John gessner Aaron Vehling Laura Adelmann
Burnsville woman writes Savage history 2A Lakeville pioneer to be honored 2A Farmington woman to help select judges 5A
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date 7, ##, 2009 June 2012
Volume 30, Number # VOLUME 33, NUMBER 15
Dakota County Tribune Since 1884
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Burnsville Ale House opens in familiar location Fulfills ownership dream for veteran manager
by John Gessner
Dakota County Tribune
Wendy Karn’s bar and restaurant has seen many operators come and go while sometimes fighting a reputation as a rowdy biker hangout. But this bar and restaurant, Karn’s first as an owner after her nearly three decades in the business, spoke to her. “It was time,” Karn said. “And when I walked in here, I sat at the bar right over here and I just looked around and saw what was possible. Aside from that fact that there was nobody even in here, I liked the feeling of it.” Karn and a partner, Kirk Berg of Bloomington, own the Burnsville Ale House, former site of the short-lived The Edge Bar and Grill. They bought the building at 3809 Highway 13 W. in January and kept The Edge going before closing briefly and reopening as the Burnsville Ale House on April 14. Karn and Berg gave the place an interior makeover and were careful to include “Burnsville” in the new name. “My general feeling was this had been a little alienated from the community, and I wanted to bring it back into the community and soften its image a little bit,” Karn said. She grew up in Mendota Heights, where she remembers her father taking her to a local establishment
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inside biz forum
Community festivals are opportunities for people, businesses and nonprof its to connect with others. tad 4A johnson news
Longtime Dakota Electric board member leaves behind a legacy at the cooperative and in business. ron 5A swagger news
Rosemount High School teacher Kurt Bills off icially f iles to run for U.S. Senate seat in Minnesota. 6A
Photo by John Gessner
Wendy Karn, a bar and restaurant veteran, is co-owner and manager of the Burnsville Ale House on West Highway 13 in Burnsville. called Dandy’s and ordering her a kiddy cocktail while he had bourbon. “That was the beginning of my love of the barrestaurant business,” Karn said. She transferred from Sibley to Burnsville High School for her senior year, graduating in 1981. Karn then drove bus for a while in School District 191, sometimes celebrating happy hour with workmates at the very bar she now owns. Before long she was working at La Fonda’s Restaurant in Eagan, an-
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other Highway 13 landmark. Then Karn went to work for the Jennings family in St. Louis Park. Over a dozen years she managed each of the family’s restaurants on Excelsior Boulevard — Jennings Red Coach Inn, Gippers and Timothy O’Toole’s. After a stint as an opening consultant and later bartender for the Champp’s in Richfield, Karn went to work for Linda Young, who owned the Axel’s restaurants, including Axel’s River Grille in Mendota, See Ale House, Page 9A
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Aggressive tactics led to bail bond agent ban Agents restricted from public areas in Dakota County Jail
by Laura Adelmann
Dakota County Tribune
Dakota County Jail officials have restricted bail bond agents from public areas of the jail after their arguments and aggressive sales tactics fueled myriad complaints. Some bail agents say the changes have dramatically reduced their
income and question why all were targeted when a few caused the problems. Jail officials say the new restrictions banning bail agents from the jail lobby and in-custody courtroom have solved problems, improved the public jail environment, and they have no plans to change.
Bail bond agents for years crowded into Dakota County’s incustody courtroom and increasingly began aggressively competing for business, Dakota County Sheriff Dave Bellows said. “Over the years, there have been See Ban, Page 31A
Bail bond agents help inmates post bond to be released from the Dakota County Jail while their case is pending, but after numerous complaints, some from jail staff, the agents are no longer allowed to linger in the jail area seeking clients. Photo by Laura Adelmann