Life in the Prairie
World beaters
Eden Prairie’s city newsletter
Legion team wins World Series title with 13-inning thriller
Inside
Page 12
www.edenprairienews.com
THURSDAY, AUGUST 18, 2011
EDEN PRAIRIE
$1
news
‘Someone was watching over us’
9 candidates in race for 4 board positions
Heroic actions of chaperone save bus full of children on I-494
BY LEAH SHAFFER lshaffer@swpub.com
BY ALEX HALL ahall@swpub.com
Stretch program. They hit the road optimistic and excited for the day, but it wasn’t long before the trip hit a snag.
Nine candidates will be running for four School Board positions this fall, including the four incumbents: Carol Bomben, John Estall, Kim Ross and Holly Parker. They’ll be joined by K arla Brat r ud, David Espe, Tim Fox, Derek Gunderson and Bill Lapadat. Tuesday, all the candidates, with the exception of Espe, gathered at the district Administrative Services Center for a session on board member responsibilities and the board’s governance model. Eden Prairie News has put together a breakdown of all the candidates thus far: Carol Bomben : Bomben currently serves as the chair of the Eden Prairie school board. She was fi rst elected to the board in 1996. Karla Bratrud: Bratrud, who has two children in the district, has been active in getting more parent involvement in the district since controversy arose about the district looping policy. David Espe: Espe has four children who graduated from EPHS and one in seventh-grade. He is a coach for the seventh-grade football team. Espe said he decided to run because he is not satisfied with the direction the board and administration has taken the past several years. John Estall: Estall was first elected four years ago but, prior to that was involved in a number of district committees. He said his
Bus heroes to page 14 ®
Candidates to page 14 ®
F
or just about everybody, it was the worst case scenario. A school bus carrying 62 children and five adults is heading down the highway in Eden Prairie when, all of a sudden, the driver slumps over in his seat, causing the bus to careen off of the guard rail of an exit, leaving the children and adult chaperones in terror. This wasn’t a scene from a high-budget summer blockbuster, but rather the real-life events surrounding a near-crash on July 20 involving a bus full of kids and volunteers from St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Savage. However, much like most summer blockbusters, this story also had a clear-cut hero. Tim Taormina of Apple Valley, a chaperone on the bus, saw what was happening and grabbed the wheel, applied the brakes and was able to maneuver the bus off of an exit into a grassy area, sparing the bus’ occupants of any injury. “You’ve got a bus barreling down the highway at 60 mph, and the driver loses consciousness, it can go anywhere,” said Eden Prairie Police Sgt. Jarrad Biggar, one of the first responders on the scene. “Luckily [Taormina] was sitting behind him and took control of the bus, because if he hadn’t done that, that bus could have gone anywhere off the road and overturned. He definitely
PHOTO BY ALEX HALL
Eden Prairie Police say the actions of Tim Taormina and the other volunteers on a bus July 20 helped to avoid a serious tragedy. Volunteers from the bus that day and Father Michael Tix: Nicole Jeziorski, Lori Taormina, Maddie Sabin and Tim Taormina. prevented a certain tragedy, that’s for sure.”
HEROICS AND LUCK It was a stiflingly hot Wednesday morning, and chaperones from St.
John the Baptist had just finished packing the sixth-, seventh- and eighth-graders into the bus for a volunteering trip to Feed My Starving Children in Chanhassen as part of the church’s Summer
‘When is it going to get better?’
IT’S THE COWS
Ensign neighborhood feels the brunt of 169/494 project BY LEAH SHAFFER lshaffer@swpub.com
PHOTO BY KARLA WENNERSTROM
Steve Schussler of St. Louis Park, creator of the Rainforest Cafe, has been sprucing up Eden Prairie’s Goodrich-Ramus Barn at 14150 Pioneer Trail. The entire barn was scraped and painted by hand with paintbrushes; a fence was added, like “putting a frame around a painting;” the roof was replaced, with an added layer of insulation; huge fans were added to extract heat; pots of flowers from Marshall’s Farm Market were placed by each entrance. But something was missing. Cows.
SEE PAGE 28, LIVING IN EP, FOR MORE AND PHOTOS FROM THE COW DELIVERY MONDAY.
For the residents of the Ensign neighborhood, this construction season is particularly painful. Because of their location next to the Highway 169/Interstate 494 interchange project, residents must contend with booming noise from the highway; piles of dirt and construction vehicles that clutter their only neighborhood entrance; lost motorists gunning through their formerly quiet streets, and a single exit that can take them five miles out of their way south on Highway 169. “When is it going to get better?” wondered one resident during a meeti ng wit h M n DOT of f icia ls Thursday. The short answer: About two and a half months. MnDOT and the project contractor have been working with neighborhood residents to alleviate some of their concerns, but at this point,
Ensign Road to page 15 ®
PHOTOS BY LEAH SHAFFER
Linda Goetz, a resident of the Ensign neighborhood, shares her concerns with the ongoing traffic getting lost on their street because of the Highway 169/I-494 project.
Watch for delays Motorists may encounter delays this week while going westbound on Interstate 494 as the right auxiliary lane remains closed between Highway 169 and Prairie Center Drive. The lane will remain closed for approximately another week, according to the Minnesota Department of Transportation. Part of the Highway 169/I-494 interchange reconstruction project, the closure is necessary as crews construct a new entrance ramp from southbound Highway 169 to westbound I-494, according to MnDOT.
INSIDE OPINION/4 OBITUARIES/6 SPORTS/12-13 CALENDAR/18 CLASSIFIEDS/24-27 LIVING IN EP/28 TO REACH US SUBSCRIBE: (952) 345-6682 EDITOR: (952) 942-7885 OR EMAIL EDITOR@EDENPRAIRIENEWS.COM.
VOL. 37, ISSUE 41/33 © SOUTHWEST NEWSPAPERS
Eden Prairie’s Most Trusted Team
JoeAndCindy.com 85 homes
SOLD this year!
Joe and Cindy Welu Eden Prairie Residents Team@JoeAndCindy.com
Free Market Analysis • Free Short Sale Consultation
Action West
952-943-1324