More German Days Photos
Lutheran Home to Team With U of M to Combat Alzheimer’s
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ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOURTH YEAR
75¢ SINGLE COPY
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, JUNE 24, 2015
NUMBER 26
Plenty to Smile About Belle Plaine’s annual German Days celebration Friday and Saturday experienced plenty of warmth and sunshine, as well as smiles from the new royal court. Pictured above, from left, are Queen Katelyn Schmit, First Princess Emily Smith, Second Princess Breanna Valentin and Third Princess Alexis Davis. Also having reason to smile during this year’s German Days were the winners of Friday night’s Kraut Krawl drawing. They were Jennifer Grapentine ($100), Mike Becker ($200) and Ashley Kolsrud ($500).
Hiring Nelson Ladd Three Decades Ago Brought End to Game of Musical Chairs
The Johnson family of Belle Plaine said farewell to their guest Monday, foreign-exchange student Tessa Neumann. She began her journey back to her home in Germany. Neumann spent by Dan Ruud the 2014-15 school year as a sophomore at BPHS. The Johnsons included Neumann (left) in Keeping a community servica family photo. She’s pictured above with (from left) Brad Johnson, Carter, Becky, Alex and es director in Belle Plaine for a Abbie. lengthy period of time was no simple task a few decades ago. The departure of Merry Tilleson as community services director in Belle Plaine after a little over a year on the job in the Along with math, science, lit- in southwest Germany after a down any American teenager, mid-1980s touched off a debate erature and history, Tessa Neu- year as a foreign-exchange stu- managing classes, activities, among members of multiple mann came to Belle Plaine to dent in Belle Plaine. successes and disappointments, community boards/committees learn about American culture. She spent the year living with homesickness, and relation- over what the qualifications should be of the next director. From all accounts, it was a very Becky and Brad Johnson and ships with new friends. educational year. their three children. She said it is common for Ger- “The controversy is should we Monday (June 22), Neumann Neumann arrived in Belle man students to travel abroad. hire a local person without a returned to Idar-Oberstein, a Plaine last August. She has But Neumann learned plenty degree or minimum experience, city of about 30,000 residents dealt with the typical ups and about everyday life in the Unit- or someone with a degree in recreation or community edued States. “I expected it would be a lot cation?” said then City Admindifferent. I thought it would be istrator David Unmacht, adding that the city had been cursed like in the movies,” she said. In the spring of 2014, Neu- with a string of well-qualified Belle Plaine’s 2015 street and North Ash Street and the east- mann, 15, applied to be a forNelson Ladd utility improvement project ern improved limits of North eign-exchange student. She (continued on page 7) wanted to attend school in a is just getting started and the Oak Street between East Court community within or near a council has already authorized and Forest Streets. the preliminary report for the The public hearing for resi- larger metropolitan area. In April of 2014, she was informed proposed 2016 project. dents to voice their opinion on she’d been accepted and would Proposed for next year are the the need for the project (or lack be attending school in Belle reconstruction of East Forest thereof) will take place in late Street between Walnut Street August or early September. DeStudent Returns and the eastern improved limits tailed cost estimates will also (continued on page 2) of East Court Street between be known at that time.
Student Returns Home to Germany After Year in B.P.
Council Orders Preliminary Report for 2016 Street Project
Nelson Ladd, with his wife Cindy, was the guest of honor at a retirement gathering held for him Monday at the high school.
Scott County Board Nixes City’s Request for $700k in Advance Overpass Funding Won’t Come Until County Deems Project Complete
Cookout Crew Pulled pork sandwiches from Annie’s Cafe & Catering and the Belle Plaine Herald were among the popular offerings during Friday’s German Days Cookout. In front of the Herald office, the quartet of (from left) Jeff Fogarty, Jeff Miller, Jonny Beberg and Dan Townsend served about 600 sandwiches soaked in Jonny B’s Backyard Bar-B-Que Sauce. Fogarty, Miller and Townsend are BPHS graduates, class of 1984. Beberg lives in Belle Plaine.
to sell bonds for $700,000 more than it otherwise would have had the request been granted. The city has not yet determined the exact cost of the overpass project. It estimates the project will cost $5.9 million. Most the money will come from bonds issued by the city. The city’s plan to finance the overpass is primarily based on bonding. Without the advanced money from Scott County, the city will use $700,000 from its reserves. It will replace the $700,000 taken from reserves when it receives the funding from Scott County, said City Administrator Holly Kreft. The exact amount of the sale will be determined when the feasibility on the project is completed. The city is also expecting $902,000 in state funding. That amount includes $200,000 to remove the three-quarters left turn for northbound traffic turning left off Highway 169 into Belle Plaine. City staff will meet tomorrow
(Thursday, June 25) to discuss the impact of the board’s decision, said Dawn Meyer, the city’s finance director. The exact cost of the proposed overpass will be identified in the feasibility report on the project. The report will be completed later this summer.
Opposition
Commissioners Barbara Marschall of Prior Lake and Jon Ulrich of Savage led opposition to the request. Marschall based her opposition on a county practice of not delivering dedicated funding until projects are deemed completed by the county engineer. “Our process is not Mn/DOT’s process,” Marschall said. Ulrich was concerned that a city might receive advanced funding and then be caught in a pickle if bond interest rates or bids are more expensive than
Scott County has long dedicated $700,000 for Belle Plaine’s Highway 169 overpass project. Last week, the county board told the city the money won’t come until the project is deemed complete. By a 4-1 vote at its June 16 meeting, the board rejected a request to provide the money at the start of the project. Lisa Freese, the county’s program delivery director, said the county’s standard practice is to provide the funding from its Transportation Improvement Project (TIP) fund after a project has Scott County been completed and accepted (continued on page 4) by the county engineer. She noted the Minnesota Department of Transportation’s (Mn/ DOT) policy is to provide fund- St. John Ice Cream Social Today ing before the project begins. The county board decision St. John Lutheran Church in Barbecues and other sandmeans the city could likely need Belle Plaine will hold its annual wiches, ice cream, pies and Ice Cream Social on Wednes- cake are among the menu items. day, June 24 from 3:30-7:30 The Gathering Hall is air-conp.m. in its Gathering Hall at ditioned and handicapped ac148 South Chestnut Street. cessible. Takeouts will also be available.