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TribuneDakota County

Farmington | Rosemountand the surrounding areas

www.dakotacountytribune.comJanuary 2, 2014 • Volume 129 • Number 44

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INDEX

Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . 4A

Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . 10A

Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 11A

Announcements . . . . 14A

Thisweekend . . . . . . . 15A

ONLINE

NEWS

OPINION

SPORTS

Columnists look back on 2013Don Heinzman and Joe Nathan provide updates and perspective on the topics they addressed in the past year.

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Hockey action in holiday timeThe Farmington girls hockey team was in action over the holiday break.

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As one of the early iPad adaptors at Farmington High School, Earth science teacher Julian Buss answers Farmington High School students’ questions during a lab on greenhouse gases. (Photo by Andy Rogers)

Voters at the Hayes Community and Senior Center in Apple Valley cast their ballots Nov. 5, when residents of the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District approved a new operating levy and returned to office all three incumbent School Board members. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)

2013YEAR IN REVIEW

Farmington School District receives

technology upgrade

District 196 bids educators farewell,

passes levyDistrict earns

Innovation Zone distinction by Andy Rogers

SUN THISWEEK

DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

The typical student’s backpack is often filled with a textbooks, work-sheets, a calculator, notebooks, pens and pencils. Those items were replaced in 2013 with an iPad in the Farmington School District. A one-to-one iPad initiative put a tablet in the hands of every stu-dent with a goal of customizing education. High school students started out the year with iPads while middle school and elemen-tary school students received theirs

when school opened in the fall. Students could complete work-sheets, take tests, view lectures, read textbooks, interact with fellow stu-dents online, and, at times, get dis-tracted by games and social media. Applications such as Kik and Snap-chat were banned from the district’s iPads during the year. Teachers were creating their own textbooks using free open source information, and they used School-ogy to keep students and parents up to date on the status of their work-load. Some classrooms are essen-tially flipped, where students watch lectures as homework and do the work at school, where teachers can engage the students in the process.

by Jessica HarperSUN THISWEEK


In District 196, 2013 was a time of many goodbyes as long-time educators retired and a time of relief with the passage of a new levy referendum. Laura Kay Allen was the first of several retirees in the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District this past year. The Apple Valley High School assistant principal stepped down in May after working in educa-tion for 35 years. She began her career in 1978 as a physical education teacher at Arlington-Green Isle High School in Arlington. After a year, Allen became a

physical education and health teacher and coach at Valley Mid-dle School in Apple Valley. Allen remained at Valley Mid-dle until 1984 when she moved to Virginia where her husband, Mike, was stationed as a naval of-ficer. A year later the couple re-turned to the Twin Cities where she earned a master’s in educa-tion specialist from the Univer-sity of St. Thomas. Shortly thereafter, Allen land-ed an assistant principal position at Park High School in Cottage Grove. Allen returned to her home-town in 1987 as the assistant

See FARMINGTON, 7A

Winners of businesswomen award selected

Women represent a wide range of pursuits,

backgrounds

by Tad JohnsonSUN THISWEEK


Ten women will be hon-ored with the 2014 Exception-al Busi-nesswomen A w a r d during a recognit ion ceremony and breakfast Tues-day, Feb. 25, at Lost Spur Event Center and Golf Course in Eagan. This year’s winners in the fifth class of Excep-tional Businesswomen are: • Karen DeVaughn, Life Wellness Center, Lakeville and Eagan; • Audrey Aronson Johnson, Johnson Com-panies, Lakeville; • Diane Lindo, Min-nesota School of Beauty, Lakeville; • Lara Kelley, Minne-

sota School of Beauty, Lakeville; • Stacey Marmolejo, Minnesota’s School of Rock, Burnsville; • Kari Mitchell, Char-ity Events of Minnesota, Rosemount; • Roz Peterson, Cerron Commercial Properties, Lakeville;

• Linda Radue, Burnsville Volk-

swagen, Burns-ville; • Jenni-fer Smith, In-novative Of-fice Solutions, B u r n s v i l l e ;

and • Kar-

en Wentworth, HOBO Inc., Lake-

ville. The award, which has been given by the Dakota County Tribune and Sun Thisweek since 2010, rec-ognizes women who have distinguished themselves in Dakota County busi-ness and community ef-forts. “We are very excited to honor this group of women who have a wide range of business pur-suits,” said Krista Jech,

New ‘choice’ school in Farmington evolving

Two community forums scheduled by Andy Rogers

SUN THISWEEK


Those curious what the Farmington School District has in mind for a new elementary school next year have a oppor-tunity to learn about the plan next week. Two community fo-rums have been sched-uled to discuss the new school’s design. The first one is scheduled from 5-6 p.m. Jan. 7 at Boeck-man Middle School, and the second is from 5-6 p.m. Jan. 9 at Riverview Elementary. These sessions will help shape the plans for the new school and allow for questions from com-munity members. Last November, the school began the plan-ning process of a new 100-student elementary school at the District In-structional Services Cen-ter that would open in the fall of 2014. It will be open to all students, and the district will likely use a lottery system for ap-plicants. Initially the plan is to house fourth- through sixth-graders in the fall. The goal is to incubate

the district’s strategic plan of customized edu-cation on a small scale. Before the holiday break, a 15-member de-sign team comprised of teachers, community members and parents spent five days putting together the information for the upcoming forums. They started with a wide focus with the no-tion of a new school “driven solely by the district strategic plan,” said Laura Pierce, direc-tor of innovative pro-gramming. “We have pockets of innovation and creativity at all of our schools. We’re tak-ing our entire plan and implement it fully at one school.” They created a con-ceptual design, actions for the staff, and meth-ods on how to judge the results. Without giving away too many spoilers, Pierce said they are focused on providing an authentic experience through proj-ect-based learning. “Technology is a tool, but it’s all about connec-tive learning; what we teach in a school to what happens in their outside

life,” Pierce said. Another reason for the lack of a preview is the script isn’t finished. “There’s been lots of conversations but we’re still formulating it,” Pierce said. “It’s been a very purposeful effort by many in the community all the way down to stu-dents. Superintendent Jay Haugen said the plan will be cost neutral be-cause the district already has the facilities, tech-nology and staff. The ISC housed Farmington Elementary School students in the fall while the school was being renovated, so the building is structured to house students. Following the com-munity meetings, the or-ganizers will present an updated plan during the School Board’s Jan. 13 meeting. Additional parent meetings are planned for February and March, which is when the regis-tration process could be-gin.

Email Andy Rogers at [email protected].

See 196, 16A

See AWARD, 11A

THISWEEKEND

Star Wars ExtravaganzaRosemount’s Steeple Center will be taking on a science-fiction atmosphere next week with a Star Wars-themed family event.

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More year in reviewRosemount residents inspired, impressed and left indelible impressions on their neighbors in 2013. Some of those people are remembered this week.

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2A January 2, 2014 DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

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Rosemount residents build, leave behind legacies Lt. Col. Mark

Weber inspired legions of people

by Tad JohnsonSUN THISWEEK


Rosemount area resi-dents celebrated and paid tribute to the accomplish-ments of lives lived to their fullest and lost in 2013. Probably no one had as profound of an impact as Minnesota Army Nation-al Guard Lt. Col. Mark Weber, 41, who died June 13 at home with his family at his side. “Mark’s wish to die at home, embraced by love, and a view of his beloved garden was granted to him,” his family wrote on his CaringBridge website. Weber touched the lives of people around the world after he was diagnosed with Stage 4 inoperable intestinal can-cer in July 2010 at age 38, went on to finish his self-published book “Tell My Sons” and accepted speaking engagements seemingly whenever he was asked. In his final months even as his health declined, he returned to Iraq where he served as the military as-sistant to the Iraqi chief of defense in 2005, and he also addressed Army officer graduates at West Point, students at Rose-mount High School and veterans and their loved ones at Fort Snelling Na-tional Cemetery in St. Paul. Weber’s diagnosis came after he underwent a stan-dard medical exam re-quired for his deployment as the military assistant to the incoming Afghanistan minister of the interior. It was a position that the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan, Gen. David

Petraeus, personally se-lected Weber to serve. Surgery to remove the cancer was unsuccessful. Weber said when he re-ceived his diagnosis and thought he would only have months to live, he started organizing his let-ters and journals. The re-sult was “Tell My Sons,” which was released Dec. 7, 2012, to critical and popular acclaim. It was picked up by Random House and re-released in 2013. Proceeds from the book were donated to Outward Bound and The Mission Continues. He wrote the book over the course of about six weeks. He said at the time that his collaborator was dumbfounded that he could do it. During his speaking engagements, Weber often attempted to impart that he was no “Superman” but that anyone can battle cancer and accomplish what he has. “I used to hear flattery when people told me how

much our story inspired them or moved them to action,” Weber had said. “Now I see it as my re-sponsibility, and to do so with respect, objectivity and humility. It’s a won-derful feeling to see such goodness come from such misery, and why wouldn’t it be, considering what I did in the Army? My mis-sion as a leader is to instill purpose, motivation and direction. Instead of do-ing that with Army per-sonnel, equipment and strategy, I’m doing it with my community.” Mark and his wife, Kristin Weber, were hon-ored by Army Gen. Mar-tin Dempsey, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, in an End of Service Cer-emony Aug. 15, 2012, at the Rosemount National Guard. Dempsey presented Mark Weber with the Le-gion of Merit Award, and Kristin Weber with the Minnesota Superior Ci-vilian Service Award. He also received the General Douglas MacAr-thur Leadership Award in 2002, the Bronze Star (for combat service in

Iraq), Meritorious Ser-vice Medal (fifth award), Joint Service Commen-dation Medal, Combat Action Badge (for direct combat with the enemy), Airborne and Air Assault Badges, among numerous others. Weber is survived by his wife and sons Mat-

thew and twins Noah and Joshua.

The band The Rosemount area community also rallied around the Rosemount High School marching band, which performed in the Tournament of Roses Parade on Jan. 1 in Pasa-dena, Calif. The band directors re-vealed in October 2012 the news of Rosemount’s selection to be one of the 16 bands among 50 that applied for the 2014 pa-rade. Since that euphoric night at the band’s award banquet, members spent an estimated 400 hours re-fining their routine and a similar time dedication to fundraising toward their goal of about $2,000 per band member. “When we first start marching in the parade, I know I’m going to feel nervous, worried about not getting too tired and performing to my best, but I’m also going to be over the hill excited be-cause I know it’s going to be a great parade,” band member Nicole Hutchin-son said last week. Along the way the marching band also won numerous competitions, including Youth in Music held at the Metrodome, and it placed first among Class 3A teams in the preliminary round and seventh place in the final round at the Bands Of America Super Regional Band Championships at the Edward Jones Dome in St. Louis, Mo., last weekend.

One Rosemount Rosemount residents came together for the One Rosemount Feeding Fam-

ilies food packing event March 2. More than 1,400 vol-unteers streamed into Rosemount Elementary and Rosemount Middle schools to pack 285,120 meals and collect just more than 3,000 pounds of food for 360 Commu-nities food shelves. “We had a great day,” said the Rev. Bill Good-win, pastor at Lighthouse Christian Church and co-leader of the event. “I feel great; tired but great. I am very proud of the whole leadership team and the volunteers who came out to help.” Teams of 10 people packed the meals, which were provided by St. Louis Park-based Impact Lives and will feed Hai-tian refugees living in the Dominican Republic. There is still more work to do. One Rosemount is raising money toward its goal of $71,000 to help send the meals. To donate, go to www.OneRose-mountFeedingFamilies.com.

Boston Marathon Eagan resident and Rosemount High School teacher Lance Kuehn, 30, and his family members cheering him on were un-injured when two bombs were detonated near the finish line of the Boston Marathon on April 15. Kuehn has finished the race about 30 minutes pri-or to the bombs going off. “I had a cramp at mile 22,” Kuehn said. “What if I started to walk?” Kuehn’s family was waiting by the finish line at the exact spot where one of two explosions took place.

