More German Days Photos
School Board Eyes New Scoreboards Page 4
Belle Plaine’s Becky Koepp Finishes High at State Golf Meet Page 16
Pages 2, 17
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-FIRST YEAR
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, JUNE 20, 2012
75¢ SINGLE COPY
NUMBER 25
This mobile home at 601 West Forest Street was one of a number of casualties from Tuesday morning’s storm.
Tuesday’s Storm Leaves Its Marks by Dan Ruud Flooding rains on Sunday night in Belle Plaine were followed by a strong windstorm early Tuesday morning, the latter of which resulted in considerable damage to trees, power lines and some homes. Some winds speeds in Belle Plaine were reported to be in excess of 80 miles per hour. Amidst Tuesday’s wreckage was Chris Schmeckpeper and his mother Shirley’s mobile
home at 601 West Forest Street, where a large tree fell onto its roof, literally squashing a portion of the structure from top to bottom. “At about 3:30 a.m. I could hear the hail coming down and then around 4 a.m. I heard a wood-crunching sound. It was the tree falling onto the trailer,” said Chris Schmeckpeper, 37, who added that he has lived in the same mobile home park all his life, including his current
trailer since the mid-1980s. Shirley Schmeckpeper, who also was awoken by the storm, said she could feel the trailer move. “I thought it was a tornado coming through at first,” she said. Chris said luckily he and Belle Plaine’s new German his mother were not hurt. The Day Queen is Kourtney Klug, family wasn’t as fortunate in top right. She was crowned by 2011 Queen Clarissa Caola, Storm Damage whose sister, Cassandra, sit(continued on page 15) ting next to Klug, is this year’s second princess. The first princess crowned Saturday was Katelyn Zurn. Pictured in the photo at the right are grand marshals Ray Meierbachtol and Marilyn Koepp, both of whom addressed the audience during Saturday’s post-parade program.
Kourtney Klug 2012 German Days Queen
Council Awards Bid to Pave Only Its Share of Belle Plaine Trail Permit Approved for Classic Car Restoration Business Downtown County Road 6 was closed to traffic between Belle Plaine and Blakeley following Sunday night’s torrential rains that fell across the area.
by Dan Ruud The Belle Plaine City Council Monday night voted to award the bid for the improvement
Wind Damage Tuesday morning at 2:30 a.m., Dave Brazil awoke to a loud thud outside his house at 340 Willow Street S. After checking the older, larger trees in front of his house, Brazil found a 50-plus year-old silver maple from his neighbor’s yard had blown down on his garage. The downed tree was in a higher, well-drained portion of the yard. High winds also snapped off
thick branches from another silver maple in the yard. “You don’t see a clean snap like that very often,” he said while waiting for a tree service to arrive and remove the tree. “Whatever winds came through here were pretty significant.” High winds left a path of debris through several yards and wooded areas west of Brazil’s house.
of the Belle Plaine Trail that has been shared by the city and Belle Plaine Township for many years. But the awarding of the bid is only for the city’s share of the road. The issue, which has been debated between the council and township officials (and attorneys for both sides) for much of the spring, was not resolved Monday, although the council did award the bid to Chard Tiling of Belle Plaine to pave the city’s portion of the project, which includes some 1,777 feet of the eastern end of the road. That’s a little less than half the length of the entire stretch. What will come of the rest of the road is still up in the air. Kevin Slack, who represented Belle Plaine Township at Monday night’s meeting, presented the council with a resolution that he and other township officials said is the best long-term fix for the township. “The township is offering the city a payment of $65,000, representing the township’s proportionate share of reconstruction costs, engineering and future maintenance of the Belle Plaine Trail,” states the resolution. Mayor Tim Lies and the majority of the council was fine with the resolution up to that point. It’s what came next that was bothersome to the council. “Payment of the $65,000 is
contingent upon the city executing and filing with the Department of Administration Municipal Boundary Adjustments an annexation agreement of all incorporated portions of Belle Plaine Trail, resulting in the entire roadway between Highway 169 and Ashford Way being entirely within the jurisdiction of the city and thereby becoming a city street.” “Roads carry a huge cost. I will not be in any agreement of us (the city) annexing a road,” said Lies, adding that the city wants the entire pothole-infested road fixed but not at the expense of becoming its sole provider for years (or decades) to come. Lies said he has no knowledge of Belle Plaine ever annexing a road, property yes, but not a road. Slack said pumping a large sum of money into Belle Plaine Trail and then having to continue sharing maintenance costs is not in the township’s best interest. He added that the township’s offer of providing $65,000 goes above what its share of improving the road would be, and leaves money left over for future maintenance costs. But how deep into the future? “The plan is for that road to go away someday (after an interchange and other developments occur in that area) but it
City Council
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