Circus Held at Scott County Fairgrounds
Bar-B-Q Days Coin Hunt Enters Second Week
Belle Plaine Baseball Teams Post Big Wins Page 15
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ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SECOND YEAR
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, JULY 10, 2013
75¢ SINGLE COPY
NUMBER 28
Reports Indicate Belle Plaine Will Receive Big Increase in State Aid But City Will Not Count Chickens Before They’re Hatched
Restoration Continues
Belle Plaine is among the communities that is expected to benefit from sizeable increases in state local government aid (LGA) after the Minnesota Legislature recently agreed to increase taxes and spending. LGA is a general purpose aid that can be used for any lawful expenditure. It is also intended to be used for local property tax relief. Overall, the state will spend $80 million more in aid to local governments for the coming year (to $507.6 million). How much a city receives in LGA is determined mostly by three factors – population, the number of jobs in a city compared to its population, and how much of its housing is old. LGA aid isn’t without its crit-
ics. Some people argue it’s an inefficient way to deliver property tax relief in that just half of Minnesotans live in cities that receive it. Those in affluent suburbs and townships do not. Minneapolis continues to be the largest recipient and will experience an increase of nearly $12 million to $76 million. St. Paul LGA will rise $10 million from this year to $60 million. In both of the last two years, Belle Plaine has received $54,473 in LGA payments, which is a significant drop from earlier years before the Legislature voted to significantly reduce LGA payments to cities in order to balance the budget. There have been several years in the past decade that Belle Plaine has received over $300,000 in LGA. Although Belle Plaine City Administrator David Murphy said it has not been confirmed how much the city’s increase
in LGA will be for the coming year, a Minneapolis Star Tribune report stated that the jumps in Scott County “will range from 25 percent for Elko New Market to near a quintupling in Belle Plaine, though it comes from a low starting point.” Murphy said he can not confirm the above report because he has not yet seen the certified amount from the state. Because of the uncertainties often associated with LGA, cities have been reluctant to build those state aid dollars back into their budgets. Some are opting to use the money as a temporary windfall, a good thing but nothing to rely on long-term. “We do not spend based on ‘anticipatory’ funds,” Murphy said. “We do not consider the
State Aid
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Burt Pasvogel of Crosby Construction and his son Tyler (not pictured) have been busy scraping the old paint off Belle Plaine’s historic Episcopal Church of the Transfiguration, which is being repainted. The city received paint and primer from the Valspar Foundation through a Partners in Preservation grant. Crosby Construction of Belle Plaine submitted the only quote to do the work at a cost of $12,850, which will be paid for by funds from the city’s historical properties line item.
Longtime Belle School Teacher Pool to Host Tim O’Laughlin Dies at Age 74 ‘Dive-In Movie Tim O’Laughlin, who was a ernment economics and emer- Night’ July 12 teacher in gency medical services at Belle the Belle P l a i n e School District for 34 years, died early Monday morning at his home following a massive heart attack. He was 74. O’Laughlin, who taught gov-
Plaine High School, was a teacher for six years in Texas and one year in International Falls before beginning his long career in Belle Plaine. He also worked many years as Scott County Emergency Management Services director and served on the Belle Plaine City Council from 2005 through 2010. O’Laughlin’s obituary appears on page 3.
The Belle Plaine Municipal Swimming Pool will host Schmidt Building, owned by Wayne Schmidt of Belle Plaine, has been one of the few builders “Dive-In Movie Night” on Fri- of new homes in Belle Plaine for the past several years. These two future homes are located day, July 12 at 8:30 p.m. next to Oak Crest Elementary School. The PG-rated movie “Surf’s Up” will be shown and patrons will be allowed to float on the water or enjoy the movie from their chairs. The cost is $1 per person and concessions will be available. New residential permit statis- on his desk to be processed 2005), over 900 permits were tics again show that the Twin with almost one-half of the year issued here, including nearly Cities region’s residential con- remaining for more to come. 200 in 2001 alone. struction market continues to As it did last year, the city Three of the seven permits isstrengthen. of Belle Plaine is waiving the sued for new homes in Belle That includes to some extent building permit and plan review Plaine so far this year have Belle Plaine as the city issued fees for the first 10 new homes been for local builder Wayne five new single-family home of the year. The city council Schmidt (Schmidt Building). permits during the first six passed that incentive in order to Two are currently going up pany providing the new hard- months of 2013 (Jan. 1-June help spur new home building in side-by-side at 1205 and 1209 Schoolhouse Drive next to Oak ware since the bidding stage 30). In all of 2012, six such the city. is not yet completed, Kohner permits were issued, three of There were seven building Crest Elementary School (see which came in the final half of permits issued for new homes photo). Schmidt’s other permit said. in Belle Plaine in 2009, eight is for 825 Prairie Oak Drive. Hennepin County reportedly December. purchased 550 precinct coun- Belle