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Burnsville | Eagan
www.SunThisweek.com
August 5, 2016 | Volume 37 | Number 23
Landfill deal falls through; feds will take over cleanup
EDUCATION
Many parties could be on the hook financially
Back to School special section
by John Gessner SUN THISWEEK DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE
Inside today’s edition is a special section devoted to information about back-to-school time.
NEWS Vote Tuesday, Aug. 9 Several primary elections and a special District 196 School Board election are being held in Burnsville and Eagan. Page 3A
OPINION Safe, abundant water Minnesota must get serious about the growing challenges to maintaining a safe, ample water supply, the Editorial Board writes. Page 4A
Eagan Mayor Mike Maguire (center) was presented a framed Vikings jersey by NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell (left), Lenny Wilf (cousin of Vikings owners Zygi and Mark Wilf) and Vikings COO Kevin Warren during a ground-breaking ceremony Aug. 2. (Photo by Jessica Harper)
Vikings break ground in Eagan with fanfare Team grants naming rights to Twin Cities Orthopedics by Jessica Harper SUN THISWEEK DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE
THISWEEKEND
Classic stage comedy Expressions Community Theater will present “Arsenic and Old Lace� Aug. 5-14 at the Lakeville Area Arts Center. Page 17A
PUBLIC NOTICE Burnsville-Eagan Sun Thisweek is the official newspaper for the cities of Burnsville and Eagan and school districts 191 and 196. Public Notices begin on Page 11A.
INDEX Opinion . . . . . . . . . . . . 4A Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9A Public Notices . . . . . . 11A Classifieds . . . . . . . . . 13A Announcements . . . . 16A
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The Minnesota Vikings broke ground on their new headquarters and practice facility this week, and the festivities included plenty of fanfare. Just before the ceremonial dig Aug. 2, a shovel was delivered to NFL Commissioner Roger Goodell by a skydiver. Goodell took part in the ground-breaking ceremony with Vikings COO Kevin Warren, general manager Rick Spielman, coach Mike Zimmer, players Teddy Bridgewater, Harrison Smith and Laquon Treadwell, Eagan Mayor Mike Maguire and other Vikings officials. Vikings cheerleaders were on hand at the event. A large video screen was held up by backhoes and a dump truck lifted its back to reveal a banner after the Vikings announced a 20-year naming rights agreement with Twin Cities Orthopedics. Under the agreement, the new facil-
The Minnesota Vikings celebrated the ground-breaking of their new headquarters and practice facility Aug. 2. The team’s facility — located at the intersection of Dodd Road and Lone Oak Parkway — is part of a 200-acre development that also includes a mix of high-density housing, retail, office, mixed-use buildings, and a hotel and conference center. (Photo by Jessica Harper) ity — located at the intersection of Dodd Road and Lone Oak Parkway — will be called Twin Cities Orthopedics PerforSee VIKINGS, 18A
Police react to turbulent times Burnsville chief proud of his charges by John Gessner SUN THISWEEK DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE
Burnsville police wrapped blue-lined “mourning bands� around their badges after five Dallas cops were killed and nine injured in a mass shooting July 7. They’d planned to remove the bands at the end of the month, but that was delayed by the July 17 shooting that killed three officers and wounded three in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. “And now today,� Chief Eric Gieseke said July 29, hours after news came of another shooting — one
officer dead, one wounded — in San Diego, California. “So we’d like to be able to take this band off. But it’s a different environment.� Burnsville police are adapting, Gieseke said in an interview, to a turbulent time marked by the deadly ambushes, tensions over police killings of black males in other cities and his own department’s first officer-involved killing in 35 years. “We are as proud as we’ve ever been to wear this uniform, to serve this community, to wear this badge,� said the chief, who said his officers continue, without hesitation, to run toward trouble when an incident demands it. See POLICE, 18A
In January, Burnsville and state officials cheered a proposed deal to finally clean up the old Freeway Landfill west of Interstate 35W and leave some of the land for development. On July 28, the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency declared the deal dead because the landowner wouldn’t take the steps needed to close it and bring the property into the state’s Closed Landfill Program. The next step is one the Closed Landfill Program was created to avoid — a federal Superfund action in which the Environmental Protection Agency attempts to identify parties responsible for contaminating the site and saddle them with the cleanup costs. The number of responsible parties could range from “10s to hundreds� — including the landfill owner, waste haulers, local governments, businesses large and small and others whose garbage went into the landfill, said Kirk Koudelka, MPCA assistant commissioner. The unlined, riverfront landfill collected trash from 1969 to 1990. Under the state-funded Closed Landfill Program, the MPCA proposed to dig up waste in the landfill property, which has been in the R.B. McGowan family since the mid1960s, and replace it atop a liner to prevent contaminants from polluting groundwater. Waste on the east side of the property
would be moved to the west. The state would own that property, leaving 40 acres of developable land to landfill owners R.B. McGowan Co. and Freeway Transfer, a garbagetransfer station on the property, the MPCA said. Without the protective liner, groundwater will be endangered once dewatering ceases at the Kraemer Mining and Materials quarry south of the landfill, the MPCA says. Dewatering will end when mining ends, which Burnsville officials say could be 20 years from now. When dewatering ends, the water table will rise to the level of the landfill, leaving some of the waste sitting in groundwater that will be exposed to contaminants such as heavy metals, medical waste, volatile organic compounds and cobalt, according to the MPCA. The groundwater, part of Burnsville and Savage’s drinking water supply, will flow to a lake that will fill the spent quarry and to the Minnesota River, bringing contamination with it, according to the MPCA. Burnsville officials are “frustrated and disappointed� the matter wasn’t resolved through the Closed Landfill Program, City Manager Heather Johnston said in an email. “Protecting the water supply continues to be our top priority, and we are prepared to work through whatever is needed to ensure proper closure of the Freeway Landfill,� she said. “At the end of the day, the EPA’s Superfund program will ensure that the landfill is closed properly — protecting the area’s valuable water See LANDFILL, 12A
Music has been Squires’ mission Alumni will honor former BHS choir director Aug. 6 by John Gessner SUN THISWEEK DAKOTA COUNTY TRIBUNE
Teachers mustn’t proselytize in school, says former Burnsville High school choir director Loren Squires. But when his students tackled Handel’s “Messiah,� they at least knew what they were singing about. “He would talk about God in the music,� said Jenifer Molohon Mahler, a 1973 BHS graduate who teaches voice in the Music Preparatory Division of Texas Chrisian University. “It was really just life-changing the way he presented it all. I carry that love of music in my
Loren Squires and his wife, Linda. (Submitted photo) teaching.� Squires, who directed BHS choirs from 1962 to 1997, will be honored Saturday, Aug. 6, with an alumni concert at 3 p.m., dinner at 6 p.m. and a roast and tribute afterward. The all-class event
will be held at St. James Lutheran Church, 3650 Williams Drive, Burnsville. “It’s humbling and it’s almost embarrassing, because I don’t feel like See SQUIRES, 12A
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