Rosemount resident and Army National Guard Lt. Col. Mark Weber walks off the mound after he threw the first pitch at the April 28 Minnesota Twins game with his wife, Kristin, and sons Matthew, Noah and Joshua. (Photo by Wayne Kryduba, Min-nesota Twins)

The Rosemount High School marching band took its field show from the Metrodome to the streets of Anaheim, Calif., this week for the Tournament of Roses Parade. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)

The Rev. Paul Jarvis, lead pastor at the Church of St. Joseph, was back in full swing during Rosemount Lep-rechaun Days in July after he suffered a heart attack in April. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)

See ROSEMOUNT, 6A

2013YEAR IN REVIEW

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Farmington, Rosemount residents getting many new neighbors

Real estate market improves

in 2013 by Andy Rogers

SUN THISWEEK


According to the No-vember 2013 market up-date from the St. Paul Association of Realtors, the real estate market has improved in 2013 in every measure in both Rose-mount and Farmington. In Farmington, closed sales have increased by 16 percent from 2012 to 2013 and the median sales price has increased by 17.8 per-cent to $192,000. Rosemount’s situation is positive as well. Closed sales have improved by 11.5 percent while the median sales price has im-proved by 19.5 percent to $215,000. The number of days houses have been on the market has decreased by about a month in both cit-ies. “I would say almost any real estate agent would tell you that the recovery is

faster than they expected this past year,” said Bill Droste, Rosemount mayor and Realtor with Keller Williams. “We’re seeing really good progress and positive turnaround.” The number of houses on the market has also improved by 27.5 percent in Farmington and 5.2 in Rosemount. The number of new homes on the market is not just existing homes, but also new construction. The number of new list-ings in the area was so low in recent years, that new construction began filling in the gaps in 2013. Droste sees many young families buying the newer homes. “When you marry, it’s time to move out of the house and start your own home,” Droste said. “They’re starting to look again.” The improvement in market values is also in-spiring current homeown-ers to sell and look for an upgrade, and inspiring potential homeowners to invest. Many empty nest-

ers and aging boomers are also getting back into the market, according to Droste. A drop in foreclosures and rise in employment has helped. The Minne-sota Department of Em-ployment and Economic Development shows the state seasonally adjusted unemployment numbers for November at 4.6 per-cent. In Dakota County, from January to October, foreclosures decreased from 1,525 in 2012 to 820 in 2013. Still, it’s not nearly the same as it was during 2006 when the average home value peaked at $317,000 in the United States, but it’s good news to hom-eowners and real estate agents. “Traditionally, hous-ing has been one of the primary drivers when we come out of a recession,” Droste said. “People start buying appliances and contracting out for addi-tional work.”


Register for the follow-ing Rosemount Parks and Recreation programs on-line at www.ci.rosemount.mn.us, at the parks and recreation office, or call 651-322-6000 for more in-formation. • Science Explorers’ Silly, Sloppy, Slimes, ages 3.5-6, 10-11:30 a.m. Mon-day, Jan. 13, at Rosemount Community Center. Ex-periment with gooey, silly and slimy mixtures. Cost: $6. Registration deadline: Jan. 6. • Science Explor-ers’ Battling Robo Botz,

grades 2-6, 9:30 a.m. to noon Monday, Jan. 20, at Rosemount Community Center. Build simple mo-torized robots that will battle for the title “Best Bot.” Cost: $20. Registra-tion deadline: Jan. 13. • Messy Art for Little Doodlers I, ages 2-5, 9:30-10:15 a.m. Tuesdays, Jan. 21 through Feb. 11, at Rosemount Community Center. Children will cre-ate their own masterpieces using a wide range of art materials. Children 2 years of age must attend with a parent, children ages 3-5

can attend with or with-out a parent; but must be potty trained if attending alone. Cost: $49. Registra-tion deadline: Jan. 14. • Free Open Gym on no school days at the Rose-mount Community Cen-ter. Open gym for children in grades K-5 is 12:30-1:30 p.m. with a parent; open gym for grades 6-12 is 1:30-2:30 p.m. The remain-ing winter and spring open gym dates are Jan. 20, 24; Feb. 13, 14, 17; March 14, 27, 28. No pre-registration is needed.

Rosemount parks and rec programs


Following logic To the editor: On social media this week, Rep. Pat Garofalo, R-Farmington, posted a simple message: “My policy for the Minnesota’s Budget Surplus. Give it back. Then adjourn. Mis-sion accomplished.” Seems logical I guess. But if it is logical, then it is also logical that when we have a deficit, like we had in many recent years, we ask taxpayers to cover the deficit. I pointed that out to Garofalo, but he was un-

able to agree with me, say-ing “the (surplus) money belongs to taxpayers” and “the deficit wasn’t by a lack of tax revenue, it was caused by excessive spend-ing.” Regardless of whether it was excessive spend-ing, the bills were passed, the expenses encumbered, and taxpayers became re-sponsible for covering the debts. If I were to follow Ga-rofalo’s logic, I could only say that we have a surplus today, so we didn’t spend enough? That doesn’t seem quite right.

Finance is not always black and white, nor is there only one solution. It is time for legislators to start being more diplo-matic and to think outside the party box, not fan the flames of partisanship.

STEVE QUISTFarmington

Stop the over spendingTo the editor: There is a grant for a “greenway” bike trail sys-tem in Dakota County to connect to existing green-

way trails in St. Paul and Hastings. The greenway plan’s cost far exceeds the grant amount for both Lebanon Hills Regional Park and Spring Lake Park Reserve. Does the majority of the public want this spending to occur, and do they have a choice? The wildlife, trees and nature that would be dis-turbed by this project is very sad. Dakota County claims to be “Forever Wild.” A less invasive and disruptive plan would be to build the bike trails along main roads and go-ing into but not through some of the parks. The personal property and land acquisitions would be lessened if the trails were along main roads. The Minnesota Depart-ment of Transportation and Dakota County Parks could work together to create a better transpor-tation system, including bike routes that are safe for people to use as trans-portation. Park users pay for passes or permits. With the plan to add biking and walking trails (10-12 feet wide) of paved, lighted, year round, plowed and sweeping maintenance, will there be a use pass for bikers and walkers to help pay for these new trails and upgrades? How much of the cost will truly be taxpayer funded? The trails in Leba-non Hills and Spring Lake Park Reserve are proposed to go through the center of the parks or to remote land where it is costly to build and maintain trails. It is not defined how many miles

of trails are required by the American with Dis-abilities Act and if these are grant requirements or if all parks are required to have paved trails. It is great to have paved trails, but how many miles can or will people with dis-abilities walk or bike through these parks. The cost of this project does not seem to make sense for the amount it would be used year round and it will bring even more debt. There are more important issues to address like im-provement to roads and bridges, etc.

PATRICIA LUETH Eagan

Lebanon Hills plan on the right pathTo the editor: One of the best rec-reational destinations in the metro area is Dakota County’s Lebanon Hills Regional Park in Eagan. Dakota County has a proposal to make it even better. When we moved to Eagan 30 years ago, we heard about the park’s wonders from our Real-tor. He also commented on the county’s commit-ment to sustaining this important natural re-source. The county’s new Master Plan for the park proposes balanced recre-ational use and preser-vation of environmental resources. The park plan definitely promotes posi-tive stewardship of these natural gifts. For people of all ages as well as people with dis-

abilities, the plan offers enhanced access, pro-tection of natural space and wildlife habitat, and a year round venue for healthy outdoor activity. My family still enjoys all the park has to offer, and I look forward to visits now with my grandchil-dren. The public is invited over the next few weeks to get in touch with the county about the plan. Comments are requested by the county and by the Dakota County Board of Commissioners. Dakota County residents should get in touch with county leaders and resoundingly approve the new park plan.

SARA GALLIGANEagan

‘Getting Prepared’ a must read To the editor: Thank you for allow-ing Joe Nathan to bring attention to the “Get-ting Prepared” report (Sun Thisweek, Dec. 27). This eye-popping report should be read by all who care about quality education: voters, edu-cators, education policy makers, parents, and – yes, even students. It is a reality check that every community needs. And, as Nathan points out, the Minnesota Office of Ed-ucation should not drag its heels. It should follow the law and produce it each year.

MARY SHERRYBurnsville

Letters to the editor policySun Thisweek welcomes letters to the editor. Submitted letters must be no more than 350 words. All letters must have the author’s phone number and address for verification purposes. Anonymous letters will not be accepted. Letters reflect the opinion of the author only. Sun Thisweek reserves the right to edit all letters. Submission of a letter does not guarantee publication.

Opinion

Letters

2013’s memorable messages about education

Service dogs, Sunday sports, trapshooting highlight 2013

by Joe Nathan SUN THISWEEK


Looking back over 2013, I think Minnesota parents, policymakers, tax-payers and educators sent each other three major, memorable messages about public schools. Column readers sent me more than 1,000 comments in 2013. Your messages helped me reach these conclusions: • We’re willing to put more money into education, especially if it appears that additional funds will have a strong positive impact. • We need to broaden the way we as-sess students and schools. • Many people are looking for some-thing different than the traditional ap-proach to public education. Let’s take them one by one. First, Gov. Mark Dayton, Minnesota legislators and many local voters were willing to spend more money on educa-tion in 2013. For example, the Legisla-ture allocated more than $170 million to help support all-day, every-day kinder-garten and fund early childhood educa-tion scholarships for students from low-income families. Moreover, according to the Minneso-ta School Boards Association, local vot-ers approved 51 of 59 operating levies, and 23 of 26 requests for buildings or other capital expenses. The 86.4 percent local levy approval rate was the high-

est since the association began keeping track in 1980. Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan and the Lakeville Area School District were among the communities that passed some form of referendum. Second, we need to broaden the way we assess students and schools. The Leg-islature responded to concerns about over-reliance on traditional, statewide, standardized tests. Led by people such as state Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul; Sen. Patricia Torres-Ray, DFL-Minneapolis, and Education Commis-sioner Brenda Cassellius, the Legislature eliminated its requirement that students must pass standardized tests in reading and writing before graduating from high school. Legislators substituted a mixture of assessments. Students will be asked to take tests designed to help them un-derstand how close they are to meeting expectations of Minnesota’s post-sec-ondary institutions that offer one-, two- and four-year programs. Students also will be expected to develop plans for what they plan to do after high school.

The Minnesota Business Partnership and Minnesota Chamber of Commerce are very concerned about removing the requirement that students pass tests be-fore they graduate. This change is part of why I think it’s so important, as I wrote recently, for the Minnesota Department of Education to issue an annual report on the number of graduates taking remedial courses on entering colleges and universities. The Legislature requires this be done yearly. But the last report was released in Janu-ary 2011. There’s also growing discussion among educators about other things that need assessing. Paul Tough, a speaker at the annual Education Min-nesota conference in October, explained that successful students develop persis-tence and what he calls “grit.” Some al-ternative and charter educators in Min-nesota have been talking about how this could be measured. Third, many families are looking for something different than the traditional approach to public education. For ex-ample: • Increasing numbers of students are participating in some form of dual credit courses (for high school and col-lege credit). Marisa Gustafson of our (Center for School Change) staff did an analysis of Minnesota Department of Education data. Over the last sev-eral years, the number of Minnesota

students taking Advanced Placement courses has increased by 44 percent, those taking International Baccalaure-ate courses by 70 percent, those taking College in the Schools courses by 14 percent and those taking Post Second-ary Enrollment courses by 9 percent. • The number of Minnesota parents sending their children to charter public schools increased again, as it has over the past 20 years. Charter K-12 enroll-ment grew by more than 2,000 from the 2011-12 to the 2012-13 school year. Meanwhile, the number of K-12 stu-dents attending district public schools declined by about 4,800. Most Minne-sota K-12 students still attend district public schools. But during the past de-cade, the number attending charters has increased about 30,000, while the num-ber attending district public schools has declined by more than 40,000. A growing number of districts, in-cluding Farmington, Burnsville-Eagan-Savage, Lakeville and Rosemount-Ap-ple Valley-Eagan are offering options to their families. Minnesotans seem willing to spend more money on education, but not just for more of the same.

