State Baseball Results
Page 13
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH YEAR
Trapshooters Sight In State Title Page 6
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, june 21, 2017
More German Day Photos
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NUMBER 25
It’s Her Students, Colleagues LaJeunesse Will Miss The Most Longtime B.P. Elementary Teacher Retires
German Day’s Royalty Gabrielle Malecha (left) was crowned German Day Queen Friday evening (June 16) in a ceremony in downtown Belle Plaine. She is the daughter of Renee and Norman Malecha. Rebecca Schmitz, daughter of Sheila and Chuck Schmitz, was crowned first princess. They will represent Belle Plaine with royalty from Bar-B-Q Days and St. Patrick’s Day at area community festivals. German Day activities drew hundreds of people downtown for the annual cookout and street dance featuring the Johnny Holmes Band. German Day was funded by charitable gaming proceeds and the German Day Committee.
B.P.’s City Administrator Resigns For the sixth time a move that meant in 17-plus years, the it did not have to reCity of Belle Plaine is port a summary of its looking for a new city findings until its next administrator after meeting July 17. the city council forMeanwhile, Votca mally accepted Mike submitted his resigVotca’s resignation nation and a separaand OK’d a severance tion agreement was agreement Monday crafted. Monday, the Votca (June 19) evening. personnel commitVotca’s departure came after a tee discussed acceptance of third performance review since the separation agreement in a he started in Belle Plaine last closed-door meeting. The agreeOctober. The council recently ment includes separation pay of performed another review dur- $21,633.45 – a three-months ing a closed session. It left the share of Votca’s annual salary. meeting without adjournment, The city will pay 100 percent of
B.P. Schools Will Be Enlightened When New Year Begins When students return to school next fall, one of the improvement they may notice right away are new lights in all of Belle Plaine’s school facilities. The school district is planning a major lighting retrofit of all its classrooms, offices, hallways, and common spaces in all four buildings – most everywhere except closets and storage spaces. The district is planning to replace the florescent lighting tubes with light-emitting diodes (LEDs), high-efficiency lights intended to save just over $59,350 per year on the district’s $275,000 electric bill for all its buildings. That amount is for all the equipment that draws electricity, not just the lighting, said Jeff Heine, the district’s director of facilities and maintenance. At a recent board workshop, directors indicated their favor with the proposal. They are expected to formally approve it at Monday’s (June 26) regular board meeting. APEX won the job with a low bid of $867,000. The school district will receive a rebate of approximately $94,719 when the job is completed. True North was the other company to submit a completed bid for the job. Its bid was just over $905,000 – about 4.3 percent higher than APEX’s bid. A crew from Cedar Creek will install the lighting APEX is providing. The district will fund the lighting project with a 10-year bond. The bond won’t add any increase to property taxes. The
district will use long-term facilities maintenance money included in the existing levy to fund bond payments, said Chuck Keller, the district’s business manager. The new lights are needed because the old lights are wearing out. Most of the florescent lights in the junior-senior high, Chatfield and Oak Crest elementary schools have reached the end of their functional life, Heine said. Florescent lights and their ballasts typically last about 10 years, said Heine. The lighting in the junior-senior high was new when it was renovated in 2006. Oak Crest opened in 2007. The new lights will also have more efficient controls, allowing for dimming of the lights when a video is playing and reducing glare off the screen of iPads, Heine said. Teachers report softer lights can be helpful with modifying some students’ behavior, said Heine. Florescent lights have been failing at an increasing rate around the district. Custodians have been holding off on widespread change-outs of lights in anticipation of the upgrade, Heine said. The new lighting system also comes with more sensitive monitors to automatically shut off lights when rooms are not in use. The proposal includes new emergency lighting and wall packs. They will replace the existing emergency lights and batteries which are also outdated, Heine said.
his insurance premiums for life, dental, long-term disability, and group health insurance through Sept. 30. He will also be paid in a lump sum the value of all unused vacation or sick leave. The agreement also includes a non-disparagement clause, meaning neither the city nor Votca will speak ill of the other. Votca participated in Monday’s city council meeting. He left the meeting without answering questions following the completion of a workshop. A former U.S. Army officer of more than a dozen years, Votca came to Belle Plaine from the City of Tracy, Minn. where he served as city administrator since the summer of 2013. He was hired from a pool of 20 candidates to become the top choice. The City of Tracy was Votca’s first municipal administrator job. He had previously done a city government internship in Mankato and served in the U.S. Army for 13 years (1999-2012). Belle Plaine will once again look to a member of its staff to serve as an acting city administrator until Votca’s replacement is hired. Dawn Meyer, the city’s finance director, will again serve as acting city administrator. Meyer served as acting city administrator from September of 2013 to August of 2014, and from May of 2016 to October of 2016.
