MiracleKids Triathlon
‘Hairspray’ on stage
Strong turnout at Lake Ann
New CDT offering has staying power
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CHANHASSEN
THURSDAY, AUGUST 25, 2011
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Villager Westwood pastor ties the knot for Kardashian BY FORREST ADAMS fadams@swpub.com
PHOTO BY UNSIE ZUEGE
Come and see them at the state fair. Michael and Sarah Wentzien are the owners of San Felipe Tacos, located in the Food Building at the Minnesota State Fair. Their special fish taco has made it a destination booth for thousands of fans.
Pronto pups, mini-donuts and … fish tacos? Chan family runs food stand at State Fair BY UNSIE ZUEGE uzuege@swpub.com
Remember that recent reality show called “America’s Next Best Restaurant?” A bunch of contestants from around the country come up with a restaurant concept, come up with a menu, a logo and a marketing plan? Michael and Sarah Wentzien of Chanhassen laughed when they heard about it. “We didn’t have to watch it,” Michael Wentzien said. “We’ve lived it.” For 50 weeks out of the year, Michael works at OptumInsight in Eden Prairie, a company which provides technology, information, analytics and consulting to
the health care industry. Sarah is a CPA and former IBM business consultant. When they started a family — Paul, 8, John, 6, and Lauren, 3 — Sarah became a stay-at-home mom. But she was cooking up ideas for a food stand at the fair. Sarah comes from a Minnesota State Fair family. Her parents, Richard and Delphine Sunderland, have owned and operated the Red Barn Root Beer Stand and the Galaxy of Drinks for nearly 46 years at the state fair. The root beer is made locally with an old family recipe and is made in St. Paul. It’s only available once a year, during the 12 days of the state fair. Growing up, Sarah spent her time at the family’s fair booth, pretty much from the time she learned how to count back change, Michael said. It just never left her blood. Over the years, she and her family would
brainstorm food concepts for the fair. Sarah’s sister, who lives in southern California, suggested creating a fish taco.
THINKING OUTSIDE THE BOX A fish taco? “I know,” Michael said. “If you’re from the Midwest [he grew up in Gladbrook, Iowa] that doesn’t sound right.” Though they played around with lots of ideas, they kept circling back to the fi sh taco concept. “So Sarah put a business plan together based on a fish taco stand,” Wentzien said. “We fiddled around in a test kitchen with different fish, toppings, sauces and how you blend it together.” About seven years ago, they submitted their idea to the state fair.
Fish Tacos to page 2 ®
Last weekend and early this week, entertainment news outlets around the world went into overdrive when reality-TV star Kim Kardashian got married. Kim Kardashian, 30, was the story, but as images of the wedding leaked to the press, the whole world saw Pastor Joel Joel Johnson from Chanhassen’s WestJohnson wood Community Church standing before the celebrity bombshell and former University of Minnesota basketball player and current NBA player Kris Humphries, 26. The wedding took place on Saturday evening. One of the Chanhassen Villager’s Facebook ‘friends’ exclaimed by Sunday afternoon, “Our pastor from Westwood Community Church, Joel Johnson, officiated the Kardashian wedding!” So how did the pastor of a large church in Carver County suddenly fi nd himself marrying celebrities at a private estate in Montecito, Calif., in front of a crowd that included Lindsay Lohan and Sugar Ray Leonard? The truth is there was nothing sudden about it. The Humphries family has attended Westwood for 10 years, and Johnson has known Kris Humphries since, well, before the 6-foot-9-inch Humphries was taller than the 6-foot-4-inch Johnson. Kris, when he was younger, participated in Westwood’s youth ministries, according to Tim Remington, the church’s communications director. Johnson, a contributor to the Chanhassen Villager faith page, was not initially planning to grant media requests after he returned from the wedding. “He’s considering it a private matter between a pastor and his congregation,” said Remington. However, by Tuesday afternoon he issued the following statement to the Villager. “As pastor of Westwood Community Church, it is my privilege to officiate the marriages of families within our congregation including the Humphries/Kardashian wedding. The couple requested a God-honoring, Christcentered ceremony and gave me the freedom to share a message that upholds God’s perspective on love that leads to a great marriage. This is what I wish for Kim and Kris in their marriage, and for every marriage.” So what did the stars say about Johnson’s message? At least one, Kathy Lee Gifford, was impressed. Gifford, a Kardashian family friend, said on her TV show Monday morning that Johnson had conducted one of the most spiritual weddings she has ever attended.
City seeks more information, better bids for rusty traffic poles BY FORREST ADAMS fadams@swpub.com
Have you seen all the rust on the traffic signals lining Highway 5? A ‘friend’ of the Chanhassen Villager described it on the newspaper’s Facebook page. “The rusty light poles next to all the weeds coming through the, no doubt, very expensive brickwork that has not been maintained looks pretty shabby.” The poles aren’t shabby enough for the Chanhassen City Council to take action … yet. City Engineer Paul Oehme proposed on Monday that the council approve an $ 88,690 bid from a St. Paul contractor to repaint the poles.
JOIN THE CHAT ARE THE POLES AN EYESORE?
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The council, however, will wait. When he looked at photos of the rusty poles, City Councilor Jerry McDonald asked if they have enough structural integrity to continue standing long-term or if spending money to paint them would be a waste. Oehme said he did not know, so the decision was made to table the motion until a later date. The traffic signals are on a state highway, but the agreement the city
has with the Minnesota Department of Transportation states that the traffic signals within the city limits are the responsibility of the city of Chanhassen. That means paying for minor maintenance and electrical needs associated with the poles. Oehme said if the signals are left unpainted, they may need to be replaced prematurely, which would require the city to participate in a portion of the cost for signal replacement. He said the cost to replace just one of the old signals would be in the neighborhood of $150,000. In addition to the results of Oehme’s upcoming signal viability analysis, the City Council hopes to get more competitive quotes for the project. This time around, only two
fi rms bid for the job, and only one of the bids was reasonable, according to city officials. A Prior Lake fi rm bid $147,000. The St. Paul fi rm bid $ 88,690. Traffic signals on Highway 5 show signs of severe rusting, but the Chanhassen City Council tabled a proposal to paint them, with the hope of getting more favorable bids in the spring. In the meantime, Paul Oehme, the city engineer, will conduct post viability analysis to determine if the paint will be enough to maintain the poles for 15 years. “I don’t want to spend money to paint the poles if they are just going to fall down in a few years,” said Councilor Jerry McDonald.
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