestic violence before,

said Aaron Milgrom, the director of therapy at the Domestic Abuse Project. According to Tub-man Family Crisis and

Support Services, fam-ily violence happens in one in three families in the United States.

Domestic violence cuts across social, economic lines

by Felicia FelmleeMURPHY NEWS SERVICE

UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA

Since 2003, the num-ber of domestic vio-lence-related homicides have ranged from 18 to 41, and there is no way to predict what the num-bers will be, said Safia Lovett, criminal justice program manager at Minnesota Coalition for Battered Women. There is no apparent age range or racial group that is affected more than another. Because of the variety and incon-

sistency, Lovett said it is difficult to detect trends or predict where domes-tic violence will be in the future. “The only thing we can say for certain is that (at least) 60,000 women in Minnesota access ser-vices through domestic violence service pro-grams, and statistically we know that only one in five report their violence and one in three are ac-tually experiencing vio-lence,” Lovett said.

Nearly 40 people across the state have died due to do-mestic violence this year, more than double the number of similar incidents reported last year. This series will focus on levels of domestic violence, its psychological aspects and what can be done to help those abused behind closed doors. Next week the series will look at how to get help.

See LINES, 6ASee REFORM, 6A

by Tad JohnsonSUN THISWEEK


Dakota County’s share of property taxes on the median-priced home of $192,400 (assuming a 2.3 percent increase in value) will drop by $11 in 2014 when compared to 2013’s amount of $567. That decrease is due, in large part, to the coun-ty’s projected 0.5 percent decrease in the 2014 levy amount ($128.5 million), which was hailed by Minnesota Revenue Commissioner Myron Frans at a press conference Monday in Hastings. Frans and Dakota County commissioners said sales tax exemptions and an increase in state aid to cities and counties contributed to the county’s ability to hold the line on taxes. The county received $3.7 million more in Coun-ty Government Aid in 2014, a 30 percent increase to $16.4 million. The sales tax exemption is expect-ed to save the county $841,000. Frans presented County Board Chairwoman Kathleen Gaylord with a hammer – a symbol that the state gave local governments the tools to re-duce taxes. State and local property taxes have risen 86 per-cent since 2002, according to Frans. “Property taxes are regressive, disproportion-ately affecting middle-class Minnesotans, and are levied without taking into account a taxpayer’s income or ability to pay the tax,” Frans said in a statement. “State and local leaders are working to-gether to stop this decade-long trend.” Dakota County was among seven of Minne-sota’s 87 counties to reduce levy amounts for 2014.

Meth still a problem in Dakota County

Prosecutions up in recent years

by Andy RogersSUN THISWEEK


Attacking the methamphetamine trade is like a much more dangerous version of the “whack a mole” carnival game. No matter how hard law enforcement hits the problem, it keeps popping up. Instead of homemade meth, which was the prob-lem’s origin in past years, a more potent form of the drug is coming from Mexico. The most common drug prosecution in Dakota County is methamphetamine related. In 2012, there were 172 individuals charged with meth-related crimes, up from 156 in 2011. According to Dakota County Drug Task Force Cmdr. Dan Bianconi, the trend in 2013 has contin-ued upward. It’s still far lower than it was in the early 2000s. In 2006 the Combat Methamphetamine Epidemic Act was enacted, requiring medicine with pseudoephed-rine and ephedrine be put behind the counter at drug stores, and domestic meth production has decreased

by Tad JohnsonSUN THISWEEK


Walk around Rose-mount and its rich history is difficult to ascertain. Many of the buildings from around the turn of the century are long since gone so it’s no wonder the resi-dents of the growing 21,000-plus city don’t think about it much. Rosemount Area Histor-ical Society member Mau-reen Geraghty Bouchard laughs when people say there’s no history in Rose-mount.

“Read the book,” said Bouchard, a Dakota Coun-ty Historical Society em-ployee and longtime com-munity volunteer who now carries the title of author after this summer’s publica-tion of “Rosemount: From the River to Space.” The second printing of the 334-page volume is due out Friday, and people will find Bouchard on Saturday at the Rosemount United Methodist Church during the 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Holiday Bazaar. The book has already sold about 150 copies and

another 150 are on the way. Bouchard said it’s the book’s 1,100 pictures that have people praising it … and buying it. “I want people to have the history,” she said. “I do love Rosemount and always have. It is a great town and a great city now. It’s a place I’m very happy to say I’m a part of.”

First chapter The book started to take shape four years ago when Pam Claussen, the daughter

Book reveals Rosemount’s hidden history

Longtime resident assembles account detailing town’s rich past

Luke Dahl lets out a cheer as the Rosemount Irish defeated Roseville Area 35-28 in the Class 6A state football semifinals Nov. 14 at Mall of America Field to advance to the 2013 Prep Bowl. The Irish will play Eden Prairie at 7 p.m. Nov. 29 at 7 p.m. at Mall of America Field. More photos are at SunThisweek.com. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)

State ‘tools’ help county reduce taxes

Median-priced home projected to have $11 drop in county

portion of property taxes in 2014

See TOOLS, 10A See BOOK, 13A

See METH, 7A

Shout to the top

2A November 21, 2013 DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

Community meals at Grace Grace Lutheran Church in Apple Valley will serve free community meals on Mondays, Dec. 2, 9 and 16. Dining hall doors will open at 5:30 p.m. Dinner will be served from 6 to 6:30 p.m. The meals are for se-nior citizens, single-parent families, families in transi-tion and all others in the surrounding community seeking a healthy meal in a relaxed and fun environ-ment. Although the meals are free, donations are ac-cepted. Grace Lutheran Church is located at the intersection

of Pennock Avenue and County Road 42. For more information, call the church at 952-432-7273.

by Andy RogersSUN THISWEEK


Former star athlete at Eastview High School Dijon Cordell Sanders, 22, who lives in Farming-ton, was charged with two counts of second-degree murder in Minneapolis last week in connection with the deaths of two men in South Minneapolis last summer. Sanders was a senior at Eastview High School in 2009 when he was an all-state offensive lineman. He signed a letter of intent to play football for North Da-kota State. He also had 58 career wins for the Eastview wrestling team.

De’Von L. Burt, 18, and Keondray Q. Wilson, 20, were shot and killed while sitting in a car in the alley between 18th Avenue South and Cedar Avenue South in Minneapolis on Aug. 25. According to the po-lice report, witnesses heard gunshots and saw two men running through the alley of the 2600 block of 18th Avenue South at 8:30 p.m. Aug. 25. One of the male descriptions matched that of Sanders. Sanders was also charged with two counts of attempted second-degree murder as two women in the car were hit by bullets. They were treated at a lo-

cal hospital and survived while the two men were pro-nounced dead at the scene. The surviving passen-gers said the four of them had gone shopping and ate dinner in Uptown and had pulled into the al-ley when the two men ap-proached the car and fired 33 shots — 14 from a .40 caliber firearm and 19 from a 9 mm firearm. They later identified Sanders in pho-tographs, according to the report. Another witness brought officers photographs of in-dividuals they believed to be involved. The witness learned that Sanders went to that block with the intent

to shoot another individual, who had previously been shot at. A casing from that scene matched the 9 mm casing recovered from the alley scene. The other individual is still at large. Sanders is scheduled to appear in court Dec. 2. He is being held on $5 million bail. The maximum penalty for the charges is 120 years. Sanders, then an Apple Valley resident, was con-victed of disorderly con-duct in 2009 and felony rob-bery in 2010. Email Andy Rogers at [email protected].

Ex-Eastview athlete charged in homicidePolice report: Mistaken identity leads to shooting

by Farmington man, former Eastview student

Meet in the Middle The Meet in the Middle after-school program of-fered at Spirit of Life Pres-byterian Church will not be held on Nov. 27, but will resume the following Wednesday. The program will be held Dec. 4, 11 and 18, with another break for Christmas and New Year’s. It will resume on Jan. 8. The church is at 14401 Pilot Knob Road, Apple Valley. For more informa-tion, call 952-423-2212 or visit spiritoflifeav.org.

Religion

DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE November 21, 2013 3A

by Jessica HarperSUN THISWEEK


After facing staunch opposition, Dakota County’s latest draft of its master plan for Leba-non Hills Regional Park received mixed reviews last week. The proposed plan, which was presented to the County Board on Nov. 12, includes 24.5 miles of unpaved trails, a new paved 6.5-mile con-nector trail that runs east and west and a 2-mile paved loop around Hol-land and McDonough lakes. The plan would keep all existing unpaved trails in Lebanon Hills the same, and would add six miles of unpaved trails. In total, the park would have 46 miles of unpaved trails. The plan envisions the paved trails would provide four-season rec-reation for bicyclists, walkers and skaters.

In the latest draft, of-ficials are considering closing the western loop around Holland and McDonough lakes in the winter to allow cross-country skiers to cross the trail. The latest draft also calls for a rocky beach to allow visitors to walk along the shore of Hol-land Lake as well as rus-tic cabins in camping ar-eas. These improvements are estimated to cost $1.5 million per year over a 20-year period. Residents and advo-cates filled the board meeting room in West St. Paul to voice their con-cerns. Though there contin-ues to be staunch op-position, a handful of people spoke in favor of the plan. Margo Imdieke-Cross of the Minnesota State Council on Disabilities

said she believes the new paved trails would allow better access for people with disabilities. “This plan allows people with disabilities to access the park in a meaningful way,” said Imdieke-Cross, who uses a wheelchair. Eagan resident Jeff Sparks noted that im-proving access with paved trails is also im-portant for the metro’s aging population. “I can’t walk on un-paved paths anymore,” the 67-year-old said. “There’s going to be more like me in the fu-ture.” Several residents con-tend that people with disabilities can access the park without paved trails. “I believe in access, but I don’t believe as-phalt trails through the heart of the park would achieve this,” said Laura

Hedland, former chair of the 2001 Lebanon Hills Master Plan. Some residents sug-gested the county look into natural materials such as wood chips or environmentally sustain-able materials for a paved trail. Dakota County Parks Director Steve Sullivan said the county found available resources were either ineffective or too expensive. Hedland and other members of Wilderness in the City, a group of more than 100 oppo-nents, accused the coun-ty of ignoring the 2001 Master Plan. Sullivan said he be-lieves the latest master plan is similar to the 2001 version and strikes a balance between recre-ation and preservation. He also noted that 67 percent of the park prop-erty was farmed for 120 years, and that the con-

nector trail would follow these previously farmed areas to avoid disrupting environmentally sensi-tive portions of the park. Since 2001, the county has invested $5.2 million to preserve park natural resources and $3.7 mil-lion on developing rec-reational areas, Sullivan said Opponents also claim the paved trail will harm the environment and the aesthetics of the park. Noting that Lebanon Hills was recently named the best place to hike in the Twin Cities by Run-ners Magazine, Eagan resident Pat Cumming contended that a paved trail would hurt the park’s popularity. Several residents said they worry about buck-thorn in the parks and accuse the county of not doing enough to eradi-cate the invasive plant. Others expressed con-

cerns about bikes on the trail becoming a hazard for walkers. While most oppo-nents demanded the board drop the latest master plan proposal all together, one resident urged the board to find a compromise. A 1,842-acre park in Eagan and Apple Valley, Lebanon Hills is four times the size of the av-erage park in the metro. The park currently has a campground, a beach and 19 miles of unpaved trails that are used by bi-cyclists, horseback riders and walkers. Less than a mile of paved walkways are near the visitor cen-ter. Lebanon Hills has had an influx of visitors which has increased to 544,000 in 2012.

Jessica Harper is at [email protected] or facebook.com/sunthisweek.



District 196 plans to build a new Early Learn-ing and Adult Basic Ed-ucation facility in Apple Valley has met resistance from residents. Plans call for a 54,076 square-foot, two-story building at 14445 Dia-mond Path near 144th Street that would house early childhood and adult education pro-grams About 24 residents who live near the pro-posed site attended the Nov. 12 School Board meeting. Of those in atten-dance, a few expressed concerns about traffic and accused the district of leaving them in the

dark. “We thought you were just looking at the lot to see if it were feasible to use,” Apple Valley resi-dent Steve Budnick said. “Now you’re digging. ... We’ve been blindsided.” Budnick said he is concerned 144th Street won’t be able to handle additional traffic that may be come with the project. Noting that the dis-trict began discussing the project in 2012, Board Member Rob Duchscher disagreed with residents’ contention that the dis-trict hasn’t been trans-parent. “We’ve done every-thing by the book and will try to help you feel easier about this proj-ect,” he said.

Each stage of the project was discussed at public meetings March 11 and 21, Sept. 4 and 23 and Oct. 30. A neighborhood meeting was held Aug. 22 at Dakota Ridge School, and notices were sent to immediate neighbors. One resident suggest-ed creating an access to the new building from Diamond Path instead of 144th Street. Duchscher noted that Dakota County recently completed a traffic study of the area and assured residents the district will follow its recommenda-tions. Other residents ex-pressed concerns about property values and screening, while one woman insisted the dis-

Latest Lebanon Hills plan gets mixed reviews

Planned Adult Basic Education facility meets resistancetrict study whether crime would increase due to evening classes for the Adult Basic Education program. The district’s early childhood and adult learning programs are currently housed in two separate leased buildings on County Road 42 in Apple Valley and Rahn Road in Eagan. In prep-aration for their lease to expire in August 2014, district officials looked in late 2012 at the feasi-

bility of moving the pro-grams to a new building. Officials say the new center will better accom-modate those programs and save money in the long term. Early design concepts, which were presented to the School Board on Tuesday, feature a brick exterior with metal pan-els and large windows to create interest. The design takes ad-vantage of natural light and creates spaces for

both small children and adults. The architectural de-signs were $370,000 un-der budget. The project is estimat-ed to cost $13.5 million. Officials plan to accept construction bids in ear-ly January.

