Track Teams Place High at MRC Indoor Meet
Scott County’s Population Still Climbing
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ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH YEAR
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, APRIL 5, 2017
75¢ SINGLE COPY
NUMBER 14
County Attorney, Sheriff, FBI Warn Parents of the Dark Side of Smartphones, Social Media
Tyler Moylan will be returning next month to the mountains of southern Wyoming to work for the U.S. Forest Service at Esterbrooks Station within Bow National Forest. He is part of a crew that fights forest wildfires. Moylan, 22, is a 2012 graduate of Belle Plaine High School and a senior at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
B.P.’s Moylan Looking Forward to Summer Fires Out West Some people dream of the corner office with a great view. Tyler Moylan has the best view he could ever want. In a month, he’ll trade a college classroom for the vistas of Medicine Bow National Forest west of Cheyenne in southern Wyoming. Moylan, a 2012 graduate of Belle Plaine High School, spends his summers working for the National Park Service. He works on a maintenance crew. But that’s just a side job for his real passion – fighting western wildfires. In his third summer working for the National Parks Service, Moylan is assigned to the Esterbrooks Station within Medicine Bow National Forest. Working at about 6,500 feet above sea level, he is part of a crew of workers that clears trails and performs jobs that makes the park more enjoyable for visitors. In the event of a fire within the park, Moylan and his co-workers switch from maintenance workers to firefighters. The crew also spends plenty of time performing maintenance on park service and fire fighting equipment as well as training. The work has provided Moylan, 22, the chance to learn
about vehicle maintenance. He’s more comfortable fixing a chain saw than performing an oil change on a truck. “I know the basics, that’s about it,” he said. Moylan isn’t interested in work as a mechanic. He wants to fight fires. The fire fighting crews work shifts up to 14 days without a break. The days can last up to 16 hours. After 14 days, the crews take a mandatory twoday break and a different crew takes over. He doesn’t dwell on the long hours, knowing his fellow crew members are enduring the same scenario. The job allows Moylan, the son of Annette and Christopher Moylan, to put money away for school and other expenses. He makes $14. When the crew is fighting fire, the wage is bumped by 25 percent. “Hazard pay,” he said. Their job is to contain the fire until it either runs out of fuel or Mother Nature provides the needed moisture to squelch the flames. The fires can burn dry timber and land from a few dozen acres to thousands of acres.
Clearing a Fire’s Fuel
A practice some young people seem to view as a harmless exchange between a boy and girl can turn into a lifetime of pain and suffering, destroying reputations, costing people jobs has area law enforcement officers and prosecutors on alert. Last Wednesday night (March 29) at New Prague High School, Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar, County Sheriff Luke Hennen, FBI Community Outreach Officer Kathy Hotakainen and Jessica Harstad, a graduate of the FBI Citizens Academy, warned over 100 parents and students of the potential dangers of potentially dangerous uses for smartphones and social media. They warned parents of the dangers of sexting, an act that begins as an ill-advised exchange of an intimate photograph sent via text message or some form of social media between a girl and boy. But if that image is disseminated to others, that simple act of questionable judgment could easily lead to criminal charges, destroying reputations, humiliation or a felony charge and label of predatory sex offender that could follow a person around for a lifetime. A child pictured in a sexted image may not think much about it when they are 16 or 18 years old. But when they are 20 and seeking a job, a Google search of their name could bring that long-forgotten photo back to life, Hocevar said. For a person convicted of distribution of child porn, a court order to register as a sex offender can impact a person’s life for many years, he said. “This is serious stuff,” Hocevar said. “It’s not fun and games.”
