Local FundRaisers Galore
B.P. Teachers Union Files for Mediation
Fall Sports Teams Pick Up Pace
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ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOURTH YEAR
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, OCTOBER 7, 2015
75¢ SINGLE COPY
NUMBER 41
Scenic Byway Races This Saturday The trees in the river valley are near the peak of their autumn colors just in time for this Saturday’s fifth annual Scenic Byway races in Belle Plaine. Featured again this year will be a half-marathon, 5K and Kids Fun Run. As of Friday morning, approximately 225 people had preregistered for the races, which is slightly ahead of last year’s pace, when a total of 252 runners registered (144 in the halfmarathon and 108 in the 5K). If you have not yet registered, you can do so online (Belle Plaine Festivals and Events) or in person starting at 7 a.m. Saturday at Court Square Park, headquarters of the day’s activities.
The 50th Annual Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup drew thousands of spectators to see about 1,000 buffalo relocated from the prairie and grasslands of Custer State Park to a corral Friday (Sept. 25). Belle Plaine’s Rob Edberg worked the roundup on horseback, helping to move the buffalo into the corral area.
The cost for the half-marathon is $50 and for the 5K it’s $30. The Kids Fun Run is $10. There’s also a two-person relay option for the half-marathon, the cost of which is $70. The Kids Fun Run (for ages 10 years and under) will start at 8:45 a.m., followed by the halfmarathon at 9 a.m. and the 5K at 9:20 a.m. All races begin and end at Court Square Park. Chip timing will be provided for the half-marathon and 5K races. The half-marathon, relay and 5K courses are USATF certified. Awards will go to the overall male and female win-
Races
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Council Says Now is Not the Rob Edberg Gets a Chance Time to Rename Prairie Park
to Ride With the Buffalo
B.P. Man Picked for Roundup
There’s a whole bunch of cowboy in Rob Edberg. Give him the chance and he’d no doubt rather spend more time in a saddle than behind a desk. The Belle Plaine native took advantage of the chance of a lifetime to spend a week riding in Custer State Park and work as one of the 20 outside riders chosen by lottery to work the annual Custer State Park Buffalo Roundup at the park Friday, Sept. 25. The roundup moves about 1,000 buffalo from the grassland and prairie sections of the 71,000-square-mile state park in southwestern South Dakota to corral areas. In the corrals, the buffalo are branded and vaccinated. A portion of the herd will be sold off at auction. They’ll be replaced by between 300 and 400 calves born the following spring, said Craig
Edberg is a skilled horsemen. He won the right to ride in the roundup via a lottery.
Pugsley, Custer State Park’s visitor services coordinator. Relocating 1,000 buffalo is no small task. Edberg made the trip to southwestern South Dakota with his wife, Eydie and friend Julie Studnicka. They were gone Sept. 20-26. With the breeding season completed by the end of Au-
gust, the mares and bulls have parted ways. For a few weeks before the roundup, wranglers working for the park service head out into the prairie and grassland on the eastern and southern sections of the park to find clusters of mares and their
Edberg
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by Dan Ruud In what was an emotional 30 minutes for members of the Belle Plaine City Council and a couple of dozen people in attendance in support of renaming the city’s softball field from Prairie Park to Jerry Connolly Memorial Field, the council Monday night opted (for the time being) to uphold the city’s policy that states a person must be deceased for a minimum of 10 years before such a change can occur. The park board had also recommended keeping the name Prairie Park, but like the council, discussed ways to memorialize the late Jerry Connolly by adding amenities in his honor at the park such as park benches, which was approved by the council during the regular meeting that preceded the work session, the latter of which was devoted only to the requested renaming of the park. The two dozen people in attendance at the workshop was just a small sampling of individuals who want the park renamed Jerry Connolly Memorial Field as the group has obtained over 600 signatures on a petition asking for just that. Connolly was found dead
Ray and Mary Connolly, parents of the late Jerry Connolly, were among those in attendance at Monday night’s workshop discussion involving the requested renaming of the Prairie Park softball field to Jerry Connolly Memorial Field.
Aug. 5 at the city’s wastewater Brady Hartmann, the group’s treatment plant, where he was spokesman, explained in the the longtime plant manager. He Council had worked for the city of Belle (continued on page 4) Plaine for 23 years.
Area Man Arrested in Jordan After Chaska Shootings
The man who shot two people Thursday night after returning his son to a former girlfriend’s house in Chaska was arrested Friday in Jordan. Joshua Gilpin is being held in the Carver County Jail. He was arrested Friday (Oct. 2) for first-degree attempted murder and first-degree assault after an overnight manhunt. The shooting occurred Thursday (Oct. 1) around 9:30 p.m., at 3625 County Road 140 on Chaska’s west side. Joshua Gilpin had just returned his 4-yearold son to his former girlfriend -- Heidi Sue Robling, 29 – at Trinity Lutheran Church’s congregation will celebrate the church’s 125th anniversary Sun- her parents’ house after a visitation. There, he allegedly shot day, Oct. 11. Robling while inside the house and his own father, Robert Raymond Gilpin, 60, who was waiting for his son outside the house. The elder Gilpin accompaably never dreamed the church nied his son when returning the Trinity they founded would be around child. He was found in the front (continued on page 8) in 2015. yard of the house, wounded. Sunday, Oct. 11, the Trinity Both he and Robling were in Lutheran congregation is hostcritical condition Friday, but ing a special worship service to expected to survive, according The 17 members who founded celebrate the historic anniverto a Chaska Police Department Trinity Lutheran Church prob- sary. It will be held at 3 p.m. press release.
Trinity Lutheran Church Celebrating 125th Anniversary Special Service, Dinner Set for Sunday, Oct. 11
Tuesday (Oct. 6), Hennepin County Medical Center would release no information on the two shooting victims. Joshua Gilpin fled on foot after the shooting, starting an overnight search. A handgun was reportedly found at the scene of the shooting. Joshua Gilpin was arrested without incident Friday morning around 11:30 a.m. at a house on the 200 block of Mertens Street in Jordan, near the intersection of Mertens and Highway 282. Police said he occasionally lives there with his parents in Jordan.
Jordan police said a search of the area in Chaska was conducted by the Chaska Police Department and Carver County Sheriff’s Office. As the Chaska Police Department investigated, police learned Gilpin was potentially inside of the house in Jordan. A perimeter around the house in Jordan was set up by the Jordan Police Department and the Scott County Sheriff’s Office early Friday to contain the area around the residence. The Chaska Police Department drafted and secured a search warrant to search the residence for Gilpin. The Scott County/Carver County/Tri-City SWAT team assisted by the Bloomington Police Department SWAT team entered and searched the residence. Gilpin was not found in the house. School in Jordan was delayed for two hours Friday morning. The district’s buildings were in a ‘soft lockdown.’ They were allowed to move within the buildings. Students were bussed between buildings.