Jessica Harper is at jes-s ica [email protected] or facebook.com/sunthisweek.


Editor’s Note Due to an oversight, a letter that referred to an immigration protest outside U.S. Rep. John Kline’s Burnsville office reported the protesters were not allowed in at Kline’s office and were ar-rested at Kline’s request. The protesters did speak with members of Kline’s Burnsville staff. Burnsville police took it upon them-selves to arrest the pro-testers for trespassing and impeding traffic because the protesters refused to move from the roadway. Protesters also informed police prior to the pro-test they planned to be arrested. The newspaper regrets allowing the inac-curate statements to be published.

Park’s trail plan strikes a balance To the editor: My husband and I live in Farmington with our four children. We are a very active family. I oper-ate a running group for women with busy sched-ules who wish to maintain their physical fitness. I am both a runner and a bicy-clist along with other mem-bers of my family. Each year I run in a number of races including several half marathons. My family and I take our physical health and wellbeing seriously. While my family has always enjoyed Lebanon Hills Regional Park, we have found it difficult to ac-cess the various recreation-al destinations. It is not

easy to access those des-tinations for families like mine who enjoy biking and running. That is why I am very encouraged to hear and learn about the plan to develop a paved connector trail designed to connect these various destinations. As I understand it, the de-sign of this connector trail generally goes along the park perimeter except in locations where it would conflict with existing trails. Speaking of existing trails, I understand this plan calls for a substantial increase in the number of miles of soft surface trails as well. In other words, this plan in-creases accessibility of this wonderful park to families like mine and at the same time increases soft surface trails for those who prefer them. I have seen and heard a

lot of comments about this proposal that just don’t add up. I am very encour-aged by this new plan and I look forward to the day when my family and other similar families can better utilize this great park.

SHANNON HERRERAFarmington

Increased wages mean price increases To the editor: After reading many cur-rent demands for a higher minimum wage, I agree that we should be sympathetic to the plight of the low wage earner. Even so, we must not divorce ourselves from some relevant and glaring facts. If the mini-mum wage is to become $10 per hour but a worker only produces $7 per hour in products, the employer will probably not be able to stay in business. And if an employer should be so munificent and give $10 an hour why not be truly gen-erous and make certain all employees receive at least $100,000 per year? Yet, we know that wages, like business taxes must all be

passed on to the consumers. As the price of products and services must increase in direct proportion to the costs of manufacturing, the wages of skilled workers must also increase leaving the least productive workers earning pay at their same relative entry level. It is good to be sympa-thetic to the status of the entry level worker but sheer folly to think that a free lunch really exists. I am glad that U.S. Rep. John Kline, R-Burnsville, understands all of the ramifications and unintended consequences of this campaign to in-crease the minimum wage. I trust that reason and logic will continue to govern his every vote.

RICHARD IFFERTEagan

Increase the minimum wage To the editor: A good case can be made for raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour just based on its effect on the ve-locity of money in the local community. But of course the state would also get the moral high ground. It’s a statement that says Minne-

sota values the labor of its people. An estimated 93,000 people currently earn the minimum wage in Minne-sota and are now paid at about $7.25 an hour (the federal minimum). Raising the minimum wage to $9.50 an hour would mean better wages for more than just the minimum wage work-ers. Nearly 360,000 Min-nesotans would be affected. Among them would espe-cially be women, people of color and youth. An increase to $9.50 an hour would only bring the annual wage for a full-time worker up to $19,760 an-nually – below the poverty level for a family of four in 2013 ($23,550). The higher minimum would be a step away from government de-pendency and an added incentive to work. Raising the minimum wage to $9.50 and hour is estimated to add more than $470 mil-lion in consumer-spending power to fuel Minnesota’s economy. Contact your local state senator and representative to tell them to support an increase in the minimum wage. JOHN LARVABurnsville

PUBLISHER . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Julian AndersenPRESIDENT . . . . . . . . . . . . . Marge WinkelmanGENERAL MANAGER . . . . . . . . . . . . Mark WeberFARMINGTON EDITOR . . . . . . . . . . .Andy RogersROSEMOUNT EDITOR . . . . . . . . . . .Tad Johnson

SPORTS EDITOR . . . . . . . . . Mike ShaughnessyPHOTO EDITOR . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Rick OrndorfNEWS ASSISTANT . . . . . . . . . . . . . .Darcy OddenTHISWEEKEND . . . . . . . . . . . . . Andrew MillerSALES MANAGER . . . . . . . . . . . . . Mike Jetchick

Andy Rogers | FARMINGTON NEWS | 952-846-2027 | [email protected] Johnson | MANAGING EDITOR/ROSEMOUNT | 952-846-2033 | [email protected]

Mike Shaughnessy | SPORTS | 952-846-2030 | [email protected] Odden | CALENDARS/BRIEFS | 952-846-2034 | [email protected]

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Opinion

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.

Education funding must be adequate, fair, accountable

Minnesotans lose in wake of new health care law

Financing the education of Minne-sota’s kindergarten through grade 12 students takes nearly half of the state’s annual budget and by constitutional provision the funds must support a “uni-form system” of public schools so that each student receives an “adequate” edu-cation. We believe more needs to be done to both insure that funding is adequate to accomplish our educational goals and that variances in funding address more uniform opportunities across districts and not advantages to some and not oth-ers. State and local school officials must also demonstrate accountability that programs are working to levels that show student success. The Minnesota Legislature has guar-anteed each child basic aid of $5,302 this year and $5,806 in the following year, which includes a different per pupil weighting for next year. The actual per pupil percentage increase for both years is 1.5 percent. Not every child, however, is backed by an equal amount of money, in part because voters in some districts passed property tax levy referendums and some did not. The amount of this additional property tax levy per pupil varies district to district. We think too much of a Minnesota child’s education depends on local poli-tics (sometimes national politics); local property tax wealth; local household in-come and ability to pay. We recommend

reliance and access to these local voter-approved tax levies be reduced. Some districts also receive additional funds based on a high percentage of students from poverty and/or racially isolated schools. There is general agree-ment that students from poor families need more help to learn lessons. A specific goal is for all students to be reading third-grade material as they enter fourth grade. We think these funds are greatly needed if Minnesota is going to close the achieve-ment gap between socioeconomic groups. During the last legislative session the Legislature approved funding for univer-sal all-day/every-day kindergarten and increased funding for preschool educa-tion. We supported both provisions and believe this is a major step toward closing the achievement gap and raising the level of education for all students. In addition, districts that meet the poverty criteria can get integration aid and federal and state compensatory funding to close the achievement gap. This additional funding should also be continued. The Legislature increased special education funding by $40 million and set up a schedule of future payments. Since individual programs for children with learning disabilities by law must be funded, school districts last year spent

$585 million of general operating funds to fund special education. The underfunding of special educa-tion continues to detract from the ad-equacy of our total funding effort and needs to be addressed. We reduce or increase what we spend on education based on the economy. On the surface that seems to make sense. We delay payment to the schools to cover our state debt and cash flow, forcing schools to borrow on our behalf. That doesn’t make so much sense. We want long-range planning for the education of our students but we change the funding formulas and commitments every two years, reacting to everything but a long-range educational plan and spe-cific expectations for success. We struggle to find balance between local control and state funding; between local funding and state expectations. Throw in federal fund-ing and federal expectations and the blue-print for educational success starts to look like a Rube Goldberg design. Parents expect the programs that were available for their older child to be there for their younger child. If their neighbors pass a property tax provision, their pro-grams will remain in place. If the levy is voted down, a child’s program is cut. If state revenues are up, the founda-tion formula can chase inflation. If state revenues are down, the formula lags behind. If a Legislature is anti-tax, the funding is challenged and programming is insecure. If the Legislature has too

many initiatives, funding for education suffers. If the new employee contract is affordable, programs stay in place. If a new contract exceeds revenue increases, class size goes up and programs change. So where in this system of funding is the reliability for Mom and Dad? Where in this system of funding are the as-surances for each student? What is the core plan for the success of Minnesota’s schools and how financially committed are we to that plan? Some suggest the educational funding system is too complex. We would sug-gest the problem isn’t with complexity as much as with commitment. With commitment, however, must come accountability. We insist that ac-countability for expenditures be built into educational programs at the local, state and federal levels so that funds are spent to reach goals that can be mea-sured to determine either their success or failure. Within the past few years a state study group recommended provisions for the funding of education. We think these recommendations represent a good start. We now need to revisit those recommen-dations in view of an educational plan and make a long-range commitment to funding that plan.

This is an opinion of the ECM Edito-rial Board Sun Thisweek and the Dakota County Tribune is part of ECM Publish-ers Inc.

by John KlineSPECIAL TO SUN THISWEEKDAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

The numbers are daunting. 140,000. That’s the number of people in Minne-sota who already have been notified their health coverage will be canceled as a re-sult of the president’s health care law, re-ferred to by most including the president as “Obamacare.” For many Minnesotans a cancella-tion notice means more than the loss of an insurance policy; it means losing ac-cess to the trusted doctors, pediatricians, and nurses who care for their families. We all know how critical these relation-ships are, especially in difficult moments when a loved one is injured or ill. But for countless families, those relationships will soon be lost, all because Washington bureaucrats think they know best. In the more than three years since the president’s health care plan became law, I continually heard from constitu-ents about the endless concerns they had with a law that has created 20,000 pages of regulations. Now, as the law is being implemented, I hear daily from Minne-sotans who because of the new law, are seeing their rates skyrocket or are losing their health insurance plan altogether and being forced into government run health care where they can no longer

keep their doctor, clinic, or hospital. Linda and her husband live in Inver Grove Heights. Her husband has worked for a reputable company for more than 30 years. Three years ago, he was diag-nosed with lung disease and had a lung transplant. “While the lung transplant was successful and saved his life, he has had many complications since,” Linda explains. Her husband is 59 and was told they could keep this insurance until he was 65. Due to Obamacare, she said, her husband’s employer was dropping their coverage since he was disabled and re-tired. “This is devastating to us,” she told me. “I am very angry that we had to be cut from our policy because of Obam-acare costs.” Kurt from Eagan is seeing his health care premiums rise $200 a month be-cause of Obamacare. “I understand I am getting more coverage, but it is coverage that I don’t need or want,” he said. “I am perfectly capable of picking coverage

that protects my family, I don’t appreci-ate my federal government making those decisions for me.” Debbie from Rosemount received a notice in the mail that the premium for her insurance is increasing by 50 percent a month. “The bone I have been thrown is that – at age 62 – I have coverage for birth control… and childbirth,” she ex-plained. “My plan now is to drop cov-erage entirely, pay the Obama tax, and take my chances until I am Medicare-eligible.” Jim is a self-employed plumber in In-ver Grove Heights. He is married with three children. His family was notified their health care plan was being dropped at the end of the year due to Obamacare mandates. Jim was notified the closest available plan for his family will increase in cost by 37 percent. “We are going to pay more and get less coverage,” Jim said. “We will be paying for services that we do not want or need. I still cannot believe that in America we are forced to comply (with) mandated health insurance or face a penalty.” Mark of Prior Lake watched helpless-ly as his son lost his job and health care because his employer, due to Obamacare, is now only offering jobs of 28 hours-or-less per week. Health care reform didn’t have to

take away coverage from those Ameri-cans who like what they have. It didn’t have to put federal bureaucrats in charge of what procedure is covered and what medication is not. Washington’s goal should have been to fix what’s broken in our health care system while preserving what works – driving down costs with-out sacrificing quality. During debate of Obamacare, I joined many colleagues in support of a plan designed to reduce health care costs, and improve the qual-ity of care – all at a price our country can afford. That plan would have allowed Americans who liked their health care coverage to keep it – a stark contrast to the law being implemented today. I will continue to fight for commonsense, pa-tient-centered solutions rather than the president’s current big government ap-proach to health care. “It infuriates us that the government can tell us what health care we have to go with, and that we will lose our coverage,” Diane of Rosemount said. “We are not in control of our own lives anymore.”

John Kline is chairman of the House Edu-cation and the Workforce Committee. He also serves on the House Armed Services Committee. He and his wife, Vicky, live in Burnsville. Columns reflect the opinion of the author.

