Thisweek Burnsville and Eagan

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Crotchety old man takes center stage. See Thisweekend Page 7A

NEWS OPINION SPORTS

Thisweek Burnsville-Eagan JULY 29, 2011

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VOLUME 32, NO. 22

www.thisweeklive.com

Opinion/4A

Announcements/5A

Sports/8A

Classifieds/8A

Real Estate/12A

Public Notices/14A

Delta to vacate yet Coughlin easy winner in Burnsville City Council race another Eagan site Atlanta-based airline plans to close its training facility on Lone Oak Point

Will replace the late Charlie Crichton, whose influence was evident in nine-way special election

by Jessica Harper THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS

by John Gessner

seat held by Crichton, an THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS 18-year council veteran who died in March at age Bill Coughlin, a self83 after being re-elected described fiscal conserlast November. Coughlin vative and admirer of the will serve the rest of Crichlate Charlie Crichton, ton’s term, which ends in easily won election Tuesday to Crichton’s old seat Bill Coughlin December 2014. A tax hawk and a stickon the Burnsville City ler for zoning rules, Crichton Council. In a special election that drew voted against most annual city just 8.3 percent of registered vot- budgets and tax levies during his ers, Coughlin won 1,708 of 2,946 career. He enjoyed mingling with votes cast, outdistancing his citizens and was elected a citynearest challenger by nearly three record six times. Coughlin wasn’t the only times. In true Crichton fashion, Crichtonite in the race. By his Coughlin said Wednesday he’ll count, he and four others – Greg push for no increase in the 2012 Tomlinson, Shane McCartney, city tax levy, which he and his Steven Atkins and Bruce Johnson four council colleagues will dis- – “essentially ran in the spirit of Charlie.” cuss in the coming months. Coughlin worked hard for an “The city is in a place that a zero percent tax increase should edge. He said he door-knocked be hopefully doable,” Coughlin, six or seven days a week for seven a 22-year Burnsville resident who weeks. He read the entire 2011 lives at 13204 Longview Drive, budget, “which was sort of mindnumbing,” and before even filing said in an interview. Nine candidates ran for the for office met with some city offi-

Rollerblade founders roll out innovative startup

VOTE TOTALS Here are the vote totals from Tuesday’s Burnsville City Council special election. William Coughlin – 1,708 Tom Hanson – 609 Donna Alberts – 202 Bruce Johnson – 163 Steve Atkins – 92 John Gullickson – 55 Aaron Hoy – 54 Greg Tomlinson – 40 Shane McCartney – 22 Write-in – 1 cials and business leaders, including council members Dan Kealey and Mary Sherry. Coughlin, 56, also picked up endorsements – from the Burnsville Chamber of Commerce Political Action Committee, from the Republican Party in House District 40A, and from two forSee Coughlin, 13A

Delta Airlines Inc. is making more cuts in Eagan, leaving the city with more real estate on the market. The Atlanta-based airline recently announced it will move its flight training jobs from Eagan to Atlanta, closing its facility at 2600 Lone Oak Point. The company is already trying to unload the former Northwest Airlines headquarters building in Eagan. The training facility nearby was built by Northwest Airlines in the 1980s, and has about 279,000 square feet, according the Metropolitan Airports Commission, which currently owns the property. Although the building is technically owned by the MAC, Delta has the right to buy it back for $1 after paying off its outstanding loan to the MAC, said Patrick Hogan, spokesman for the MAC. Delta sold the building to the

MAC in 1992 to secure a loan package while the industry was in a downturn. The deal included stipulations about employment levels within the Twin Cities. Delta representatives had not returned phone calls seeking comment as of press time Wednesday. The airline plans to pay off the loan and no longer be bound by the employment commitments for the Twin Cities area. The airline’s balance is currently $114.4 million and Delta must pay a 3 percent premium for paying early, Hogan said. MAC expects the loan will be paid off by early 2012, he said. Delta’s net income was $593 million, which was generated by $31.8 billion in revenue, in 2010. The airline lost $10 billion in 2008 and 2009. Delta has not specified how many jobs will be transferred. See Delta, 13A

