Tigers Look to Rebound From Loss
Harvest Medallion Found Page 16
B.P. Native Honored by GAC Page 13
Page 15
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FOURTH YEAR
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, SEPTEMBER 30, 2015
75¢ SINGLE COPY
NUMBER 40
Bernard Boateng and Trinity Webb Police Still Looking for ‘Roofing Crowned 2015 King and Queen Crew’ That Stole From B.P. Home The 2015 king and queen were crowned at Belle Plaine High School’s Homecoming Coronation Monday night in the school’s north gym. They are seniors Bernard Boateng and Trinity Webb, the former of whom’s brother, Brandon, was the school’s homecoming king in 2012. Boateng and Webb were crowned by their respective predecessors, Joe Hankins and Emilyn Siemon, both of whom
are now students at South Dakota State University. The other king candidates were Marcus Giesen, Paul Nasby, Luke Narveson and Ryan Siegle. The other queen candidates were Ally Fink, Madison Lark, Dakotah Poitra and Cassidy Burkman. The guest speaker was school librarian Annette Moylan, who recalled that she too was a BPHS homecoming queen candidate on the same stage 35
Queen Trinity Webb and King Bernard Boateng
years ago. She was not crowned queen, rather the 1980 title went to Lisa Fogarty. When the subject of “making dreams come true” came up, Moylan asked outgoing Queen Siemon to come over to near the podium, where Moylan took a seat and had Siemon place a crown on her, the latter of whom played the part by pretending to be surprised. That drew laughter and applause from the candidates and the audience as Moylan became a honorary queen of sorts. Monday’s emcees were Kali Gorman and Samuel Gavin. The ushers were Kimberly Mohrbacher and Taylor Yahnke. Numerous homecomingrelated activities are on tap at the school each day this week, ranging from Monday’s coronation to Friday night’s dance. This week’s home sporting events have the tennis team hosting Tri-City United 4:15 p.m. this Thursday and the football team taking on St. Peter at 7 p.m. Friday. The volleyball team was at home against New Prague Tuesday night after this edition of the Herald went to press. Also Tuesday, the boys’ and girls’ cross country teams competed in a meet at Mankato. On Friday, members of the cross country teams will take turns relaying Friday night’s game ball from St. Peter to Belle Plaine to be delivered to the football team at Friday afternoon’s pepfest.
Local and area police are on the lookout for two men posing as a roofing crew. They made off with a safe containing property from a Belle Plaine resident this spring. The men reportedly went to a house on East Prairie Street May 11. They identified themselves as the man’s roofing crew. While one of the men – described as a smooth talker, possibly with a Southern accent, took the homeowner -- into another room, a second man went into the bedroom and carried out a safe which he loaded into a pickup truck. The safe is about 2 feet by 2 feet and contained financial notes, bonds and cash. The jewelry included a wedding ring that belonged to the man’s deceased wife, said Belle Plaine Police Chief Tom Stol-
ee. The truck is described as a newer model extended cab Chevrolet pickup, light tan in color with a wooden rack on the side, said Belle Plaine Police Sgt. Terry Stier. Through their investigation, police have recovered nearly everything – except about $1,000 cash and the wedding ring. They worked with financial institutions to cancel the stolen bonds and certificates of
deposit and reissue new bonds and CDs. The two men have been sought for burglaries in Baron and Polk counties in western Wisconsin, Northfield, Minneapolis and other communities in southeastern Minnesota, Stolee said. The two may be father and son, according to police. The younger of the two men has no teeth, police said. His face is sunken, the effect of years without teeth. Wisconsin deputies had the same two males in their state a week prior. The same scam, stolen safes, money and jewelry were reported. Stolee is concerned the pair will strike again if not stopped. Police are also warning residents not to allow door-to-door salesmen or contractors into their houses without adequate supervision.