Guest

ColumnistJohn Kline

ECM Editorial


Campaign will benefit Feed My Starving Children

by John GessnerSUN THISWEEK


A massive, record-breaking effort to package nutritious meals for starv-ing children is mobilizing south of the river. At least 15 south met-ro churches have joined a campaign to package 5 million meals for Feed My Starving Children. It would be the largest local campaign in the history of the Coon Rapids-based Christian charity, which has provided more than 600 million meals to chil-dren in nearly 70 countries since 1994. The churches are rounding up volunteers and donations for the mega packing event Feb. 3-9 at a location or loca-tions to be determined. “We’ve done numerous ones over a million meals. We just got done with one in northern Indiana that was almost 2.3 million meals. But this one will be the biggest one so far,” said Andy Carr, Feed My Starving Children’s orga-nization’s national devel-opment director. It will take 25,000 vol-unteers and $1.1 million in donations, said Eric Elton, director of outreach at Prince of Peace Lutheran Church in Burnsville. “It’s a very big un-dertaking,” Carr said. “They just see it as a way of engaging community. And frankly, the timing couldn’t be better given the recent disaster in the Philippines. We are in re-sponse mode to that.” Prince of Peace has packed more than 6 mil-lion meals for Feed My Starving Children in an-nual campaigns over the last six years, Elton said. A few other churches wanted to join the effort, which Prince of Peace welcomed. Planning be-gan in April with leaders from Prince of Peace, Ber-ean Baptist in Burnsville,

Christus Victor Lutheran in Apple Valley, St. John the Baptist Catholic in Savage and South Subur-ban Evangelical Free in Apple Valley. “They came to us,” Carr said. “They said, ‘Hey, we’ve got a vision to do something really big.’ ” Members of Chris-tus Victor (and two other churches that worship there, Casa de Oracion and Lily of the Valley) have packed meals at both the Prince of Peace site and at the Feed My Starv-ing Children location in Eagan, said the Rev. Kent Claussen Gubrud, senior

pastor. Helping to plan the larger campaign has been “an awe-inspiring experi-ence so far,” Claussen Gu-brud said. “The number got thrown out, 5 million meals. I frankly just about fell over,” he said. But the campaign has snowballed. “We’ve been working on getting people together and telling the story and sharing the vision and getting people fired up to go back to their con-gregations and share the vision and share the chal-lenge and come together,”

Claussen Gubrud said. Founded in Minnesota in 1987 by businessman Richard Proudfit, Feed My Starving Children sent its first meal ship-ments in 1994 to Rwan-da, Haiti, Belarus and Paraguay. The organiza-tion pioneered what is now known as the Man-naPack. The blend of soy, vegetables, rice and vitamins is packed into plastic bags and boiled in water to make a meal that provides a day’s nutrition, Elton said. That’s what volunteers will be packing in Febru-ary. At Prince of Peace

Meals will make history while bringing churches together

Students at Northview Elementary School in Eagan packed meals in March for Feed My Starving Children. (File photo)

in recent years, packing shifts have taken on a fes-tive air, with live music and interaction between the hairnet-clad volun-teers. The church has at-tracted about 25,000 vol-unteers to the wintertime campaigns. “When you do it and you actually know that it’s making a difference for someone in the world, the tediousness is kind of forgotten,” Elton said, noting that most of the meals packed at Prince of Peace have been bound for Haiti. “You’re also working with people you might know or might not know, and it’s a great op-portunity for conversa-tion.” The multichurch cam-paign is also an ecumeni-cal opportunity. “We’re really trying to learn how to do this massive thing together,” Elton said. “What has been really fun is to see all the churches put their theologies and denomina-tions aside and see people working for the common good.” More than church members have volun-teered at Prince of Peace. “It’s basketball teams, it’s hockey teams, it’s vol-leyball, it’s Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, National Honor Society. It’s field trips from schools,” Elton said. The multichurch cam-paign will require 1,100 to 1,200 people for each of 23 two-hour shifts, he

said. Organizers hope to find a single warehouse space of up to 80,000 square feet for the Febru-ary event. Otherwise, two smaller spaces that have already been secured will suffice, Elton said. Churches committed to the project are Ber-ean Baptist in Burnsville, Casa de Oracion in Apple Valley, Chapel Hill Bap-tist in Eagan, Christus Victor Lutheran in Apple Valley, Discover Church in Burnsville, Lily of The Valley in Apple Valley, Lord of Life Lutheran in Farmington, Prince of Peace Lutheran in Burns-ville, Risen Savior Catho-lic in Burnsville, River Hills United Methodist in Burnsville, Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran in Pri-or Lake, South Suburban Evangelical Free in Apple Valley, St. John the Bap-tist Catholic in Savage, St. Thomas Becket Catho-lic in Eagan and Trinity Evangelical in Lakeville. Three more churches had been in contact with orga-nizers but Elton said this week he didn’t know if they’d committed. The group plans to have a Facebook page up by Thanksgiving, Elton said. Information about volunteering or donating can be found at the Feed My Starving Children website, www.fmsc.org.

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


Lovett advises the commu-nity to think of domestic violence as a public safety issue – not a personal is-sue. “I think we need to move away from thinking of domestic violence as something extreme that happens or only physi-cal violence,” Lovett said. “We need to think about the whole spectrum of do-mestic violence, and as a community come togeth-er to talk about it and to tackle it.” It is up to the individ-ual in the relationship to define it as abusive or not, said Katie Eichele, direc-

tor at the Aurora Center, an advocacy service lo-cated on the University of Minnesota’s Twin Cities campus. “It’s the fear and alarm that’s assigned with ar-guments,” Eichele said. “People can argue. People can get intense in their re-lationships. But if at some point someone is feeling in danger, that’s the red flag – fear of your partner.” Leaving an abusive rela-tionship is often the most challenging task for the victim, Eichele said. “It will take a person six to seven attempts to successfully leave an abu-sive relationship,” Eichele said. “And the most dan-

gerous time for women in their relationship is when they’re attempting to leave that relationship.” Defining a perpetrator is difficult because there is no specific character-istics or personality type, Eichele said. “There’s no profile for abusive people,” Eichele said. “We want to think it’s this really bad person but the reality is, it’s not.” For Day One statewide crisis and shelter informa-tion call, 866-223-1111.

Felicia Felmlee is a senior studying journalism and psychology at the Univer-sity of Minnesota.

LINES, from 1A

Nearly 3.3 million chil-dren between the ages of 3-17 have experienced or witnessed some sort of abuse in their families. Many women experi-encing domestic abuse come from abusive fami-lies, and it takes an emo-tional toll on children who develop negative behaviors as a coping strategy, according to the Lee Carlson Center Do-mestic Abuse Program in Blaine. This makes breaking the cycle so critical, Mil-grom said. His work at the Minneapolis-based nonprofit DAP has fo-cused on men’s therapy and helping to change the behaviors of batter-ers. Counseling for men did not start at DAP un-til 1980 or so, and ther-apy for male batterers is a newer field. Women’s shelters and advocacy groups were an earlier development promot-ed during the feminist movement in the 1960s. DAP receives refer-rals from those who have gone through the Henne-pin County or other cor-rections systems. How-ever, the man must call and schedule the first ap-pointment. A probation officer or significant oth-er cannot make that call. The first step is to admit fault and seek this help, Milgrom said. The pro-gram is rooted in social justice and understand-ing the perpetrator must be held accountable. “Men are resistant at first, but that goes away with time,” Milgrom said. “We have motivational techniques that help en-gage them. … This could be the only place that they can talk about it.” The men must attend at least 23 group thera-py sessions for comple-tion. The program can be finished in about four months, but men can choose to stay for up to a year. Each session costs $5. Accountability and safety measures are in place, and participants could get dismissed for absences or not follow-ing guidelines. The men sign releases so partners can call for acknowl-edgement that they are attending the program.

Why violence? Violent behavior in a domestic relationship is most likely seen when a man feels like he is los-ing his significant other. It could be jealousy or awareness that she is trying to leave that trig-gers men to want to exert power, Milgrom said. While male batterers are usually trying to hold on to something, women batterers could become violent when they try to leave or get away from the relationship. Violence can increase after a couple gets mar-ried or if a partner is pregnant, Milgrom said, because “men see it as a threat for their atten-tion.” Friends and co-work-ers of a batterer can be surprised to find out

about domestic violence, especially if a man has good anger management at work but not at home. The attachment theo-ry can help explain how people regard a partner in a relationship differ-ently. Sometimes this vulnerability, attachment and shame can contrib-ute to abuse, Milgrom said. “A majority of men come from an unstable world,” he said. The absent father af-fects children. Girls sometimes try to fill this void with seductive rela-tionships. Boys can go to different extremes, some-times going into law en-forcement or developing abusive patterns, Mil-grom said. A majority of domes-tic violence cases are men battering women. Wom-en can also be abusers, and there is an uptick in women committing vio-lence on their partners. Sometimes they might fight back and get charged, said Nata-lie Keifer, the domestic abuse coordinator at Lee Carlson Center. Keifer said part of this is that women who are being controlled and manipu-lated build up that fight or flight reaction. “There’s shame about becoming abusive,” she said. There are few pro-grams for these women batterers in the metro area. Keifer does some individual therapy ses-sions to address it. East-side Neighborhood Ser-vices in Minneapolis is one of the organizations that offers a therapy pro-gram for women batter-ers.

Why stay? It is often dangerous for women or men to leave an abusive situa-tion. When children are involved, it is sometimes even more difficult to leave. The reasons vary for each individual, but Keifer said the No. 1 reason is that the victim fears the abuser. Other factors include financial dependency, fearing they would lose custody of children, sub-stance abuse by either the victim or abuser, and even religious beliefs in the sanctity of marriage. “Embarrassment and shame comes along with it,” Keifer said. “They blame themselves a lot of the time.” Emotional attachment is also a reason to stay. Usually, a woman has a lot of love for her part-ner, and she can hold on

to the hope that it will change, Keifer said. Seeking help is diffi-cult as well because often “the batterer will isolate the person,” Keifer ex-plains, and “they don’t feel like they can to go family or get help.”

Breaking down

messages Milgrom said one of the first steps in DAP is to break down the soci-etal messages about pow-er and male privilege. The messages say, “They’re superior and can control women,” Milgrom said. Boys also experience more “violent socializa-tion” growing up with so-cietal standards of what boys should do. This is paired with hyper-sexualized images and representations of women that men are ex-posed to at a young age. The pornography culture is also damaging because it “creates a really fake intimacy,” Milgrom said, that also supports main-stream advertising and other negative images of women. Breaking down these messages is difficult, Milgrom said. But it’s a start. Anger then tends to become a vector or ex-cuse for a man to “ex-press violence and use power,” Milgrom said. Alcohol or depression can contribute to poor judgment. “Mental illness isn’t a cause,” Milgrom said. “It’s a complicating fac-tor.”

Breakthroughs While breaking down rigid ways of thinking, DAP therapy groups also focus on accountability. “It holds men account-able, to take responsi-bility and challenges them with the feelings of change,” Milgrom said. In one session, Mil-grom has the group come up with examples of “hurtful behavior.” Some might see violence as hitting someone with a closed fist, he said, so they try to list all levels of abuse. The men also get to tell their story of what happened. “For the most part, none of them tell their story all the way through,” Milgrom said. In this exercise, the man has the freedom to tell the story, then this story is framed with other questions: What did your partner have to do to get out? If she had a black eye, how would

she have to cover it up? Would she try to avoid seeing people? What pain would she experience if someone asked about it? Was it worth it? How did it affect others? Milgrom said men sometimes do not want to look at it and can struggle finding empathy for their partner. These questions might guide them toward a break-through. Milgrom said the big-gest breakthrough is usu-ally when a man realizes how children are affect-ed. If they do not have children, sometimes men can look back to how seeing violence affected them as a child. “They view it through kids’ eyes with resistance, anger and shame,” Mil-grom said. Women’s break-throughs usually come when “they truly start to believe that they’re wor-thy of more than that,” Keifer said. The therapy program at Lee Carlson focuses on increasing self-es-teem, working on shame and awareness of what a healthy relationship looks like. DAP works with men to be accountable not only for their past ac-tions, but future ones. Men go through an anger management worksheet and make a plan for the future. According to DAP’s website, the goal for men’s therapy is for no physical violence to occur again. Follow-up research shows that more than 97 percent of men who complete the pro-gram had zero domestic abuse arrests within one year of finishing. Lee Carlson also runs a restorative parenting group to help children who have experienced this domestic abuse. Keifer said it focuses on rebuilding that rela-tionship with a child and to create a more nurtur-ing environment. It even delves into discipline techniques versus pun-ishment. For more information on DAP, visit domesti-cabuseproject.org or call 612-874-7063. Lee Carl-son Center information is available at leecarlson-center.org or 763-780-3036. Eastside Neighbor-hood Services is at esns.org or 612-781-6011. Tubman Family Crisis and Support Services is at tubman.org or 612-825-3333.

Contact Theresa Malloy at [email protected].

REFORM, from 1A



Fans of Eagan Market Fest won’t have to wait until summer to get their favorite locally produced goods. An indoor farmers mar-ket will open for the first time Dec. 7 at the Eagan Com-munity Center, 1501 Central Parkway. An extension of Eagan’s summer event, the winter market will be held from 9 a.m. to noon every first and third Saturday until March 1. Part farmers market, part community festival, Eagan Market Fest is held every Wednesday from June to September at the Eagan Festival Grounds in Central

Park. Voted Minnesota’s favorite farmers market in 2012, Eagan Market Fest has spanned seven seasons and offers a variety of seasonal produce and homemade goods. Visitors to the winter mar-ket will be able to purchase a variety of baked goods, jams, sauces, and seasonal produce, such as squash, po-tatoes and root vegetables, from about 20 vendors. Those looking for unique holiday gift ideas in Decem-ber can purchase items at the market to be included in a custom gift basket.