Joe Nathan, formerly a Minnesota public school teacher, administrator and PTA president, directs the Center for School Change. Reactions welcome, [email protected]. Columns reflect the opinion of the author.

by Don HeinzmanSUN THISWEEK


During the past year, I wrote columns that now need to be updated. Readers may remember the plea to buy 285 of the 1,000 “Rescued Heroes” calendars photographer Paul Sansale and Lynn Sansale donated to raise $15,000 to help a veteran with post-traumatic stress disorder? We said the money would be used to match and train a Minnesota war veteran with a service dog in Florida. Well, readers came through. The 1,000 calendars were sold and a veteran has been found who qualifies for the K-9s for Warriors program, and he will be trained in 2014. This year the Sansales have produced a service dog calendar featuring the dogs and the service members they are help-ing. Readers can find these new calen-dars in stores and online at www.Rescue-DogArt.com. Some of you responded to a column we did on Gary Tonsager, an optician from Elk River, who has collected used

baseball equipment and sent it to Benin, Africa, where residents there are starting American baseball. Tonsager received $500 from the Elk River Rotary Club to help fund the project, and now Benin residents are playing baseball. In a couple of columns, I was on a mission to stop traveling team sports tournament directors from scheduling games on Sunday mornings. Instead, as a reader suggested, why not save Sunday morning for family time and schedule the tournaments after noon on Sunday? This column got lots of comments, but I’m not sure tournament directors changed the Sunday scheduling. My point was that it’s hard for parents to prevent their kids from playing sports Sunday mornings, fearing there will be

backlash for their kids from the coaches. I also wrote about high school trap-shooting teams, the fastest growing team sport in Minnesota. At the end of this year, the league had 3,400 participants on 114 teams. Next year, a state high school trap-shooting tournament, sanctioned by the Minnesota State High School League, will be conducted, a first in the nation. Jim Sable, who organized the Minnesota State High School Clay Target League, said that since the league started, no shooter has suffered either an injury or a concussion. Last summer 2,039 high school trap-shooters competed in a tournament in Alexandria. One of my favorite columns was about the five free weddings Freshwater Com-munity Church sponsored during Valen-tine’s week at St. Bonifacius. Pastor John Braland performed the ceremony worth $1,500, complete with service, photogra-pher, wedding cake, printed program and reception. The church members, learning that expense was the biggest reason for cou-

ples not getting married, approved the free weddings. As the year ends, I need to correct something I wrote about Bloomington Kennedy High School observing the memory of John F. Kennedy’s 50th anni-versary of the president’s assassination. I wrote that the first high school in Bloomington was named Lincoln High School. The first high school was named Bloomington High School, and it was given the name Lincoln at the same time the second high school was named after John F. Kennedy. I failed to mention some of the illus-trious political figures that graduated from Kennedy, including Robert Matt-son, former state attorney general and Robert Benedict, who was elected mayor of Bloomington at the age of 23 and be-came one of the youngest state senators at the age of 26. Don Heinzman is a columnist for ECM Publishers and a member of the ECM Editorial Board. He is at [email protected]. Columns reflect the opinion of the author.

Sun Thisweek

ColumnistJoe Nathan

Sun Thisweek

ColumnistDon Heinzman

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TribuneDakota County


Lakeville man driving vehicle in crash that kills a passenger

by Laura AdelmannSUN THISWEEK


A Lakeville man was apparently drinking before he was involved in a Dec. 28 rollover crash on I-35 near County Road 2 in Elko that killed, an 18 year-old passenger and hurt another both described as friends, according to a Minnesota State Pa-trol report. Tyler D. Henry, 29, sustained non-life-threatening injuries after

the 2005 Honda Civic he was driv-ing was totalled in the 3:32 a.m. crash that killed Jordan R. Huver of Credit River Township, the re-port stated. Police state that alcohol was also detected in Huver’s system and both she and Henry were reported as wearing their seatbelts; air bags did not deploy, the report said. Henry was transported to Burns-ville Ridges Hospital. Police said the other passenger,

Quinten D. Watkins, 26, of Lons-dale, was also injured in the crash and was taken to the Hennepin County Medical Center. The report said Watkins was also wearing a seatbelt and alcohol was detected in his system. The crash remains under investi-gation. Laura Adelmann is at [email protected].

Hostage-taker sentenced to five years An armed man who took his former girlfriend and another em-ployee hostage Sept. 7 at a Burns-ville gas station was sentenced to five years in prison Dec. 27. Authorities described the inci-dent at the Holiday store at Nicol-let Avenue and Highway 13 as a do-mestic crime. Ariel Barnett, 31, of Burnsville, pleaded guilty Dec. 18 to several felonies: two counts of second-de-gree assault, two counts of kidnap-ping and one count of being a felon possessing a firearm. “We are pleased to have brought

the defendant to justice for his violent criminal behavior in this domestic-related incident,” Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said in a news release. “We are also grateful that no one was seriously harmed during this tense standoff.” Barnett brought a sawed-off shotgun into the store and fired into the ceiling, according to the criminal complaint. A customer ran outside. Barnett then ordered his former girlfriend and a male employee to call police because he was taking them hostage and their lives were in

danger. Police arrived and surrounded the store. Officers contacted Bar-nett by phone, talking him into first releasing the male employee and eventually surrendering. Barnett had been in a seven-year relationship with the woman. They had recently separated after he was jailed in Rice County for 53 days in an unrelated matter. He was sentenced in Dakota County by District Judge Richard Spicer.

—John Gessner

Stolen vehicle recovered in Lakeville Lakeville police recov-ered a stolen vehicle and seized a bag of marijuana in a traffic stop Dec. 21 near Dodd Boulevard and 194th Street. Patrol officers stopped the vehicle and arrested the driver and sole occu-pant, 37-year-old David J. Monchamp of Farmington, after a license plate check indicated the vehicle had been reported stolen.

Monchamp told police the car had been given to him by another man; Mon-champ said he was aware the man had stolen the car from “a lady” when she went to a gas station about five days prior, according to the criminal complaint. A search of the vehicle

turned up a stolen iPod and a bag of marijuana, the complaint said. Monchamp told police that the

marijuana was “good buds” but de-nied that it was his. Monchamp has been charged with felony motor vehicle theft; if convicted, he faces up to five years in prison and a $10,000 fine. Fol-lowing his arrest he was booked into the Dakota County Jail in Hastings, where he remained as of Tuesday morning with bail set at $100,000.

—Andrew Miller

Suspect charged in Apple Valley Chipotle robbery

by Andrew MillerSUN THISWEEK


Police arrested an employee of Chipotle Mexican Grill fol-lowing an early-morning robbery of the Apple Val-ley restaurant on Dec. 23. Richard S. Ri-ley, 22, of Apple Valley, has been charged with first-degree aggravated robbery in connec-tion with the incident in which he allegedly made off with nearly $9,000 from the restaurant’s safe. According to the complaint, Riley entered the restaurant at 7638 150th St. W. at about 6:40 a.m. wearing a ban-danna over his face and pointed a BB gun re-sembling a handgun at another employee, say-ing “give me the money before I blow your head off.” Suspicion initially fell on a relative of Riley’s who had been fired from Chipotle in October, based on a description of the suspect’s voice and features provided to police by the employee who had been robbed. But when detectives went to the Apple Val-ley address provided by Chipotle management, they encountered Riley and searched him, find-

ing a large amount of currency in his pocket – 132 $20 bills totaling $2,640. A shoebox con-taining about $5,300

was found near the garage. In a statement to police, Riley admitted rob-bing the restau-rant, but also claimed he had dumped all the money from the robbery in a gar-bage can out-

side another restaurant near Chipotle, the com-plaint said. He claimed the money police found when they searched him was from the sale of a car and from working. Police recovered a BB gun – which they de-scribed as “a very real-istic looking gun” – near the restaurant in the snow. Following his arrest Riley was booked into the Dakota County Jail in Hastings, where he re-mained as of press time Tuesday with bail set at $30,000. If convicted of the felony robbery charge, he faces a maximum sentence of 20 years in prison and a fine of $35,000. His next court appearance is scheduled for March 25.

Email Andrew Miller at [email protected].

Richard S. Riley

Eagan holiday party ends with stabbing What began as a holiday celebra-tion in Eagan this week ended with one woman stabbed and another in jail. Arouna Mahachay, 30, was charged with felony second- and third-degree assault on Dec. 24 for allegedly stabbing a female relative. According to the criminal com-plaint, several families gathered on Dec. 21 at an apartment on the 4500 block of Slater Road for a hol-iday party. An argument started between Mahachay and another woman — both of whom had been drinking.

At one point, Mahachay picked up a 12-inch butcher knife and slashed the other woman across the face, the complaint said. Another partygoer called police, who arrived a short time later. When they arrived, police no-ticed the victim had a deep gash that appeared to be down to the bone and extended from the right side of her nose to the left side. Police found the bloody knife on a counter and arrested Mahachay. As she was being handcuffed, Mahachay told police the woman threw the knife at her and she threw

it back. In an interview with police, Ma-hachay changed her story slightly, saying she was first arguing with her boyfriend, whom she claimed assaulted her. Mahachay said the other woman started to pull her hair so Mahachay picked up the knife and cut her face. No one at the party corroborat-ed Mahachay’s story. If convicted, Mahachay could face up to 10 years in prison for second-degree assault and up to five years for third-degree assault.

— Jessica Harper

David J. Monchamp

Community Ed Farmington Commu-nity Education will offer the following classes. Call 651-460-3200 for more information. • Monday, Jan. 6: Healthy Heart Yoga (ARE). • Tuesday, Jan. 7: Baby Signs Sign, Say and Play (MVE); Healthy Heart Yoga (MVE); Zumba (MVE). • Wednesday, Jan. 8: Fitness Yoga (MVE). • Thursday, Jan. 9: Zumba (FHS). • Saturday, Jan. 11: Winter swim lessons be-gin (DMS pool). • Tuesday, Jan. 14: Fit-ness Boot Camp (FHS). • Wednesday, Jan. 15: Adult Fencing (ARE); Youth Fencing (ARE); Metal Clay Jewelry (LSHS – Lakeville). • Thursday, Jan. 16: Introduction to Pressure Canning (FHS). • Monday, Jan. 20: Babysitters Training (MVE). • Tuesday, Jan. 21: Grandmasters of Chess (MVE); LEGO Ma-chines: Catapult & Le-vers (ARE); Adult, Child and Infant CPR (MVE); Infant and Child CPR (MVE). • Wednesday, Jan. 22: Silver Masters (LSHS – Lakeville). • Thursday, Jan. 23: Celebration Plates (MVE); LEGO Ma-chines: Catapult & Levers (NTE); Grandmasters of Chess (RVE); Youth Kung Fu (DMS); Adult Kung Fu (DMS). • Saturday, Jan. 25: Farmington Community EXPO (FHS), 9 a.m. to noon, free; Sami Brace-lets (Elko New Market Library). • Monday, Jan. 27: LEGO Machines: Cata-pult & Levers (MVE); Warm and Cozy Art Sampler (ARE and NTE); Youth Kung Fu (DMS); Computer Basics for 50+ (MVE). • Tuesday, Jan. 28: Paint and Clay (MVE); Warm and Cozy Art Sampler (RVE); Total Body Band Strengtheners (Clear Lake Ed Center – Lakeville). • Wednesday, Jan. 29: Jumpin’ Jax (RVE); LEGO Machines: Cata-pult & Levers (RVE); Warm and Cozy Art Sam-pler (MVE); Hypnosis: Weight Loss and Smok-

ing Cessation (MVE). • Thursday, Jan. 30: Paint and Clay (NTE); Warm and Cozy Art Sampler (FES); Emer-gency Preparedness Workshop (MVE).

Pancake breakfast The Farmington Knights of Colum-bus will hold a pancake breakfast from 9 a.m. to noon Sunday, Jan. 5, at Church of St. Michael, 22120 Denmark Ave. Pancakes, French toast, sausage links, and scrambled eggs will be served along with coffee, juice and water. Good-will offerings will be ac-cepted. Proceeds will go to local charities.

Kindermusik Kindermusik of the Valley is offering new classes to engage infants and toddlers. Cuddle & Bounce is offered for children from birth to 12 months of age, and Sing & Play is for children from 12 to 24 months of age. The classes use music and movement to nurture and guide learning. Parents can sign up to preview a free class by visiting km-valley.com. Kindermusik of the Valley has locations in Burnsville, Lakeville and Northfield. Call 952-412-0265 for more informa-tion.

Area Briefs

2014 Tax

Guide


651 463 4545. .

