Letters to Santa
Belle Plaine Boys Win Two More Games Page 13
Pages 15-22 ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-THIRD YEAR
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, DECEMBER 23, 2015
75¢ SINGLE COPY
NUMBER 52
Council Okays Increases to Water Usage and Some Other Fees in 2016 Votes 3-2 to Seek Additional P.W. Employee
Around A Lot This Holiday Season Christian Lenzen and Lela Stier were among the many kids who visited with Santa and Mrs Claus in Belle Plaine this holiday season. Venues included Holiday Express (above) at the high school, the Historical Society’s Christmas Party at Court Square Park and the Belle Plaine Public Library. Santa was also present to visit with guests the past three Friday evenings at the Santa House on the corner of Main and Meridian streets downtown.
A New Home is Family’s Christmas Present Couple Noted Kindness of B.P. Residents
They received an early Christmas gift many people might take for granted, a job and a place to live. For a family without housing, homelessness has been a learning experience that has brought them closer together. Anna Walker and Michael Clausen have spent the past year without a place to call home. But they and their two youngest children, will soon be in a place they can call home. Walker and Clausen have spent most of the past year living in various churches in Scott and Carver counties participating in the Families Moving Forward program. St. John Lutheran in
Belle Plaine hosted the program last month. Four Belle Plaine and area congregations -- Our Lady of the Prairie, St. John Lutheran, First Presbyterian in Belle Plaine, and West Union Lutheran in Hancock Township -- host up to four families at a time on a quarterly rotation. Trinity Lutheran in Belle Plaine and Redeemer Lutheran outside of Henderson support the hosting churches. The couple knows many people have helped them during the 10 months they’ve been in the Families Moving Forward program. Beacon Interfaith Collaborative runs the program. Clausen, 32, and Walker, 31, fondly recall the week in Belle Plaine. The genuine concern local volunteers had for the FMF participants who spent nights at the church impressed them.
Annual Remembrance Run Will Make its Way Through B.P. The 29th annual Remembrance Run – a commemoration of the march of Dakota warriors who walked from Fort Snelling to the gallows in Mankato Dec. 26, 1862 – will again make its way through Belle Plaine Saturday morning. The run begins at midnight Christmas night from Fort Snelling. Following a similar path their ancestors took, the runners will make their way along Highway 13 into Scott County through Savage and Shakopee. The procession will make its way down Highway 169 through Jordan into Belle Plaine Saturday morning (Dec. 26). The runners continue down Highway 169 until reaching Mankato’s Land of Memories Park, just west of the site
of the actual hanging near the intersection of East Main and South Riverfront Drive Street in downtown Mankato. The lead runner typically carries a feathered staff. The weather and number of runners impact the pace of the run. They typically reach Belle Plaine around dawn. Of the 300-plus Dakota Indians a military commission found guilty of their part in the Sioux war of 1862, 39 warriors were condemned. One Dakota warrior received a last-minute reprieve. It was the largest mass execution in U.S. history. The procession will stop in Jordan for a rest at The Hub around 5 a.m.
by Dan Ruud Judging by similar actions in recent years, it should come as no surprise that Belle Plaine residents will be among those paying a little more to take a shower or do the dishes in 2016. During its final regular meeting of 2015, the Belle Plaine City Council Monday night voted 4-1 to approve the city’s fee schedule for next year, which includes the usual assortment of slight to moderate increases for some supplies and services, including the most essential among households – sewer and water. For an average residential user, the increase from this year will equate to about $3.87 per month for sewer and $2.35 per month for water, resulting in a total increase of $6.22 per month on a usage of $4,000 gallons. Gary Trost, who accounted for the only no vote in approving the 2015 fee schedule, said he was opposed because “the city has already increased water and sewer rates by 60 percent the last two years.” No one spoke at the public hearing prior to the council’s vote. Other notable increases for 2016 include: – The use of public works equipment/operator fees for items ranging from power hand equipment to blowers to dump
During the day, the families are at Shepherd of the Lake in Prior Lake. School-age children are bused to area schools while adults can participate in job training and other classes intended to help them manage money, write a resume, fill out job application, interview for jobs – anything to improve their respective situations.
truck graders. Most hourly fees will go up anywhere from $1 to $4. – Addition of a cancellation/ change fee of $15 for residents and $20 for non-residents for swimming lessons at the community pool. This is to discourage people from signing up for lessons with no penalties for cancelling or changing. The cost of daily and seasonal pool passes will stay the same.