First winter farmers market comes to Eagan


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in large numbers since. In 2004, there were 417 meth-related arrests in Da-kota County, and it was more than 300 each year from 2004-2007. It reached a low in 2009 with 124 ar-rests and has hovered be-tween 160-180 since. Local laboratories are now few in far between, but the problem hasn’t gone away. In recent years, meth has increased in both quantity and quality, ac-cording to Bianconi. The Department of Justice recently released a report stating purity has increased by more than 130 percent, while cost has decreased by 60-70 per-cent. The biggest reason, according to Bianconi, is due to the fact that the meth trade is now con-trolled by Mexican cartels. “It takes fewer people involved in the organiza-tion, which ultimately has made it cheaper,” Bianconi said. “They’re flooding the market. If half their load gets stopped at the bor-

der, it doesn’t matter. They have runners and distribu-tors up here, but it’s pen-nies to them. They’re mak-ing a big profit. ... The presence of cartels are be-coming more established here.” According to the Drug Enforcement Administra-tion, as much as 80 per-cent of meth sold in the United State originates in Mexico, where there are more sophisticated and larger laboratories. According to the DEA, Mexican meth targets ur-ban and suburban areas with a larger client base, and Interstate 35 drives right through Dakota County, which is a direct access to the south. The now-defunct divi-sion of the Justice De-partment, the National Drug Intelligence Center, reported that Mexican criminal organizations, in-cluding seven major drug cartels, were operational in more than 1,000 cities in the United States. The Mexican Drug War has been a seven-year conflict

between rival cartels and government officials with a death toll somewhere be-tween 50,000 and 100,000, according to the Mexican government and human rights organizations. “The cartels have been around for a long, long time, but the issue is the level of violence primarily in Mexico,” Dakota Coun-ty Sheriff Dave Bellows said. “The number of vio-lent crimes have become more pronounced there, but the level of violence associated with narcotics is high anywhere.” With that in mind, the Dakota County Sheriff ’s department has worked with the DEA as well as the Federal Bureau of In-vestigation in recent years. “This is a countrywide problem,” Bianconi said. “We might start with something in Dakota County, but the case will take you right down to Arizona or the Mexican border.” Dakota County has had members of Mexican drug cartels in their jail, accord-

ing to Bellows. Compared to other areas of Minne-sota and the United States, the area is far from a hot spot. “Dakota County still remains an extraordinarily safe place to live,” Bellows said. “It’s here. I would never deny that. But I don’t want to go over-board.” Meth still isn’t easy to obtain. “If someone wants to go out and buy meth to-day, I bet you lunch they wouldn’t find any by the end of the day,” Bianconi said. “It would take some time, but once you get in-volved, they seem to find it.” It’s not specific to any demographic. Dakota County covers rural, sub-urban and more innercity areas, but it’s “everywhere and in between,” Bianconi said. The Dakota County Drug Task Force consists of officers in the Sher-iff ’s Office as well as area communities coordinating together to combat illegal

drug activity. Police use undercover officers and informants during investigation, but it often starts with a tip from the community. “The public generally knows what’s going on next door,” Bianconi said. “They’re the best judge of the neighborhood.”

Other crimes Meth-related crimes made up 44 percent of all drug prosecutions in Dakota County last year. Prosecution from mari-juana, prescription drugs, cocaine and heroin all de-creased from 2011 to 2012. Cocaine prosecutions dropped from 88 in 2011 to 50 in 2012. While meth remains the most prosecuted drug crime in the county, of-ficials are also concerned about the rise in heroin use. Like meth, heroin is stronger and cheaper than it used to be. It’s often im-ported from Afghanistan and Mexico. Dakota County Drug

Take Back program aims to curb the use by ad-dressing prescription drug abuse. Individuals can anonymously drop off un-used prescription drugs at local police departments. Bellows said people often get addicted to leftover Vicodin and Percocet pain killers, which leads them to a low-cost alternative of heroin. “Years ago, ... heroin was 50 percent pure,” Bel-lows said. “Now it’s 90-95 percent.” While drug-related crimes make up 30-35 percent of arrests, many other offenses are directly related to controlled sub-stances, according to Bel-lows. Individuals with violent offenses and bur-glary charges are often re-lated to drugs and alcohol, whether someone is under the influence at the time or trying to sustain a habit. “To me, drugs are the fuel that feed the fire of crime,” Bellows said.

Email Andy Rogers at [email protected].

METH, from 1A


Obituaries

Open house set for park’s master plan A 60-day public review and comment period for Dakota County’s Leba-non Hills Regional Park Master Plan is open un-til Jan. 18, and the public is invited to weigh in on plan elements, including natural resource restora-tion projects, improved amenities and trail en-hancements. An open house will be held from 5-7 p.m. Monday, Dec. 16, at the Dakota County Western Service Center, 14955 Gal-axie Ave., Apple Valley, to give the public a chance to meet with staff, learn more about the plan and pro-vide input in person. Comments may also be offered by email to [email protected], by mail to Dakota County Office of Planning, Attn.: Mary Jackson, 14955 Gal-axie Ave., Apple Valley, MN 55124, or by filling out a comment card at the Lebanon Hills Visitor Center, 860 Cliff Road, Eagan. Highlights of the park’s master plan include: • Restored landscapes that promote cleaner wa-ter and more wildlife. • 46 miles of natural trails for hiking, mountain biking, skiing and more. • A 6.5-mile connector and up to 1.5 miles of lake loop trails that are ADA-compliant for providing more recreational activi-ties for all abilities in all seasons. • Lakeside picnic areas, camper cabins and natural play areas. • Something for every-one in a natural setting. A complete draft of the master plan can be viewed online, at the Visitor Center or at any Dakota County Library location. For more information or to see the plan online, visit www.dakotacounty.us/parks and search Leba-non Hills Master Plan.

Registration open for Farmington Expo The annual Farmington Community Expo is slated for Saturday, Jan. 25, at Farmington High School. The expo gives local resi-dents an opportunity to learn about Farmington resources, businesses and organizations. Businesses and organi-zations located within the boundaries of the Farm-ington School District are invited to participate. Vendor information is available online at www.farmingtonCE.com or by calling 651-460-3204. The registration dead-line is Jan. 4.

Farmington Library sale The Farmington Li-brary, 508 Third St., is holding a Remodeling Book Sale through Friday, Dec. 13. Ten books for $1.

Farmington KCs host Turkey Bingo The Farmington Knights of Columbus Council 2400 will host its annual Turkey Bingo from 6:30-9 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Church of St. Michael, 22120 Denmark Ave., Farmington. A sloppy Joe dinner will be served starting at 5:30 p.m. Also on the menu will be chips, pickles, bars and potato salad. Popcorn, soft serve ice cream, beer, wine and pop will be avail-able. Cost is $7 per person with a maximum of $25 per family. The Knights of Colum-bus is a Catholic fraternal nonprofit charitable ser-vice organization. Event proceeds will go toward helping the Farmington Food Shelf.

Job Transitions Group meets Nov. 26 The Rev. Kevin Olson will present “Preparing for the Inevitable Questions During the Holidays” at the Nov. 26 meeting of the Easter Job Transitions Group. The group meets at 7:30 a.m. Tuesdays at Eas-ter Lutheran Church – By the Lake, 4545 Pilot Knob Road, Eagan. Call 651-452-3680 for information.

ProAct, a nonprofit serving people with dis-abilities, is working with the Recycling Associa-tion of Minnesota to re-cycle holiday lights along with electrical and phone cords. The program runs Nov. 15 through Jan. 31. Lights will be indi-vidually disassembled and the cords will be cut into one-foot sections by people with disabilities at ProAct’s Eagan and Red Wing facilities, said Jennifer Cavalier, ProAct production coordinator. The nonprofit is not able to accept cord adapters, battery packs, plastic rope lights or CFL lights. The recovered ma-terials will be used in new plastic products, new electrical cords and pipes, said Maggie Mat-tacola, director of the St. Paul-based Recycling Association of Minneso-

ta. The program is state-wide, and partners with Ace Hardware Stores, Clean Energy Resource Teams, Great River En-ergy and WCCO. It also offers year-round recy-cling for these products at the Dakota County Recycling Zone, 3365 Dodd Road, Eagan. Local drop-off loca-tions include: Apple Valley – Ace Hardware & Paint, 14760 Pennock Ave.; Dakota County Western Service Center, 14955 Galaxie Ave.; Sterling State Bank, 4520 150th St. W.; Transition Plus, 5840 149th St. W. Burnsville – Frattal-lone’s Ace Hardware, 1350 County Road 42 W.; Burnsville Ice Arena, 251 Civic Center Park-way (starting Dec. 16). Eagan – Pellici Ace Hardware, 1565 Cliff Road; ProAct Inc., 3195

Craft and gift show at VFW The Rosemount VFW Ladies Auxiliary will host the eighth annual craft and gift show from 2-7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 30, at the Rosemount VFW, 2625 120th St. W.

Eagan YMCA holds open house The Eagan YMCA will offer full, free access to community members Nov. 29-30. Explore more than 50 group exercise class options, as well as open swim and gym times. Free child care will be provided for children ages 6 weeks to 10 years old. The YMCA will offer Black Friday fitness specials and the November Mem-berThon will be in effect. The YMCA is at 550 Opperman Drive, Eagan. For more information, visit ymcatwincities.org or call 651-456-9622.

ProAct begins 77-day recycling effortNeil Armstrong Blvd. (west of main entrance, near garage); Unisys, 3199 Pilot Knob Road. Farmington – Pellici Ace Hardware, 3560 213th St. W.; Round Bank, 3380 Vermillion River Trail. Lakeville – Ace Hard-ware & Paint, 20810 Holyoke Ave.; Ace Hard-ware & Paint, 17729 Juniper Path; Lakeville City Hall, 20195 Holy-oke Ave.; Lakeville Li-quor Heritage, 20164 Heritage Ave.; Lakeville Liquor Kenrick, 16179 Kenrick Ave.; Lakeville Liquor Store, 1600 Gal-axie Ave. Rosemount – Alli-ance Education Center, 14300 Biscayne Ave. W.; Rosemount Community Center, 13885 S. Rob-ert Trail; Community of Hope Church, 14401 Biscayne Ave. W.; First State Bank, 3025 145th St. W.; Starbucks, 14903 S. Robert Trail; Terry’s Hardware, 14635 Robert Trail S.; USA Nails, 3420 150th St. W., Suite 101; Vermillion State Bank, 15040 Canada Ave. W.

Area Briefs

Depression support The Depression Sup-port Coalition will offer “Medication Options for Mental Health,” featur-ing Dr. William Orr, from 7-8:30 p.m., Monday, Dec. 9, at Shepherd of the Val-ley Lutheran Church, 12650 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley. The coalition is made up of 10 south-of-the-river churches. It works to inform, educate, support, and cultivate a community of spiritual hope for those affected by depression, as well as their families. All are welcome. There is no cost to attend. For more information, con-tact Julie Opheim at 952-432-6351 or go to www.DepressionSupportCoali-tion.org.

Don’t let gravity be your downfall.

One in three. That’s how many adults over 65fall each year in the United States. Becauseolder bones break more easily, falling injuriesfor seniors can be traumatic. Staying activeand strong is key — along with making homeenvironments as safe as possible. For moreinfo on senior fitness and home safety, visitorthoinfo.org and nata.org.




Within six months of the launch the Cedar Av-enue Red Line, officials are feeling the pressure to change the Eagan stop. Cedar Grove Station is part of the metro’s first limited-stop bus rapid transit service from Ap-ple Valley to the Mall of America, and riders are frustrated by the slow stop. B u s e s must exit Highway 77 onto local streets to reach the station — located at 4035 Nicols Road — and then back-track to the highway. Officials knew the stop needed to be fixed but planned on doing so in the second phase of the $112 million project. Rid-ers’ concerns have “made it a higher priority,” said Kristine Elwood, tran-sit engineer for Dakota County. County officials are weighing whether to make the trip as short as pos-sible for the bus or mini-mize the distance riders must walk between the station and the bus. One option requires construction of an elevat-ed bridge that would take the bus up a ramp in the median of the highway over the northbound lane of Cedar Avenue and di-rectly to the station. This option would cost about $18 million and take about 2 minutes off the 27-minute north-bound trip and about 4 minutes off the 23-minute

southbound trip. In the second option, the bus would stop in the center of the highway and riders would walk to and from the station on a skyway. The walk would be about 400 feet and 2.5 minutes each way. This option carries a larger price tag of $23 million, and would take about 4 minutes off the northbound trip and about 6 minutes off the southbound trip. A third option would build a ramp directly from northbound Cedar to the station but would only benefit northbound buses. Local officials from the Minnesota Depart-ment of Transportation, Dakota County and the

Dakota County officials are examining different options for fixing the Cedar Grove bus rapid transit station after feeling pressure from riders who are frustrated by the slow stop. The station is part of the Cedar Avenue Red Line service from Apple Valley to the Mall of America. (Photo by Jessica Harper)

Officials look to speed up BRT in Eagan

Metropolitan Council are working together on a de-cision. “We hope to have a recommendation for a preferred option in the next few months,” Elwood said. Eagan city officials fa-vored the location of the station in hopes it would spur development in the Cedar Grove Area, which is the site of a new outlet mall under construction. The Red Line connects to the Hiawatha light rail, the Blue Line, which terminates in downtown

Minneapolis. Cedar Grove accounts for 18 percent of Red Line riders, and ridership from that station has slowly risen in recent years. Ridership from Cedar Grove has increased from 2,750 in 2008 to 5,750 in 2012. Average weekly ridership in September was 1,792. Weekly rider-ship is expected to soar in 2030 to between 11,250 to 19,200.



