B.P. Man Offers Safe Rides Home
Local Baseball Teams Heading Into Home Stretch
Bar-B-Q Days Medallion Found Page 2
Pages 17, 18
Page 7
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOURTH YEAR
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, JULY 15, 2015
75¢ SINGLE COPY
NUMBER 29
The Hottest Time of Year Bar-B-Q Days Starts Friday
Susie and Bruce Volek are this year’s grand marshals of the Bar-B-Q Days Parade.
For Voleks, Working at Bar-B-Q Days a Way to Give Back to Belle Plaine
Longtime Volunteers Named Grand Marshals of B.P.’s Summer Festival
They recall receiving a postcard from the organizers of Belle Plaine’s Bar-B-Q Days Committee the summer after their wedding. It informed the newlyweds when their volunteer shift was during the 1974 summer festival. Susie and Bruce Volek chuckle when they recall the postcard. It didn’t contain anything that could be mistaken for a subtle request for their time. Bruce Volek understands his time to step up had arrived. His parents, Betty & Bob, had volunteered time to Bar-B-Q Days for several years. Bruce and his new bride were now part of Belle Plaine and it was their time to contribute to the community the way his parents and so many adults had done before. “It was time to give back,” Bruce said. Forty years later, Susie and Bruce Volek are still giving their time to Bar-B-Q Days. Last month, they received a
telephone call from Mary Murphy Stier, a member of the BarB-Q Days Parade Committee asking them to accept the honor of being the grand marshals of this year’s parade. The request was met with a moment of silence. Stier sells real estate. Now she had to sell Bruce Volek, a man who believes the less said about oneself the better, on being the center of attention for the community festival parade. It was one of her best sales jobs in recent memory. “There are so many people who deserve it (the honor),” Bruce Volek said. “I had to persuade them,” Stier said. “We got it done, but it was tough. Bruce doesn’t like being the center of attention. He does what he does for Bar-B-Q Days.”
In a ‘Gator’
The parade is Saturday (July 18) at noon. Though he is wellknown in Belle Plaine, Bruce Volek feels awkward with all eyes on him. His solution is a simple one. Rather than sit in a luxury automobile driven by a chauffeur, leaving he and Susie little else to do but smile and wave, Bruce Volek’s idea to make the parade manageable is to drive a John Deere Gator during the parade.
“A four-seater,” he said. Participating in the parade from behind the wheel of a Gator will allow Volek to focus on driving. Stier wasn’t about to argue with the idea. “He’s a farmer. I’m not at all surprised,” she said. As a young man growing up near the intersection of North Grove and West State streets, Bar-B-Q Days was the highlight of the summer for Bruce Volek and his family. His parents farmed rented land on the edge of Belle Plaine. Today, the Voleks farm a couple hundred acres of corn and soybeans in Belle Plaine Township. They maintain a small herd of beef cattle. Bruce’s full-time job is superintendent of grounds at Gustavus Adolphus College in St. Peter. He learned from his father the importance of Bar-B-Q Days. Susie calls the festival Belle Plaine’s annual reunion. “It was a summer event. You’d see people you didn’t see all year,” Bruce Volek said. Susie grew up in the Keystone neighborhood of Blakeley Township. She was born on the East Coat and spent her early years in the Baltimore-area. Her family moved here when
Grand Marshals (continued on page 16)
City Gets No Offers for Vacant Lot A month after authorizing city staff to market the city-owned vacant lot at Main and Meridian streets downtown on a request-for-proposals (RFP) approach, the deadline for offers came and went on June 30 with no offers. Last October, the council voted 3-2 to authorize staff to purchase the lot, where an arson fire 10 years earlier destroyed the preexisting building at 100 South Meridian Street. The city purchased the lot from Waugh Properties LLC of Chanhassen for $45,000, plus commission and closing costs. The funds for the purchase came from tax increment financing (TIF), state money that the city was in excess of, and if not spent soon, would have had to be returned to the state. Belle Plaine Community Development Director Chelsea Alger reported that the marketing of the 0.18-acre parcel had been
discussed by the city’s Economic Development Authority (EDA) on two occasions. “Discussion in support of offering the property at a reduced rate in order to promote redevelopment efforts in the Central Business District and increase tax base occurred at both meetings,” Alger reported. “Discussion ranged from marketing it for $1 up to the actual cost to the city with the expectation the property be developed within the specifications and timeline of the city.” Alger, who resigned last week after accepting a job elsewhere, further explained that the EDA reviewed a recommendation from staff to market the property sale through a RFP process, during which each potential buyer would submit a proposal to the city pursuant to development guidelines identified in the RFP. “This alleviates the need for
the city to determine up front what the building should look like and how it should be occupied; rather allowing these ideas to be developed through the entities who are presumably more well-versed in the practice,” Alger continued. She added that “should the council determine that none of the proposals submitted fit the goals for site development, the city may reject all of them and reassess the marketing of the lot.” Since there were no offers, there will be no need for rejections, but Alger said this past Monday night that there will be a reassessment of the marketing of the lot, perhaps including an actual asking price for the property the next time around.