Kent Boyum - Pastor

SUNDAY SCHOOL - 9 AMWORSHIP - 10 AMEVENINGWORSHIP - 6:30 PMWED. FAMILYNIGHT - 6:30 PM

SUNDAY SCHOOL - 9 AMWORSHIP - 10 AMEVENINGWORSHIP - 6:30 PMWED. FAMILYNIGHT - 6:30 PM

Kent Boyum Pastor

christianlifeag.orgchristianlifeag.org

He and his family mem-bers were eating lunch about three blocks when the bombs were detonat-ed. “If sounded like every cop in Boston turned on their sirens,” Kuehn said. “We didn’t know what happened. The restaurant was loud. Someone out-side said it sounded like fireworks went off. They turned on the news. Sheer amazement and panic set in. Everybody was on their phone, but we didn’t know they shut down tele-phone service. I’d get mes-sages, but I couldn’t call people back.” Not long after the race, Kuehn said he was in-spired by the thought of running the Boston Mar-athon again. “Talking with other runners, we want to go back and run again,” Kuehn had said. “Who-ever did this and whatever their intention, we don’t want to let them stop this.”

Pastor recovers The Rev. Paul Jar-vis, pastor at St. Jo-seph Catholic Church in Rosemount, discovered how much of a heart the church’s congregation had after he suffered a heart attack Friday, April 12. Jarvis was at the church when he had to be rushed to the hospital. He underwent a sev-en-hour emergency car-diac surgery at Fairview Southdale Hospital due to the discovery of an aortic dissection. His procedure included a coronary by-pass and replacement of a valve and coronary artery. He was released from the intensive care unit on Sunday, April 21, and was back at the church in a few months. “Father Paul brought a new energy to the congre-gation – a new energy to all congregants’ approach to our Catholic Christian faith,” said church mem-ber Tom Gurney. “I think (his heart attack) made us all realize how lucky we are to have a pastor like Paul Jarvis in our midst. The event brought peo-ple even closer together in prayer for Father Paul and our parish.” One of the positive outcomes of the medical emergency, Jarvis said, was it instilled in him an even greater desire to pursue more ecumenical gatherings in the future. He said he received get-well messages and prayers for a speedy recovery from people from all de-nominations and even a “heart-warming message from a pastor whose de-nomination’s national leadership still considers Catholic Christians as ‘them,’” he wrote in a col-umn that appeared in the newspaper. “You know, it’s as if I had actually died and gone to heaven. Maybe, just maybe, we needed a 30-year hiatus for the ecu-menical spirit to reignite and spread throughout the region. The country.

The world.” Jarvis started his call-ing at St. Joseph in July 2011. He was officially installed as 15th pastor of the church in January 2012.

Fire chief Rosemount Fire Chief Scott Aker retired in April after working for 31 years for the department, the last 25 of which were as chief. Aker joined the depart-ment in 1982 and quickly rose through the ranks. Within a year or so, he was the department’s secretary, then he was el-evated to lieutenant, in another couple of years he became a captain, and was elected chief by his peers in 1988. “It was quite an hon-or,” Aker said. “I did the best that I could.” At the time, there were 35 firefighters making about 140 calls a year. Last year, the department responded to 725 calls, and it has 39 firefighters currently. Aker was replaced by Richard Schroeder, a 15-year veteran of the de-partment whose most re-cent rank was captain. Schroeder is sergeant of investigations with the Dakota County Sheriff ’s Office and operated a lawn care business for 15 years. “It’s just a childhood dream fulfilled,” Schro-eder said.

Tribune returns Readers of this news-paper noticed a new name at the top of the front page on March 14 when the Dakota County Tri-bune replaced the Sun Thisweek name. Although it may have

been new to some, the Dakota County Tribune is 129 years old, having been established by Clarence P. Carpenter in March 1884. In the weeks leading up to the change, the staff of Sun Thisweek and the Dakota County Tribune told Farmington and Rosemount readers about the changes in store. Here’s a rundown of what’s happened: • After a four-year run, the Dakota County Tri-bune Business Weekly was discontinued as a free-subscription newspaper. • The newspaper group attached the Dakota County Tribune name to the new Farmington-Rosemount zone. Farm-ington was previously paired with Lakeville, and Rosemount was coupled with Apple Valley under the Sun Thisweek banner. • As a result, the news-paper was able to offer very affordable advertis-ing rates in the 13,300 circulation newspaper to Farmington and Rose-mount homes and busi-nesses.

Email Tad Johnson at tad. [email protected].

ROSEMOUNT, from 2A

Donations were accepted during the One Rosemount Feeding Families event Saturday, March 2, at the Vol-unteer and Resource Fair. The money will help send the meals. An estimated $28,500 has been raised toward a goal of $71,000. To donate, go to www.OneRosemount-FeedingFamilies.com. (Photo by Tad Johnson)

Rick Schroeder has been fighting fires with the Rose-mount Fire Department for the past 16 years. He re-placed longtime fire chief Scott Aker in April. Schroeder said the transition from captain to chief has been going well. Schroeder also works in the Dakota County Sher-iff ’s Office as a sergeant. (Photo by Kristina Ericksen)

Lance Kuehn

Frozen Apple concerts return to Valleywood

David Gonzalez Band opens free music series by Andrew Miller

SUN THISWEEKDAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE

The Apple Valley Arts Foundation is offering a remedy to the winter blues with its Frozen Apple concert series. Now in its third year, the series held at the Valleywood Golf Course club-house will feature some familiar faces this year. The three acts booked so far are all past performers at the Frozen Apple and the nonprofit arts founda-tion’s summer concert series, Music in Kelley Park. The concerts open Saturday, Jan. 18 with Latin and rhythm and blues music from the David Gonzalez Band, followed Feb. 1 by jazz singer Patty Pe-terson and her circle of musicians, who perform collectively as Patty Peterson & Friends. Grand Marais-based acoustic artist Michael Monroe, a regular at both the Frozen Apple and Music in Kelley Park series, is set to perform March 1. Mon-roe, whose music is a blend of folk, jazz and reggae, is keeping busy this winter with his Log Cabin Concerts, which were recently featured on KSTP news in a segment hosted by Jason Davis of “On the Road with Jason Davis.” Admission is free to all the concerts, which run from 6-9 p.m. in the Valley-wood clubhouse at 4851 McAndrews Road. Food and beverages, including a full bar, will be available for purchase at each of the performances. There also will be drawings for prizes donated by local merchants. A fourth concert in this year’s Frozen Apple series – tentatively scheduled for Feb. 15 at Eastview High School, with

an as-yet unnamed performer – is in the works, arts foundation president David Peterson said. Visit the foundation’s website, www.avartsfoundation.org, for information on that and other concerts.


Grand Marais-based acoustic artist Mi-chael Monroe has become a familiar face in Apple Valley with regular performanc-es at the annual Frozen Apple and Music in Kelley Park concert series. He returns to the Frozen Apple this year with a March 1 concert at the Valleywood Golf Course clubhouse. (Photo submitted)

Worship DirectoryShare your weekly worship schedule or other activities with the

community. Email [email protected] or call 952-392-6875 for rates and informatilon.


The tablets were funded from the capital expenditure technology budget and from savings from textbook and printing costs.

Innovation zone In the spring, the Minne-sota Department of Educa-tion approved Farmington’s application as an Innovation Zone school in a partner-ship with Spring Lake Park. While there was no fund-ing tied to the designation, it allows the district more flex-ibility to be creative with its curriculum and allows for students and teacher to tap into their passions without as many roadblocks.

Boundaries The school district also redrew its boundaries for middle and elementary schools in 2013 for the first time in five years, citing the addition of free, all-day kin-dergarten as well as unbal-anced attendance. Despite the expected push back from the affected neighborhoods, the district put in place a plan that would move approximately 225 students to new schools, except for incoming fifth- and eighth-graders, begin-ning in 2014.

New innovative

school The school district en-tered the planning stages for a new, 100-student elemen-tary “choice” school at the Instructional Services Cen-

ter beginning in 2014. The idea is to have a place where the district could implement its strategic plan of innovation and custom-ized education on a smaller scale. Initially it would be for fourth- through sixth-graders.

Patriotic Days Patriotic Days celebrated its largest ceremony ever in November with more than 1,400 people turning out for a night of pork chops, music and speeches honoring vet-erans at the high school. Retired Maj. Gen. Larry Shellito was the featured speaker on the evening; the theme was to honor Viet-nam veterans.

Timberwolves,

Meadowview team

up The Minnesota Timber-wolves and Lynx organiza-tions used the “Get Fit” program designed by Mead-owview Elementary teacher Joe McCarthy statewide. Elementary students in more than 60 Minnesota school districts participated in a program where they could earn points for every 15 minutes of activity out-side of the classroom. At the end of three months, they could earn prizes, which in-cluded Timberwolves tick-ets. McCarthy designed the program a few years ago as a way to keep students active outside of the class-room, feeling he didn’t have enough time during short

physical education class.

All-day

kindergarten

approved The Farmington School District approved a plan for free all-day kindergar-ten starting in 2014 after the Minnesota Legislature ap-proved funding during the 2013 session. Teachers and administrators said they considered the move a gift of time, allowing students to slow down and go deeper while spending more time on social skills. The district will also have an early-re-lease alternative.

Spirit Rock The Youth Development Committee at Farmington High School organized ef-forts to install a boulder on campus where students could display their school spirit. Similar to neigh-boring schools, the rock is painted with messages for upcoming activities and other shows of school spirit. Sick kids Almost 50 students from Akin Road Elementary came down with flu-like symptoms that shut down Camp Pepin in Wisconsin last spring. Each fifth-grade class from the five elemen-tary schools attends the environmental camp near Red Wing for two and a half days. Testing confirmed the outbreak was a norovirus student brought into the camp.

Renovations Farmington Elementary School received a significant renovation during summer and fall. A new cafeteria, classrooms and air quality systems were installed in the central and west wings. A smaller renovation was completed at Akin Road Elementary mostly to the air quality systems, which brought in more fresh air and less carbons dioxide.

Akin Road principal Lisa Reichelt was hired as the Akin Road Elemen-tary principal in 2013, com-ing from Holy Cross, where she was also a principal. She was cited the potential

FARMINGTON, from 1A

Julie Singewald, Laura Beem and Jake Cordes recite the Oath of Office in early 2013 after winning seats on the Farmington School Board in 2012. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)

The Farmington cheerleading team took first place in the Division 1 – Medium Division at the state meet in St. Paul in 2013. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)

Akin Road Elementary first-graders receive a tour of the building, including an explanation of the lunchroom routine and bathroom rules during the first day of school in the Farmington School District. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)

The Farmington High School concert band performed at the Patriotic Day ceremony at the high school on Nov. 7. (Photo by Andy Rogers)

of the one-to-one iPad ini-tiative and the Innovation Zone status as big reasons to come to Farmington.

New conference The decision was made in early 2013 to move from the Missota Conference to the South Suburban Confer-ence for the 2014-15 school year. The conference deter-mines the majority of Farm-ington’s athletics and activi-ties opponents throughout the year. With the Mis-sota Conference dissolving, Farmington was accepted into the South Suburban Conference beginning in the 2014-15 school year with neighboring Lakeville, Dis-trict 196, Eagan and Burns-ville districts, which are closer than former Missota schools and similar in size. Goalie scorned Early in the year, Farm-ington senior goalie Austin Krause, reportedly upset about playing time for him-self and his classmates on the boys hockey team, pur-posely scored on his own net in a late season game. In the video posted on YouTube by a student, Krause can be seen scoring, removing his gloves, raising his mid-dle finger and saluting the bench as he leaves the ice. The video drew national ex-posure on Deadspin, Yahoo and Sports Illustrated.

New board

members The Farmington School Board welcomed new mem-bers Jake Cordes and Laura Beem to its ranks in early 2013 after winning the elec-tion in 2012 along with in-cumbent Julie Singewald.

Other highlights Jon Shoberg was named National Merit Scholar semifinalist. Riverview third-grader Madelyn Price won a $1,000 prize for a gi-gantic cabbage. Bill Tschida was hired as the new ath-letic and activities director. Superintendent Jay Haugen was named to president of the Minnesota Association of School Administrators. North Trail Elementary

Principal Steven Geis was elected to the National El-ementary School Principals Association Board and also received the Lincoln Fel-lowship. In the summer, the School Board and City Council held a combined meeting for the first time in more than five years. The Farmington High School varsity competitive cheer-leading team won the Divi-sion 1 – Medium Varsity title at the Minnesota Cheerlead-ing Coaches Association state meet. Seventh-grade life science students col-lected water samples at the Vermillion River as part of a yearlong project to test the water quality.