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“I applaud their ef-forts,” Frans said of those government units that lowered levies. “I plan to work with other cities and counties as they use these new property tax tools as part of developing our im-portant partnership.” Thirteen counties had no change in their levy from 2013 to 2014 and seven more raised it by less than 1 percent. Whether or not those translate into property tax decreases for residents is dependent on factors such as home valuation and tax base. Dakota County’s tax base grew by 4 percent, ac-cording to county finance director Matt Smith. The county is expected to increase its budget for operations and capital im-provements about 14 per-cent from $292 million to $333 million in 2014. This is 9.5 percent be-low the total 2010 budget

of $368 million. The coun-ty notes that operating spending has been reduced by more than 15 percent since 2009. After recommending the addition of 20.7 full-time equivalent positions in 2014, the county will still have reduced FTEs by 111.24, which accounts for an estimated $27 million reduction. Those new positions expected in 2014 include increases in 7.8 FTEs in Physical Development, 7.0 in Community Services and 2.5 in County Attor-ney. Other projects that are being funded in the 2014 budget include: • The development of Whitetail Woods Park in Empire Township, Spring Lake Park trails, Swing Bridge trailhead, Byllesby Dam spillway and natural resource restoration. • Remodeled libraries and the judicial center in Hastings.

• Highway 13 and County Road 5 inter-change work to be com-pleted in Burnsville. • Implementation of the “No Wrong Door” Com-munity Services program, which aims to broaden community points of ac-cess for county-supported services. • New election equip-ment. • New library materials. Since 2009, the county’s levy amount has increased 0.1 percent while the Con-sumer Price Index rose 8.9 percent. The county set the same levy amount as the previ-ous year in 2010 and 2012. For 2010, the county’s tax base fell by 4 percent, state aid was cut, 55 po-sitions were projected to eliminated and salaries of top administrators was frozen. The 2011 levy was in-creased 0.8 percent to $129.4 million when the county portion of proper-

ty taxes on the median val-ue home was projected to decline by 50 cents as resi-dential values dropped. For 2012, changes to the Market Value Home-stead Credit were credited for 3 to 4 percent increases in the county portion of taxes for the median value home despite a flat levy. The 2013 levy was re-duced to $129.1 million, which was projected to result in a $29.62 drop in property taxes on a me-dian home. The six cities in the Sun Thisweek and Dakota County Tribune coverage area are projecting levy increases ranging from 1.5 to 5.7 percent, according to the various cities. For the city portion of property taxes, the in-crease from 2013 to 2014 for the average or median value home is expected to range from $10 to $30.

Email Tad Johnson at [email protected].

TOOLS, from 1A

Holiday shoppers can give cheer to area seniors by par-ticipating in the Be a Santa to a Senior program. The program – run by the local Home Instead Senior Care office in partnership with the Burnsville Senior Center, area retailers, volunteers and members of the community – helps ensure isolated seniors receive gifts and compan-ionship during the holidays. Participating retailers dis-play Christmas trees featuring ornaments with seniors’ first names and their gift requests. Shoppers can pick an ornament from these trees, buy the items listed and re-turn them unwrapped to the store, with the ornament at-tached. For a list of tree locations, visit www.BeaSanta-toaSenior.com. Call 952-882-9300 for more information. (Photo submitted)

Brighten the holidays

Worship DirectoryShare your weekly worship schedule or other activities with the community.

Email [email protected] or call 952-392-6875 for rates and informatilon.


For a complete catalog, stop in any Lakeville Liquors location or visit our website at:

952-985-4900 www.lakevillemn.gov

Lakeville Liquors HeritageCounty Road 50 & Heritage Drive

Lakeville Liquors GalaxieCounty Road 46 & Galaxie Avenue

Lakeville Liquors KenrickCounty Road 46 & Kenrick Avenue

Lakeville LiquorsLakeville Liquors

Closed Thursday, November 28th for ThanksgivingEnjoy the holidays and drink responsibly.

Visit Lakeville Liquors for your holiday shopping needs.

NOVEMBER SPECIALS Good through Nov. 30Mirassou

Winesall types 750 ml

$699

Baileys Irish Creamall fl avors 750 ml

$1699

Michelob Golden Draft & Golden Draft Light

24 pack cans

$1699

Russian Standard Vodka

1.75 Ltr

$1999

SummitBeers

all types 12 pk btls

$1299

Glenfi ddich12 Yr Scotch

750 ml

$3199

Rex GoliathWines

all types 1.5 Ltr

$799

Sugar Island Coconut& Spiced Run

750 ml

$1599

New BelgiumBeers

all types 12 pk cans or bottles

$1299

BLACK FRIDAY SPECIALBlack Friday, November 29th & Saturday, November 30th

For every $50.00 you spend, receive a $5.00 Liquor Holiday Coupon to be used in the month of December!

The more you buy, the more you save!No limit set as to how much you can earn and all applicable discounts apply!

CYBER MONDAYMonday, December 2nd

Lakeville Liquors will be emailing out some incredible deals but only to those on our emailing list! If you are not on our list and want to be, visit www.lakevillemn.gov. On the right hand side,

click on email updates, then select liquor stores specials!

Club members no need to update, you are already on our list.

During the 2012-13 school year, District 196 high school students who participated in the College in the Schools (CIS) pro-gram earned a combined 5,432 college credits valued at more than $2.5 million, according to a value state-ment released by the Uni-versity of Minnesota in No-vember. CIS is a program where students earn college credits taking advanced courses at their high school that are taught by their high school teachers. There were 1,299 CIS student registrations from the five District 196 high schools last school year, an increase of 86 over the previous year. Rose-mount High had 426 regis-trations, Eagan High 438, Eastview High 282, Apple Valley High 123 and the School of Environmental Studies had 30.

At the 2012-13 U of M tuition rate of $463.85 per credit, the 5,432 cred-its earned by District 196 students are valued at $2,519,639. The school district paid the university $188,355 ($145 per course) for the students to take these college-credit courses at their high schools last year. According to a survey of CIS alumni, 94 percent of respondents were success-ful in getting other colleges to recognize U of M cred-its earned through the CIS program. CIS is one of sev-eral opportunities available for District 196 students to earn college credit while in high school. Others in-clude Advanced Placement courses and tests, and con-current enrollment agree-ments with specific colleges, community colleges and technical schools.

District 196 Community Education District 196 Communi-ty Education will offer the following classes. To reg-ister, or for more informa-tion, call 651-423-7920 or visit www.district196.org/ce. • Make Your Website Googlicious, 6-9 p.m. Tues-day, Nov. 26, Rosemount Middle School, $35. Dis-cover how to improve your website within the major search engines, your page rank and drive customers to your site for more busi-ness. • Excel 2010: Func-tions and Formulas, 6:30-8:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 2, Rosemount Middle School, $39. • Zumba Gold, 6:30-7:30 p.m. Tuesdays, Dec. 3 through Jan. 14 (skip Dec. 24, 31), Northview Elementary School, $39.

The ISD 196 Transportation Department held its third annual food drive to help the hungry in Dakota County. District bus drivers, chaperones and office staff donated food for the Fresh Off The Vine food shelf at 13798 Parkwood Drive in Burnsville. (Photo submitted)

EducationDistrict 196 students earn $2.5 million in U of M credits

School bus drivers help the hungry


SportsIrish ride 11-game streak to Prep BowlRosemount faces Eden Prairie for

Class 6A title by Mike Shaughnessy

SUN THISWEEKDAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

Rosemount had spent the previous two months mowing down opponents with ruthless efficiency, but it took one play by Roseville to show that the Raiders wouldn’t go away quietly. Jacques Perra, Ros-eville’s star quarterback, completed a 55-yard pass on his team’s first play and kept the Raiders in the Class 6A football semifi-nal with his arm and legs. It still wasn’t enough, as the Irish made several big plays of their own in a 35-28 victory Nov. 14 that sends them to the Prep Bowl for the second time in four years. “In the back of our minds, we know we’re going to have the oppor-tunity to prove we’re the best team in the state in two weeks,” Rosemount coach Jeff Erdmann told his team shortly after the Roseville game ended. And if the Irish believe they need to beat the best to be the best – they have that opportunity, too. They will face Eden Prai-rie, two-time defending state large-school cham-pion and owner of a 16-game winning streak, in the Class 6A final at 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29, at the Me-trodome. The schools last met in football in 2009, when both were still mem-bers of the Lake Confer-ence. It will be Rosemount’s third time in a state cham-pionship game. The Irish won the large-school title in 1981, the last year be-fore the championship games moved inside to the Metrodome. They played in the Prep Bowl in 2010, losing to Wayzata. “It’s indescribable,” Rosemount senior corner-back Carter Yepsen said of getting a chance to play

in the Prep Bowl. “Foot-ball is such a big deal with the ‘Friday Night Lights’ atmosphere and every-thing. Not many kids get to play football after high school, so it’s exciting to think I’ll end my high school career playing in a game like that.” The Irish (11-1) have won 11 in a row. Ten of their first 11 victories were by at least 24 points. But Roseville challenged the Irish’s pass defense. Perra opened a wild first half by throwing a 55-yard pass to Jordan Gannon on his team’s first play. That moved the ball to the Rosemount 25 and set up a 12-yard touch-down pass from Perra to Andrew Colvard. “Our guys had to un-derstand that (the Raiders) were going to make some plays,” Rosemount coach Jeff Erdmann said. “And we had to let our guys play. If you start making changes right away, now your players are thinking, ‘Holy crap, (the coaches) don’t have any confidence in us.’” Rosemount responded almost immediately with Jackson Erdmann’s 25-yard touchdown pass to

Tyler Hartigan, making it 7-7 just 4:18 into the game. Perra scored on a 1-yard run as Roseville regained the lead. The Irish came back with Wil-liams’ wingback sweep for a 37-yard touchdown run with 24 seconds left in the quarter. The conver-sion attempt was wide left, however, and Roseville re-tained a 14-13 lead. The Irish forced Ros-eville to punt early in the second quarter and took possession on their 49-yard line. On first down, Rosemount’s offensive line cleared a wide path for se-nior running back Trent Woodcock, who raced to a 51-yard touchdown and his team’s first lead. When Roseville had to punt again late in the second quarter, Williams caught it at the right hash-mark, took off toward the left sidline and ran past three Raiders players for a 77-yard touchdown re-turn. Williams said the blocking had been set up for a return down the left sideline – hence the long lateral run toward the op-posite sideline, which of-ten is regarded as not ideal for kick returns. But he got

to the corner and once he turned upfield the block-ers escorted him to the end zone. That made it 27-13, but Roseville closed the gap on a 6-yard touchdown pass from Perra to Colvard in the final minute of the first half. The pace actually slowed a little in the third quarter as each team had to punt on its first pos-session. The scoreboard started spinning again when Erdmann scored on a 1-yard run and caught a pass from Williams for a two-point conversion that made it 35-21. Through three quar-ters, the Irish were averag-ing more than 10 yards a play (33 plays, 348 yards). Again, Roseville came back, this time with a

four-play, 65-yard drive, ending with Perra’s 31-yard touchdown pass to Tommy Arcand with 3:46 to play in the third quar-ter. The Raiders opened the fourth quarter on their 12-yard line and still in the game, trailing 35-28. They couldn’t score again, although they threatened. On their final drive they had fourth and four at the Irish 19 with two minutes remaining, but the Rose-mount defense pressured Perra into an off-target throw. Perra passed for 296 yards and three touch-downs and also gained 80 of his team’s 96 rushing yards. The Rosemount defense sacked him four times. The Irish gained 327

yards rushing, led by Wil-liams, who had 138 yards on 15 carries. Jackson Erd-mann rushed for 74 yards and Woodcock gained 71. Carter Yepsen, whose twin brother Connor is Rosemount’s other start-ing cornerback, said the Irish tried to take away Perra’s favorite receiver, Jesper Horsted, by dou-ble-covering him. It did appear to have an effect as Horsted was held to five catches for 52 yards. “We haven’t seen a quarterback like (Perra) this year,” Carter Yepsen said. “But we thought we’d be able to get enough stops so our offense could get going.”

Email Mike Shaughnessy at [email protected].

