Two BPHS Seniors Sign College Letters of Intent
LS-H Student Killed in Crash Donates Organs Page 4
Page 15
Group Holds Sleep Out to Bring Awareness to Homelessness Page 16 ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SECOND YEAR
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, NOVEMBER 20, 2013
75¢ SINGLE COPY
NUMBER 47
City Council ‘Reads’ Complaints from Mediacom Subscribers by Dan Ruud The Belle Plaine City Council heard from no one in what was a nearly empty council chambers during its public hearing Monday night regarding the city’s franchise renewal agreement with Mediacom, the community’s cable television provider. On Oct. 7, the council called for the public hearing on the proposed renewal of Mediacom’s 10-year contract with the city. The current contract expires in a little over 11 months The new computer gaming class at Belle Plaine Junior-Senior High School had 58 students (Oct. 28, 2014). Although it is preliminarily interested. It had 30 students when it met for the first time this fall. not mandatory, a sub-committee of the city council recommended that a public hearing be held to allow input from residents regarding the job the franchise has done the past decade. Students in a computer class at rience the intricacies of creating computer skills they must masBelle Plaine Junior-Senior High computer games. The games ter. All students will finish 12 School are earning academic range from the simplest form of games, gaining the basic skills credits for playing computer Pong their parents might have needed for the design process. games. But first, they have to played back in the ‘80s to more Some will go further and use those skills to create their own successfully create the games modernized games. Along the way, the students games and integrate the skills before testing them out. have to play the games to make with their own creativity. Otto It’s not as easy as it looks. This fall, Josh Otto, a comput- sure they not only operate as said the grade students earn is er science teacher at the school, intended, but also meet the reGaming is leading Computer Gaming, a quirements of the class. (continued on page 8) new class where students expe- Students have an array of
New Computer Gaming Class a Lot More Than Playing Around
Although no one brought their praise or complaints in person to the hearing, several Mediacom subscribers did so in writing. Their comments, mostly negative, were included in the council’s packet. Some of the comments received were: – “We were not at all pleased with Mediacom’s decision to eliminate channel 12 (KEYC Mankato) from the channel lineup. There was no notice and no chance to comment on the decision. We contacted Mediacom and they said it was an ABC network decision, but when I contacted both channel 4 and channel 12, they had no knowledge of a requirement to eliminate KEYC. It is still carried in other cities served by the company.”
– “Frequently while watching digital channels, the picture and sound stop as if the channel is buffering. It doesn’t happen just once, but continues for many times.” – “It seems as though Mediacom is taking advantage of its exclusive service in Belle Plaine to keep raising prices for their services.” – “We have Mediacom and find it very annoying that there are no other service providers in the area that we can choose.” – “Can we not put some competition in the area and keep these high prices down?” – “I called (Mediacom) customer service to ask how much
City Council
(continued on page 8)
Community Thanksgiving Service Next Tuesday Night at West Union Lutheran The annual Ecumenical Community Thanksgiving Service will be held at West Union Lutheran Church 7 p.m. on Tuesday, Nov. 26. The service is sponsored by the congregations of St. John Lutheran, Our Lady of the Prairie Catholic, First Presbyterian, Redeemer Lutheran, St. John’s Assumption, River Rock, Discovery and West Union. The community is welcome to attend.
The Thanksgiving worship is also intended to remember the needs of others. A monetary offering will be accepted during the service to support the local Good Samaritan Fund, which provides help for transient people in the area. This fund is supported by participating churches and the Thanksgiving offering is the main source of annual income for this fund. In addition, worshipers are
encouraged to bring nonperishable food items to be donated to the Belle Plaine Food Shelf. Monetary donations are also welcome. Checks can be made out to the Belle Plaine Foodshelf. Directions to West Union Church It is located seven miles north of Belle Plaine. Take Highway 14, which changes to 53, and take a right on Highway 50 for about one mile to the church.
No Need to Slow Down Workers from the Minnesota Department of Transportation (Mn/DOT) removed the old 55 mph speed limit signs on Highway 169 at the north and south ends of Belle Plaine Tuesday morning and replaced them with new 65 mph speed limit signs. Mn/DOT recently announced it would be increasing the speed limits on Highway 169 through the city. Belle Plaine Police Chief Tom Stolee expressed concern, as have many Belle Plaine citizens, who enter the the highway trying to merge with speeding traffic.
