Scott County Board Okays Pay Raises for Elected Officials Boys’ Hoops Team Splits Two Games
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ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH YEAR
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, decEMBER 28, 2016
75¢ SINGLE COPY
NUMBER 52
BPHS sophomore Isaiah Trimbo recently earned a perfect score on the ACT exam.
Can’t Get Any Better BPHS Sophomore Aces ACT Exam
Isaiah Trimbo Took Exam Just for the Experience
He thought the information in front of him on a computer screen was an example, a display of what the results of the American College Test (ACT) results are supposed to look like. Belle Plaine High School sophomore Isaiah Trimbo didn’t immediately realize it was his test results. And it was perfect, 36 out of 36. The son of Katie and Chad Trimbo, Isaiah learned in November he had aced the ACT exam. The exam is a display of college readiness, tests a student’s acumen in science, math, reading, and English. He was recently recognized for the accomplishment by the Belle Plaine School Board. Trimbo took the exam in October and received the results back online in November. He didn’t take the exam just to gain admission into a college. He’s only a 10th-grader, just 15 years old. Always looking for a challenge, Trimbo wants to take college level post-secondary enrollment option (PSEO) classes while in high school.
“I took it for the experience, for the future,” he said. “I just like taking tests and seeing how I’ll do.” Katie Smith said her son’s favorite class is chemistry, a class some shy away from because of the academic rigor associated with it. Smith, herself a Belle Plaine native, has always enjoyed math and science. As a 5-year-old, she said Isaiah was using math and science to prove Santa Claus couldn’t possibly exist. As a fourth-grader, he was devising his own methods for accurately and consistently solving math problems. “He’s just always loved math and science. Those things come very natural to him,” Smith said. “It’s kind of hard to grasp how smart he is. I knew he was going to do well, maybe 32, 34.”
‘Kind of Crazy’
Once Trimbo realized the score on the computer screen was his and that he had aced the ACT, Trimbo began to realize what he had accomplished. He sent his mom a text message and sat
ACT Exam
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‘Remembrance Run’ A lone runner, followed by supporters in three vehicles, made his way through Belle Plaine before dawn Monday (Dec. 26) during a segment of the 30th annual “Remembrance Run.” The run memorializes the trek condemned Dakota men walked from Fort Snelling to the gallows in Mankato after the Dakota Indian War during the summer and fall 1862. Thirtyeight Dakota men were hanged in what is the largest mass execution in United States history. Leaving Fort Snelling just after midnight Monday, runners annually retrace the approximately 80-mile route their ancestors walked from Fort Snelling to Mankato. Because of weather conditions, this year’s run was split into segments run concurrently. A southwest wind gusting from 25 to 40 mph slowed runners’ progress as they battled single-digit windchills.
Steel workers guided the first of six 40-ton concrete beams into place over southbound Highway 169 in Belle Plaine the night of April 20. The following night, six beams were placed over the northbound lanes.
The 2016 Year in Review
Startups and Endings Among Top Stories There was plenty of out with the old and in with the new in Belle Plaine in 2016. Among the new are a second overpass and city administrator. Included in the gone are Steffen’s Hardware Store and several elected officials. Two tragedies ended several lives prematurely, one a hitand-run vehicle crash and the other a murder, the former taking the life of a young Belle Plaine man and father, and the latter a former Belle Plaine woman and high school homecoming queen. The Herald’s top news story for the year was the opening of Belle Plaine’s second Highway 169 overpass, which two weeks later was followed by the ground-breaking and start of construction of another top 10 local news event – the Ridgeview Medical Clinic and Lutheran Home senior living campus, which is scheduled to open in 2017. The historic general election of 2016 promises to bring more change – locally and nationally. Not only did Belle Plaine very strongly support the controversial President-elect Donald Trump on Nov. 8, but it voted in a new mayor and two new city council members. There’s also a new sheriff in town after the old one, who is from Belle Plaine, retired in midterm. Also garnering a lot of ink in 2016 was Belle Plaine High School’s sports and activities teams, especially the baseball team that not only became the first in program history to make it to the state tournament, but played in the state Class 2A championship game on a beautiful June day at pristine Target Field in downtown Minneapolis. The weather was also inviting for Belle Plaine’s annual St. Patrick’s and Bar-B-Q Days celebrations, the former of which was held on March 12 when the mercury climbed to a record 70s degrees for that day. On page 2 begins a recap of the first four months of 2016. The Year in Review will continue in next Wednesday’s Herald.
After running Steffen Hardware in downtown Belle Plaine since the 1970s, Jim Steffen began his retirement sale in May.
Top 10 Stories of 2016
(1) Hello Bridge, So Long Turn Lanes – Following a ribbon-cutting ceremony on July 27, the Enterprise Drive overpass opened. Afterwards, it took the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) just six days to close the left-turn lanes from Highway 169 to County Road 3/Meridian Street. Mn/DOT made removing the left-turn lanes a requirement from the beginning of the bridge planning phase and stood by it. S.M. Hentges and Sons of Jordan was awarded the overpass project at the low bid of $3,179,966.84, which was over $1.2 million below the city engineer’s construction estimate of $4,387,703. (2) Business Closures/Changes – After running Steffen’s Hardware in downtown Belle Plaine since the 1970s (his father, William, started the business in 1955), Jim Steffen announced a retirement sale that would start on May 26. Decades after he took over the operation from his father, Steffen said he was ready to take his leave. He had the building on North Meridian Street at East Church Street for sale for the past few years. “I’ll be 70 next month,” he said. “I want to go to car shows, to swap meets or on vacation. I want to jump in the car and not worry about the business." Different groups of people, one from Belle Plaine and others from the Twin Cities proper, were interested in buying the hardware store, a member of the Do It Best chain. Steffen said the amount of money Do It Best wanted up front from the interested buyers was a hurdle too steep to be cleared. The building went for sale for $179,000. Meanwhile, Otto Pries put the cap on the Little Brown Jug liquor store in Belle Plaine, which he opened in 1975 at 520 Commerce Drive East. Pries said he planned to retire, and after making some improvements to the building, would put it up for sale. Ron and Heather Fry, owners of the Belle Plaine Dairy Queen for the past 3 1/2 years (they still are), purchased the Borough Bowl from Judy Otto and her son, Tom Otto. The eight-lane bowling alley with bar and restaurant was built by the late Ivan Otto and opened in 1976 at 235 South Ash Street. Prior to that the business was located downtown. (3) Construction Starts on Massive Project – Fifteen days after a “ribbon-cutting” ceremony marking the opening of a second overpass in Belle Plaine, a “ground-breaking” ceremony was held just a little more than a football field length away to mark the start of construction of a nearly $20 million medical clinic, wellness center and senior housing campus at the northwest corner of the intersection of Highway 169 and County Road 3/Meridian Street. Officials from Ridgeview Medical Center, The Lutheran Home Association and the City of Belle Plaine, some with gold shovels in hand, and others gathered at the site Aug. 11 to ceremonially flip some dirt to commemorate the start of real earth-moving. Excavation and tree removal for what will be one of the biggest building projects in Belle Plaine history got underway Aug. 15. Plans call for a mixed-use development that will include a three-story, 55-unit senior independent living center, a 12,900-square-foot medical clinic with future vertical expansion up to three stories 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. Top 10
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