Dimitri Williams scored two touchdowns in Rosemount’s 35-28 victory over Roseville in the state Class 6A semifinals. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)

Joe Splettstoeser (left), Jack Kessler (11) and Tyler Har-tigan of Rosemount celebrate after Hartigan caught a touchdown pass in the Class 6A semifinals against Ros-eville at the Metrodome. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)

Grayson Nicolay (right) of Dakota United tries to play the ball past an Anoka-Hen-nepin defender during the state adapted soccer tournament in Stillwater. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)

Hawks close to toppling a dynastyDU loses 1-goal game in PI Division soccer final

by Mike ShaughnessySUN THISWEEK


In all high school sports, but especially adapted sports, the op-portunity to participate is supposed to take priority over wins and losses. “Tell that to my play-ers,” Lorrie Buecksler said with a wry smile. Dakota United played in one of the most mem-orable championship games in the history of the state adapted soccer tour-nament, and Buecksler said the Hawks shouldn’t be ashamed about their runner-up finish. Still, she said, it’s difficult not to wonder how her players

might be feeling if they had won. Dakota United, a co-operative that includes students from Apple Val-ley, Eagan, Eastview and Rosemount high schools, was close to ending Rob-binsdale/Hopkins/Mound Westonka’s reign as state champions in the PI (physical impairments) Division. But the Robins scored two goals in the final three minutes for a 5-4 victory in Saturday’s championship game at Stillwater High School. “No matter the sport, our kids are competitive,” Buecksler said. “They wanted to win this last year, and they came close

(Dakota United also lost to the Robins in the 2012 state final). They played well, really amazing. These are great kids who pushed themselves hard all season.” Sophomore Grayson Nicolay, an all-tourna-ment selection, scored all four of Dakota United’s goals in the championship game and had 13 in the tournament. Nicolay, Anthony Ver-vais and Jaayson Meyer were named to the all-tournament team. Dakota United (12-1) was the top seed from the South Division, while the Robins (9-0) were the top seed from the North.

Baseball training offered at Irish Dome The Irish Sports Dome in Rosemount is one of the sites for the Minneso-ta Twins Training Acad-emy, which offers baseball training sessions for play-ers ages 10-18.

Sessions will be Wednesdays and Satur-days from late November through March. Twins personnel, minor league players and alumni as well as top college and high

school coaches provide the instruction. For more information or to register visit www.irishsportsdome.com or contact Chris at [email protected].

Blazing Cats bag another title by Mike Shaughnessy

SUN THISWEEKDAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

When he’s introduced before adapted soccer games, Stephen Friday takes the floor with a somersault, much like Ozzie Smith did in his heyday with the St. Louis Cardinals. When Smith did it be-fore baseball games, it helped fire up the crowd. Does it have the same effect on Friday’s team-mates? “Oh yeah, it does,” Fri-day said. “Every game.” Who’s to argue? Thanks in part to its somersaulting, athletic goalie, Burnsville/Farm-ington/Lakeville won its first state adapted soccer championship, defeating Park Center 8-1 in the CI (cognitive impairments) Division championship game Saturday at Still-water High School. The Blazing Cats won their second state adapted sports championship; the other was in softball last spring. Many of the adapted soccer players also were on the softball team, and Friday said that experi-ence helped. “Just with teamwork. It brought us all together,” he said. The Blazing Cats rolled through a 14-0-1 season. The only game they didn’t win was a 4-4 tie against South Washington Coun-

ty in October. Burnsville/Farmington/Lakevil le didn’t get a chance for a rematch because Park Center beat South Wash-ington County 9-8 in overtime in the state semi-finals. “I think the softball tournament experience helped because it helped the kids get used to play-ing in front of bigger crowds,” said Blazing Cats coach Shawn Tatge. “They might have been a little less nervous at the start of the tournament. “We came here and played North Suburban, Anoka-Hennepin and Park Center, three really good teams. For us to beat all three says something about these kids and the

way they played.” The Blazing Cats’ three state opponents were a combined 27-3 entering the tournament. Brayan Estrada Mar-tinez scored four goals in the championship game, giving him 11 for the tournament. Michael Burns, Logan Dough-erty, Marshae Haley and Manny Desouza had one goal each. Friday had 19 saves, making a variety of scrambling stops and keeping Park Center off the scoreboard until the Blazing Cats had a six-goal lead. Friday, Estrada Mar-tinez and Burns were named to the all-tourna-ment team.

Brayan Estrada Martinez of Burnsville/Farmington/Lakeville is congratulated by a teammate after scoring a goal during the state adapted soccer tournament last weekend in Stillwater. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)


of Hap and Betty Hanson, told members of the Rose-mount Area Historical So-ciety that the Hansons had bequeathed in their will an endowment to the society to fund publications. Hap Hanson, the first superintendent of School District 196, and Betty Han-son, a longtime librarian who was instrumental in li-braries being included in the development of new schools in Rosemount, died in 1999 and 1974, respectively. “We knew we were going to jump on this,” Bouchard said, but they really didn’t know how. Bouchard, who said she does not consider herself a writer and isn’t a native of Rosemount, hesitated at the thought of writing a history book. She was born and raised in St. Paul and moved to Rosemount 29 years ago, though the Geraghty family has a long history in town, including having their name associated with one of the few 1900s-era buildings left at the corner of Highway 3 and 145th Street. It was not until she was cleaning out boxes at the West St. Paul historical soci-ety site that she found all the inspiration she would need. “I found some of the drafts of the county his-tory book and it was all redlined,” Bouchard said. “I thought if she could get red-lined, I can get redlined.” Bouchard said much of the history in the book had been compiled already, but needed to be organized. She had done countless interviews over the years and started collecting new information with interviews and research. She estimates she spoke to about 200 people in the

development of the book. Among her trusted sources were neighbors Dick and Jean Heinen, Don and Rita Corrigan (Rita designed the cover), along with many other longtime Rosemount residents. Bouchard started to or-ganize the information in an outline based on a previous county history book. The sections seemed to break out nicely for her into Settle-ments, Significant Events, Schools, Churches, Busi-nesses, etc. For casual readers of Rosemount history, the op-portunity to meet the inter-esting characters in Rose-mount’s history is in this book. Some of Bouchard’s favorites are one of the founding fathers, Walter Strathern, and businessmen Joseph J. Hynes and John Corrigan. “People like that who stuck their necks out and tried to do a lot of things made Rosemount what it is today,” she said. A biography section at

the back of the book orga-nized by family name is a treasure trove of informa-tion. Bouchard didn’t restrict herself to telling only of the town’s old-timers. The book brings readers right up to the modern day with infor-mation about such happen-ings as the removal of the Brockway Glass Factory in 2004, the opening of Da-kota County branch Robert Trail Library in 2009, the razing of the old St. Joseph Catholic School in 2012. She said the best part of the book to people is that it “stirs memories” in people. “It’s great to hear people say: ‘Oh, I remember that,” or ‘I forgot about that,’ or ‘I heard about that, but I never understood what it was all about,’ ” she said. Bouchard said she strives very hard to be accurate in all accounts and is clear with readers when something is part of an oral tradition, but can’t be confirmed by docu-mentation. The biggest endorse-

ment comes from longtime Rosemount resident Ed Mc-Menomy, who told Boucha-rd that if anyone questions anything is wrong in the book, they should talk to him. Another endorsement

comes from Rosemount Mayor Bill Droste. “To maintain a commu-nity that is both close-knit and diverse, it is important to understand how we start-ed and why we developed the way we did,” he wrote in the book’s preface. “It is my hope that the efforts of the Rosemount Area Historical Society like this book will bond us more closely as we seek to pre-serve an understanding of our past even as we reach toward the future.” To help assemble the book, Bouchard enlisted the help of Burnsville resident Jack Kennelly, whose family traces their roots in Rose-mount, to edit the book. Dakota County Technical College instructor Connie Larson designed the book. Bouchard jokes that Kennelly and Larson prob-ably didn’t know what they were getting themselves into by working on the project as its six-month timeline turned into eight months, then into a year.

“At that point, I said, ‘OK, we need to get this to press,’ ” Bouchard said. She knows that going to press with the book is not so much of an ending as it is a beginning as history is continually being made in Rosemount. For successive printings, Bouchard is preparing new information about the Rose-mount Community Center, the Rosemount High School marching band’s trip to the Tournament of Roses Parade in 2014 and much more. “That’s what I love about history,” she said. “As soon as I finish a book, there are new things to include.” Copies of the book are $32.95 plus tax. To obtain a book, email [email protected] or attend the Holiday Bazaar on Sat-urday at Rosemount United Methodist Church, 14770 Canada Ave.

Email Tad Johnson at [email protected].

BOOK, from 1A

LEGAL NOTICES

Published in the Dakota County Tribune Rosemount/Farmington on Nov. 21, 2013

Less: Redeemed Issues

INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 194

This is a summary of the Indepen-dent School District No.194 RegularSchool Board Meeting on Tues, Octo-ber 22, 2013 with full text availablefor public inspection on the district website at www.isd194.k12.mn.us or District Office at 8670 210th Street W., Lakeville, MN 55044

The meeting was called to order at 7:00 p.m. followed by pledge of allegiance. All board members andadministrators were present exceptJim Skelly.

Public Comment: Amy Willingham,representing Unite 194 and Bill Boh-line, 17916 Ingrid Ct, encouraged community members to vote on No-vember 5.

Consent agenda items approved: Minutes of the meetings on October 8; employment recommendations, leave requests and resignations; pay-ment of bills & claims as presented; wire transfers/investments as pre-sented; alt facilities change orders/bids as presented (change order #2 funded by Health & Safety; donations and fieldtrips.

Reports presented: Impact Acade-my advisory council update; 2012-13student performance/accountabilityupdate; levy communications update.

Recommended actions approved: Annual report on curriculum, in-struction & student achievement;policies 202-Board of Education Of-ficers, 204-Board of Education Meet-ing Minutes, 205-Open Meetings andClosed Meetings, 210-Conflict of In-terest – Board of Education Members.

Closed Session: Discussions re-garding Superintendent informal evaluation and review of cabinet andprincipals annual reviews.

Adjournment at 9:48 p.m. Published in the

Dakota County TribuneNovember 21, 2013

55978


This is a summary of the Indepen-dent School District No. 194 Spe-cial Board of Education Meeting onTuesday, October 22, 2013 with full text available for public inspection on the district website at www.isd194.k12.mn.us or 8670 210th Street W.,Lakeville, MN 55044

The meeting was called to order at5:03 p.m. All board members and ad-ministrators were present except Jim Skelly.

Discussions: Cabinet/Board shared group agreements; analysis of tech-nical production of board meetings;strategic plan-alignment to activitiesand decisions.

Meeting adjourned at 6:50 p.m.Published in

Dakota County TribuneNovember 21, 2013

55947

INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DISTRICT NO. 196SCHOOL BOARD

PROCEEDINGS MINUTES OF OCTOBER 28, 2013

REGULAR BOARD MEETINGVice Chairperson Jackie Mag-

nuson, called the regular School Board meeting to order at 6 p.m. on October 28, 2013 at Dakota Ridge School.

Present: Joel Albright, Art Coul-son, treasurer; Gary Huusko, clerk; Jackie Magnuson, vice chairper-son; Mike Roseen, Bob Schutte and Superintendent Jane K. Berenz.

Absent: Chairperson Rob Duch-scher.

The Pledge of Allegiance was led by the Troop 235 Color Guard, comprised of students who attend Scott Highlands Middle School and Rosemount High School.

Motion by Huusko, seconded by Coulson and carried, with six mem-bers voting in favor and no member voting in opposition, to approve the revised agenda.

Berenz congratulated:• Members of the Rosemount

High School Marching Band on

finishing seventh at the Bands of America Super Regional Champi-onships;

• Jordan Kopfer, Eastview High School (EVHS), for taking third place in the state girls’ singles ten-nis tournament;

• EVHS boys’ soccer team on qualifying for state;

• Football and volleyball teams, who are competing for spots at state tournaments;

• Boys’ and girls’ state cross country participants, and

• Students who performed at the Dakota Valley Choral Festival.

Motion by Albright, seconded by Huusko and carried, with six mem-bers voting in favor and no member voting in opposition, to approve the following Consent items:

Minutes of October 14, 2013 regular board meeting (Exhibit A1);

Claims for October 9-22, 2013 (Exhibit B1);

Electronic funds transfer sched-ule for October 5-18, 2013 (Exhibit B2);

Schedule of investments for Oc-tober 5-18, 2013 (Exhibit B3);

Treasurer’s Report for month ending September 30, 2013 (Ex-hibit B4);

Contract with Telin Transporta-tion Group, Inc. to a purchase one 12-18 passenger special education school bus for a total of $50,974 plus tax and license fees (Exhibit B5);

Separations, leaves of absence and new staff (Exhibit C1);

Set substitute and temporary employee additional teacher hour pay rate at $20 per hour (Exhibit C2);

Set the adult and youth enrich-ment hourly wage rate range for District 196 licensed and classified employees at $10 to $26.28 effec-tive October 29, 2013 (Exhibit C3);

Agreement with the Minnesota State University, Mankato for clini-cal social work experience effective January 2, 2014 through January 1, 2017 (Exhibit D1);

Agreement with Hiawatha Homecare for private duty nursing

services for a student enrolled at the Early Childhood Learning Cen-ter from October 21, 2013 through August 1, 2014 (Exhibit D2), and

Agreement with a teacher to secure an additional .125 FTE of services for a limited period of time for the remainder of the 2013-14 school year without the additional FTE becoming part of the teacher’s continuing contract (Exhibit D3).

Bill Lauer, a partner at Malloy, Montague, Karnowski and Rados-evich & Co., PA (MMKR), presented an overview of audit results for the Fiscal Year 2012-13 Audited Com-prehensive Annual Financial Report (Exhibit E). Lauer explained the auditor’s role and summarized key financial results for the fiscal year ending June 30, 2013. Specifically, the report explained differences between the projected budget and the actual revenues and expendi-tures. The auditors gave the district a “clean” unmodified opinion, the highest opinion they are able to give, on basic financial statements. (Exhibit E).