Big efforts, changes south of the riverPlans bring cheers and jeers in 2013

by Jessica Harper and John Gessner


There were many stories in 2013 that emerged whose im-pact was felt throughout Dakota County. Residents became impassioned over green space when Dakota County Parks officials announced plans in June to create 8.5 miles of paved trails in Lebanon Hills Re-gional Park, a 1,842-acre park in Eagan and Apple Valley. The county’s proposed plan, which has met strong resistance from residents, includes 24.5 miles of unpaved trails, a new paved 6.5-mile connector trail that runs east and west and a 2-mile paved loop around Holland and Mc-Donough lakes. The plan would keep all existing unpaved trails in Lebanon Hills the same, and would add six miles of unpaved trails. In total, the park would have 46 miles of unpaved trails. Parks officials envision the

paved trails would provide four-season recreation for bicyclists, walkers and skaters. In the latest draft, officials are considering closing the western loop around Holland and McDonough lakes in the winter to allow cross-coun-try skiers to cross the trail. Several opposition groups claim the paved trails will harm the environment and the park’s aesthetics. Some people have voiced their support for the plan, includ-ing Margo Imdieke-Cross of the Minnesota State Council on Dis-abilities who said she believes the new paved trails would allow bet-ter access for people with disabili-ties. County officials and opposi-tion group Save Lebanon Hills Wilderness have held a number of public meetings on the matter.

Change The year kicked off with news that Ruthe Batulis planned to leave the Dakota County Cham-ber of Commerce – which serves Eagan, Rosemount and Farming-

2013YEAR IN REVIEW

Local officials, including Eagan Mayor Mike Maguire, joined Paragon Outlet Partners during a ground-breaking ceremony Tuesday, June 4, to mark construction of Twin Cities at Eagan, the first major new development within the Cedar Grove Redevelopment District in the city of Eagan. (Photo by Rick Or-ndorf)

See DAKOTA COUNTY, 9A


&

By Roxi RejaliContributing Writer

Weight loss and healthy eating go hand-in-hand.

While it’s easy to make resolutions, it’s harder to keep them, said regis-tered dietitian Rachael Halvorson.

“Where I think people get into trouble is that they set unrealistic ex-pectations of themselves: ‘For year 2014, I want to lose 100 pounds.’ To be quite honest, it happens on the Biggest Loser (TV show), but it doesn’t hap-pen in a year for the av-

erage human being,” she said.

Weight loss is the No. 1 reason for client visits, said Halvorson, owner of Twin Cities Nutrition Consultants based in Vad-nais Heights. Most of her clients are women who want to lose between 5

and 100 pounds.Halvorson recommends

losing up to 2 pounds per week and limiting weight loss to 10 percent of body weight over six months. “If you’re 200 pounds, that’s a loss of 20 pounds in six months,” she said. “That’s achievable and you can maintain that over a long period of time.”

Don’t even think about fad diets. They don’t work to keep pounds off in the long term, Halvorson said. Atkins and South Beach diets restrict carbo-hydrates found in bread, potatoes and sweets and help people lose weight initially, but most quickly regain weight when they tire of eliminating the re-stricted foods.

“You can go fad diet

to fad diet and usually there’s something that’s too good to be true about it,” she said.

The key to long-term weight loss is balanced nutrition and regular ex-ercise based on widely ac-cepted government guide-lines, Halvorson said. She recommends fruits and vegetables, lean protein, whole grains and dairy products. Adults need 150 minutes of weekly aerobic activity like brisk walking plus muscle-strengthening activities at least twice a week.

Halvorson advises cli-ents to keep a food journal to track their intake and works with them to in-corporate healthier food into their meal plans. She might ask clients to focus on one or two goals every

week; they might include eating a piece of fruit for breakfast or drinking more water every day. “A lot of times, when people feel hungry, they may just be dehydrated,” she said.

She doesn’t believe in cutting out entire food categories because the strategy can backfire. In-stead, she helps clients to identify “problem foods” like chocolate or potato chips and how to incorpo-rate “small amounts” into their eating plan.

“I really try not to say that there are specific things you can never eat, because those are the ones that everybody then wants more,” she said. “I believe in the notion of everything in modera-tion.”

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Exercise can become a nonnegotiable routine, an automatic ritual you don’t even have to think about.

“It’s like I brush my teeth every morn-ing and every night,” he said. “With those habits in place, it’s much easier to go about your everyday life.”

At first, many out-of-shape clients are only able to complete 15 minutes of ex-ercise, Hoha said. As they build strength

and endurance, they feel like they’re making progress and find it easier to re-start their program if they falter.

“Habits form that momentum and the momentum can keep you going, which makes you want to do more,” he said. “Because you start feeling good about it, you start feeling good about yourself and that adds to it too.”

Healthy HabitsContinued from previous page

ton – to start a new chapter in her life in Wisconsin. The 62-year-old stepped down as president of the chamber in April to move to her lakefront cabin in Spooner, Wis. With her three sons grown and the chamber running smoothly, Batulis said she felt the timing was right to move to the sleepy town. Batulis came to the DCR Chamber after gaining experi-ence at both the Bloomington and Burnsville chambers of com-merce. In 2005, the then North-ern Dakota County Chamber expanded to include the former Farmington Area Chamber of Commerce, after which Batu-lis implemented a re-branding campaign that included a name change for the organization. Batulis was succeeded by Vicki Stute. Stute previously served as pres-ident of the Angel Foundation, a nonprofit organization that helps adults with cancer and their fami-lies. She began her career as a staff member at the South St. Paul/In-ver Grove Heights Chamber of Commerce (renamed the River Heights Chamber of Commerce). From there, she held various leadership position including president and CEO at Twin West, Red Wing Area and the St. Paul Area chambers of commerce.

Cedar Grove Plans to redevelop Eagan’s Ce-dar Grove neighborhood started to come to fruition this past year with the ground breaking of an outlet mall, which spawned other proposed developments in the area. Envisioned as Eagan’s gateway, the redevelopment project spans more than a decade and saw sev-eral plans, which were either re-vised or stalled when the recession hit in 2007. By June the redevelopment of Cedar Grove began to progress with the construction of Paragon Outlet Mall near Highway 13 and Silver Bell Road. Once it opens in August 2014, the 400,000-square-foot retail complex will include about 100 upscale stores, such as Coach, Puma and J. Crew. Within hours of Paragon’s ground breaking, Apple Valley developer Stonebridge Com-munities submitted a proposal — which was approved by the Economic Development Author-ity — to purchase a city-owned 4.8-acre parcel in Cedar Grove to build a four-story apartment and retail complex. The City Council unanimously approved preliminary plans in September for the upscale com-plex — located at 3830 Sibley Memorial Highway near Cedar Grove Boulevard and Cedar

Grove Parkway. In December, Morrissey Hos-pitality Co., which manages the St. Paul Hotel, announced it plans to build a 123-room hotel next to the mall. The $14 million project is ex-pected to bring in just under $1 million in annual tax revenue. The four-story upscale, limit-ed-service hotel would be a Hilton Hotel’s and Resorts Home2Suites brand and would include a fitness center, sizeable lobby and pool.

Ted Wachter The Eagan community was forced to say goodbye to two of its longtime community leaders this past year. In April, former Eagan City Council Member Ted Wachter died at age 89. Known to many as Mr. Tree, Wachter saw value in preserving green space long be-fore “going green” was considered cool. Wachter, who spent 41 years in public office, had a passion for preservation and creating oppor-tunities for area youth. The Rosemount native was a proponent of preserving old trees and crafted for the city ordinanc-es aimed at preserving old trees and planting new ones. An avid history buff, Wachter was a founding member, chair and resident storyteller of the Ea-gan Historical Society. He was instrumental in restor-

ing Eagan’s 1914 town hall, lo-cated on Pilot Knob Road, and in creating Holz Farm park.

Dan Shimek Longtime Eagan businessman and Enjoy restaurant founder Dan Shimek died of cancer at age 65. Shimek left his mark on a number of communities as a busi-ness owner and philanthropist. His first venture was Heat-N-Glo, which he founded in Burns-ville in 1975 with his brother, Ron Shimek, who died in 2002. Shimek stayed on as presi-dent after the company merged in 1996 with Heatilator to form Hearth and Home Technologies in Lakeville. He retired in 2002, but that was short-lived. Within a year he founded Ea-gan-based Outdoor GreatRoom Company, which designs and manufactures upscale fire pits, furniture and kitchens for out-door living spaces. A year after opening Outdoor GreatRoom, Shimek opened En-joy and then Paradise Landing restaurant in Balsam Lake, Wis., and a winery called Chateau St. Croix in St. Croix Falls, Wis. Seeing promise in Apple Val-ley’s Central Village, Shimek and his wife, Kay, opened Enjoy res-taurant in 2004 at 15435 Founders Lane. The district was envisioned as a thriving downtown area, but

by 2008 it was filled with empty storefronts and undeveloped lots due to the recession. A savvy busi-nessman, Shimek was able to beat the tide. Three years later, the res-taurant’s future became brighter as Central Village rebounded. In August, the couple tempo-rarily closed Enjoy and sold the restaurant to Twin Cities restau-rateur Bob Tinsley, who plans to reopen it under the name Vivo.

Fairview Ridges

expansion Ground was broken this spring on a $60 million expansion at Fairview Ridges Hospital on the Ridges Campus. It includes a 130,000-square-foot specialty care medical office building, 40,000 square feet of hospital expansion and a 400-stall parking ramp. The five-story of-fice building will have a skyway connection to the hospital. It’s the largest expansion in the history of Fairview Ridges, which opened in 1984. “We’re working to create spac-es that are more convenient for patients at a lower cost,” Fairview Ridges President Beth Krehbiel said.

Jessica Harper is at [email protected] and John Gessner is at [email protected].

See DAKOTA COUNTY, 8A


Local teams kept busy during break

from classes by Mike Shaughnessy


Local sports teams got back to business as usual this week as school and normal practice schedules resume. During the holiday break, a number of them took part in tournaments. Here are a few highlights:

Farmington The Tigers boys hockey team improved to 8-3-1 af-ter winning all three of its games in the Simley holiday tournament. Farmington’s closest game was in the first round against the host school. Third-period goals by Erik Holmstrom, Justin Novak and Tanner Grubb sent Farm-ington to a 6-3 victory over Simley. Farmington won two of its three games in the Lou-is Schmitz Invitational at Schmitz-Maki Arena. Farm-ington (4-9-1 overall) beat Li-tchfield/Dassel-Cokato 4-3 in the first round, lost to Roches-ter Century 2-0 in the quarter-finals, then beat Rosemount 4-3 for third place. Ellie Moser scored the game-winner with 29 seconds left against Rose-mount. It was her second goal of the game.

Rosemount The Irish boys basketball team improved to 8-2 with a 72-62 victory over Cretin-Der-ham Hall at the Catholic Spir-it Tournament. Four players scored in double figures for the Irish, led by Logan Halvorson with 16 points. Kyle Kaupa had 13 points, Tyler Hartigan had 12 and Matt Stephenson scored 11. Rosemount went 2-0 in the Catholic Spirit tour-ney, including an 81-63 victory over Holy Angels in the first round. The boys hockey team, which lost its first six games and seven of its first eight, won three in a row at the Du-luth Denfeld tournament. Jake Simonet, Ryan Foley and Lu-kas Gillett scored in the first 9:04 of the Irish’s 3-2 victory over Cloquet-Esko-Carlton in the final round. Rosemount’s girls hockey team started the season with 13 consecutive losses but broke the streak in the first round of Louie Schmitz Invi-tational in Farmington, beat-ing Rochester Mayo 4-1.

Apple Valley The boys basketball team improved to 9-1 by drubbing two opponents at the Granite City Classic in St. Cloud. Tyus Jones had 34 points in a 112-81 victory over Roseville, with Brock Bertram scoring 14 and Trey Pipkins and Robert To-broxen scoring 12 each. Gary Trent Jr. had 10 points. The wrestling team easily won the Rumble on the Red tournament last weekend in Fargo, N.D. The Eagles scored 343 points, with West Fargo second with 187.5. Maolu Woiwor (132 pounds), Day-ton Racer (152), Mark Hall (170), Bobby Steveson (182), Gable Steveson (195) and Paul Cheney (220) won their weight classes. Hall pinned five of his six opponents.

