Big name performs at St. John’s
Tennis team finishes strong
AGAPE entertains with hip hop, rap, dance, storytelling and Spanish
Award-laden Jaguars defeat Belle Plaine, but fall to St. Peter in semifinals
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JORDAN
THURSDAY, OCTOBER 13, 2011
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www.jordannews.com
INDEPENDENT Maze masters and crazed clowns Jordan residents mastermind the CarnEvil in 3-D at ValleySCARE BY MATHIAS BADEN editor@jordannews.com
J
osh Nelson has built a backyard to die for. And every year, every week, he wants to do something to top his latest scare. For six years running, his bosses, Ron and Kim Hubner of Jordan have been the “maze masters” at CarnEvil in 3-D at ValleySCARE, but it’s the clowns that do the scaring. “We have realized how many people are afraid of clowns,” Kim Hubner said. Nelson, a 1998 Jordan graduate who lives in Henderson, is back for a sixth year on the back-lot scare, located in a warehouse formerly used to store toys and other prizes. It’s annually the most attended haunted maze at Valleyfair’s fall event. From a staff of 40 scary clowns, 18 are returning. Four of the new clowns – Seth Baxendell, Dillon Baxendell, Ryan Hubner and Scott VonBank – are firsttimers hailing from Jordan.
PHOTO BY DAVID SCHUELLER
After a heart procedure, Jim Rutoski, a former employee of Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative (MVEC), was able to climb steps and resume an active life.
PHOTO BY MATHIAS BADEN
Scary clown Josh Nelson will get you one last time in the backyard at ValleySCARE’s CarnEvil. For the past six years, Nelson, a 1998 Jordan graduate, has put his creativity to work at Valleyfair’s Halloween Haunt. They started as season pass holders, and ended up working there. Nelson and the other clowns get their fingers into the design of CarnEvil, with Nelson’s favorite
contributions ranging from a 3-D Scrabble board to the baby room to a variety of backyard scares.
BEGINNINGS CarnEvil started after
Knott’s Camp Snoopy and Valleyfair teamed up to create ValleySCARE, which has two distinct features – Planet Snoopy for the younger kids, and Halloween Haunt for older kids and adults.
Ron, who met Kim working at Valleyfair, is the director of merchandise and games and has worked at Valleyfair since 1980.
ValleySCARE to page 12 ®
Fixed his heart, he’s back at it New valve repair procedure may have saved Jim Rutoski’s life BY DAVID SCHUELLER dschueller@swpub.com
ELECTION 2011
Get out and vote Election day is Tuesday, Nov. 8, and five candidates are running for three open seats on the Jordan School Board. Please learn about the candidates before you vote. This week, the Jordan Independent features Dennis Schmit and Bob Vollbrecht. You can read question-andanswer responses and minibiographies in their own words inside on page 6. Next week, your local newspaper will feature Caroline Carritt, Lauren Pederson and Melisa Stoltz. You can also read their questionand-answer responses and minibiographies. The deadline for letters to the editor about candidates is 3 p.m. Monday, Oct. 24. By Oct. 28, election coverage will be available at jordannews.com. Your local newspaper will remind you about the candidates’ positions on issues by the Nov. 3 print edition.
Schmit’s office crunches numbers for Wild Thing BY DAVID SCHUELLER dschueller@swpub.com
Dennis Schmit’s parking spot is visible while in line for the High Roller at Valleyfair Amusement Park in Shakopee. “I work at an amusement park, so I must be a kid at heart,” Schmit said. The common question: What does he do in the winter? That question gets old, since he’s long worked there all year. He’s an accounting office manager, and before that, he managed the dorms there for 12 years. Valleyfair employs 70 to 80 full-time workers.
Schmit is one of five candidates for three seats on the Jordan School Board. His job has proved educational, Schmit said, even though he hasn’t done much traveling out of the country or to too many faraway states. The dorms he managed house seasonal employees from out of state and out of country. “I have friends in Bulgaria that I talk to now on Facebook,” Schmit said. He made a point to put up flags from the home countries of each worker
Dennis Schmit has been known by some for his variety of ties. This roller coaster tie is especially appropriate, considering Schmit’s place of employment – full time at Valleyfair. PHOTO BY DAVID SCHUELLER
Schmit to page 6 ®
Reputation preceded Vollbrecht at alma mater BY DAVID SCHUELLER dschueller@swpub.com
Bob Vollbrecht is a Johnnie. To other Johnnies, that means a lot. “More than any other school, Johnnies stay connected,” Vollbrecht said. He’s an alumnus of St. John’s University in Collegeville, the all-male partner college to the female College of St. Benedict in nearby St. Joseph. Vollbrecht graduated in 1984, and has stayed in contact with friends and family who went to the school. It’s a task
made somewhat easier by the fact that he has four brothers and – you guessed it – “the five boys all went to St. John’s,” Vollbrecht said. Vollbrecht is one of five candidates for three seats on the Jordan School Board. When he was a freshman, three brothers were there at the same time, and they were all in the same dorm building. Vollbrecht, the youngest of his brothers, was already connected to St. John’s before he got there, from knowing people and being known through his brothers.
Vollbrecht to page 6 ®
INSIDE OPINION/4 OUR SCHOOLS/5-6 PUBLIC SAFETY/7-8 SPORTS/10-11 CALENDAR/13 DAYBOOK/14 TO REACH US SUBSCRIBE: (952) 345-6683 EDITOR: (952) 345-6571 OR E-MAIL EDITOR@JORDANNEWS.COM.
Bob Vollbrecht is proud to be a Johnnie, along with family members and friends. PHOTO BY DAVID SCHUELLER
Before and after. For Jim Rutoski, 73, of Sand Creek Township, before was a life of inactivity, no driving, low energy, and not much of a future considering he’d already had four heart operations and needed a fifth. In his heart, blood was leaking the wrong direction because of a weak valve – a condition called mitral valve disease. “I didn’t hardly do anything. In fact, towards the end, I was passing out,” Rutoski said. The risks of a fifth heart surgery were great, said Wes Pedersen, an interventional cardiologist at the Minneapolis Heart Institute. “That is almost unheard of. Most surgeons tend to cringe with the second time going into the chest because of all the scar tissue,” Pedersen said. Before and after? At this point, about a year ago, he was facing a 10 to 20 percent chance of surviving another surgery, Rutoski said. There probably was not an after. Instead of surgery, cardiologists at the heart institute recommended a new, less invasive procedure that involved sending a 100cm-long catheter up through Rutoski’s groin to his heart, and placing a clip on the valve in hopes of stopping the leak. Only problem was, the procedure has not yet been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), and has been only offered at around 30 sites in the U.S. for investigative trials. One of the few ways to get the procedure involves what’s called a compassionate use. Physicians can lobby for it when patients have few other good options.
Rutoski to page 25 ®
VOL. 128, NO. 23 © SOUTHWEST NEWSPAPERS