Lauer said on the Financial Statement Audit there was one deficiency in internal controls over cash receipts collected outside of the District Office business office and no compliance findings. He noted that with the implementa-tion of FeePay, a comprehensive fee management system, the dis-trict has experienced a reduction of cash and checks collected at school site levels. Lauer reported the district received a clean opin-ion on federal award expenditures and no material weakness or com-pliance findings were identified in federal and state audits. For Student Activities, Lauer reported a clean opinion was received on receipts and disbursements. He shared compliance findings for internal controls and compliance reports citing the district records student activity receipts on a cash basis and controls are not in place to assure all receipts are recorded. During audit testing, one school had four of 36 receipts that lacked

supporting documentation, three of 36 disbursements did not have two signatures on the check and one of 36 disbursements did not have an authorized check request.

He reviewed fund balances, revenues and expenditures, and a 10-year history of the general fund. Lauer noted the district’s cash flow was impacted negatively as a result of the percentage change in state aid being paid by June 30, the tax shift increase and the consequent short-term borrowing.

Board members thanked fi-nance employees and noted that although District 196 is considered an average-spending district in to-tal, our district spends more than the state average on instruction.

In summary, Lauer said the dis-trict general fund is in sound finan-cial condition. The board is sched-uled to act on the 2012-13 Audited Comprehensive Annual Financial Report at its next regular meeting.

Director of Human Resources Tom Pederstuen highlighted terms from the two-year collective bar-gaining agreement with Rose-mount-Apple Valley-Eagan (RAVE) Clerical Association (Exhibit F). On October 22, 2013, members of the bargaining unit ratified the agreement, which is effective July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2015 and terms include:

• Increasing the salary sched-ules by 2 percent each year, plus an additional five cents in the sec-ond year;

• Increasing the longevity schedules by 2 percent each year;

• Increasing contributions to health insurance by 3 percent the first year and 3.75 percent the sec-ond year;

• Increasing the annual contri-bution to the tax-deferred matching plan by $50 the first year and $55 the second year, and

• Other minor language modifi-cations.

Pederstuen noted the total cost of the contract is within the param-eters set by the School Board and asked the board to approve the agreement.

Albright announced he would be abstaining from the vote since his wife is covered by this contract.

Motion by Huusko, seconded by Roseen and carried, with five mem-bers voting in favor, no member voting in opposition and Albright abstaining, to approve the agree-ment.

Pederstuen highlighted terms from the two-year collective bar-gaining agreement with the Support Staff Association of Independent School District 196, representing custodial, grounds, maintenance and warehouse employees (Exhibit G). On October 17, 2013, members of the bargaining unit ratified the agreement, which is effective July 1, 2013 through June 30, 2015 and terms include:

• Increasing the salary sched-ules by 2 percent each year;

• Increasing the longevity schedules by 2 percent each year and an additional longevity step was added for employees with 8 or more years of service;

• Increasing contributions to health insurance by 2 percent the first year and 4 percent the second year;

• Increasing the annual contri-bution to the tax-deferred matching plan by $150 the first year and $105 the second year, and

• Other minor language modifi-cations.

Pederstuen noted the total cost of the contract is within the param-eters set by the School Board and asked the board to approve the agreement.

Motion by Roseen, seconded by Huusko and carried, with six mem-bers voting in favor and no member voting in opposition, to approve the agreement.

Albright reminded residents to vote on November 5 and an-nounced election information is available on the district’s website.

Berenz commented on the School Board offices and levy ref-erendum question that are on the November 5 ballot.

Magnuson thanked members of Troop 235 for attending and com-mented on the role of the School Board.

Motion by Schutte, seconded by Roseen and carried, with six mem-bers voting in favor and no member voting in opposition, to adjourn the meeting at 6:30 p.m.

Published in Dakota County Tribune

November 22, 201356362


MINUTES OF OCTOBER 30, 2013

SPECIAL BOARD MEETINGVice Chairperson Jackie Mag-

nuson called the special School Board meeting to order at 6 p.m. on October 30, 2013 at the District Office.

Present: Joel Albright, Gary Huusko, clerk; Jackie Magnuson, vice chairperson; Bob Schutte and Superintendent Jane K. Berenz.

Absent: Art Coulson, treasurer; Rob Duchscher, chairperson, and Mike Roseen.

Motion by Schutte, seconded by Albright and carried, with four members voting in favor and no member voting in opposition, to approve the agenda.

Vice President Mark Bosch of Bossardt Corporation, the district’s construction management consul-tant, presented a recommendation for contracts to be awarded for construction projects at the Early Childhood/Adult Basic Education Facility. He noted pre-award con-ferences were held with each bid-der.

Bosch said the board may award or reject any or all of the contracts outlined in Exhibit A and amended to authorize the superintendent or director of finance and operations to sign contracts.

Motion by Huusko, seconded by Albright and carried, with four members voting in favor and no member voting in opposition, to approve the following contracts to-taling $1,916,843 for Bid Package #1 - Sitework:

• Contract 3100 Earthwork/Site Demolition to Max Steininger, Inc. for $690,000;

• Contract 3210 Asphalt Paving/Curbs to Prior Lake Blacktop, Inc. for $239,096;

• Contract 3123 Site Concrete/Concrete Retaining Walls Concrete to Steenberg-Watrud for $557,860;

• Contract 3290 Landscaping/Ir-rigation Systems to Peterson Com-panies, Inc. for $239,900, and

• Contract 3300 Site Utilities to New Look Contracting, Inc. for $189,987.

Motion by Schutte, seconded by Albright and carried, with four members voting in favor and no member voting in opposition, to adjourn the meeting at 6:15 p.m.

Published in Dakota County Tribune

November 21, 201356377

Outside of the Rosemount Post Office circa 1915 were Loretta Gibbons, telephone operator Laura Hayes, Postmaster William Colgan and rural carrier Charley Sullivan. The names of the children are not known. (Photo submitted)

The Rosemount School District 19 building was opened in December 1919. It still stands today and is part of Rosemount Middle School. (Photo submitted)


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Office Support/Customer Service

Small Burnsville commer-cial real estate office look-ing for part-time admin-istrative office assistant. Position requires excellent skills in Excel, Word and Internet navigation in ad-dition to superior book-keeping and mathematical competencies. Candidate must be organized, able to work independently (as well as within a team), ex-hibit accuracy, attention to detail and analytical skills, as demonstrated by prior job experience. Pro-fessionalism, flexibility, multi-tasking ability and strong people skills a must. 20 hours per week, $12-$16/hour depending on experience.

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5520 Part-time

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PT Office/Cashier/Receptionist

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35W & Cliff Rd

5520 Part-time

Reliable HCAs for Rsmt & BV group homes. Weekday & weekend hrs. Ability to drive handicapped - vehi-cle a plus. 651-452-5781


SOCIAL SERVICES

Comprehensive Ser-vices, Inc. is accepting applications for direct care staff to work with individuals with dis-abilities in the Eagan and Inver Grove Hts. area. Hours include evenings, weekends, overnights and more! For more information please call 651-451-5853. EOE/AA

Substitute Teachers Burnsville-Eagan-Savage

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more details


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Mechanic, Small Engine

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Now Hiring: Restaurant Staff, Sandwich Makers, and Cashiers Seeking Hrly Assoc. for: Restaurant Staff, Sandwich Makers, and Ca-shiers. FT & PT positions avl. w/immediate open-ings. Please remit all ques-tions & resumes via email or in-person at 1286 Lone Oak Rd. Eagan. [email protected]

5540 Healthcare

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Buffalo dreams and maps of spiritual territory

Burnsville author John Solensten’s new novel draws from Lakota myths

by Andrew MillerSUN THISWEEK


Though it’s set in South Dakota, the inspiration for John Solensten’s novel “Buffalo Grass” came from his time in the Korean War. It was dur-ing his stint in the U.S. Army in Korea more than 60 years ago that Solen-sten struck up a friendship with John Good Thun-der, a Lakota infantryman who gave the writer an in-sider’s view of Native Amer ican life. “I got to know him and spent hours and hours talking with him about his life,” said Solensten, 84, a Burnsville resident and re-tired Concordia University English professor. The two soldiers were separated in Korea after Good Thunder lost part of his hand when a grenade exploded near him during combat. When the two re-connected back in Minne-sota, Good Thunder was “pretty much a mess,” ow-ing to heavy drinking. So-lensten later learned, from a newspaper article, that his friend had hung himself in a Duluth jail. But the experiences Good Thunder shared

about Lakota life while in Korea served as the basis for Solensten’s trilogy of novels starting with “Good Thunder” in 1983 and fol-lowed by “In the Belly of the Horse” in 2007. “Buffalo Grass,” pub-

lished in August, fol-lows a man who retires to a South Da-kota ranch after losing his job on Wall Street. There’s a giant white buffalo on the prop-erty, and the man’s dreams are haunted by the White Buffalo Calf woman of La-

kota myth. Solensten, who’s pub-lished a total of five novels and scores of stories and poems, is the winner of the Minnesota Voices Award in the short story category and National Association of Writers & Writing Pro-grams Award for novels. He’s now completing work on a short-story col-lection titled “Madness, North Dakota: Stories from a Town on the Edge of Things.” The author describes the collection as 14 tales of eccentrics in “a town that’s barely surviv-ing.” Solensten continues to write regularly, approach-

ing the craft with a work-man’s mentality. “Writing is hard work – nothing is romantic about it for me,” he said, who cites American authors Ambrose Bierce, Stephen Crane and Sherwood An-derson as some of his liter-ary influences. The value of writing, and of literature, lies in the new horizons it opens, he said. “We can only live one life – in some ways that’s a limitation,” he said. “But by participating in the lives of other people, we can move on to a deeper enjoy-ment of life.” Email Andrew Miller at [email protected].

“Buffalo Grass” is Burns-ville author John Solen-sten’s third novel set in South Dakota, a state he often refers to as his “spiri-tual territory.” (Photo sub-mitted)

theater and arts calendar

family calendar

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

[email protected].

Art Holiday Art Sale and Empty Bowls fundraiser, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Nov. 23, Lakeville Area Arts Cen-ter, 20965 Holyoke Ave. Sale continues business hours through Dec. 5. Information: 952-985-4640. Pottery and Art Sale, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, Eagan Art House, 3981 Lexington Ave. S., Eagan. In-formation: 651-675-5521 or eaganarthouse.org.

Auditions Auditions for the Prior Lake Players’ production of “Oliver” will be Dec. 9-10 at Twin Oaks Middle School, 15860 Fish Point Road S.E., Prior Lake. Ages 7-14: 6-7:30 p.m. Ages 15 and older: 7:30-9 p.m. No appointments necessary. Those audition-ing will read from the script and should come dressed for movement. All adults and any boys interested in the role of Oliver should prepare a short song that shows their vocal talent. An accompanist will be provided. Performances will be March 6-9 and March 13-16. Information: plplayers.org.

Dance Twin Cities Ballet of Min-nesota performs “Nutcrack-er” Dec. 13-15 at the Burns-ville Performing Arts Center, 12600 Nicollet Ave. Tickets: $16 to $32 at the box office, by phone at 800-982-2787 or Ticketmaster.com.

Exhibits The Abode Exhibit, fea-turing quilts by the Minnesota Contemporary Quilters, is on display through November at the Lakeville Area Arts Cen-ter, 20965 Holyoke Ave. Infor-mation: 952-985-4640. “Metamorphosis: New Dreams, New Visions, New Directions,” an exhibit fea-turing La Feminine artists Patricia Schwartz, Christine Tierney and Leslie Bowman, is on display through Dec. 14 at Burnsville Performing Arts Center. Information: 952-895-4685. Wildlife paintings by Rosemount artist Lynda Dyk-house are on display through December at the Robert Trail Library, 14395 S. Robert Trail, Rosemount.

Music Michael Bolton, 8 p.m. Tuesday, Dec. 3, at the Burns-ville Performing Arts Center,

12600 Nicollet Ave. Tickets are $67 at the box office, by phone at 800-982-2787 or Ticketmaster.com. Alison Scott’s Soulful Christmas, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, at the Lakeville Area Arts Center. Tickets: $17.50 in advance, $22.50 at the door. Purchase tickets online at LakevilleAreaArtsCenter.com or by phone at 952-985-4640. Lorie Line: Born in Beth-lehem, 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, and 2 p.m. and 7:30 p.m. Saturday, Dec. 7, at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center, 12600 Nicollet Ave. Tickets are $48 at the box office, by phone at 800-982-2787 or Ticketmaster.com. Simple Gifts with Billy McLaughlin, 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8, at the Lakeville Area Arts Center. Tickets: $28.50 in advance, $34 at the door. Purchase tickets online at LakevilleAreaArtsCenter.com or by phone at 952-985-4640.

