Belle plaine herald april 15, 2015

Page 1

Spring Sports Teams Get Unleashed

BPHS Sending Six to State Speech Contest

Dungey Does It Again

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Page 16

Pages 14, 15

ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOURTH YEAR

BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, APRIL 15, 2015

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NUMBER 16

City’s Application for Grant to Help Pay for Overpass Denied

The Carver County Sheriff’s mounted posse searched along Homestead Road Sunday afternoon. The riders looked for evidence related to the investigation of Earl Olander’s murder.

Area Man Killed, Left With Hands Bound in His Home Carver County Sheriff’s deputies found Earl A. Olander dead in his home Saturday evening (April 11), his hands bound and his house at 16885 Homestead Road in San Francisco Township pillaged. Olander, 90, had reportedly been assaulted. He lived alone and had never married. His brother-in-law, Gordon Anderson, had called to reminisce. Unable to reach Olander, he asked one of Olander’s neighbors to check on him. The neighbor found Olander and called sheriff’s deputies around 7:19 p.m. The house is located about two miles southwest of East Union and five miles northeast of Belle Plaine. Investigators have not yet determined whether Olander was at home when the assailant(s) arrived or if he walked in on whoever was in his house. Jason Kamerud, the county sher-

iff’s chief deputy, said, “It’s too early in the investigation to say one way or the other.” Detectives have not yet determined if they are looking for one or more suspects. “We have a variety of working theories for this case,” Kamerud said. Sheriff’s deputies summoned the Minnesota Bureau of Criminal Apprehension to process the crime scene and assist in the investigation. The cause and manner of death has not yet been released. The Midwest Medical Examiner’s Office is assisting in the investigation. Sunday, members of the sheriff’s mounted posse searched the area for clues and evidence that could help investigators identify who might be responsible for Olander’s death. Investigators continue to examine evidence found at the house to locate witnesses or suspects, Kamerud said. Monday afternoon, Carver

County Sheriff’s Office announced Crime Stoppers of Minnesota has offered a $1,000 reward for information leading to an arrest and charging in this case. Contact www.crimestoppersmn.org or 1-800-222-8477 (TIPS) to help solve this crime. Contact with Crime Stoppers is anonymous. Anderson, who was married to Olander’s older sister, Gloria, until she passed away last summer, wasn’t the only person looking for Earl. He was expected at the home of a member of church card club. “Earl loved to play cards,” said Craig Rothfusz. He’s married to Olander’s niece Mary Beth. A lifelong member of East Union Lutheran, Olander enjoyed seeing friends and family members at church. He joked about cousins in the East Union

Area Man

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by Dan Ruud The Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) has denied the city of Belle Plaine’s application for a grant that could have paid for up to an additional $750,000 of the cost for the proposed bridge and Enterprise Drive extension project near the intersection of Highway 169 and County Road 3/Meridian Street. The total estimated cost of the project is approximately $7.5 million. “We learned via the Mn/DOT website that the overpass project was not selected for funding from Mn/DOT’s LRIP (Local Road and Improvement Program),” said Belle Plaine City Administrator Holly Kreft. “Only eight projects were selected from the 43 applications in the Metro District and four of those projects were awarded about $35 million of the approximately $37 million available. No Scott County projects were awarded and only one project in Carver County was awarded.” The Carver County project Kreft referred to is an approved application for $750,000 for the realignment and extension of 10th Street in Waconia, the

total estimated cost of which is $862,643. Over two-thirds of the $37,286,680 LRIP grant funding awarded by Mn/DOT in the Metro District for work this year is being spent in Ramsey County, most notably Arden Hills and Mounds View. A complete list of applications for state LRIP grants and their fate can be found at http://

www.dot.state.mn.us/stateaid/ lrip/2014-2015/2014-projectsfunded.pdf. Mn/DOT had previously pledged $702,000 to the Belle Plaine overpass project, which still stands. Scott County has indicated it will also contribute some $700,000 to the project.

