Beating the heat
‘One at a Time’
Water was the cure-all for 90-degree days
Artist brings collection to Savage Art Studios & Gallery
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www.savagepacer.com
SATURDAY, JULY 23, 2011
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State funding shift leaves school districts at a loss District 191 looks to borrow $20 million, District 719 sets up a line of credit BY MERYN FLUKER & ALEX HALL mfluker@swpub.com; ahall@swpub.com
Our long statewide nightmare is officially over, at least on paper. With the strokes of his pens on Wednesday morning, Gov. Mark Dayton of ficially ended the longest state government shutdown in modern history by signing a dozen
bills, giving the state of Minnesota a fi nancial roadmap for the next two fiscal years. Contention between state legislators and the governor over how to seal a $1.4 billion budget gap is what led to the shutdown. The two parties reached middle ground through a move to issue about $700 million worth of bonds from the state’s to-
bacco settlement. The remaining amount, which totals about $ 700 million, will come from the largest venue for the state’s expenditures: Kindergarten through 12th grade education. The state will divert $700 million in aid for K-12 education through a funding shift, giving districts 60 percent of allocated funds for the next
fi scal year and pledging to provide the remaining 40 percent at some point in the future. Funding shifts have in recent years become a popular alternative for the state to beef up its budget without technically cutting education. In the middle part of the last decade, when the economic picture was considerably rosier, Minnesota
school districts were funded at a ratio of 90:10. This meant that they received 90 percent of their allocated funding from the state during the fiscal year, and the remaining 10 percent would be paid the following year, simply due to the fact that funding is determined by the amount of students enrolled
Schools to page 7 ®
Man indicted for making fake postage stamps
Bidding adieu to old fire hall At one time, it was the hub of the community
BY LORI CARLSON editor@plamerican.com
BY NANCY HUDDLESTON editor@savagepacer.com
I
OLD PHOTOS COURTESY OF THE SAVAGE LIBRARY/PHOTO BY NANCY HUDDLESTON
t didn’t matter what you needed back in 1965, the downtown fire hall was the place to go. “If there was a big event, that’s where you went,” recalled Carol Sue Gutoske. “They’d take out the fire trucks to make room for things like civic dinners, the fireman’s dances and all sorts of things.” Carol Sue’s husband, Mic, was the part-time city clerk at the time and recalled that part of his job was to take down information about fire calls when they came in, ring the bell to alert volunteer firefighters that they were needed and write down where the fire was on a blackboard in the garage. “You’d stop doing what you were doing when a fire call came in and then they’d be off to wherever they were going and you’d go back to what you were doing,” Mic said. As the part-time clerk, that might be selling a dog license or taking payments on water bills, typing up city council meeting minutes or answering questions from residents. At the time, the city of Savage was one square mile with about 2,000 residents –
(Above) When it opened in 1965, the city building on Quentin Avenue doubled as the city hall and fire station, but it was demolished last week (below).
Fire Hall to page 6 ®
A 31-year-old Prior Lake man has been indicted for manufacturing phony postage stamps that he copied and reproduced online. Andre George Mehilove (also known as Andre George Solanikov and Andrejs Solanikovs) produced the stamps on his computer from other postage meter stamps he bought online, according to an indictment fi led July 6 and unsealed this week following Mehilove’s appearance in federal court. Authorities executed a search warrant at Mehilove’s home and workplace on April 3, 2009, and seized computers, items with counterfeit postage, PayPal identity devices and online postage labels. A lengthy investigation followed. Authorities aren’t commenting at this time about the quantity of stamps produced, the length of time Mehilove was producing stamps, or what the fi nancial gain was, if any. According to David Anderson, community relations specialist for the U.S. Attorney’s Office – District of Minnesota, “Mr. Mehilove is alleged to have manufactured the larger postage labels.” Mehilove was charged with one count of manufacturing postage stamps. If convicted, he could face a maximum penalty of five years in prison.
VIEW MORE POLICE REPORTS ON PAGES 10 AND 11.
City council requests more financial details on sports dome BY NANCY HUDDLESTON editor@savagepacer.com
Even though it seems al l the “I’s” have been dotted and the “T’s” crossed, the Savage City Council still has not formally voted on approving a concept for a sports dome at Community Park. When the topic was discussed during a July 11 work session, more
questions lingered about the city’s financial liability. That’s because the city will need to sell at least $5 million in Economic Development Authority (EDA) lease revenue bonds to build the 80,0 0 0 -square-foot dome and 5,000-square-foot attached building. “This is a big step,” offered City Administrator Barry Stock after the meeting when asked why the project has not been formally approved yet.
“And it’s a big decision, particularly in economic times like this. People will still have trouble understanding how the Council can pull the trigger on a $5.2 million project.” It’s been nine months since the Burnsville Athletic Club (BAC), Prior Lake Athletics for Youth (P.L.A.Y) and Prior Lake Soccer Club approached the city about building an indoor sports dome. The youth sports orga-
nizations asked the city to issue lease revenue bonds to build the dome and have pledged to pay off that debt with revenues generated by renting out space. Since then, Oppidan was hired to complete a market and fi nancial analysis for the proposed project and Stanley Consultants was hired to complete a traffic study. Springsted, the city’s financial consultant, did an
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analysis of the bonds and used 15-year and 25-year debt service schedules to calculate the annual payments. The study concluded the dome would generate $748,000 in annual revenue and it would cost $240,402 per year to operate the facility with a private company. The largest cost factor is the debt service payment, which
Dome to page 7 ®
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