Theater “Trials, Tribulations and Christmas Decorations,” presented by Expressions Community Theater, Nov. 8-24 at the Lakeville Area Arts Center. Tickets are $13 at www.LakevilleAreaArtsCen-ter.com or by phone at 952-985-4640. “An Evening with Mark Twain” featuring Michael Bateson, 7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 22, and 2 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 23, at the Burnsville Perform-ing Arts Center. Tickets: $17 at the box office, by phone at 800-982-2787 or Ticketmas-ter.com. “Sweeny Todd: The De-mon Barber of Fleet Street,” 7:30 p.m. Dec. 7, 12-14, 19-21, and 2 p.m. Dec. 8, 15 and 22, at the Burnsville Perform-ing Arts Center. Tickets: $20 for adults, $17 for seniors and students at the box office, by phone at 800-982-2787 or Ticketmaster.com. “Ole & Lena’s Family Christmas,” 7 p.m. Dec. 18-19 at the Burnsville Perform-ing Arts Center. Tickets: $20 at the box office, by phone at 800-982-2787 or Ticketmas-ter.com.

Workshops/classes/other Winter art classes open for registration on Nov. 23 at the Eagan Art House. A class list is at http://www.cityofea-gan.com/images/recreation/EaganArtHouse/Fall_2013.pdf. Information: Eagan Parks and Recreation at 651-675-5500 or the Eagan Art House at 651-675-5521. Teen Poetry Jam/Rap Battle, 4-5 p.m. the first

Tuesday of each month at Ap-ple Valley Teen Center, 14255 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley, 952-953-2385. Ages 12-18. Adult painting open stu-dio, 9 a.m. to noon Fridays at the Eagan Art House, 3981 Lexington Ave. S. Fee is $5 per session. Information: 651-675-5521. Drawing & Painting (adults and teens) with Chris-tine Tierney, 9 a.m. to noon Wednesdays, River Ridge Arts Building, Burnsville. In-formation: www.christinetier-ney.com, 612-210-3377. Teens Express Yourself with Paint, 5-7 p.m. Mon-days at Brushworks School of Art in Burnsville, www.BrushworksSchoolofArt.com, 651-214-4732. Drama/theater classes for ages 4 and up at River Ridge Arts Building, Burns-ville, 952-736-3644. Show Biz Kids Theater Class for children with spe-cial needs (ASD/DCD pro-grams), In the Company of Kids, 13710 Nicollet Ave., Burnsville, 952-736-3644. Broadway Kids Dance and Theater Program for all ages and abilities, In the Company of Kids, 13710 Nicollet Ave., Burnsville (Co-lonial Shopping Center), 952-736-3644. Join other 55-plus adults at the Eagan Art House to create beaded jewelry. The Jewelry Club meets on the third Friday of each month from 1-3 p.m. Information: 651-675-5500. Soy candle making classes held weekly in Eagan near 55 and Yankee Doodle. Call Jamie at 651-315-4849 for dates and times. $10 per person. Presented by Making Scents in Minnesota. Country line dance classes held for intermedi-ates Mondays 1:30-4 p.m. at Rambling River Center, 325 Oak St., Farmington, $5/class. Call Marilyn 651-463-7833. Country line dance classes on Wednesdays at the Lakeville Senior Center, 20110 Holyoke Ave. Begin-ners, 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 Rob-ert Trail Library. Information: John Loch, 952-255-8545 or [email protected].

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

[email protected].

Friday, Nov. 22 Open house, 8:30-10:30 a.m., Faithful Shepherd Catholic School, 3355 Columbia Drive, Eagan. Information: 651-406-4747.

Saturday, Nov. 23 International Survivors of Suicide Day, 9 a.m. to noon, Mary, Mother of the Church, 3333 Cliff Road, Burnsville. Fea-tures a panel of mental health ex-perts and individuals who have lost a loved one to suicide. The program is also available online at www.afsp.org. Holiday Classic Boutique, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Faithful Shepherd Catholic School, 3355 Colum-bia Drive, Eagan. Wild rice soup and breadstick lunch available for purchase from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Information: 651-406-4747 or email [email protected]. Holiday Bazaar, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Rosemount United Meth-odist Church, 14770 Canada Ave. W., Rosemount. Features children’s Christmas store and bake shop. Coffee shop avail-able 9-11 a.m. Soup lunch and pie available for purchase from 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Information: 651-423-2475. Holiday Craft & Bake Sale by the Valley Lake Girl Scouts,

10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Falcon Ridge Middle School cafeteria, 12900 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley. Crafts, goodies, baked goods, stocking stuffers. Holiday Craft Sale by the Eagan Girl Scouts, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Woodland Elementary School, 945 Wescott Road, Ea-gan. Bazaar and Bistro, 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., Heritage Lutheran Church, 13401 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley. Bake sale, gifts, gift cards, Tastefully Simple, Scholastic Book Fair. Hot soups in the bistro. Informa-tion: 952-431-6225.

Monday, Nov. 25 Holiday cards for troops, 7-8 p.m., Caribou Coffee, 12601 Nicollet Ave., Burnsville. Sign holiday cards for the troops. Bring some cards with you, if possible. Sponsored by the Burnsville and Savage Women of Today chapters. Information: Stacy at [email protected] or 952-226-6815.

Friday, Nov. 29 Charity Auction (formerly the White Elephant Auction) by the Father Kaesen Knights of Columbus Council No. 5199, 7 p.m., St. John’s Education Center, across the street from St. John’s Catholic Church, 106 Main St. W., Vermillion.

Ongoing

Craft and gift sale by the Rosemount VFW Ladies Auxilia-ry, 2-7 p.m. Friday, Nov. 29, and 10 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday, Nov. 30, at Rosemount VFW, 2625 120th St. W.

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. • Nov. 22, noon to 6 p.m., South Suburban Evangelical Free Church, 12600 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley. • Nov. 23, 10 a.m. to 3 p.m., Wescott Library, 1340 Wescott Road, Eagan. • Nov. 25, noon to 6 p.m., St. James Lutheran Church, 3650 Williams Drive, Burnsville. • Nov. 26, 11 a.m. to 4 p.m., Apple Valley Medical Center, 14655 Galaxie Ave., Apple Valley. • Nov. 29, 9 a.m. to 2 p.m., Caribou Coffee, 14638 Cedar Ave., Apple Valley. • Nov. 29, 1:30-6:30 p.m., Carmike 15 Theatres, 15630 Ce-dar Ave., Apple Valley. • Dec. 2, 12:30-6:30 p.m., Elko New Market City Hall, 601 Main St., Elko New Market. • Dec. 3, 8 a.m. to 1 p.m., Burnsville Alternative High School, 2140 Diffley Road, Ea-gan.


ThisweekendThisweekend

Billy McLaughlin and Simple Gifts will bring their Christmas show to the Lakeville Area Arts Center at 3 p.m. Sunday, Dec. 8. The concert features traditional Christ-mas carols and hymns sung in three-part harmonies with acoustic accompaniment. Ad-vance tickets are $28.50 at LakevilleAreaArtsCenter.com or at the arts center at 20965 Holyoke Ave. Call 952-985-4640 for more information. (Photo submitted)

Holiday concert in Lakeville

theater and arts briefsHoliday shows in Burnsville Tonic Sol-fa, a Minne-sota a cappella group, and The Shaun Johnson Big Band Experience will per-form holiday shows at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center. Tonic Sol-fa will take the stage at 7:30 p.m. Wednes-day, Dec. 4. Tickets are $32. The Shaun Johnson Big Band Experience, featuring Tonic Sol-fa’s lead singer, will perform at 7:30 p.m. Monday, Dec. 16. Event proceeds will benefit 360 Communities. Tickets are $26 in advance and $31 on the day of the show. Tickets can be purchased at the box office and via Ticketmaster at 800-982-2787 or Ticketmaster.com.

Winter art exhibit The Winter Art Exhibit, featuring nine artists from the Eagan Art House, is on display through Feb. 24 in the café at Byerly’s, 1299 Promenade Place, Eagan. The themed show exhib-its 15 works that depict the winter season. All pieces are by Eagan Art House stu-dents and are created from watercolor, acrylic and oil paints. Works for sale range from $65 to $235. Interest-ed buyers may contact the Eagan Art House at 651-675-5524 for purchasing details and artist contact information.

Alison Scott in Lakeville Vocalist Alison Scott performs “Soulful Christ-mas” at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Dec. 6, at the Lakeville Area Arts Center, 20965 Holyoke Ave. Advance tickets are $17.50 at the arts center and online at LakevilleAreaArtsCenter.com. Call 952-985-4640 for more information.

Discovery Friday set Barnes & Noble, 14880 Florence Trail, Apple Val-ley, will celebrate the official launch of the holiday shop-ping season with its first Discovery Friday family event on Nov. 22. Activities include special storytimes at 10 a.m., 2 p.m. and 7 p.m.; in-store draw-ings and giveaways; a 6 p.m. performance by the Harriet

Bishop Elementary Orches-tra; activity stations; and a chance to win a $1,000 Barnes & Noble shopping spree. More information is at bn.com/DiscoveryFriday.

Anderson adds second show Comedy legend and Emmy Award-winning co-median Louie Anderson has added a second perfor-mance of “Louie Ander-son Live” at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center. The second performance will begin at 10 p.m. on Dec. 31. Tickets to his 7 p.m. show are still available. Prices range from $32.95 to $102.95. Tickets can be pur-chased at the box office and via Ticketmaster at 800-982-2787 or Ticketmaster.com.

IMAX opens in Burnsville The Burnsville Paragon Odyssey 15 theater unveiled its new IMAX theater with the premiere of “Hunger Games: Catching Fire: The IMAX Experience” on Nov. 21. The theater is at 14401 Burnhaven Drive. The Burnsville Cham-ber of Commerce will host a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the IMAX at noon on Nov. 22. The Odyssey 15 will pre-miere “The Hobbit: The Desolation of Smaug: An IMAX 3D Experience” on Dec. 13. General seating is $14 for adults ($11.50 for children and seniors).

Christmas in the Village The annual Christmas in the Village event has ex-panded to include Friday nights and is scheduled 4-8 p.m. Dec. 6 and Dec. 13 and 1-8 p.m. Dec. 7-8 and Dec. 14-15 at Dakota City Heri-

tage Village, 4008 220th St. W., at the Dakota County Fairgrounds in Farming-ton. Admission is $3 for ages 4 to 12 and $5 for ages 13 and older. Children under 3 are admitted free. For more information, call 651-460-8050 or visit dakotacity.org.

Exultate holiday performance Eagan-based Exultate Chamber Choir and Or-chestra’s Christmas con-certs will include several works by Benjamin Brit-ten in honor of the Eng-lish composer’s 100th birth year. The choir and orches-tra’s Tidings of Joy – Christ-mas Festival performances include: • Friday, Dec. 13, 7:30 p.m. Lake Nokomis Lu-theran Church, Minneapo-lis. • Saturday, Dec. 14, 7:30 p.m., Chapel of St. Thomas Aquinas, University of St. Thomas, St. Paul. • Sunday, Dec. 15, 4 p.m., Annunciation Catho-lic Church, Minneapolis. The concerts include other holiday pieces and an audience carol sing-along. Visit exultate.org for more information.

Victorian holidays The LeDuc House, 1629 Vermillion St., Hast-ings, will be open for spe-cial holiday tours from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Dec. 7-8 and Dec. 14-15. A Victo-rian holiday dinner will be offered at 4 p.m. Dec. 8 and a Victorian creme tea at 4 p.m. Dec. 14. Reser-vations are required. Visit dakotahistory.org or call 651-437-7055 for informa-tion.

From left: Patricia Schwartz, Leslie Bowman and Christine Tierney teamed up to pres-ent “Metamorphosis,” the new exhibit at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center. Each artist contributed more than 20 paintings to the exhibit. (Photo by Andrew Miller)

Leslie Bowman, a Minne-apolis portrait artist who’s been commissioned to do Congressional portraits of Rep. James Oberstar and Rep. Collin Peterson, con-tributed this painting of her friend and former yoga teacher Ngoc Lan Tran to the “Metamorphosis” ex-hibit. (Photo submitted)

Windows into women’s worlds LaFeminine exhibit on display at Burnsville PAC

by Andrew MillerSUN THISWEEK


The new exhibit at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center gallery puts an emphasis on the femi-nine. “ M e t a m o r p h o s i s,” which runs through Dec. 15, is the second Burns-ville exhibit for the artists group LaFeminine. Each of the three art-ists involved – Patricia Schwartz, of Eagan; Christine Tierney, of Burnsville; and Leslie Bowman, of Minneapolis – contributed more than 20 paintings to the exhibit. The LaFeminine con-cept is the brainchild of Schwartz, who runs Brushworks School of Art

in Burnsville. With the aim of representing a feminine view of the world, she and Tierney, who teaches at Brushworks, launched LaFeminine in November 2011 with a two-woman exhibit at the Burnsville PAC. “I wanted to do some-thing that would support women as artists and support women that re-ally had something to say,” Schwartz said of launch-ing the group. The group’s latest ex-hibit is subtitled “New Dreams, New Visions, New Directions,” and all three women involved se-lected works for the show that emphasized growth and evolution – as artists

and, more generally, as people. “We all kind of agreed we were going to push each other in new direc-tions and produce art be-yond the scope of what we would normally do,” said Tierney. A third LaFeminine show is planned for the Burnsville Performing Arts Center gallery in 2015. “LaFeminine is a big idea – how far it will go, we don’t know,” Schwartz said. More about “Meta-morphosis” is at www.burnsvillepac.com.

Email Andrew Miller at [email protected].

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