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INSIDE
Page 15
PRIOR LAKE
SATURDAY, OCTOBER 15, 2011
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AMERICAN County Road 21: Council says ‘no’ to realignment Median at Main Avenue preferred BY LORI CARLSON editor@plamerican.com
To the relief of the nearly 90 residents and business owners who showed up at City Hall for a special Friday night meeting on Oct. 7, Prior Lake City Council members unanimously rejected the long-discussed and controversial proposal to realign County Road 21 through downtown. Instead, four of the five members voted in favor of the “baseline” option, which would place a median at 21 and Main Avenue, effectively dividing the two halves of downtown. Councilman Richard Keeney opposed
What they said
the realignment option but said he couldn’t immediately push for the baseline option, either. Business owners have said they’re concerned the median would reduce access to their stores. But the waves of relief still spread to those business representatives Friday, including Ace Hardware store owner Bernie Carlson. “I am concerned the median will split downtown and end up costing us some business,” Carlson said. “But I was encouraged to hear council members say they’re interested in maintaining a vibrant downtown.”
21 decision to page 7 ®
PHOTO BY LORI CARLSON
Pat Heaney (far right) talks to a TV news cameraman about the efforts of Pleasant Street homeowners to save their neighborhood from the proposed County Road 21 realignment project. The City Council voted against the realignment on Oct. 7, instead opting for the eventual placement of a median at CR21 and Main Avenue.
Here’s what Prior Lake City Council members said about the vote:
Vanessa Soukup: “One reason this came to fruition was the city was looking for ways to help our city prosper. Both options have pros and cons … I cannot sleep at night thinking I would put people out of their homes and businesses. I am proud of this community and believe we have a strong sense of community.”
Ken Hedberg: “Every time we got more information, we had more questions. The answers changed my views. I want to keep the small-town feel. We’ve yearned for a thriving, vital downtown to maintain a small-town feel as we become a pretty good-sized suburban city. That’s the problem we’ve been trying to address.”
Mike Myser: “There were benefits, but they weren’t strong enough for us to spend that kind of money. During the process, the facts were changing, and they were changing my views.”
Richard Keeney: “The dollars and the impact on the residential neighborhood is just too big – I can’t support the realignment option.”
Warren Erickson: “The council has listened. We looked at all the options very closely. I do hope this is not the end, but the beginning. We will look at how we do improvements along the way.”
Student enrollment grows Tribe seeking BY MERYN FLUKER mfluker@swpub.com
After predictions of slowed growth and eventual declines, the Prior Lake-Savage Area School District has escaped its own self-fulfilled prophecy, at least for now. According to a report released on Monday, the district has 7,180 students – a nearly 2-percent increase from this time last year, when the district’s enrollment totaled 7,042. That 138-student uptick is a more than 650-percent leap from the mere 21 net students District 719 added by this point on the 2010-11 calendar. The development is a departure not only from the “virtually flat” enrollment witnessed in 2010-11 but also the district’s own predictions of slowed growth. While increased enrollment tends to be good news for school districts – additional students mean additional state funding – District 719 is experiencing some “stress points” in its secondary classrooms, according to Director of Curriculum, Instruction and Assessment Jeff Holmberg. Students in grades six through 12 continue to be District 719’s larg-
est learning population, with 4,109 middle- and high-school learners this year, an increase of 173 pupils over last year’s 3,936. Hidden Oaks Middle School continues to be the largest of the district’s sixth-through-eighthgrade buildings, with 940 students to Twin Oaks Middle School’s 797 students. Twin Oaks takes the gold when it comes to growth, however, with a net gain of 62 students – almost three times as many as Hidden Oaks’ 26 additional faces. Prior Lake High School’s enrollment jumped 61 students, to 2,298 from last year’s 2,237, despite closing open enrollment once again. Bridges Area Learning Center, now in its third year of operation, has 74 students enrolled – six shy of its 80-pupil capacity and 30 more than the school counted at this time last year. Average class sizes for core courses – math, science, social studies and English – range from 26 to 36 in the middle schools and 25 to 40 for the high school. Those problem areas arose in part due to the district’s shift this year to a six-period secondary school day.
more trust land BIA not forthcoming with details, Shakopee city leaders say BY SHANNON FIECKE sfiecke@swpub.com
District 719 October enrollment Year 2007-08
Number of students 6,960
2008-09
6,929
2009-10
7,021
2010-11
7,042
2011-12
7,180
Enrollment to page 8 ®
The Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community is asking the federal government to place additional tribal-owned lands into trust, but the federal Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) hasn’t shared the application with the city of Shakopee. The mayor of Shakopee, John Schmitt, said he received notice of the trust application from the BIA on Sept. 7, but the mailing included undated letters and an inoperable DVD. It did not include the actual application, and the BIA has yet to provide a copy after the city fi led a Freedom of Information Act request. The property sought for trust status is 122 acres along Eagle Creek
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Boulevard (the former Shutrop property) and a 2-acre parcel near the tribe’s powpow grounds (former Stemmer property). It’s far less than the 750 acres that led to a lawsuit and eventual consent decree between the city of Shakopee and the BIA three years ago. T ribal attorney Wi l lie Hardacker said the general purpose of the application is to “consolidate trust land in particular areas that are somewhat strategic for their general purposes. “This is part of an ongoing effort to consolidate the tribe’s land base,” he said. Putting land into federal trust removes tribal property from property-tax rolls and gives the tribe autonomy in land-use decisions.
Trust land to page 14 ®
VOL. 52 ISSUE 3 © SOUTHWEST NEWSPAPERS