Football Tigers Win
Southern Valley Welcomes New Staff Member
Schultz Family Combines to Find Harvest Medallion Page 8
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ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIFTH YEAR
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, OCTOBER 5, 2016
75¢ SINGLE COPY
NUMBER 40
Candidate Forum for City Offices Thursday The League of Women Voters/Minnesota will sponsor and conduct a candidate forum for Belle Plaine city offices on Thursday, Oct. 6. It will begin at 7 p.m. at Belle Plaine City Hall, 218 North Meridian Street, downtown. The public is invited to attend the forum, for which doors will open at 6:45 p.m. Written questions from the audience will be presented. For those unable to attend the forum, you can call in or e-mail your questions by Oct. 5 to moderator Diana Kasper (952-412-5654/ lwvecc@lwvmn.org). You can also watch the forum live or video recording at www. belleplainemn.com. At the city level for the Nov.
2016 Royal Cast Belle Plaine High School held its Homecoming Coronation in the school’s north gym Monday night, from which Kellen Bergs and Taylor Kruger, left, emerged as the 2016 king and queen. John Bergs delivered his third homecoming address to the candidates and audience, the previous two coming in 2005 and 2011. The emcees were students Mackenzie Bergland and Jared Miller. Retiring King Bernard Boateng crowned both the new king and queen as retiring Queen Trinity Webb was unable to attend. Pictured above is Monday’s Homecoming Coronation participants. They are back row, from left, Brody Curtiss (usher), Alec Ruud (king candidate), Nathan Herman (king candidate), Kellen Bergs (king), Jonah Meyer (king candidate), Jack Larson (king candidate), Noah Ellingsworth (king candidate) and Jared Miller (emcee). In the front row are Haley Leger (usher), Elizabeth Johnson (queen candidate), Hailey Witt (queen candidate), Taylor Kruger (queen), Selin Dikmen (queen candidate), Filiz Dikmen (queen candidate), Montana Bahr (queen candidate) and Mackenzie Bergland (emcee). The school is observing homecoming throughout the week with various activities and dress up days, culminating with Friday night’s football game and dance.
8 general election, Mayor Mike Pingalore is being challenged by Chris Meyer. There are also three seats available on the Belle Plaine City Council. Running for the two four-year terms are incumbents Cary Coop and Henry Pressley Jr., and challengers Nickole Shetka and Ben Stier. Running for a two-year term on the council (what would have been the remainder of Pressley’s term) are incumbent Gary Trost and challenger Theresa McDaniel. The seat was previously held by Scott Schneider, who moved to Shakopee. Pressley was appointed to fill the void until this year’s election and has since opted to run for a full four-year term.
City Council Okays Public Works Purchase Receives Updates on Helicopter, New City Administrator The Belle Plaine City Council had only a few action items on what was a brief agenda Monday night, and in the process, voted 4-0 (Mayor Mike Pingalore was absent) to approve the purchase of a crosswalk and street stripe painting attachment at a cost of $4,650. Public Works Superintendent Al Fahey said the purchase is necessary. “I have had many requests to paint skip striping and line striping – most notably on West Commerce Drive,” Fahey said. “In the past, we have not been able to perform this type of work because of the equipment needed.”
Fahey added that the department recently purchased a Graco Linelazer, which with an attachment (a LineDriver) can paint lines. In other business Monday night, Fahey reported that the Veterans Park Army Helicopter that was removed last month for refurbishing is still in the public works building. He said he has ordered replacement parts for some damage that was done to the helicopter over the years and has cleaned it up. “Once we have everything back to the original, we will be sending it out to be repainted. I am working with a company that has refurbished this type of helicopter and they have strong reservation about sandblasting
City Council
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Public Hearings to be Held on Solar Garden Proposal The Belle Plaine Planning and Zoning Commission will hold a public hearing at 6:30 p.m. Monday, Oct. 10 to receive public feedback on a request for an interim use permit to establish a ground-mounted utility scale solar energy system at 1200 South Street West. The city council will also conduct a public hearing on the matter shortly after 6:30 p.m. on Oct. 17 to consider planning and zoning’s recommendation. The property is owned by Kim Devine-Johnson, Tammy Devine, Christopher Johnson and Michael Carlson. In July, the council unanimously approved the property owners’ request to annex 43.29 acres in Blakeley Township to the city to help pave the way for a solar energy complex. If approved, the interim use permit will allow a 5 megawatt solar garden on the approximate 40-acre site, which is located adjacent to the western boundary of the city limits. Joining the property owners as applicants is Toby Butterfield, representing DG Minnesota CSG 4 LLC, the latter of whom’s parent company is NextEra Energy. It is a Fortune 200 clean energy company with consolidated revenues of approximately $17.5 billion and some 14,300 employees in 27 states and Canada as of yearend 2015. A solar garden is a solar electric array with multiple subscribers connected to the util-
ity grid. The subscribers may purchase a portion of the power produced by the array and receive a credit on their electric bill. Utility customers within the solar facility’s service area, including residences, businesses, local governments, non-profits and faith-based organizations, can all subscribe. In 2013, the Minnesota Legislature enacted a provision requiring the state’s largest electric utility, Xcel Energy, to submit a plan to the Public Utilities Commission under which the utility would provide customers the option to purchase electricity under a community solar garden program. If a solar garden is built in Belle Plaine, any electricity consumer in Xcel Energy’s territory can participate. According to a presentation provided by Belle Plaine Community Development Director Cynthia Smith-Strack on solar fields earlier this year, a 5 megawatt solar field consists of approximately 40 acres (six to eight acres are needed per each megawatt). Smith-Strack’s presentation also included some of the potential pros and cons of solar gardens. Among them:
Solar Gardens
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Brad Pederson, far left, got off to a strong start and maintained it during Saturday’s Scenic Byway Half-Marathon.
Brad Pederson Tops the Field in Scenic Byway Half-Marathon; Tara Henke is First Female by Dan Ruud Perfect was the word often used to describe the weather for Saturday morning’s Scenic Byway races in Belle Plaine. Sunshine and temperatures in the low 60s made for ideal conditions for some 200 runners, including the kids, half-marathon, two-person half-marathon and 5K races. Absorbing much of the morning glory was Belle Plaine High School teacher and assistant cross country coach Brad Pederson, who was the first to complete the half-marathon with a time of 1:29:41, 15 seconds
ahead of Gerald Mead of Minneapolis, who was also second overall last year. Both men were in the age 30-39 division. They were the only two to complete the race in under 90 minutes. Pederson, a chemistry and physics teacher, said he was a little surprised by his victory, adding that there’s been several times in the past he has run the race pushing his sons in a baby stroller. Pederson, who has run in all six Scenic Byways, said he normally runs about 60-70 miles per week in the summer before dropping down to an average of
50 miles or so a week the rest of the year. Tara Henke of Belle Plaine was the first female to cross the finish line, doing so in 1:43:16, which was 10th best overall among the 84 runners who completed the race. Henke, 27, who ran in the 2011 Grandma’s Marathon in Duluth, gave the Scenic Byway course a pretty good grade. “It was pretty hilly but otherwise it was nice. The weather was perfect,” she said. The overall victor of the 5K was Randy Wiinanen of Iron, which is located near Eveleth
in the Iron Range. Wiinanen said he made the long drive to Belle Plaine for the opportunity “to run on a certified course and record a fast time.” Mission accomplished. His time was 18:42. Josh Grover of Jordan was second overall with a time of 19:04. Kevin Weiser of Minneapolis, a two-time Scenic Byway 5K winner (2013 and last year), settled for third place this year but still won his 50-59 age division.
Scenic Byway
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