Nordic connection
Beer endeavors
County has new sister city in Sweden
Chaska hopes to woo Surly Brewery
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CHANHASSEN
THURSDAY, SEPTEMBER 22, 2011
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www.chanvillager.com
Villager
From junk to AAA Chanhassen’s credit rating has soared since mid ‘90s BY RICHARD CRAWFORD editor@chanvillager.com
Fifteen years ago, the city of Chanhassen’s credit rating was bleak and the city’s financial outlook was at risk due to investments in mortgage-backed derivatives. Credit agencies were unimpressed and the city made headlines for being assigned one of the lowest credit ratings possible: Ba1. Chanhassen was one of only two cities in the metropolitan area with below-investment grade ratings at the time, according to a Minneapolis newspaper story. “The city’s investment portfolio, dominated by highly volatile, long-term collateralized mortgage obligations, has experienced significant losses,” according to a ratings review by Moody’s Investors Service in 1995. It was bad timing for Chanhassen, which was in the midst of tremendous growth. But the low credit rating meant the city needed to pay more interest to bond for projects such as building a new senior citizen housing complex.
AAA to page 2 ® PHOTO BY UNSIE ZUEGE
Honey Crisp, Zestar, SweeTango. How do you decide? Kitty Mortensen slices apples for visitors to sample.
Debt comparison Cities
Pop.
Debt per capita
Bond rating
Champlin
23,089
$699
AA+
Oakdale
27,378
$881
Aa3
Shoreview
25,043
$1,376
AAA
Chanhassen
22,952
$1,555
AAA
Prior Lake
22,796
$1,631
Aa2
Andover
30,598
$1,973
AA+
Chaska
23,770
$3,582
AA
Savage
26,911
$3,898
AA+
Bushel of good news for apple crop BY UNSIE ZUEGE uzuege@swpub.com
Thanks in part to 2010’s cold spring and early killing frost, this year’s apple crop is one of the best Lin Deardorff has seen in 10 years. Last year’s weather made the trees reserve their energy on growing vegetation rather than fruit, Deardorff
Source: City of Chanhassen
explained. And that caused the apple fruit buds to thin out. “When apples overproduce, the apples are too small,” said Deardorff, who owns a Waconia orchard. “But this year the fruit set nicely and we’ve got lots of good-sized fruit. It’s been one of the best years for apples in a long time.” To hear Deardorff talk about growing
conditions for apples, grafting apples, and the like, you’d never know that he once lived in a business suit, and before age 40, had never planted an apple tree in his life. It was the late 1970s and Deardorff was fast approaching his 40th birthday. He
Apples to page 2 ®
Poetry provided catalyst in bringing words and thoughts together BY UNSIE ZUEGE uzuege@swpub.com
PHOTO BY UNSIE ZUEGE
Writing poetry helped Angela Hunt of Carver regain her language skills after a traumatic brain injury in 2005. She published a book of poetry, “Am I Still Me?” in 2008. This week, Hunt will participate in a Mayo Clinic training program for brain injury patients and their caregivers.
It was the morning of Feb. 14, 2005, and Angela Hunt walked down the sidewalk heading to the staff door of the Chaska Library, where she is a librarian. “I was due at 9:45 a.m. to open,” Hunt said. “I caught my toe on a brick and tripped. The snow was falling and swirling. It was that dry kind of snow. I don’t remember hitting the ground. I do remember though that I saw a gas engine pickup truck heading down the street toward me right before I tripped. But when I got up, I saw it was an idling diesel-engine truck. I remember thinking that was odd.” Hunt picked herself up. Her glasses were broken, and her ribs hurt. When she entered the library, she noticed that another library employee had already gotten everything — the computers and equipment — up and running. “I felt a little shook up,” Hunt said. She’d also skinned her knee badly, but attended to it, and then went on with her day.
It was one month later, when Hunt was opening the library, that she realized she didn’t know how to start up the computer. “I didn’t recognize the people I worked with, or the patrons I know,” Hunt said. “I couldn’t read. I recognized Janet [Karius, the assistant library director] but I couldn’t say her name. Then a friend of mine came into the library, took a look at me and said, ‘She needs to go to emergency.”
OUT COLD Doctors did X-rays and an MRI. The scans revealed that Hunt had suffered a traumatic brain injury when she tripped and fell in February. She’d been knocked unconscious. “I have no memory of the fall,” Hunt said. “I do remember that when I picked myself up that morning, there was all this snow covering me. I had thought that was odd at the time. The doctors think I was probably knocked out for 20 minutes. “And no one saw me lying there,” Hunt said, “because I had my white coat on and a white beret. It was snowing and I blended
Getting to know: Angela Hunt Age: 57 City: Carver resident for 20 years Family: Husband, James, adult children Jesse 32, Dara 30, and one granddaughter. Career: Librarian, author, and advocate for persons with Traumatic Brain Injury [TBI]. Former buyer for Donaldson’, manager for Bachman’s European Flower Markets, has established libraries in Antigua and Honduras through mission trips. Education: Minnesota School of Business, University of Minnesota, and Concordia College right in.” Falling face fi rst, she’d broken her nose, “crushing my sinuses like an accordion,” she said.
Hunt to page 5 ®
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