A complete list of the city’s fees for 2016 is available for review at Belle Plaine City Hall. In other business Monday night, the council voted 3-2 to authorize staff to advertise for applicants for an additional fulltime public works employee I. “City Administrator Holly Kreft reported that as part of the
Council
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Freedom from Religion Banner Goes Missing by Dan Ruud Citizen Melissa Saxe used the public forum at Monday night’s Belle Plaine City Council meeting to voice her disappointment in the city’s approval for another citizen to place an anti-religion banner next to the Rotary Club’s Nativity Scene located on the police department grounds. Belle Plaine City Administrator Holly Kreft recently reported that she and Council Member Cary Coop met with citizen Joanne Gill regarding her request to place the banner at the site. Gill informed Kreft that she was working with the Freedom from Religion Foundation, which would provide her with the banner. It read: At this season of the Winter Solstice, let reason prevail. There are no Gods, no devils, no angles, no heaven or hell. There is only our natural world. Religion is but a myth & superstition that hardens hearts & enslaves minds.
At the advice of City Attorney Bob Vose, Gill was given permission to place the banner adjacent to the Nativity Scene. Coop, who supported Gill’s First Amendment right to do so, said the banner was put in place Friday and was then stolen before being returned. Coop said the banner was back in place Saturday but again went missing and was not returned. Coop questioned how that could happen “twice,” especially seeing how the banner was on police department property. Gill could not be reached for comment as to whether she was the one who placed the banner there and/or reported it stolen. Saxe, who was joined by at least several other people in the audience who were opposed to the Freedom from Religion banner, criticized Coop for supporting Gill’s quest to have
Banner
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Things Are Lookin’ Up
The couple’s situation is improving. Michael recently got a job managing the maintenance at an apartment building in New Hope. His boilers license and certifications to work on electrical and plumbing systems and swimming pools were critical to getting the job. He credits Anna with searching for jobs online and helping him fill out applications. After spending the week of Christmas at St. Michael’s Catholic Church in Prior Lake (Dec. 20-26), they expect to be moving into their new apartment next week. Michael’s job will allow Anna the opportunity to return to school. She wants to study to become a nurse. They would both rather be working. Anna worked as a waitress when she met Michael in the spring of 2010 and between pregnancies. Although the pay is typically not enough to live on, the job offered the flexibility she needed for her children. “I’d rather go to work,” she said. As a maintenance man, Michael worked 50-plus hours a week. “I was a workaholic. I was always on call,” he said. Walker recalls Belle Plaine resident Denny Moriarty cooking dinner for the group during their stay at St. John Lutheran.
A New Home
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Belle Plaine Police officers Mickey Semantel and Brian Vycital (right), along with the help of local Girl Scouts, collected hundreds of donated Christmas gifts for Belle Plaine children. In its second year, this year’s drive brought in about twice the number of donated gifts as a year ago. The gifts will be distributed the first half of this week.
Toy Drives Help Children Enjoy Magic of Holiday Season Giving Belle Plaine and area residents once again came through with generous donations of toys and other gifts for those less fortunate this holiday season. A toy drive the Belle Plaine Police Department and Girl Scouts held brought in almost 300 toys for local distribution. It’s the second year of the drive. Last year’s drive brought in about 125 toys, said Belle Plaine Police Officer Brian Vycital. He and Officer Mickey Semantel run the drive for the department. The Belle Plaine Rotary collected about 350 donated toys in its 25th annual toy drive. The club brings the toys to the CAP
Agency for distribution to area families. “The CAP Agency has told us we’re their largest individual group,” said Todd Meeker, a Belle Plaine chiropractor and Rotarian. “They do everything they can to reach out to the Belle Plaine area families.” The last of the toys in the drive police and scouts ran will be dropped off to families early this week. The remaining toys will be distributed to other regional toy drives, like the CAP Agency or Toys for Tots. “It’s incredible to see how generous some of the people in this community are,” Vycital said. “It’s very refreshing.”
Willing Volunteers
Vycital and Semantel volunteered for the job of managing the toy drive. With the help of local Girl Scouts, they publicize the drive. The Belle Plaine School District also allows police and scouts to promote the toy drive to students. Along with the newspaper and community access cable channel, social media – primarily Facebook – is also an important tool in spreading information about the toy drive. “It’s very well publicized,”
Toy Drives
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