Robling on the shutdown
Falling off track?
Senator addresses budget impasse
Canterbury’s in a precarious situation
Page 4
Page 7
PRIOR LAKE
SATURDAY, JULY 9, 2011
$1
www.plamerican.com
AMERICAN Considering a new morgue Scott, other counties facing big decision BY SHANNON FIECKE sfiecke@swpub.com
HASTINGS — Medical examiner Dr. Lindsey Thomas would like to retire eight years, and she wants to leave Scott County 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 au-
Medical examiner cost per county Scott: $1.46 per resident Anoka: $2.89 per resident Hennepin: $4.05 per resident Collaborative: Scott County partners with Carver, Chisago, Dakota, Fillmore, Freeborn, Goodhue and Houston Counties topsies, when there should be at least two to separate bodies that might be decaying, infectious or used for organ harvesting.
Morgue to page 3 ®
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.
SURFIN’ PRIOR LAKE Zoe’s Hulakai Tiki Barge took the grand prize in this year’s Prior Lake boat parade with their surfer-themed float. The parade drew thousands of spectators on boats and on shore Monday, when the sun was bright all day and the temperature hovered at about 85 degrees. Other winners were: Pontoons: first place, Steve Martinez; second place, Randy Lewis; third place, Karen Lorinzer; Runabouts: first place, Dean Schreiner; second place, Kevin Tanner; third place, Deb Ross; Personal watercraft/others: first place, Len Sandok. Judges were John Conant, Bob and Bette Wickman, Don Pampuch, Shelly Bartell and Julie Jensen. Knotty Oar Marina made the Charles Prior II available for use as a judging platform and donated a cruise on the boat as the grand prize. Other businesses donated additional prizes.
PHOTOS ONLINE SEE A SLIDESHOW OF IMAGES FROM THIS YEAR’S BOAT PARADE
www.plamerican.com PHOTO BY LORI CARLSON
Are you a state employee affected by the shutdown? The Prior Lake American is seeking state of Minnesota employees to talk to about their experiences during the government shutdown. If you live in Prior Lake and work for the state (or know a Prior Lake resident who’s a state worker), contact editor Lori Carlson at (952) 345-6378 or editor@plamerican.com.
New technology coordinator eager to build relationships BY MERYN FLUKER mfluker@swpub.com
When Marcus Milazzo was a young student at Jane Addams Elementary School in Palatine, Ill., he went to the school library one day, and his life changed. The school had just received its first and only Apple IIe computer and the principal volunteered to show off the machine’s features, including the very advanced for its time dot matrix printer. “He made it a point to say, ‘Now watch, it prints forwards and backwards,’ and I remember
watching that and going, ‘This is so cool,’” Milazzo said. “I think what really hooked me was the principal taking the time to show me that computer, showing me the internal components, Marcus showing me how the Milazzo dot matrix printer worked – just taking the time to say, ‘Hey look at this.’ I remember it like it was yesterday.” Milazzo’s early tech activities
included spending days with a friend programming a rocket launch on his Commodore 64, playing on his Atari 400 and logging monitor time with Apple classics like “Odell Lake” and, of course, “Oregon Trail.” From that Apple IIe decades ago, Milazzo has now graduated to Apple’s latest innovations, the iPad and the iPhone (in fact, Milazzo was one of the many people waiting in line upon the release of the first iPhone in 2007). Milazzo doesn’t claim to be a Mac guy, however, saying that he embraces “all different types of tech.”
INSIDE OPINION/4 OBITUARIES/6 SPORTS/11-12 CALENDAR/14 AMERICAN SLICE/17 CLASSIFIEDS/20-23 TO REACH US SUBSCRIBE: (952) 345-6682 EDITOR: (952) 345-6378 OR E-MAIL EDITOR@PLAMERICAN.COM.
Just as technology has grown, Milazzo said he’s grown with it. Once the student, Milazzo is now in his 12th year as a technology coordinator. He officially began his latest position, as the Prior LakeSavage Area School District’s new technology coordinator, on July 1. He comes to District 719 from Faribault Public Schools, making the same leap as former director of business affairs Margo Nash. Milazzo’s new role – which incorporates additional tasks with duties performed by the previous
Milazzo to page 3 ®
VOL. 51 ISSUE 41 © SOUTHWEST NEWSPAPERS
Summer has arrived... Where grocery shopping is a pleasure Hwy. 13 South | Prior Lake | 952-440-3900 www.villagemarket.net Open Monday - Sunday 6am - 10pm
you deserve great food from your Village Market!
210684