Good night, PEEF
Work of art
Father, son team up for Stages Theatre production
EP’s Art Center gains popularity, offers new programs
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www.edenprairienews.com
THURSDAY, DECEMBER 1, 2011
EDEN PRAIRIE
$1
news Next year to bring big changes to Shady Oak Road
IN EP’S DEFENSE … AWESOME REIGNS
With United Health Group redevelopment, road will be widened and improved
Shady Oak Road project 62 W. 62nd St.
N
READING reasons why,” said Interim Superintendent Jon McBroom. “I think we need to have some discussions about that and then talk about where do we
During the meeting, the board approved the administration’s assertion
212 Construction will start in 2012 on a project to widen and improve a segment of Shady Oak Road between Rowland Road and Highway 62. The city, county, MnDOT and Minnetonka, along with United Health Group, are working in partnership on the project. The cost of the project will be covered by United Health Group, which will be undertaking a massive redevelopment at its site, just north of City West Parkway. y
THE EP SCHOOL BOARD MET WEDNESDAY NIGHT AFTER THIS ISSUE WENT TO PRESS. VISIT OUR WEBSITE FOR ADDITIONAL COVERAGE. www.edenprairienews.com
go from here.” Board member Ranee Jacobus also emphasized the need for the board to grapple with the district’s enrollment issues. “We need to have that conversation as a board sooner rather than later,” she said.
tP a r k wa
The last Eden Prairie School Board meeting, held Nov. 15, highlighted both the district’s strengths and its ongoing challenges. The strengths: Eden Prairie students continue to excel and improve when it comes to test scores. The challenge: attracting more students as the district’s enrollment is projected to decline. “If we didn’t hit the target for the demographics, there’s probably some
MORE ONLINE
es yW
BY LEAH SHAFFER lshaffer@swpub.com
roundabout
Cit
School Board tackles reading scores, facility targets
k Road
PHOTO BY DANIEL HUSS
It wasn’t exactly the Lambeau leap, but it was close. After playing a big role in the outcome of the Eden Prairie High School football team’s 13-3 victory over No. 1 ranked Wayzata in the Class 5A Prep Bowl, the Eagles’ Matt Knoff celebrates his team’s state championship by jumping into the Eden Prairie student section at the Metrodome. Knoff intercepted a Wayzata pass near the Eden Prairie goal line late in the first half. The win marks the seventh time Eden Prairie has won a big-school football title. For more on Eden Prairie’s win, go to page 8.
The northeast corner of Eden Prairie will be transformed next year as reconstruction projects for Shady Oak Road and the United Health Group campus start up. The Shady Oak Road improvement project, which starts in late summer of 2012, will bring a widened roadway, turn lanes, medians and pedestrian trails to a section of Shady Oak Road, just north of Rowland Road. The cost of the fi rst phase is covered by United Health Group as it begins work on the massive redevelopment of its campus, just east of Shady Oak and south of Highway 62. The fi rst phase of the UHG project will include the construction of two eight-story buildings and a parking ramp set for completion in 2013. The project will include four new buildings totaling almost 1.5 million square feet of office space on 71 acres. The $250 million redevelopment project will transform the wooded area just bordering Eden Prairie into a state-of-the-art walkable corporate campus with space for a light rail transit station. The UHG project is estimated to add 14,000 to 15,000 new vehicle trips daily to the area and an estimated 6,700 jobs. To handle all those extra drivers, UHG will cover the costs of improvements to Shady Oak Road and
Shady Oa
BY LEAH SHAFFER lshaffer@swpub.com
Graphic by Barbara Tieben
City West Parkway. The fi rst phase of the Shady Oak project should be complete by 2013. The city and Hennepin County held an open house in late November to answer questions about the project. There, Assistant City Engineer Randy Newton explained that the Shady Oak project will occur in two phases, with the northern phase starting up next year. However, the onus is on the city to come up with
Shady Oak to page 10 ®
School Board to page 10 ®
Q AND A
Eden Prairie’s Police Officer of the Year Officer Travis Serafin was selected as the 2011 Officer of the Year by the Eden Prairie Police Department. According to the EPPD blog, Serafin was selected for the award “for the positive attitude, eagerness and friendly demeanor he demonstrates at work on a daily basis. He is constantly interacting with various groups of people including his co-workers in the police department, other city staff and the retail community. He makes a point to get to know the people with whom he interacts and exhibits a genuine care and concern for them. In addition, Officer Serafin has demonstrated leadership on the ERU team where he has served as an instructor at the SWAT basic school and has taken the initiative to custom design and build several pieces of equipment for the team.” SUBMITTED PHOTO
EP News spoke with Officer Serafin. The interview below has been condensed and edited. Q: How long have you been working for Eden Prairie? A: Eleven years Q: How did you get started as a police officer? A: I started right with Eden Prairie,
Travis Serafin is the Eden Prairie Police Department Officer of the Year for 2011. but my father was a Hennepin County sheriff’s deputy. Q: How did you end up in Eden Prairie? A: I just applied everywhere and I
was a garbage man in Eden Prairie: An opening opened up and I interviewed, got the job. Q: What’s a typical day on the job? A: I actually work the retail crime unit now. I work the mall and the downtown district. There’s two of us and a sergeant that work that. I typically work afternoon hours till 10. We work right out of the mall; we have an office at the mall. [I] work a lot with mall security and all the stores. ... The majority of our job up there is to deter crime and to deter the ORCs or organized retail crime, people who shoplift and things like that for a living. So we’re typically dealing with that the majority of the time. Q: Is Eden Prairie a target for those organized groups? A: It’s any mall. We work with Bloomington and the Mall of America and Ridgedale and Southdale; they also have police officers in their malls. The ORCs, they bounce
Officer to page 10 ®
PHOTO BY LEAH SHAFFER
City Engineer Randy Newton listened to comments during an open house about the Shady Oak Road project. The northern section of the road will be widened next year in anticipation of the redevelopment of the United Health Group site.
VOL. 38, ISSUE 4/48
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