Scott County Planning $3 Million Fix to Blakeley’s Quarry Creek In the wake of heavy rains and disastrous flooding in Blakeley Township in June of 2014, a large ravine suffered significant washout damage, threatening a county road and potentially depositing tainted storm water into the Minnesota River. The county is planning a $3 million repair job to a ravine along Quarry Creek, between county roads 60 and 6 (Union Trail/the Blakeley road). Bids on the project are due Tuesday (Oct. 6). The project will take place in one ravine with two branches. Although the work area includes about seven acres, much of the work will be along the narrow creek channel in the bottom of the ravine. The project involves construction of a detention basin in the upper portions of the land above the ravine to slow runoff before it drops down the bluff and the
steep ravine. It also includes stabilizing the channel within the ravine by lining the channel with rock and creating check dams – steps -- to let the water down in a more controlled less erosive manner, said Paul Nelson, administrator of the Scott Water Management Organization (WMO). Most of the construction will occur on private land. The county and landowners benefiting from the erosion stabilization have agreed to dedicate the land to make the project happen. Dedicated easement rights are their contribution to the project. The county and the Scott Watershed Management Organization have invested a significant amount of time discussing the issue and potential solutions with the upstream private land owners, according to Lezlie Vermillion, the county’s deputy
administrator. “These land owners are motivated to address the erosion because they know the underlying geology makes the area prime for accelerated erosion, and their property is also being damaged. Funding is coming from a variety of sources. Before the June 2014 disaster, Scott County highway and WMO pursued the project. Both agencies applied for and received $800,000 from the Board of Water and Soil Resources from the Clean Water Fund (the Clean Water Land & Legacy Amendment). After the June 2014 disaster, an additional $450,000 to $700,000 has been appropriated by the legislature to the Board of Water and Soil Resources for the
Quarry Creek
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Ridgeview’s Clinic Plans Continue by Dan Ruud Ridgeview Medical Center Vice President John Prondzinski said Monday that as the new bridge over Highway 169 near the intersection of County Road 3 and Meridian Street is being constructed over the next 12 months, so too will Ridgeview’s new medical clinic. Last Monday night, the city council awarded the bid for the bridge construction and extension of Enterprise Drive to S.M. Hentges and Sons of Jordan at the low bid of $3,179,966.84, which is over $1.2 million below the city engineer’s estimate of $4,387,703. That also came as good news to Ridgeview Medical Center, which plans to begin construction of its Belle Plaine clinic next spring, at the same time the
bridge over 169 is taking shape just down the southbound lane a short distance from the existing intersection. Ridgeview is purchasing several acres of city-owned property from the city for $1. Prondzinski said Ridgeview Medical Center is already recruiting physicians for the Belle Plaine clinic. “We’re very excited (about coming to Belle Plaine),” Prondzinski said Monday. Because it will be an addition (not a relocation) of Ridgeview’s Medical Center’s growing network of facilities, Prondzinski said the Belle Plaine clinic will be mostly staffed by new employees, not transfers. He said he cannot say at this time how many people the clinic will employ or what
its square-footage will be. “We will know a lot more in a few months,” said Prondzinski, adding that Ridgeview is currently finalizing interviews with architectural firms for the design of the clinic. Prondzinski said much of the winter planning will involve working with the city of Belle Plaine on the preliminary and final design plans for the clinic, and how exactly it will be tucked into the site, which is on the northwest corner of Highway 169 and County Road 3.
Ridgeview’s
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Val and Barb Miller began bringing in their soybean crop southeast of Belle Plaine Sunday afternoon. The couple expects a good yield from the land, thanks to warm temperatures and timely precipitation. Area farmers will balance good yields against low prices this fall.
Anticipating Bumper Crop, Harvest has Some Farmers in a Quandary The yields some area farmers are expecting on their corn and soybean crops to validate what even non-farmer seemingly knows. It’s been a good summer for growing crops. “We’ve had timely rains and it hasn’t been too hot,” said Ted Kornder. He and his family grow corn and soybeans. “We only had about four days over 90 degrees.” Last week, area farmers began brining in their crops. The harvest, weather permitting, will continue in the weeks to come. Kornder uses some of the corn and soybean crops for his family’s beef cattle operation. The rest is sold on the open market. Belle Plaine farmer Tim Stier of BTS Farms also sells seed for crops. He said farmers are anticipating corn harvests of 230 bushels per acre, a yield well above previous years. Soybean yields are reportedly in the 5065 bushels per acre range, Stier said. Both yields are well above
Red Cross Holding Blood Drive in Belle Plaine Today The American Red Cross will hold a blood drive at the Belle Plaine Vets Club today (Wednesday) from 1-7 p.m. The Vets Club is located at 218 South Meridian Street downtown.
previous years. But in the supply-and-demand agricultural economy, a great crop doesn’t automati-
cally guarantee farmers will
Crop
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Former Herald Columnist Dies Dorothy Townsend Casserly died Friday of complications from a stroke. She was a popular columnist and reporter for the Belle Plaine Herald in the 70s and 80s and won numerous awards for her writing. She later worked for Sun Newspapers editing some of their suburban newspapers. Her last writing contribution to
the Herald was last year with a brief story of Belle Plaine High School Class of 1944 reunion. She was a member of that class and helped arrange their 70th anniversary. Her obituary appears on page 3.
Test Drive a New Buick and Raise Money for B.P. Schools Matt Saxe Chevrolet-Buick in Belle Plaine invites you to stop by its dealership on the south side of Highway 169 on Saturday, Oct. 3 to test drive one of its new Buicks. For each test drive taken, Matt Saxe Chevrolet-Buick will donate $20 to the Belle Plaine School District (up to $10,000 total). This year’s recipient of the funds will be the choir department. Each test drive participant will also receive a T-shirt and have a chance to win a laptop
computer. The event will take place from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. There will be a bounce house for the kids and the Knights of Columbus will have a hamburger stand. The record number of test drives for the annual event is 327. The goal this year is 500 test drives, which would raise $10,000. To sign up for a test drive ahead of time, call Matt Saxe Chevrolet-Buick at 952-8732234, or e-mail matt@saxechevybuick.com.