Burnsville Lindsey Coleman scored two goals as the girls hockey team defeated Proctor/Her-mantown 4-0 in its holiday tournament. That brought Coleman to 21 goals and 37 points for the season, and the Blaze improved to 9-5-1. The boys basketball team won both of its games at the Hastings Invitational to even its overall record at 6-6. Ben Nienow had 17 points and Zach Smith 12 in the Blaze’s 57-55 victory over Simley in the second round. In the first round Burnsville earned a 77-71 victory over Farmington, a team that had cracked the state Class 4A rankings at No. 10.

Eagan The boys hockey team won the South St. Paul Premier tournament for the fifth con-secutive year, beating Her-mantown 4-1 in the champi-onship game. Tommy Muck, Jack Jenson and Tony Juricko scored third-period goals against Hermantown, which is ranked second in Class A. Goalie Andrew Lindgren played all three of Eagan’s games in the tournament and stopped 61 of 64 shots. Eagan won two of its three games at Eden Prairie’s holiday girls hockey tourna-ment. After losing to Eden Prairie 5-1 in the first round, the Wildcats beat Roseau 5-3 and Cretin-Derham Hall 4-3 in overtime. Brooke Mad-sen scored the game-winner against Cretin-Derham and Taylor Ramthun had two goals in regulation time as the Wildcats moved above .500 for the first time this season at 8-7-1.

Eastview The wrestling team fin-ished second in Division 1 at the Bi-State Classic held Dec. 27-28 in La Crosse, Wis. It’s the team’s best finish in the eight years it has attended the tournament. Seven Lightning wrestlers earned places, in-cluding Jacob Rukavina (third at 160 pounds) and George Farmah (fourth at 132). Eastview swept three games in the Coon Rapids girls hock-ey tournament to improve to

10-6-1 overall. Natalie Snod-grass scored twice and Ellie Cardinal, Kellie McGahn and Erika Geary had one goal each in the Lightning’s 5-2 vic-tory over Totino-Grace in the final round. The girls basketball team had close games in the final two rounds of the St. Olaf Holiday Classic but won both to improve to 9-0. The Light-ning, ranked first in Class 4A, routed Providence Academy 56-11 in the first round before defeating Park Center 65-61 and Holy Family Catholic 66-60.

Lakeville North J.P. Macura scored 33 points and Connor Flack had 22 as the boys basketball team defeated Shakopee 84-81 in the championship game of its holiday tournament. Alex Reiland had 15 points and Drew Stewart 14 for the Pan-thers, who rallied from a six-point halftime deficit. Lakev-ille North improved to 7-1 overall. Lakeville North went 2-0-1 at the Sports Authority Holiday Hockey Classic in St. Louis Park and placed third. The Panthers, 8-3-1, routed third-ranked Eden Prairie 7-0 in the first round, then tied fourth-ranked Blaine 3-3 in the semifinals. Blaine won a shootout to advance to the championship game (shootout results do not count against a team’s record). North beat

Bloomington Jefferson 5-1 in its final game. Tristen Hazlett had a goal and two assists in the Bloomington Jefferson game. Lakeville North finished ninth of 69 teams in the Rum-ble on the Red wrestling tour-nament in Fargo, N.D. Tristyn Hanson placed third at 195 to improve to 16-2 this season. Lucas Westrich was fourth at 160.

Lakeville South The girls basketball team won two of three games at Roseville’s holiday tourna-ment, including a 71-41 vic-tory over Burnsville in the final round. Maddie Wolkow had 13 points, Katie Quandt 12, Grayson Schroeder 11 and M’Caela Sellers 10 as the Cougars (6-3) beat Spring Lake Park 68-34 in the second round. Haley Ravndalen scored with one second remaining in the second period of the girls hockey team’s 1-0 victory over Edina in the final round of Edina’s holiday tourney. The Cougars went 2-1 in the event and placed fifth. South, 10-5 overall, lost to Stillwater 4-3 in overtime in the first round. A 4-2 victory over Grand Rap-ids/Greenway in the second round ended a four-game los-ing streak.

Email Mike Shaughnessy at [email protected].

SportsTiger wrestlers responding to challengeFarmington 7th,

Irish 10th at Rumble on Red

tournament by Mike Shaughnessy


Farmington has been trying for several years to raise its game in Minne-sota high school wrestling. That helps explain the Tigers’ presence in high-powered events such as the Minnesota Christ-mas Tournament and last weekend’s Rumble on the Red in Fargo, N.D., where Farmington finished sev-enth in a 69-team field. The week before, the Tigers wrestled in the Min-nesota Christmas Tourna-

ment in Rochester for the first time.”We’d been ask-ing for several years if we could get in, and they fi-nally had a spot for us this year,” Tigers coach Chad Olson said. “That’s a tour-nament where you can have several state cham-pions in the same weight class.” Farmington finished 15th of 33 teams in the Minnesota Christmas Tournament. But the Tigers’ seventh-place finish in Fargo was a watershed moment. They had not finished higher than 27th in three previous trips to the Rumble on the Red. As recently as 2010, Farmington finished 55th of 56 teams at the Rumble on the Red.

“To compete in a tour-nament of this size and competition and to be in the top seven is amazing,” Olson said. “I received a lot of compliments from other coaches about how much our wrestlers have improved.” The Tigers’ Jamin LeDuc was second at 113 pounds in Fargo, losing 4-3 to Tanner Cole of Owatonna in the cham-pionship match. LeDuc, 14-2, defeated Cole in the semifinals of the Minne-sota Christmas Tourna-ment, where LeDuc also had a runner-up finish. Farmington’s Joe Ho-eve won six of his seven matches at 182 to place third. His last three vic-tories in the tournament

were against wrestlers ranked first, second and fourth in their states. His loss was in the quarterfi-nals to eventual champion Bobby Steveson of Apple Valley, a junior who al-ready has verbally com-mitted to the University of Minnesota. Taylor Venz went 5-2 and finished fourth at 120. Matt Rustad was sixth at 132 and was 4-3 in the tournament. Eight-time defend-ing state Class 3A cham-pion Apple Valley won the tournament with 343 points, easily outdistanc-ing runner-up West Fargo, which had 187.5. Farm-ington’s total of 115.5 was 46.5 more than it scored in its previous best Rumble

on the Red finish. LeDuc was the Tigers’ highest individual finisher at the Minnesota Christ-mas Tournament on Dec. 21-22. Rustad was fifth at 132 and Venz took sixth at 126 Many of the Tigers’ wrestlers have been in 15 or 16 matches over the last three weekends and were ready for a break, Olson said. Farmington at least won’t have to travel to its next tournament because it will be at home at 9 a.m. Saturday, Jan. 4. Lakeville North, Bloomington Ken-nedy, Chatfield, North-field, Paynesville, Lake City and Milaca are the other teams scheduled to compete.

Rosemount The Irish finished 10th at the Rumble on the Red tournament and were one of three South Suburban Conference teams to place in the top 10. Apple Valley (first) and Lakeville North (ninth) were the other SSC teams with high finishes in Fargo. Rosemount’s highest individual finisher was sophomore Adam Hedin, who was fourth at 132 and is 16-2 this season. Soph-omore Reuben Cephas placed eighth at 106. Next up for the Irish is a dual meet at Shakopee at 7:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 3.


Notebook: North, AV in Timberwolves Shootout

by Mike ShaughnessySUN THISWEEK


Two South Suburban Conference teams – Lakeville North and Apple Valley –will be part of the Timber-wolves Shootout on Saturday at the Target Center. This year’s event features four high school boys games in advance of a Timberwolves game against Oklahoma City on Saturday night. Lakeville North plays Grand Rap-ids at 9:15 a.m. in a game that features two players with Division I college fu-tures. North guard J.P. Macura, who has signed with Xavier, leads the state in scoring with a 37.4-point average. Connor Flack (13.6) and Alex Reiland (11.4) also average in double figures for the Panthers, who are 7-1 overall. Grand Rapids junior Alex Illikain-en, a 6-foot-9 forward, averages 26 points and 16 rebounds for the Thun-derhawks, who are 8-2. The Univer-sity of Minnesota offered Illikainen a scholarship when he was a high school freshman, and he has since received of-fers from a number of other schools, including Indiana and Nebraska. It will be a difficult back-to-back for Lakeville North, which plays at Eagan in a South Suburban Conference game Friday night before having to get up early Saturday for the trip downtown. Reigning Minnesota Class 4A champion Apple Valley takes on Blue Valley Northwest of Overland Park, Kan., in the final game of the Timber-wolves Shootout at 2:30 p.m. Blue Val-ley Northwest was 25-0 in 2012-13 and won the Kansas Class 6A champion-ship. One of Blue Valley Northwest’s victories last year was 57-52 over De La Salle in the Timberwolves Shoot-out. Apple Valley is 9-1 after winning two games at the Granite City Classic last week. Four Apple Valley players – Tyus Jones (28.2 points), Brock Ber-tram (11.3), Dennis Austin (10.9) and Gary Trent Jr. (10.1) – have scoring av-erages in double figures. Bertram, the Eagles’ 6-11 sophomore center, also av-erages nine rebounds a game. This is Apple Valley’s fourth consec-utive appearance in the Timberwolves Shootout. Last year the Eagles defeat-ed Robbinsdale Cooper 80-70. Apple Valley will play Eastview at home in a South Suburban game at 6 p.m. Friday before playing at the Tar-get Center. The other high school games at the Timberwolves Shootout are Cretin-Derham Hall vs. Bettendorf, Iowa, at 11 a.m. and De La Salle vs. St. Rita of Illinois at 12:45 p.m. Tickets for the high school games are $15 at the Target Center box office. Those buying tickets for the Timber-wolves game will receive free admission to the Timberwolves Shootout.

All-State Academic football A number of players from Dakota County high schools received Academ-ic All-State recognition from the Min-nesota Football Coaches Association. Four players from Eastview were honored – offensive lineman Paul Strey, receiver Dar Nwaudo, defensive back J.J. Grimm and linebacker Jacob Bechstein. Farmington linebacker Nick Ru-ark and defensive back Kade Kearney also were named Academic All-State, as were Lakeville South running back Mark Ruhl, Lakeville North defensive end Greg Menard and Burnsville quar-terback/defensive back Will Reger.


Holiday roundup: games were everywhere

Farmington’s Dani Wright takes a shot as Rosemount’s Alex Sirek defends during a game at the Louis Schmitz Holiday Classic at Schmitz-Maki Arena. Farmington won 4-3 to finish third in the tournament. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)

Rosemount’s Kate Sullivan (23) tries to elude Michaela Tonsager of Farmington. (Photo by Rick Orndorf)


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ECM Publishers marketing manager. “We are always impressed by the num-ber of women in Dakota County who are leaders in the business community and who are also giving back to oth-ers.” This year’s group represents manu-facturing, family-run small businesses, teachers, motivators, organizers, inno-vators and barrier breakers. Nominations were reviewed by a pan-el of judges from Sun Thisweek, the Dakota County Tribune and ECM Publishers. The newspaper group is organizing the recognition pro-gram, which will include a Feb. 20 special print edi-tion profiling the winners and an awards break-fast at Lost Spur Golf & Event Center in Eagan that starts at 8 a.m. Feb. 25 with registration at 7:30 a.m. The event, which has previously been held in Lakeville, Apple Valley and Burnsville, will include a panel conversation with the award winners and a chance to meet past and present Exceptional Businesswomen. “This is the first year we will be hav-ing a panel discussion with our win-ners,” Jech said. “We feel this will be a great way for attendees to learn more about what has made each of these women successful in their endeavors.” A single ticket for the event costs $25. A table of eight may be purchased for $175. Tickets can be purchased online in early January at www.SunThisweek.com/exceptional-businesswomen. Sponsorship packages are available by calling Mike Jetchick at (952) 846-2019. Lost Spur and Lakeville Trophy have already signed on as Premier Sponsor and Platinum Sponsor, respectively. Past winners of the Exceptional Businesswomen award have been: Class of 2013: Sharon Hoffman Avent, Smead Manufacturing Com-pany; Ruthe Batulis, Dakota County Regional Chamber of Commerce; Catherine Byers Breet, ARBEZ Inc.; Jeanne Hutter, Lakeville Convention & Visitors Bureau; Rosealee Lee, Dakota County Technical College; Debbie Mc-

Connell, Medi-Car Auto Repair; Patti McDonald, McDonald Eye Care Asso-ciates; Susan McGaughey, Valley Nat-ural Foods; Kristina Murto, Ensemble Creative & Marketing; Linda Peterson, Beau Monde Salon; and Stacey Strat-ton, True Talent Group. Class of 2012: Sunny Bhakta, Com-fort Inn and Budget Host Inn; Connie Braziel, Minnesota Zoo; Jamie Dahlen, Holiday Inn and Best Western Premier Nicollet Inn; Michele Engdahl, Thom-son Reuters; Carrie Guarrero, Corner-

stone Mortgage Company; Chris Holtan, Lancet Software;

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gie, Shred Right; Sona Mehring, C a r i n g B r i d g e ; Terri Shepherd, Xact Resources Inc.; and Theresa Wise, Delta Air-lines. Class of 2011: Mary Ajax, 360 C o m m u n i t i e s ; Jan Beeson, Lily

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Obituaries

theater and arts calendar

family calendar

To submit items for the Arts Calendar, email: darcy.

