Secret garden
Roadshow Roadie
Couple creates unique backyard landscape
Behind the scenes of a PBS classic
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THURSDAY, JULY 21, 2011
CHASKA
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Camping out in the backyard Shutdown helps attendance at local parks BY FORREST ADAMS fadams@swpub.com
A Three Rivers Park District enews release last week exploited the bitter pill that many people have been forced to swallow this month by asking the following question: “Did the state government shut down your camping plans?” What was a disappointment for campers with reservations at one of Minnesota’s 66 state parks turned out to be a boon for local parks. But many campers, who would
Non-state camping Carver County Parks: (952) 466-5250; www.co.carver.mn.us Three Rivers Park District: (763) 559-9000; www.threeriversparks.org
READ PAGE 2 FOR MORE STATE SHUTDOWN COVERAGE.
have left the area for a state park, seem to have turned instead to local campgrounds, where officials say the reservation desks are busy.
Park to page 2 ®
PHOTO BY FORREST ADAMS
On the left, Gary Schettl, of Jordan, and his two kids check in at Baylor Regional Park last Thursday afternoon. His original reservation at Afton State Park was cancelled. On the right, Troy Schulze, of Stewart, helps his wife check in for an annual girls’ camping trip.
New morgue needed?
Pedal power
County part of co-op facing big decision
Local duo is bicycling the country
BY SHANNON FIECKE sfiecke@swpub.com
With admittedly little preparation, the long-time friends and Chaska High School grads left Carver County on May 22. They expect to return sometime in November. “We thought, let’s just get stuff and we’ll figure it out,” said Carlson.
Medical Examiner Dr. Lindsey Thomas would like to retire in eight years, and she wants to leave area counties in good hands. But Thomas knows forensic pathologists are hard to come by. It may be impossible to hire a lead examiner for the eight south-central Minnesota counties she serves unless the Minnesota Regional Medical Examiner’s Office gets a new facility before she retires. Thomas shares the basement of Regina Medical Center in Hastings, where bodies come in the same door as the hospital’s outpatients. The agency’s caseload has grown nearly five times and exams have more than doubled since the morgue was last remodeled in 1987, but there is no room at Regina to expand. Five counties have also been added to the collaborative. Besides limited space to store specimens, there’s no place to put additional staff or add on to the autopsy room. Staff must manually move bodies because they have no mechanical lifts. Only a small storage closet exists for storing tissue samples and the evidence room lacks a secure entry system. Perhaps the most concerning is the single room for performing autopsies, when there should be at least two to
Bikers to page 3 ®
Morgue to page 6 ®
BY MOLLEE FRANCISCO mfrancisco@swpub.com
What do you do when you’ve lost your job, your home and your girlfriend? You hop on a bicycle and set off on a 10,000 mile ride, of course. At least that’s what you do if you’re Shane Carlson. Carlson, 30, of Chaska, and Victoria’s Luke Earley, 26, are more than a quarter of the way through an “epic” journey that will take them on a wild figure-eight ride across America and into Canada and Mexico. Neither is an avid biker or a huge planner, but they didn’t let that deter them from thinking big when it came to hitting the road. “Recently relieved of his home, job and girlfriend, [Carlson] no longer feels obligated to participate in the tedious motions of the everyday grind,” he explained in the duo’s “This Side of the Road” blog. “I had nothing to do,” Carlson explained in a phone interview from New York City. “I wanted to have an epic adventure and not have any regrets,” he continued. “This is something huge for me.” Earley’s expectations aren’t quite as grand. “I wanted to see the coun-
SUBMITTED PHOTO
Shane Carlson and Luke Earley pose in front of Niagara Falls.
DEPARTURE
MORE ONLINE FOR A LINK TO LUKE AND SHANE’S BLOG, VISIT
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try,” he said plainly. Earley is taking a semester off from the University of Minnesota to complete the trip.
INSIDE OPINION/4 OBITUARIES/6 VICTORIA PAGE/11 SPORTS/13 CALENDAR/26 CLASSIFIEDS/29-32 TO REACH US SUBSCRIBE: (952) 345-6683 EDITOR: (952) 345-6574 OR E-MAIL EDITOR@CHASKAHERALD.COM.
PHOTO BY SHANNON FIECKE
Ideally, Dr. Lindsey Thomas would like to retain tissue samples from all examinations, kept in this closet. She has little storage space left, and nowhere to expand her autopsy room.
Medical examiner annual cost per county Carver: $1.46 per resident Scott: $1.41 per resident Anoka: $2.89 per resident Hennepin: $4.05 per resident Collaborative: Carver County partners with Scott, Chisago, Dakota, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue and Houston counties
Estimated cost for different facility: Build new: $2.37 per resident Share facility with Anoka: $2.89 per resident
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