When she turns the calendar from July to August, Kristen LaJeunesse will no doubt think about preparing her classroom for the coming school year. She’ll think about the schedule of meetings with fellow teachers and the preparation that goes into the first day of a new school year. And then LaJeunesse will gently smile and remember she no longer has to worry about any of it. After three-dozen years teaching -- 32 in Belle Plaine – LaJeunesse retired at the end of the 2016-17 school year. She was the among the longest tenured teachers on the district’s seniority list. “Every summer goes by and the to-do list has got to be done,” she said. The list always includes a visit to her sister, Janice, in Kansas City. Next winter, a trip to see her twin sister, Karen, in Phoenix is planned. “This summer will feel more relaxed.” A different teacher will prepare LaJeunesse’s classroom at Oak Crest the first week of August. “That’s when it will hit me. I’m retired,” she said. “I don’t have to think about it anymore.” But she will. She’ll miss the fun activities early in the school year as teachers get to know their students. LaJeunesse plans to travel more and substitute teach when she feels like it. She looks forward to volunteering to make the trek to Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center next fall. Though the time was right for her to retire, LaJeunesse holds no illusions there won’t be a day when she misses being a teacher. “I’ve been doing it forever,” she said. Oak Crest Principal Liann Hanson credits LaJeunesse’s
Kristen LaJeunesse, Belle Plaine elementary school teacher, will miss students and colleagues the most now that she has retired. “can-do attitude” for her suc- this way, looking for a teaching cess in working with children. job. Anything to be with Joe. “Kristen was willing to try “The long-distance thing was new and different things in getting old,” she said. her classroom. She always had Belle Plaine Elementary a smile on her face and had a School Principal Earl Gransee positive attitude at school. She hired LaJeunesse as a special helped out with different events education teacher, a position at school, including Wolf Ridge she held here for 19 years beand the talent show.” fore switching to a mainstream LaJeunesse’s career began elementary classroom. She in Kansas and included a stop taught third-, fourth- and fifthin Junction City, S.D. before graders over the years before she moved to Belle Plaine. eventually entering a sixthShe came from a long line of grade classroom. Lutheran pastors but decided “They grow up a lot between teaching was her calling. Along third and fourth grade,” LaJeuthe way, she met Joe LaJeu- nesse said. “We certainly have nesse, an officer in the United discussions on topics. It’s fun States Army Reserves. The two teaching them something and met when he was stationed in watching them figure it out.” Fort Riley, Kan. Joe eventually She has seen education change moved back to Minneapolis, his considerably and notes the addhometown, and they maintained ed emphasis on state-mandated a long-distance relationship. tests as a yardstick of what chil-
It Was ‘Getting Old’
Kristen eventually moved up
LaJeunesse
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Pool Fences
The council unanimously approved an ordinance requiring the owners of all new outdoor pools with soft sidewalls taller than 37 inches to surround the pool with a permanent wall or fence at 48 inches tall impenetrable to toddlers. The fence can have a gate, but the bottom of the gate must be less than three inches from the ground State troopers reconstructed a crash on Highway 25 Saturday morning. A New Prague man was killed when his bicycle was struck by an SUV about five miles west of Belle Plaine. and be self-locking. The new regulations are an amendment to an existing ordinance. It states an above-ground pool shall be completely enclosed “with a permanent wall or fence not less than four feet A New Prague man was killed Ford Explorer driven by a Belle investigation would look at all in height.” while riding his bicycle on Plaine girl, 16, hit his bike. The aspects of the collision, includExisting pools three feet tall Highway 25 about five miles bike was on the shoulder when ing whether the use of a moCity Council west of Belle Plaine in Faxon it was struck, said Sgt. Troy bile device played a role in the Township Saturday morning Christianson, a public informa- crash. They determined alcohol (continued on page 7) (June 17). A westbound sport tion officer for the Minnesota did not play a role in the crash. The highway was dry at the utility vehicle hit him. State Patrol. Phillip Andrew Ilg, 56, was Troopers closed the highway time of the collision, according also heading west on High- for a few hours to reconstruct to the state patrol. way 25. He died when a 2002 the crash. Christianson said the
New Prague Man Killed in Crash on Highway 25 Saturday