B.P. School Board Considers Proposal for ‘Begindergarten’
With the Ghost of Christmas Present, Ebenezer Scrooge watches Bob Cratchit’s family enjoy Christmas dinner during rehearsals of “A Christmas Carol.” The play will be presented Friday, Saturday and Sunday in the Belle Plaine District Center’s Performing Arts Center.
Holiday Classic, ‘A Christmas Carol,’ Opens Friday for Three-Day Run Belle Plaine Junior-Senior High School’s presentation of “A Christmas Carol” will be presented this weekend at the Performing Arts Center in the District Center on South Willow Street. Jake Hartmann plays the lead character, Ebenezer Scrooge. Nick Johnson is Bob Cratchit. Aiden Winterfeldt plays Jacob Marley. Jennifer He, Dylan O’Brien and Max Hughes play the ghosts of Christmas past, present and future. Clausen, Hannah Burmeister, Felicity
Mecredy, Winterfeldt play the chorus. This dramatic and heartwarming classic comes to life in Belle Plaine’s Performing Arts Center. “A Christmas Carol,” based on the novel by Charles Dickens, will be performed on Friday, Nov. 22, 7 p.m.; Saturday, Nov. 23 at 1 and 7 p.m.,; and Sunday, Nov. 24, 2 p.m. Around 50 students are working to bring Christmas cheer to Belle Plaine a month early. Tickets are on sale at the Belle Plaine School District Office on South Willow Street. Tickets go on sale Today (Nov. 13) at the District Office on Willow Street. There will be no
reserved seating, only reserved tickets.
The Night of the Show…
Side doors (off of parking lot) open at 6:15 p.m. for advanced ticket holders. Front doors open at 6:30 p.m. for general admission (any unsold tickets). At 6:45 p.m., ushers will fill in all unfilled seats with general admission. At 7 p.m., ushers will close the doors to the PAC and there will be no entrance after doors close. Please do not save seats for large groups of people. Call 873-2400 for more information.
Recognizing that not all 5-year-olds are socially or academically ready to start kindergarten, the Belle Plaine School Board is pondering Chatfield Elementary School Principal Kim DeWitte’s proposal for a program that will prepare youngsters both cognitively and as part of a group to begin school. It’s called “Begindergarten.” The proposal is an option for parents who might consider a second year of preschool for their 5-year-old before they begin kindergarten. It will save parents the cost of preschool while introducing a limited number of children – 15 at the most – to a school setting. The school board likes the proposal and signaled it could be ready for formal consideration at the board’s January business meeting. Begindergarten is a program offered to children who are not developmentally, socially, or academically ready for kindergarten. It offers children a time to grow and develop to ensure continue success throughout their school careers. The hope is that it will give them a better foundation for reading and other studies. DeWitte will be surveying parents of children expected to be in next year’s kindergarten class. The thought is that children with birthdays in May, June and July will be the most likely to enroll in the Begindergarten program.
“We want this to be a bridge between preschool and kindergarten,” DeWitte said. She said research shows 88 percent of children who are poor readers in first grade will remain poor readers in fourth grade, and 74 percent of poor readers in third grade will re-
main poor readers in high school. The program will utilize a schedule that includes curriculum and “structured play,” DeWitte said. Begindergarten
‘Begindergarten’
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Relief at the Pumps After setting an all-time high of $4.29.9 for a gallon of regular unleaded gas this past May, prices in Belle Plaine and across the state have been on a downward trend in recent months, dropping to $2.99.9 at all three Belle Plaine stations last week and staying steady (as of Tuesday) this week. Minnesota’s average gas price has dipped to around $3 per gallon for the first time in nearly a year as cheaper crude oil and strong refinery production have mixed with declining demand by drivers. Statewide, prices this past week have ranged from $2.82.9 in Coon Rapids to $3.19.9 in Warroad and Edina. It’s the lowest price in Minnesota since gas was $2.94.9 per gallon in early January.