HOLIDAYUIDE G WORSHIP ction
The musical comedy ‘70, Girls, 70’ comes to the Lakeville Area Arts Center. See Thisweekend Page 5A
A
Thisweek Apple Valley-Rosemount DECEMBER 10, 2010 VOLUME 31, NO. 41
Se Special issue is inside th
NEWS OPINION SPORTS
www.thisweeklive.com
Opinion/4A
Puzzle Page/6A
Sports/7A
Classifieds/9A
Announcements/12A
Legal Notices/14A
Amid controversy, Humane Society will close Closing, failed capital campaign, brings grumbling about mismanagement by John Gessner THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS
Minnesota Valley Humane Society officials say a bad economy and rising costs are to blame for the closing of its Burnsville animal shelter on Dec. 31. Some volunteers suspect bad management has much to do with the closing, which comes after suspension of a failed capital campaign to raise money for a new site in Eagan. But the MVHS’s executive director says donations have eroded while the number of animals the organization has taken in has held steady or increased in recent years. “MVHS has been around for 30 years,� said Lynae Gieseke, who was a volunteer and MVHS board member before being hired as executive director in 1998. “We’ve always lived very close to the edge. What does that tell you: Maybe the south metro area just doesn’t want to support a Humane Society and animal shelter.�
The MVHS was founded in 1981 and established the shelter in Burnsville’s old City Hall building at 1313 E. Highway 13 in 1991. The organization has 15 employees and has placed more than 50,000 animals in homes over the last two decades. The MVHS says rising demand for services and rising health care and operational costs are competing with a falloff in donations. The organization gets about half its revenue from donations and the rest from adoption and surrender fees, Gieseke said. “It’s the economy,� she said. “Smaller shelters like ours, they’re hurting. Even in good years, budgets are always tight. But now in the Great Recession, it’s even more pronounced. When you’ve gone through all your reserves, your savings and so forth, it’s a struggle to meet payroll.� The MVHS cut its budget from about $1 million in 2009 to $800,000 in 2010, she said. The shelter stopped sterilizing
animals in October 2009, and last year it began closing its doors to the public on Mondays and Tuesdays. “I think they really have their hearts in the right place, but no business savvy,� said Kristin Heidberg of Minneapolis, a volunteer dog-walker at the shelter since 2002. “I think a lot of us feel angry and frustrated and a little bitter� when MVHS officials blame the economy alone. Heidberg and Kay Smith of Apple Valley, a volunteer since the shelter opened, criticized the organization’s failed capital campaigns. And they say management by Gieseke and the seven-member board of directors has been less than transparent. Gieseke said MVHS boards have talked for at least eight years of leaving the Burnsville building, which she said is too small and has a leaky roof, mold, poor air handling and a potential asbestos hazard. A capital campaign the organization began preparing for eight years ago See Animals, 14A
Photo by Rick Orndorf
The Minnesota Valley Humane Society shelter in Burnsville has placed more than 50,000 animals since opening in 1991. The organization failed to raise enough money to move from its cramped, outdated Burnsville site to a new building in Eagan.
