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THURSDAY, OCTOBER 20, 2011
SHAKOPEE
VALLEY Out of work? Oct. 28 event aims to help BY KRISTIN HOLTZ kholtz@swpub.com
You might not see them, but even here in the southwest metro, thousands of families are struggling to get by. The Minnesota Housing Partnership (MHP) reports that 36 percent of available jobs in Scott and Carver counties pay less than the wage necessary to afford basic needs. “Just because you have a job doesn’t mean you can afford everything you need for your family,” said Patricia Pettit, coordinator of Project Community Connect. Local service agencies and community volunteers are coming together from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday, Oct. 28 to help area residents “living on little” as part of the second annual Scott Carver Project Community Connect. More than 80 providers will provide free services, including
Help to page 7 ®
“All of a sudden you have people who have always been selfsufficient thrown into a new world. They don’t know where to go. They don’t know who to ask, and there’s going to be pride thrown in there, too.”
$1
news CITY COUNCIL RACE
COOL JOBS: JOHN HOKKANEN, TRANSPORTATION GENERALIST WITH MNDOT
A DIRTY JOB
Minnesota Department of Transportation employee John Hokkanen of Cologne has been guardian of the road for nearly 30 years, picking up road kill and plowing roads in the middle of the night. Hokkanen works out of the Shakopee truck station near Highway 41.
but somebody has to do it
Do you know someone with an unusual job? Let us know at editor@ shakopeenews.com.
Patricia Pettit
Zellmer has paid financial judgments
BY KRISTIN HOLTZ kholtz@swpub.com
BY SHANNON FIECKE sfiecke@swpub.com
Editor’s note: note This is an occasional series focusing on residents interesting, unusual or even oddball oclocal residents’ cupations. ohn Hokkanen doesn’t have the world’s most oh gla glamorous job. He hasn’t been home for Christmas in fiv five years. He occasionally has to stand eig eight hours on 100-degree pavement. And his Monday morning might start by scraping a dead th road. raccoon off the But Hokkan Hokkanen knows this drudgery has a purpose, and that’s to keep tthe roads safe for commuters. “That is the No. 1 priority: having a smooth road and a ou customers can get to work without any clear road so our 56 delays,” the 56-year-old said. Decembe Hokkanen of Cologne will mark his 30th In December, trans year as transportation generalist with the Minnesota Department of Transportation — most of them working Sh out of the Shakopee truck station near Highway 41. He’s plowed snow over pitch-black roadways, mowed miles of median and fi lled crater-sized potholes. “They do such a good job, no one always notices the do,” said MnDOT spokesman J.P. Gilwhat they lach. Of all Hokkanen’s duties and responsibilities, perhaps the least glamorous is removing dead c animal carcasses. Deer, raccoons, skunks, squirrels, birds — Hokkan Hokkanen has seen it all splattered across the roadway roadway. Road k kill poses a risk for drivers who often swerve h to avoid hitting the carcasses, and it’s MnDOT’s job to get the obstacles off state highways as quickly as H possible, Hokkanen said. MnDOT crew members use pitchforks, shovels and long-a a long-armed mechanism that slips around a deer’s f feet to hoist the carcass onto a truck bed.
In 2002, a letter to the editor praised the city for cracking down on nuisance yards. The letter writer complained of the messy yard on her block — the home of current City Council candidate Michael Luce. “For years neighbors have been trying to get Mike Luce to clean up his yard. It’s been an ongoing problem a nd we’ve received no resolution until this year, thanks to the new get-tough p ol ic y,” w r o t e Sha ron A r rel l. Michael “His yard has Luce been a repository of all manner of junk that he has hauled in from elsewhere. … If everyone in Shakopee kept a yard like Mr. Luce, our city would not be a very pleasant place to live.” Luce, who was Amy c onv ic t e d t h at Zellmer year of creating a public nuisance, admits he had a “questionable backyard,” but claims city police have zealously gone after him
J
PHOTO BY KRISTIN HOLTZ
Luce has history with cops
Job to page 13 ®
Project Community Connect coordinator
Legal issues to page 7 ®
An exceptional entrepreneur There’s no slowing down this teenager BY SUE WARNER Courage Center
VIDEO ONLINE CHECK OUT VIDEO OF BROWN ON HIS MOWERS
www.shakopeenews.com
The next time you groan about having to mow your lawn, pick up the phone and give Nicholas Brown a call. This enterprising 18-year-old, a recent graduate of Shakopee High School, has been mowing lawns since he was 12. Not unusual for many teens — except Nick Brown has cerebral palsy, has speech challenges and uses a power wheelchair to get around. The owner of Nick’s Lawn Service, Brown and a friend, Don Valiant, designed his first mower — a non-motorized, reel-type that attached to the front of his
wheelchair. A few years later Brown moved to a power mower. Now, he’s on his fourth mower, a Toro Timecutter SS-4200. Brown has contracts to mow four lawns, including the Shakopee Knights of Columbus Events Center and Church of St. Mary. Most of his customers are in wheelchair-driving distance from his home. The Shakopee man recently received the Judd Jacobson Memorial Award, which is named for the late Owatonna, Minn., business leader and entrepreneur who became a quadriplegic as a
result of a diving accident. The $5,000 cash award is administered by the Courage Center, with funds made possible by Daniel J. Gainey, a lifelong friend of Jacobson’s. “Nick exhibits the entrepreneurial spirit exemplified by Judd,” said Barbara Jacobson, president of Flying Wheels Travel in Owatonna, one of the businesses started by her late husband. “We hope this award will help him expand his business.” “I am overjoyed to learn of this wonderful news,” Brown said. “I am so thankful to the Jacobson committee who just made my dream come true.” Courage Center is a Minnesotabased rehabilitation and resource center that advances the lives of children and adults experiencing
Brown to page 13 ®
PHOTO BY KRISTIN HOLTZ
Owner of Nick’s Lawn Service, Nicholas Brown of Shakopee glides through a lawn on his new zero-turn mower, which he purchased in August. Brown, who has cerebral palsy, was recently awarded the Courage Center’s Judd Jacobson Memorial Award honoring an exceptional entrepreneur who is disabled.
INSIDE OPINION/4 OBITUARIES/6 HAPPENINGS/9 CALENDAR/10 SPORTS/15-16 CLASSIFIEDS/26-29 TO REACH US SUBSCRIBE: (952) 345-6683 EDITOR: (952) 345-6680 OR E-MAIL EDITOR@SHAKOPEENEWS.COM.
VOL. 150, ISSUE 42 © SOUTHWEST NEWSPAPERS
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