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THURSDAY, JANUARY 12, 2012
SHAKOPEE
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VALLEY City site proposed for Vikes stadium Local officials behind effort BY SHANNON FIECKE sfiecke@swpub.com
As other proposals for a new Vikings stadium faced increasing scrutiny and the governor put out a Thursday deadline for all plans, Shakopee’s new Mayor Brad Tabke made a call to SavetheVikes.org founder Cory Merrifield. Two days
later a plan was hatched to bring the Vikings to Shakopee. On Saturday, the pair huddled over a table at Perkins Restaurant for hours with the local Chamber of Commerce president, Assistant Senate Majority Leader Claire Robling of Jordan and Rep. Michael Beard of Shakopee. On Wednesday, the group unveiled its plan to locate a 75,000seat stadium on the 130-acre site kitty-corner from Valleyfair that contains the shelved ADC Telecommunications building.
“Everyone thinks we’re too late in the game, but once we started looking at it and got into the fi ne details, it made a lot of sense,� Tabke told the Valley News. “Six million people come to Shakopee every year and we handle all those people with ease.� Mot hba l led si nc e 2 0 01, t he 490,000-square-foot building, constructed for ADC Telecommunications, was never completed when the company underwent bankruptcy.
Early rendering of the proposed site.
Stadium to page 6 ÂŽ
SHAKOPEE SCHOOL BOARD
Junior high boundary draft gets a first look Facility upgrades could cost $5 million BY KRISTIN HOLTZ kholtz@swpub.com
Draft attendance areas Grades 7, 8, 9 - School year 2012-13
STAFF PHOTO BY SHANNON FIECKE / REPRINTS AT PHOTOS.SHAKOPEENEWS.COM
Shakopee firefighters gather at the downtown station before drill Monday night. They’ll soon move their gear and trucks to the new station near Lions Park.
For sale: City fire station Could proceeds go toward senior center funding? With a kitchen, lounge and exercise room, would the downtown fi re station make a good temporary home for a senior center? Shakopee City Councilor Jay Whiting thinks so, since the station is near the Eagle Creek Quilt Shop and across the street from Loaves and Fishes, a free community dinner program at St. Mark’s Catholic Church that draws many older residents. In a few weeks, fi refighters will move from the 10,816-square-foot building at the corner of Second Avenue and Scott Street and into a new station on Vierling Drive, near Lions Park. (The department’s 12-year-old headquarters is also located on Vierling Drive, but in the central part of town.) City councilors last week discussed what to do with the fi re sta-
tion once it’s empty, agreeing to put the building up for sale. If sold, they hinted t hat perhaps t he funds could be directed toward the construction of a senior center at the Shakopee Community Center. Steve An appraiser reClay cently valued the 57-year-old station at $585,000, although it’s to be seen whether the building could actually fetch that. The estimate is far more accurate, however, than the $1.5 million value assessed by the county (which was based on the station’s replacement value.) Assistant City Administrator Kris Wilson suggested the city either sell the building or use it for a specific purpose, most likely a senior center.
Whiting — noting that a permanent senior center should eventually be built at the Community Center — preferred a feasibility study to consider such an alternative use. “The economy right now for selling that property— I don’t think you could get that appraised value,� Whiting said. But Councilor Steve Clay noted the downtown station isn’t centrally located for a senior center and lacks street parking. He suggested the city try selling the station prior to considering other uses. “Throw it on eBay or something, a few ads in the local newspaper,� said Clay. “Try that for a few months and see if anything happens. If in six or eight months that doesn’t seem to be working, then it’s time to think more about putting it to other uses or hiring professional real estate
Fire station to page 7 ÂŽ
169
Sun Path
Canterbury Rd.
Senior High
Pearson Middle School Marschall Rd.
Junior High
Red Eag Oak le C r e Blvd ek . Eagle Creek
N
Grades 7, 8, 9 East Grades 7, 8, 9 West
Scott County Geographic Information System/ Graphic by Lorris Thornton
junior high school, the cu r rent Shakopee Middle School building. The line also crosses over Marschall
Boundaries to page 7 ÂŽ
Shakopee to open own alternate learning center BY KRISTIN HOLTZ kholtz@swpub.com
When Shakopee Public Schools returns for class next fall, Pearson Sixth-Grade Center won’t be the only new building. The School Board voted Monday to form a district committee to plan for a Shakopee Area Learning Center. School administration will notify the Carver-Scott Educational Cooperative of its plans to end its area learning center agreement and form its own ALC. The board began talking about forming its own ALC in December after being notified that Eastern Carver County District 112 and Waconia School District plan to withdraw from the CSEC, which runs four
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alternative learning centers. One of t he primary reasons the board voted to withdraw now was that it wou ld g ive t he district a wider pool of CSEC employees from which to hire. Per state law, coopMary erative members’ Romansky districts must offer positions to cooperative employees when their program is eliminated due to its withdrawal. Board Member Steve Schneider said the board has a window of opportunity where it can choose which
ALC to page 7 ÂŽ
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BY SHANNON FIECKE sfiecke@swpub.com
The new-look Shakopee School Board didn’t waste time Monday jumping into its first major issue of 2012: where to draw a line that will split the district in two. Board members got their first look at a working draft of junior high attendance boundaries. The district plans to open Pearson Elementary as a sixth-grade center in fall 2012 and transition Shakopee Junior High and Shakopee Middle School into two seventh-through-nine junior highs. The early draft splits the district in half based on the board’s previously identified criteria — total population, walking distances and balance of socioeconomics and limited-English proficient (LEP) students. The early boundaries place all of Red Oak Elementary and Sun Path Elementary students in the “East