[email protected].

Auditions “Snow White and the Sev-en or Eight Dwarfs” auditions for youths in grade one and above, Friday, Jan. 3, and Sat-urday, Jan. 4, by Giant Step The-atre. To sign up for an audition or for more information, email [email protected] with the child’s name, grade level and preference for a Friday evening or Saturday afternoon audition time. Registration fee is $98. Information: LakevilleAreaCom-munityEd.net, 952-232-2170.

Books Burnsville author Rich-ard Kuehn, 7-8 p.m. Tuesday, Jan. 7, Burnhaven Library, 1101 County Road 42 W., Burnsville. Kuehn will sell and sign his new book, “Perfection: The Aban-doned Key.”

Comedy Adam Ray, featuring Nick Turner, 7 p.m. and 9:30 p.m. Friday, Jan. 17, and Saturday, Jan. 18, at Mystic Comedy Club in Prior Lake. Mature audiences only. Tickets: $19. Information: mysticlake.com, 952-445-9000.

Exhibits Best of Bonnie Feather-stone & Friends exhibit will be on display through Feb. 1 in the art gallery at Burnsville Perform-ing Arts Center, 12600 Nicollet Ave. Information: 952-895-4685, facebook.com/bonn ieand-friends. Winter Art Experience, an exhibit sponsored by the Ea-gan Art Festival and Eagan Art House, is on display through

February at the Eagan Byerly’s, 1299 Promenade Place. Infor-mation: 651-675-5521.

Music Cedar, “Human/Nature” CD release show, Saturday, Jan. 11, Amsterdam Bar and Hall, 6 W. Sixth St., St. Paul. Doors open at 6 p.m., music at 7 p.m. Ad-mission: $7, $10 with pre-order of CD. Ticket link: ticketfly.com/event/447515. Minnesota Opera Resi-dent Artists featuring Victoria Vargas, mezzo-soprano, and John Robert Lindsey, tenor, 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 12, Lakeville Area Arts Center, 20965 Holyoke Ave., Lakeville. Part of the Cof-fee Concert Series “Straight from the Heart.” Tickets: $15 adults, $12 seniors and students; www.lakevi l leareaartscenter.com, 952-985-4640. “Hope is Alive” benefit concert for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital, 7 p.m. Sat-urday, Jan. 18, at the Burnsville Performing Arts Center, 12600 Nicollet Ave. Silent auction and activities begin at 5 p.m. Elvis tribute artists Steve and Tommy Marcio perform at 7 p.m. Tick-ets: $25 at the box office, by phone at 800-982-2787 or at Ticketmaster.com.

Theater The Church Basement La-dies in “A Mighty Fortress is our Basement,” 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, at the Burnsville Performing Arts Cen-ter, 12600 Nicollet Ave. Tickets: $30 and $40 at the box office, by phone at 800-982-2787 or at Ticketmaster.com. “A Christmas Carol Scrooged,” presented by Heart-beat Performing Arts Center, 1

p.m. and 6 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, at Eastview High School, Apple Valley. Tickets available at the box office 30 minutes prior to performance or by phone at 952-432-7833 by Jan. 8. “Tarzan,” presented by Chil-dren’s Castle Theater Jan. 17-19 and Jan. 24-26, at Lakeville Area Arts Center, 20965 Holy-oke Ave., Lakeville. Tickets: $10 adults, $8 seniors and children 12 and younger; www.lakevil-leareaartscenter.com, 952-985-4640.

Workshops/classes/other Winter art classes are open for registration at the Eagan Art House. A class list is at http://www.cityofeagan.com/images/recreat ion/EaganArtHouse/Fall_2013.pdf. Information: Ea-gan Parks and Recreation at 651-675-5500 or the Eagan Art House at 651-675-5521. Teen Poetry Jam/Rap Bat-tle, 4-5 p.m. the first Tuesday of each month at Apple Valley Teen Center, 14255 Johnny Cake Ridge Road, Apple Valley, 952-953-2385. Ages 12-18. Adult painting open stu-dio, 9 a.m. to noon Fridays at the Eagan Art House, 3981 Lexington Ave. S. Fee is $5 per session. Information: 651-675-5521. Drawing & Painting (adults and teens) with Christine Tierney, 9 a.m. to noon Wednesdays, River Ridge Arts Building, Burns-ville. Information: www.christine-tierney.com, 612-210-3377. Teens Express Yourself with Paint, 5-7 p.m. Mondays at Brushworks School of Art in Burnsville, www.BrushworksS-choolofArt.com, 651-214-4732. Drama/theater classes for ages 4 and up at River Ridge

Arts Building, Burnsville, 952-736-3644. Show Biz Kids Theater Class for children with special needs (ASD/DCD programs), In the Company of Kids, 13710 Nicollet Ave., Burnsville, 952-736-3644. Broadway Kids Dance and Theater Program for all ages and abilities, In the Company of Kids, 13710 Nicollet Ave., Burnsville (Colonial Shopping Center), 952-736-3644. Join other 55-plus adults at the Eagan Art House to create beaded jewelry. The Jewelry Club meets on the third Friday of each month from 1-3 p.m. In-formation: 651-675-5500. Soy candle making class-es held weekly in Eagan near 55 and Yankee Doodle. Call Jamie at 651-315-4849 for dates and times. $10 per person. Present-ed by Making Scents in Minne-sota. Country line dance class-es held for intermediates Mon-days 1:30-4 p.m. at Rambling River Center, 325 Oak St., Farm-ington, $5/class. Call Marilyn 651-463-7833. Country line dance class-es on Wednesdays at the Lakev-ille Senior Center, 20110 Holy-oke Ave. Beginners, 9-10 a.m.; Intermediate, 10 a.m. to noon. $5/class. Call Marilyn 651-463-7833. The Lakeville Area Arts Center offers arts classes for all ages, www.lakevillemn.gov, 952-985-4640. Rosemount History Book Club meets 6:30-8 p.m. the second Tuesday of each month at the Robert Trail Library. Infor-mation: John Loch, 952-255-8545 or [email protected].

To submit items for the Family Calendar, email:

[email protected].

Friday, Jan. 3 Forever Wild Family Fri-day: Fun on the Ice, 7-8:30 p.m., Lebanon Hills Visitor Cen-ter, 860 Cliff Road, Eagan. Bring your own ice skates or try out the Visitor Center’s kicksleds. All ages. Free. Registration request-ed at www.co.dakota.mn.us/parks.

Saturday, Jan. 4 Winter Farmers Market, 9 a.m. to noon, Eagan Community Center, 1501 Central Parkway, Eagan. Items for sale include lo-cally produced food items such as honey, jams, sauces, sweet treats, artisan bakery items, stru-del, root vegetables and more. Ross Sutter – Animal Folk-lore, 11 a.m. to noon, Schaar’s Bluff Gathering Center, Spring Lake Park Reserve, 8395 127th St. E., Hastings. Have fun danc-ing, singing and learning about animals. A Minnesota Legacy Program. All ages. Free. Reg-

istration requested at www.co.dakota.mn.us/parks.

Tuesday, Jan. 7 Community Night – A Lunchbox & Snowshoe of Healthy Habits, 5-7 p.m., Val-ley Natural Foods, 13750 County Road 11, Burnsville. Free family event that encourages healthy habits in the new year. Includes free tastings and activities. Infor-mation: valleynaturalfoods.com/community/ lunchbox-snow-shoe-healthy-habits-community-night-january-7/.

Friday, Jan. 10 “Beyond the Torah: What Happens After Moses?” with guest speaker Rabbi Norman Cohen, during 9:30-11:45 a.m. Bible study at Mary, Mother of the Church, 3333 Cliff Road, Burnsville. Information: Julia Taube at [email protected] or 952-890-0045, ext. 236.

Monday, Jan. 13 “Mary of Nazareth,” private showing, 6:30 p.m. at Rose-

mount Theatre, 15280 Carrousel Way, Rosemount. $5 suggested donation for Rosemount Family Resource Center. Tickets avail-able at St. Joseph’s parish office; contact Patty at 651-423-4402. Sponsored by Snyder Orthodon-tics, Apple Valley.

Ongoing Alpha, 6-8:15 p.m. Mon-days, Jan. 13 to March 24 (no class Feb. 17), Hosanna Church, 9600 163rd St. W., Lakeville. Ex-plore the meaning of life through the Christian faith in a relaxed and friendly environment. No cost. Register online: www.ho-sannalc.org.

Blood drives The American Red Cross will hold the following blood drives. Call 1-800-RED CROSS (1-800-733-2767) or visit red-crossblood.org to make an ap-pointment or for more informa-tion. • Jan. 7, 11 a.m. to 5 p.m., Messiah Lutheran Church, 16725 Highview Ave., Lakeville.

• Jan. 7, 2-7 p.m., American Legion, 12375 Princeton Ave., Savage. • Jan. 8, 1-7 p.m., Wal-greens, 2200 Highway 13 E., Burnsville. • Jan. 9, 1-6 p.m., Hope Church, 7477 145th St., Apple Valley. • Jan. 10, 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Paideia Academy, 7200 147th St. W., Apple Valley. • Jan. 10, 12:30-5:30 p.m., Easter Lutheran Church – By the Lake, 4545 Pilot Knob Road, Ea-gan. • Jan. 10, noon to 6 p.m., Culver’s, 3445 O’Leary Lane, Eagan. • Jan. 11, 10:15 a.m. to 4:15 p.m., Burnhaven Library, 1101 W. County Road 42, Burnsville. Memorial Blood Centers will hold the following blood drive. Call 888-GIVE-BLD or visit MBC.org to make an appointment or for more information. • Jan. 8, 8-11:45 a.m., US Federal Credit Union, 1400 Riv-erwood Drive, Burnsville.