Belle Plaine’s 57th annual summer blast, Bar-B-Q Days, will take place this weekend, beginning with the first namesake sandwich sold on Friday through the final firework flash Sunday night. Belle Plaine’s hottest celebration of the year will be that again as temperatures are expected to reach the upper 80s or low 90s all three days. There’s also a slight chance of showers and/or thunderstorms here and there but no all-day washouts are in the forecast. Most food and beverages this weekend will cost the same as last year, including the festival’s namesake sandwich at $3.50. The meat will be from Coborn’s pre-sliced. The Beer Garden will again feature Miller Lite (strong), which will remain $3 per glass and $12 for pitchers ($10 refill). Also on sale will be Leine’s Summer Shandy, Redd’s Apple Ale and Mike’s Hard Lemonade, all of which will cost $4 a glass. All profits from Bar-B-Q Days are used for community projects. For more information on this weekend’s festivities, call the Belle Plaine Festival and Events office at 952-873-0855 or e-mail belleplainefestivals@ gmail.com. Near the end of the parade, Belle Plaine Rotary Club members will be collecting aluminum cans for the local Cans for Kids program. So bring your cans or save them to be deposited in the Rotary’s can trailer. Also, bags will be available the length of the parade route that spectators can place their trash in. The bags will then be picked up by members of Belle Plaine Boy Scout Troop 324.
Friday’s Events
The Beer Garden will open at 4 p.m. and the Beef Stand at 4:30 p.m. The Carnival begins at 6:30 p.m. The Bingo Tent will also be open Friday evening and stay open during much of the festival. The Minnesota Valley Riders Horse Show begins at 7 p.m. in the fields behind Chatfield Elementary School (off Park Street). The Charlie Moore Polka Band will perform at the Gazebo from 5-8 p.m., followed by G.B. Leighton (American rock) from 9 p.m. to 1 a.m.
Saturday’s Events
The Kids Fun Run will be Saturday’s first event. Registration will start at 7:30 a.m. at the Belle Plaine School District Center on South Willow Street. The race will begin there at 8:45 a.m. and also end there. The 5K Bull Run, registration and check-in for which also begins at 7:30 a.m., will start shortly after the Kids Fun Run. The Bull Run, which you can now register online for, will also begin and end at the district center. The Parade begins at noon and will follow its usual route on Main Street. Parade lineup will take place between 10:30 and 11:30 a.m. at the Borough Bowl, 235 South Ash Street. You will receive your number and lineup instructions at that time. Large units such as semi trucks and trailers are asked
Bar-B-Q Days (continued on page 8)
Miss Belle Plaine Hannah Preusser to Go Out Smiling “Making the little girls smile” is one of the royal court’s experiences that Hannah Preusser will remember the most during her one-year reign as Miss Belle Plaine. In fact, that’s part of her advice to the next royal court, the queen for which Preusser will crown during this Sunday’s Bar-B-Q Days Coronation in the high school south gymnasium. “I would tell them to make the most of it and smile whenever you can. Keep an eye out (while riding in parades) for the little girls. They’re always looking for a wave and when you do they smile like they’ve never smiled before. It’s so cute,” said Preusser, who is the daughter of Marty and Karen Preusser. Preusser, a member of the school’s golf team, was one of 10 Belle Plaine High School students to graduate with high honors last month. She will leave Aug. 31 to The College of St. Scholastica in Duluth, where she plans to study to become a registered nurse. Through a course and passing a test, she’s already a certified nursing assistant at The Lutheran Home in Belle Plaine. Also crowning their replace-
ments Sunday will be First Princess Kaylee Shields, daughter of Kerry Shields and Brody Hennen; Second Princess Rylee Pumper, daughter of Joe and Kelly Pumper; and Miss Congeniality Kylee Pass, daughter of Renee LeMieux and Greg Pass. This year’s royal court has represented Belle Plaine at more than a dozen parades and other events dating back to last summer. Saturday will be their parade. “It’s been a wonderful year,” said Preusser, when asked to describe the 2014-15 royal court’s experience. Preusser said another experience she won’t forget was representing Belle Plaine at the 2015 St. Paul Winter Carnival, the parade route for which “was packed.” She also got to meet many other community queens from across Minnesota and parts of Wisconsin, and attend the carnival’s popular dinner and program. Preusser also didn’t let cold weather affect her enjoyment
Miss Belle Plaine (continued on page 16)
Blakeley Woman, Lonsdale Man Killed in Head-on Crash A woman from Blakeley and a man from Lonsdale were killed in a head-on crash south of Lonsdale last Tuesday (July 7). Kathryn Kraft, 34, and Jerome Sevcik, 56, were killed when their vehicles crashed on Rice County Road 4 (Independence Avenue) near its intersection with 117th Street south of Lonsdale in Erin Township, said Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn. The crash occurred just after 3 p.m. Sevcik and his wife, Susanne, were heading north in a 2008 Chevrolet Malibu when their vehicle crashed into Kraft’s southbound Chevrolet
pickup. Dunn said Kraft’s truck crossed the centerline. Jerome Sevcik was pronounced dead at the scene of the crash. Kraft was airlifted to Hennepin County Medical Center. She passed away the next day (July 8), Dunn said. Susanne Sevcik, 56, was a passenger in the vehicle. She was extricated and also airlifted to Hennepin County Medical Center with serious injuries. Dunn said she was in stable condition Wednesday. The Rice County Sheriff’s Office and Minnesota State Patrol are investigating the crash.