City’s Application (continued on page 8)

School Board Will Take New Facility Plans Into Summer With the majority of the Belle Plaine School Board seemingly interested in building something more than just a larger auditorium, board members are taking a deliberate approach to formulating a plan. At their workshop Monday night, the board agreed to form a committee that over the summer will discuss potential plans for an expanded auditorium and possible community center. The board discussed the committee potentially consisting of school board directors, city councilors,

township officials, representatives of the sports associations, citizens at large and the fine arts community. Director Dan Gardner suggested involving City Councilor Cary Coop and Mayor Mike Pingalore, both members of the city’s park board. To keep progress moving, they discussed limiting membership to about a dozen members. The committee’s meetings, once scheduled, will be open to the

School Board

(continued on page 8)

Scott County Board to Vote on Sales Tax Hike Tuesday Money Would Go to Road Projects, Transit Services

Scott County commissioners will decide Tuesday (April 21) if the county will implement an increase in sales tax designed to generate money for road projects and transit operations. The county board is expected to decide whether it will add up to ½ percent to all currently taxable items. The tax also includes a $20 excise tax on the retail sale of new and previously owned vehicles. The county estimates the tax, if implemented at ½ percent would gener-

ate about $6 million with the revenue from the vehicle excise tax adding in up to $300,000 (based on 2012 estimates). State law allows the county board control over how it would spend the money. The county could OK the ½ percent sales tax but pass on enacting the vehicle excise tax, said County Administrator Gary Shelton. The county plans to use the money for primarily transportation projects. At a workshop in March, it identified 13 potential projects the sales tax revenue could help fund. The projects are primarily in the northern half of the county. They include

the extension of County Road 8 south of Jordan, from Highway 21 south of Jordan to Highway 169; an interchanges at the junctions of Highway 169 and 282 in Jordan and Highway 169 and 41 in Jackson Township; and a frontage road system along Highway 169. Other projects on the list an interchange and bridge replacement at the junction of County Road 2 and Interstate Highway 35 in Elko New Market, Highway 13 corridor improvements and a overpass at Chowen Avenue in Savage, expanding the

Scott County

(continued on page 16)

The Belle Plaine Lions Club is celebrating its 25th anniversary April 21. Its latest major project is a restroom-ticket booth at the BPHS track-football complex. The club’s members include (back row, from left) Janis Curiskis, Andrew Pint, Tanya Edwards, Rex Ernst, Schuyler Thompson, (front row, from left) club charter members Jim Erickson, Warren Wolf, Bob Denny, Ted Weber, Paul Gatz and Tom Kaletka.

B.P. Lions Celebrating 25 Years of ‘We Serve’

Club Will Celebrate its History, Contributions April 21

They recall the day representatives from the Lions Club in Jordan suggested Belle Plaine started its own club. They needed no arm-twisting, no intense convincing. “It just made sense,” said Bob Denny, one of five charter members of the Belle Plaine Lions Club. “It sounded like a good idea. We figured, ‘why not?’” The club started with 23 charter members. Today, Denny, Warren Wolf, Jim Erickson,

Ted Weber, Paul Gatz and Tom second Tuesday of each month Kaletka are the remaining char- at 7 p.m. Most recently, the Liter members of the club. There ons have met in the Belle Plaine are currently 31 members. New B.P. Lions members are always welcome, (continued on page 6) Wolf said. The club meets the Belle Plaine firefighters quickly snuffed out a fire near the rear entry to a house at 525 Main Street E. Sunday afternoon. A discarded cigarette reportedly started the fire.

April Showers So Far Add Up to Just Under 2 Inches Some Farmers Expected to Plant Corn This Week

Some recent rain showers have helped make up for what has otherwise been a fairly dry spring so far in the area. According to the Scott County rain gauge on the Ewald and

Adella Gruetzmacher farm in Belle Plaine, nearly 2 inches fell April 1-14. Most of that came on April 9, when the Gruetzmachers re-

April Showers

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Discarded Cigarette Starts Fire A cigarette not completely extinguished started a small fire near the rear entrance to a house at 525 Main Street E. in Belle Plaine Sunday afternoon. The fire call came in to firefighters around 4:15 p.m. A Belle Plaine police officer assisted the homeowner, Mary Meyer, out of the house. She was checked over by a Ridgeview Medical Center ambulance crew.

Firefighters arrived at the house, just a stone’s throw from the Belle Plaine Fire Station, and knocked down the flames, making sure they did not spread into the walls and up into the ceilings, said Fire Chief Matt Stier. By around 5:30 p.m., the scene was cleaned up and the trucks back at the station. Police blocked off east- and westbound traffic on Main Street and onlookers watched

firefighters go about their work. Crews from Jordan and New Prague answered the call for mutual aid, just in case the fire had a greater head start. “It’s standard protocol,” Stier said. “We can always cancel them and send them back home.” Stier said the damage to the house was, “very, very minimal. It could’ve been worse.”


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