Shrek in the park

Olson brothers, Brennan and Todd, launch Space Trailers in Burnsville by Jessica Harper THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS

Brennan and Todd Olson are born innovators. As teens they and another brother improved in-line skates and created Rollerblades. Now they are reinventing the wheel again, with their latest venture — Space Trailers. Space Trailers takes the concept of a traditional utility trailer and transforms it into a lightweight, enclosed sports trailer designed to carry equipment for outdoor enthusiasts. “It’s the Swiss army knife of trailers,” Todd said. The idea was inspired by their own enthusiasm for the outdoors. Todd, an avid skier, and See Space Trailers, 13A

Photo by Rick Orndorf

The Burnsville Recreation Department’s Friday night series of outdoor movies in Nicollet Commons Park continued with “Shrek the Third” on July 22. The series continues on Friday, Aug. 5 with “Tangled.”

Manslaughter charged in friend’s Marie Fox McAndrews dies at 101 She was local pioneer, schoolteacher and mom with a flair fatal shooting in Burnsville by John Gessner

Former Apple Valley High classmates were handling guns by John Gessner THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS

A 22-year-old Apple Valley man is charged with fatally shooting a friend and former classmate while both were handling firearms July 23 at a home in Burnsville. Derrick Wallace Dahl was charged July 26 with second-degree manslaughter in the death of Benjamin Allen Hanson, 22, of Welch, Minn. Dahl is charged with another felony, reckless discharge of a firearm in a General 952-894-1111 Distribution 952-846-2070 Display Advertising 952-846-2011 Classified Advertising 952-846-2000

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municipality, and two misdemeanors: intentionally pointing a gun at another and recklessly handling a gun. He’s accused of shooting Hanson in the head with a Derrick .45-caliber semiau- Dahl tomatic handgun. Hanson died the next day at Hennepin County Medical Center. It was an accident, Dahl told Burnsville police. He admitted pulling the trigger but said he didn’t know the gun had been reloaded after being emptied, according to the criminal complaint. “This is just a tragic ex-

ample of the dangers of fooling around with weapons,” Dakota County Attorney James Backstrom said. “You always need to treat a gun as if it is loaded.” The shooting occurred at about 9:10 p.m. at a home on East Crystal Lake Road. Dahl and Hanson were there with a third friend, who lives there with his parents, according to Backstrom. The three had been Apple Valley High School classmates, he said. The third man, whom Backstrom wouldn’t name, See Dahl, 14A

THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS

Marie Fox McAndrews married into one of Burnsville’s original Irish farm families. She was a pioneer, a schoolteacher and a mother with a Martha Stewart-like knack for creative homemaking. She was also a model of graceful aging, living on her own until age 98 and hosting Bible study in her home near St. John the Baptist Catholic Church in Savage. Marie died on July 9, 2011. She was 101. “To us, she was just a can-do person,” said Ann McAndrews Day, one of Marie’s three daughters. “If she wanted a new pantry, she got the hammer

The Dakota County Fair special section is located inside this edition. It contains a schedule of events and stories about fair highlights and musical entertainment. For more information about the fair, go online to www.dakotacountyfair.org.

Marie Fox McAndrews out and built one. If she thought there should be a 4H Club, she started one. ... There wasn’t anything she couldn’t do. She sewed all our clothes.” Born Marie Fox in Watertown, S.D., she began teaching in a one-room schoolhouse near her home. She came to Minnesota during the Great Depression and was hired to teach in District 94 — a one-room country school near the current intersec-

tion of county roads 42 and 11 in Burnsville. She lived with the Kohls family, who introduced her to the McAndrews family — Catholic farmers who could provide transportation to Sunday Mass at St. John’s. She and John McAndrews were married in June 1941 in Watertown. They had five children, one of whom — John Michael, born in 1945 — lived only a year. John McAndrews was a son of Patrick McAndrews, who came to the United States from County Mayo in Ireland in the late 1860s. In the 1880s Patrick bought a farm on land that now includes Fairview Ridges Hospital in Burnsville. His son Bartley took over the farm, while John and Marie settled on 80 acres of adjacent farmland. Their old farmhouse stood where the vacant Circuit City store stands now, said daughter Mary See McAndrews, 14A


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