Plaine Building Official in 2010, a mere two in 2011 The other two permits are ters and four central counters Scott McCarty said Tuesday before last year’s half-dozen. Home Building that he has three more single- During the boom home buildfor $4.1 million. (continued on page 16) The new machines, once in family home permits currently ing years in Belle Plaine (1998use, are expected to be faster and more efficient, especially when counting what is expected to be a growing number of absentee ballots following last year’s legislation on the socalled no excuses absentee balloting allowing voters to vote by Dan Ruud at $298,188. Mn/DOT has indi- currently has a letting date of absentee for any reason. If the four-way stop signs at cated it will cover 80 percent of Nov. 22 for the project and conCarver County is not in the the intersection of East Main that cost ($238,550.40), while struction in 2014. market for new vote-counting Street and Old Highway 169 the city will be responsible for The features of the signal sysmachines since its equipment Boulevard next to the west 20 percent ($59,637.60). tem will include: was purchased new in 2006, ramps of the interchange have Once the signal system is in – Signal indications with lightsaid Laurie Davies, a manager been troublesome to you, a place, Mn/DOT will be re- ing emitting diodes. in Carver County’s Taxpayer nearly $300,000 solution may sponsible for its operation and – Emergency vehicle preempServices division. be in place in 2014. performing “major” mainte- tion system. Belle Plaine City Engineer Joe nance functions, including the – Luminaries over the approDuncan recently presented the emergency vehicle preemption priate mainline signal poles. council, at the latter’s request, system and replacing equipwith a pre-agreement letter and ment when needed. The city – Mast arm and pole signing, cost participation assumptions will be responsible for “minor” appropriate pavement markfrom the Minnesota Depart- maintenance items, including ings. ment of Transportation (Mn/ re-lamping and cleaning the – Unpainted, galvanized steel DOT) regarding a proposed system. The city will also be signal poles. permanent traffic signal system responsible for 100 percent of – Flashing yellow arrow indipower costs, including connec- cations for left turns. old junior high) on South Wil- at that location. low Street. It costs $2 to file. “The intersection control eval- tion fees and monthly power – Accessible pedestrian sigDirectors Judy Nagel, Mike uation report that was requested charges associated with the sig- nals, which include curb ramps, Daly and Gary Steinhagen hold by the council nearly a year ago nal luminaries. audible pedestrian buttons and the seats up for election to four- was finally received (from Mn/ “When all agreements identi- countdown pedestrian indicafied with this letter are approved tors. year terms. All three seats will DOT),” Duncan reported. carry four-year terms. Nagel In a letter from Gregory Kern by the city of Belle Plaine, an City Administrator David Murand Daly are completing four- of Mn/DOT Metro Signal De- agreement will be drafted and Traffic Signals year terms, Steinhagen a two- sign, the total cost of the sys- submitted for execution,” Kern year term. (continued on page 16) tem’s construction is estimated stated, adding that Mn/DOT
New Home Building in City Ahead of Last Year’s Pace
Scott County Eyeing Faster, More Accurate Digital Voting Machines They are said to be faster and more accurate, new digital vote counting machines that will replace 13-year-old machines no longer replaceable. Scott County, in partnership with Dakota County, is part of a five-county group that is moving toward the purchase of the new machines in 2014. Scott County is waiting for bids on the new machines to serve its townships. Townships and cities in Scott County, like Belle Plaine, will have to purchase their own machines. In the metro area, hundreds of the new machines will reportedly cost millions of dollars. The city expects it will eventually acquire new machines, but has yet to hear from Scott County. The last time the city bought new vote-counting machines, it did so with other entities within the county to enjoy cost saving, said Dawn Meyer, Belle Plaine’s finance director. Grants helped finance the purchase, she said. The city does not have any money budgeted for new votecounting machines in 2013, said David Murphy, Belle Plaine’s city administrator. Scott County has a joint powers agreement with Dakota, Ramsey and Washington counties so it can be included, if it chooses, with Dakota County
in an effort to purchase new voting equipment. The old equipment dates back to the early-2000s has seen reliability issues after days of hand-feeding ballots “We are going through this effort because the older machines have exceeded their life expectancy and are jamming to the point that we had to rerun precincts multiple times to get the accurate count,” said Lisa Kohner, Scott County’s public affairs coordinator. “The scanners in the machines are failing and cannot be replaced. The existing vendor no longer sells that model, so the precincts will need to upgrade and purchase new machines and we are doing our due diligence on seeking scaled bidding.” The county has yet to learn the cost and the name of the com-
Filing Period for B.P. School Board Election Opens July 30 Want to run for a seat on the Belle Plaine School Board? The filing period to run for one of three seats on the board in the fall general election opens July 30 and closes at the end of the business day Aug. 13. Candidates can file at the school district offices at the Belle Plaine District Center (the
Plan in Motion to Install Traffic Signals at East Main/Old Hwy. 169