Homeless by choice In the ‘Spirit of the Season’ City Council Rosemount woman plans to travel across
OK’s 2011 levy, budget
the country, submerging herself in poverty to raise awareness about homelessness by Andrew Miller
our country, and I’m a huge believer that if you Mandy Mulder is a truly want to help someyoung woman with a big one in a situation, you have to know what that heart. Before she completes situation is.� Mulder said the conher final semester of colcept behind Mislege, the 22-yearsion America can old Rosemount be traced to her resident is takhigh school days, ing time off from when she dreamed school to underof taking a road take a project that trip across the will have an impact country, but the far beyond the Mandy idea evolved in halls of academia. Mulder recent years into Her project, Mission America, will see something more, a “payMulder traveling cross- it-forward type thing.� Mulder, who’s filed country and visiting the nation’s most poverty- the paperwork to estabstricken areas, where she’ll lish Mission America as be sleeping in homeless a nonprofit organization shelters, taking her meals and is undertaking the at soup kitchens and vol- cross-country trek indeunteering at church out- pendently of her coursework at Virginia-based reach centers. Mulder, who will be Liberty University, plans filming her experiences to depart in May, driving for a documentary to raise her Dodge Neon to more awareness about poverty than 60 sites over a threein America, is, in essence, to four-month period. becoming a homeless per- Her itinerary first has her son for the duration of the heading east to Maine, then down the East Coast, project. “I’m going to sleep and finally west across the how they sleep, I’m go- country to California. Her stops include big ing to eat how they eat – I’m going to experience cities such as Milwaukee, it,� said Mulder, a 2002 Chicago and New York graduate of the School of City, as well as indigent Environmental Studies in rural areas such as Pine Apple Valley who works Ridge, S.D. “I’m trying to target as a youth pastor at St. Andrew Lutheran Church the areas with the most in the north-metro area. need,� said Mulder, who “My mission is to bring is now contacting social awareness to poverty in See Poverty, 13A
by Laura Adelmann
THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS
THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS
Photos by Rick Orndorf
Above: Eastview High School students Michael Selchow, Tim Jurney and Jack Jacobson perform the song “Gee I Wish I Was Back In The Army� from the movie “White Christmas� as part of Eastview’s annual Bravo music and dance revue. This year’s Bravo show, directed by Judy Sagen and Amy Atherton, has a holiday theme and is titled “Spirit of the Season.� The show runs Dec. 9-11 and 16-18 at 7:30 p.m., and Dec. 12 at 2 p.m. Admission is $9 for adults, $7 for senior citizens and $5 for students. At left: Jaclyn Anderson, Karen Besonen, and Sarah Cartwright perform “Sisters� from the movie “White Christmas.�
Rosemount City Council members unanimously adopted a $16.6 million budget and $10.9 million levy for 2011, which allows properties a break on the city portion of property tax bills. Under the budget, spending cuts and reduced property values resulted in a $60 property tax reduction for the median-valued home in Rosemount. In 2010, city taxes on an average property were cut by $77. While the news is good for property owners who want lower taxes, the reduction in property values means people are losing equity and the city is losing its tax base. The median-valued Rosemount home in 2010 was $231,400 and in 2011 will be $212,600, according to Rosemount Finance Director Jeff May. In 2011, Rosemount is planning to lose 5.08 percent in its tax base from 2010 and 8 percent in residential values, May said. Also anticipating the city to lose $429,507 in state-funded Market Value Homestead Credit funds, City Council members have worked hard to cut the budget and reduce costs. Beginning early in 2010, council members set budget goals, and reviewed possible money-saving options for the city to pursue. Because of the economic conditions, one full-time building inspector was laid off, and the 2011 budget provides for See Taxes, 13A
Behold the giant snowman by Andrew Miller THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS
When it comes to building a snowman, Marvin and Debbie Karnick don’t fool around. Using shovels, a snowblower and a step ladder, the Apple Valley couple spent more than six hours last Saturday creating a jaw-droppingly gargantuan snowman in the front yard of their home on the 13500 block of Everest Avenue. By Marvin’s estimate, the anthropomorphic snow sculpture is between 14 and 16 feet tall, though he has yet to take an exact measurement. General 952-894-1111 Distribution 952-846-2070 Display Advertising 952-846-2011 Classified Advertising 952-846-2000
&
!""'! !
$
“I’m going to have to get the tape measure out today,� he said with a laugh on Monday. The items used for the plussized Frosty’s wardrobe and facial features give some idea of its massive dimensions: Its nose is a baseball, its eyes are softballs, and the hat atop the snowman’s head is a garbage can from the Karnick’s garage. This is the second massive snowman the Karnicks have built. The first was in 2008, and the positive response the couple received from friends and neighbors prompted them to do it again – and to build it
bigger this time around. “We had so many people stopping and taking pictures we thought we’d do another one,� Marvin said. The couple’s son, Matt, videotaped the construction process. The footage was then set to a soundtrack of “Frosty the Snowman� and posted on YouTube under the title “Snowman Movie.� The three and a half minute clip can be viewed at www.youtube.com/ watch?v=b5PfwRGCu4w. Photo submitted Andrew Miller is at andrew. Marvin and Debbie Karnick built this massive snowman in the front yard of their home on miller@ecm-inc.com. the 13500 block of Everest Avenue in Apple Valley.
ďż˝