Scott County Attorney Ron Hocevar spoke to a crowd of over 100 people on the perils of sexting and distributing intimate photos last Wednesday evening (March 29) at New Prague High School. His office is considering criminal charges against Shakopee High School students involved in distributing sexted photos of children. the level worthy of consider- can be used against the sender, ation of criminal charges, he forcing the sender to send even said. He said the sending of the more lurid photos under the intimate photos was consensual threat of releasing the images and there was no dissemina- on multiple Web sites. In most tion. But that doesn’t minimize cases, the senders are girls and the potential danger or severity young women. “They know it’s wrong but of sexting, Stolee said. “We got on it pretty quickly,” they have no idea how wrong it is,” Hocevar said, adding the he said. youngsters don’t fully underChild Porn stand the lifelong implications When students involved in of disseminating child porn. sexting are still legally chil- Hocevar cited surveys indicatdren, the act of disseminating ing more than half of college an intimate image of a child is students questioned about sexconsidered distribution of child ting admitted sending explicit pornography, a severe felony. photos when they were under To the parents and students, 18. He said as many as 33 perHocevar stressed once a photo cent of young adults in their 20s is sent from one person to an- have sent sexted images. One other, however innocently, the boy under 18 admits having sender surrenders all control received sexted message. Forty It Can Happen Here over the image. He said the County Attorney Think it can’t happen here? photos, one passed around, (continued on page 6) Hocevar’s office is currently Moylan considering felony criminal (continued on page 6) charges for distribution of child Swimming Pool Event to be pornography against Shakopee High School students. The of- Held at City Hall This Saturday fice has also reviewed sexting allegations involving students Belle Plaine City Hall at 218 and register for swimming lesNorth Meridian Street down- sons. There will also be kids at Prior Lake High School. And if that’s not local enough, town will host an open house games and a drawing for a the Belle Plaine Police Depart- for the Belle Plaine Municipal punch card. The pool manager ment has dealt with two indi- Swimming Pool this Saturday will be on hand to answer any questions. Main Street between Buffalo scheduled for 6:30 p.m. Mon- vidual cases of sexting within from 9-11 a.m. and Crest streets, and Elk Street day, April 17 in the City Hall the past year, said Chief Tom Participants can purchase pool Swimming lesson registration between West Main and State building at 218 North Meridian Stolee. Both cases involved passes for the upcoming season is also available at www.belleplainemn.com. children. Neither case reached Street downtown. streets. In other business Monday night, the council unanimously approved a request by Harold and Ramona Edberg for a minor subdivision at 326 Ash Street South. The split of the property will allow for the sale of the existing building addressed as 326 Ash Street South (south of Highway 169) and will create a single 1.14-acre remaining parcel. The Edbergs are granting a 10foot trail easement (at no cost) on the new parcel adjacent to Enterprise Drive. The planning commission had recommended approval of the subdivision. *Belle Plaine Public Works Superintendent Al Fahey reported that the Veterans Park Army Helicopter, which was removed from the park last fall for refurbishing, is now scheduled to be moved to the paint shop the second week of April. The next regular meeting of the Belle Plaine City Council is When the size and location of a fire allows water to be trucked to a site, Moylan and his fellow crew members fight it by conventional means. But when the location is too remote for water or another form of suppressant to be delivered from aircraft, Moylan and the other crew members use hand tools to clear out the smaller brush that provides fuel for the flames between drops from above. With the fuel cleared, fires can be more easily contained. Moylan knows more about weather in the mountains than he ever dreamed he would. Winters are a time for snow, moisture that will eventually melt and help keep trees and grassy areas from becoming a tinderbox for fires. He’s also learned plenty about judging the winds up in the mountains. “Weather is huge in our work,” he said. Winds in the mountains can shift rapidly. A sudden change in wind direction can place firefighters from an advantageous
City Council Awards Bid for Street Improvement Project The Belle Plaine City Council Monday night unanimously awarded the bid for the city’s 2017 street and utility improvement project to Wm. Mueller & Sons of Hamburg (Carver County) at the low base bid of $1,098,853.01, which is almost $100,000 under the engineer’s estimate of $1,106,635.75. Also approved was an alternate bid by Mueller & Sons for the construction of a trail that will extend along the west side of Meridian Street from the new Enterprise Drive overpass southward to Century Street for an additional cost of $99,382.61, bringing to total cost of both areas of the project to $1,198,235.62. The engineer’s estimate for both the base and alternate bids was $1,202,198.75. The other combined base and alternate bids received were from OMG Midwest, Inc., formerly Chard Tiling and Excavating, ($1,256,847.70), Quam Construction Company ($1,320,118.30), BCM Construction ($1,487,190.10) and Heselton Construction ($1,606,819.70). The base bid work will include the reconstruction and utility improvements at West
A Bird’s Eye View
One of the biggest building projects in Belle Plaine history continued all winter and will be completed later this year. The Ridgeview Medical Center/Lutheran Home Health Campus is a mixed-use development that will include a three-story, 54-unit senior independent living center, a 12,900-square-foot medical clinic with future vertical expansion, and a 10,000-square-foot health and wellness center. Ridgeview Medical Center (medical clinic and health and wellness center) and The Lutheran Home Association (senior housing facility) are teaming on the project.