The latest production in the Church Basement Ladies musical comedy series is coming to the Burnsville Performing Arts Center next week. “A Mighty Fortress is Our Basement” will be presented at 2 and 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Jan. 9, in the Burnsville venue’s main hall. Tickets are $30-$40 and can be purchased in person at the Burnsville PAC box office and through Ticketmaster at 800-982-2787. (Photo submitted)

Thirteen-year-old Jillian Jacobson of Burnsville is now appearing on stage in Minneapolis in the Children’s Theatre Company production of “Cinderella,” which runs through Jan. 5. After getting involved in theater at age 6 as an actor with Lakeville-based The Play’s The Thing Productions, Jacobson has been performing regularly with a host of Twin Cities theater groups, including a featured role last October in Chameleon Theatre Circle’s “Ruthless! The Musical.” In “Cinderella,” she joins nine other student-actors in the ensemble, playing both a palace page and a mouse. (Submitted photo by Dan Norman)

Church Basement Ladies

Young actor in

‘Cinderella’

Rosemount event harnesses the power of ‘the Force’

Star Wars Extravaganza is Jan. 11 at Steeple Center by Andrew Miller


Light sabers are optional, though encounters with Imperial Storm-troopers are virtu-ally guaranteed. R o s e m o u n t ’ s Steeple Center will be taking on a science-fiction atmosphere next week with the Rosemount Area Arts Council and the Robert Trail Li-brary teaming up to present Star Wars Extravaganza. The free fam-ily event from 1-4 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 11, features video game and trivia contests, Lego and action figure dis-plays, character appearances and a costume parade – all centered around the classic George Lucas film set a long time ago in a gal-axy far, far away. “We wanted to have

something for kids and adults of all ages,” said John Loch, one of

the event’s organiz-ers. “The highlight of the whole thing is the 501st Legion – it’s a volunteer group of fully costumed Storm-troopers.” The Stormtroop-ers – and Darth Va-der – will be marching in the 1:30 p.m. cos-tume parade. Guests are encouraged to come dressed as their favorite Star Wars characters and march alongside the Storm-troopers. The Robert Trail Library will be dis-playing its collection of Star Wars books at the event, and there

will be an assort-ment of crafts and games related to the science-fiction film. There’s even a “build your own droid” activity sta-tion. There also are Star Wars-themed events in the week leading up to the Jan. 11 main event. The Robert Trail Library is hosting a Star Wars scavenger hunt Jan. 6-11, with the idea be-ing to get kids familiar with the library and its services. Young li-brary patrons can stop by the main desk anytime dur-ing regular hours to get started on the hunt. And on Jan. 9, Rosemount art-ist Craig MacIn-tosh, longtime il-lustrator of the

syndicated comic strip “Sally Forth,” will be hosting a workshop on drawing Star Wars characters. The class starts at 1 p.m. at the Robert Trail Library and those interested are asked to register in advance at the library because space is lim-ited. Admission is free for all the activities. More about the Star Wars Extravaganza is at www.rosemountarts.com.



ThisweekendThisweekend

Mystery dinner theater The Rosemount Area Arts Council will host its sixth annual Mystery Din-ner Theater on Saturday, Jan. 18, at the Steeple Cen-ter, 14375 S. Robert Trail. Guests are encouraged to dress in Western apparel for the presentation of “The Return of Diamond Jim,” and a costume contest will be held as part of the event. Tickets are $39, which includes dinner, and can be purchased at the arts council’s website, www.rose-mountarts.com, and in per-son at the Steeple Center.

Coffee concerts return Jan. 12 Minnesota Opera resi-dent artists Victoria Var-gas, mezzo-soprano, and John Robert Lindsey, tenor, will perform at 2 p.m. Sunday, Jan. 12, in the first of four concerts in the “Straight from the Heart” Coffee Concert Series at Lakeville Area Arts Center, 20965 Holy-oke Ave. Tickets are $15 for adults, $12 for seniors and students. Call 952-985-4640 for informa-tion.

Visual review A collection of A&E images from the pages of Sun Thisweek in 2013Compiled by Andrew Miller

IMAGE INDEX (LEFT TO RIGHT, TOP TO BOTTOM, PHOTOS SUBMITTED UNLESS OTHERWISE NOTED): AFRICAN PENGUINS AT THE MINNESOTA ZOO (PHOTO COURTESY MN ZOO) | BURSNVILLE SCHOOL OF ROCK MUSICIANS (STAFF PHOTO) | APPLE VALLEY SINGER-SONGWRITER DUSTIN HATZENBUHLER APPEARING ON NBC’S “THE VOICE” | EASTVIEW HIGH SCHOOL ACTORS CUONG DUONG AND JAKE SPEIKERS IN “THE COMPLETE WORKS OF WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE (ABRIDGED)” (STAFF PHOTO) | PERCUSSION ENSEMBLE CRASH | “THE VOICE” CONTESTANT NICHOLAS DAVID MROZINSKI AT ST. JOSEPH SCHOOL IN ROSEMOUNT (STAFF PHOTO) | JOHNNY CASH TRIBUTE ARTIST PHILIP BAUER | ROSEMOUNT HIGH SCHOOL MARCHING BAND (STAFF PHOTO) | PROMO IMAGE FOR “EXPLORERS OF LIGHT” PHOTO WORKSHOP (PHOTO BY ADAM JONES) | BAGPIPE PLAYERS AT THE MINNESOTA SCOTTISH FAIR IN FARMINGTON | JESSICA LEOUNG OF THE APPLE VALLEY HIGH SCHOOL MARCHING BAND (STAFF PHOTO) | HEAVY GAMES COMPETITOR AT THE MINNESOTA SCOTTISH FAIR IN FARMINGTON | KETZAL COATLICUE DANCER | CAST OF EXPRESSIONS COMMUNITY THEATER’S PRODUCTION OF “WAGE WARFARE” | SINGER-SONGWRITER JAMES SCHATTAUER | HISTORICAL RE-ENACTORS WITH THE WORLD WAR II EVENT IN FARMINGTON (FILE PHOTO) | PORTRAIT OF NGOC LAN TRAN BY LESLIE BOWMAN | CAST OF CHAMELEON THEATRE CIRCLE’S “COMPLETELY HOLLYWOOD (ABRIDGED)” | “MOMMY & ME WINTER DRESS UP FUN,” PHOTO BY CHRISTIE KROELLS, FIRST PLACE WINNER IN THE LIFESTYLE CATEGORY OF THE ROSEMOUNT PHOTO CONTEST | CAST MEMBERS OF “PSST!” | GUITARIST TOMMY EMMANUEL | CAST OF “OLE & LENA’S FAMILY CHRISTMAS” | TAYLOR RIENTS OF EAGAN IN “DISNEY’S THE LITTLE MERMAID JR.” | SHANA EISENBERG AND PHIL GONZALES IN CHAMELEON THEATRE CIRCLE’S “SWEENEY TODD” | BONGO CALF AT THE MINNESOTA ZOO (PHOTO COURTESY MN ZOO)

theater and arts briefs


principal of Northfield Middle School and then of the high school three years later. By 1997, Allen had decided to return to the Rosemount-Apple-Valley-Eagan School District as an assistant administra-tor at Apple Valley High School. Eleven years later, Al-len was promoted to assis-tant principal and oversaw the high school’s special education department. Allen said she decided to retire at the end of the school year to spend more time with her adult chil-dren and travel with her husband, who is also a re-tired teacher.

A winning team

leaves Within a month of Al-len’s retirement, Apple Valley High School bid farewell to a dynamic de-bate duo who, for the past two decades, have led the school’s debate and speech teams to victory. Pam and Joe Wy-coff retired in June after watching their team take its most recent of many national titles. Joe retired from coaching and his role as director of arts and activities at AVHS, while Pam retired from her role as director of the school’s speech and debate pro-grams. Pam already had a win-ning reputation when she took over Apple Valley’s speech and debate pro-gram 24 years ago. Pre-viously, she directed the speech and debate pro-gram at Loyola Catholic School in Mankato for 10 years. Under her guidance, it became a Division A champion school. In 1989, Pam was re-cruited by Apple Valley High School to fill its speech and debate director position. She was unfamiliar with debate at the time, but decided to meet the challenge. Since then, Apple Val-ley has held the record for

most state championships and the most state medals in the history of the Min-nesota State High School League’s state speech tour-naments. As a result, Pam was in-ducted into the Minnesota State High School League Hall of Fame. Joe also has a history of nurturing winning teams. Prior to coaching at AVHS, he was the direc-tor of speech and debate at Chesterton High School in Chesterton, Ind., where his team won 15 state championships. While there, Joe was inducted into the Indiana Hall of Fame. Joe and Pam are mem-bers of the National Fo-rensic League Hall of Fame. After teaching and coaching in Chesterton for 31 years, Joe took a teach-ing job at Apple Valley High School in 1998 and joined Pam as a speech coach. One year later, the couple were married. Though Pam retired from the speech and de-bate programs, she contin-ues to direct the school’s mentorship program.

Promotions While bidding several long-term educators fare-well, District 196 saw sev-eral others move up within their field. In March, Assistant Administrator Michael Bolsoni was promoted to assistant principal at the high school.

The 41-year-old pre-viously split his time be-tween the high school and Valley Middle School in Apple Valley. Bolsoni began his ca-reer in the Rosemount-Ap-ple Valley-Eagan School District in 1996 as a so-cial studies teacher at the School of Environmental Studies in Apple Valley. The job was his first full-time teaching position since earning a bachelor’s in history from Gustavus Adolphus in St. Peter a year earlier. Prior to land-ing the job at SES, Bolsoni worked as a student teach-er at Patrick Henry High School in Minneapolis. Since starting his ca-reer, Bolsoni has earned a master’s in education from the University of Minne-sota and a specialist de-gree in education leader-ship from Minnesota State University, Mankato. The Minneapolis resi-dent said he was drawn to the School of Environ-mental Studies, which had opened a year earlier, be-cause of its unique focus. The optional high school integrates environmental themes into all its stud-ies and partners with the Minnesota Zoo to provide real-world learning oppor-tunities. As one of the school’s earliest teachers, Bol-soni takes pride in being among those who shaped the school into its current state. After teaching for 11 years, Bolsoni decided to

try his hand in administra-tion and was hired in 2011 as an administrative assis-tant. As assistant princi-pal, Bolsoni oversees the school’s operations and collaborates on instruc-tional leadership. District 196 welcomed another new administra-tor in the beginning of the 2012-13 school year with the hiring of Ni-cole Frovik as principal of Parkview Elementary School in Lakeville. The 39-year-old Apple Valley resident grew up in the district, and her father, Mike Egstad, was a social studies teacher at Rose-mount and Apple Valley high schools. Shortly after earning a bachelor’s degree in el-ementary education from Augsburg College, Frovik began her career in 1996 as an intern at Valley Middle School in Apple Valley. A year later, she was hired as a teacher at Parkview. In 2012, Frovik left Parkview to become the magnet coordinator and instruction assistant at Glacier Hills Elementary School of Arts and Sci-ence in Eagan. Though she enjoyed her position at Glacier Hills, Frovik yearned to once again connect with fami-lies on a more intimate level. Becoming Parkview’s principal enables her to do just that, Frovik said. Frovik, who has a mas-ter’s degree in education and education adminis-tration, had considered

becoming a principal for several years.

Levy passage In addition to changes in school administration, District 196 saw the pas-sage of a $30 million levy referendum in November. The 10-year levy, which gained 66 percent of votes, will help ease future bud-get cuts, district officials say. By generating $1,486 per pupil, the levy is a $375 per pupil increase from the previous operat-ing levy, which brought in $20 million annually. The previous levy was set to expire in 2015. Passage of the levy ref-erendum will prevent the district from cutting $6 million from the budget in 2014-15. These cuts would have included cuts to cur-ricular and co-curricular programs, including the gifted and talented pro-gram, increased co-curric-ular fees, and the elimina-tion of fifth-grade band.

District 196 would have faced another $20 million in adjustments in 2015-16, which is equivalent to ap-proximately 300 teaching positions, according to district officials.

Looking to 2014 As District 196 begins a new year, it will continue to face a challenging bud-get while working to build a new facility. After enduring three years of budget cuts, dis-trict officials plan to make $4 million in adjustments to maintenance and op-erations costs in 2014-15. Though the district continues to endure finan-cial woes, it will receive some relief in 2014 with state funding for all-day, everyday kindergarten programs. While planning for potential adjustments next year, District 196 will also be moving for-ward with plans to build a 54,076-square-foot, two-story building to house early childhood and adult education programs. The plans were met with some resistance this past year from nearby res-idents who expressed con-cerns about traffic. The district’s early childhood and adult learning programs are cur-rently housed in two sepa-rate leased buildings on County Road 42 in Apple Valley and Rahn Road in Eagan. In preparation for their lease to expire in Au-gust 2014, district officials looked in late 2012 at the feasibility of moving the programs to a new build-ing. Officials say the new center will better accom-modate those programs and save money in the long term. The project is estimat-ed to cost $13.5 million. Officials plan to accept construction bids in early January.

Jessica Harper is at [email protected] or facebook.com/sunthisweek.

Apple Valley High School speech and debate director Pam Wycoff, and husband and fellow speech coach, Joe Wycoff retired in June after 24 years and 15 years, respectively, at the school. During their tenure, the team has produced 81 state champions and 105 national finalists in debate and speech. (File photo)

Nicole Frovik Laura Kay Allen

Michael Bolsoni

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