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Watching the sun set on summer Above: The sun sets behind spectators on a hillside at Polar Lakes Park in White Bear Township during a Township Day musical performance by “The Good, The Bad and The Funky.” At right: Thomas, Claire and Maggie Farrell are greeted by a band member as he played and circulated among audience members gathered in the grassy expanse in front of the stage during the annual community event. Find more photos online at presspubs.com.
The 100% autonomous, driverless electric vehicle can carry 12 passengers, as stated in the window.
Insurance quandary stymies pilotless vehicle project WHITE BEAR LAKE — The autonomous, driverless bus has arrived in a parking lot off Hwy. 61. When it will carry passengers depends on some sticky insurance issues. “Insuring an automated vehicle in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, is not an easy thing,” explained Mike Greenbaum, NewTrax executive SEE AUTONOMOUS VEHICLE, PAGE 7A
White Bear school board: No masks, no public forum BY JACKIE BUSSJAEGER STAFF WRITER
In a less than five-minute meeting, the White Bear Lake school board canceled its public forum in response to members of the audience who chose to attend the in-person meeting without wearing masks. District policy currently requires face coverings for ages 2 and older, regardless of vaccination status. For those unable to wear masks, the district had provided a sepa-
rate space within the District Center where attendees could watch a livestream broadcast of the meeting. However, maskless individuals still chose to be present in the main meeting space. On noticing this, the board quickly passed its consent agenda, explained the reason the public forum would be skipped, and then adjourned. The sudden ending of the meeting caused uproar in the audience, with one individual comparing the action to “Nazism.”
“We needed to send a message that that’s not going to be tolerated,” Acting Board Chair Kim Chapman said after the meeting. “It’s a board policy. Students have to wear it, all staff have to wear it, everybody on school district grounds in the buildings wear masks.” The public forum has been a contentious space over the last few months, with the board passing new public forum rules at the beginning of last month’s meeting. The holding of a public forum is
not a legal requirement for school board meetings, but is offered as a way for members of the public to bring information relevant to the function of the district directly to the board’s attention. “The school board is responding to pressures that are being put on by certain folks in the community that don’t want to adhere to the school board policies and protocols,” Chapman said. “If people aren’t going to listen and adhere to those rules, they force our hand to a great
extent, because we don’t want these public forums to become combative or escalate into something nobody wants to see happen. It seems like the last several board meetings have been escalating.” Friction at school board meetings, particularly regarding mask requirements, has been a nationwide occurrence in the last few months. In some cases it has resulted in threats and physical violence between members of the SEE SCHOOL BOARD, PAGE 7A
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