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Thisweek Farmington-Lakeville
Opinion/6A
OCTOBER 29, 2010
Announcements/7A
VOLUME 31, NO. 35
Sports/8A
Puzzle Page/10A
NEWS OPINION SPORTS
Music, magic and opera are in store at the Burnsville PAC. See Thisweekend Page 9A
Classifieds/13A
Precinct Maps/17A
192 enrollment below projections Farmington schools administration says it is too early to tell if a trend is presenting itself by Aaron Vehling THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS
Graphic by Robyn Berg
Malt-O-Meal has expressed interest in building a 36,000-square-foot two-story office building on a 155-acre site east of its office in Lakeville. The site currently has utility and conservation easements.
Malt-O-Meal considers expanding Lakeville site by Jessica Harper THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS
Malt-O-Meal is considering turning its Lakeville site into a small multibuilding campus. The Northfield-based cereal company has recently expressed an interest in building a 36,000-squarefoot, two-story office building and parking space on 155 acres east of the MaltO-Meal building in Lakeville. According to City Administrator Steve Mielke, the company has not yet provided detailed plans. “To Malt-O-Meal’s credit they are looking long term with this,� Mielke said at an Oct. 25 City Council workshop where the council got its first look at the plans. Malt-O-Meal spokesperson Linda Fisher declined to comment on the potential for a new building.
The property, adjacent to Malt-O-Meal’s administrative building, which was purchased from New Morning Windows last year, currently has a utility and conservation easement that was granted in 1995 and prevents the property from being developed. According to city documents, the cereal company is asking Lakeville’s City Council to vacate the easement in order to develop the property. Malt-O-Meal opened its Lakeville office at 20802 Kensington Blvd. last February. The company relocated 120 administrative and technological research employees from its Northfield and Minneapolis offices to the former Hearth and Home Technol-
ogies building in Lakeville. The move allowed the company to segregate manufacturing from administration, Fisher said at the time. The city has no records explaining why the conservation easement was created, said Dave Olson, Lakeville’s community and economic development director. Either way, the utility easement would remain, he said. Single-family homes stand adjacent to the property. A natural berm and tree line screen most of the homes, Olson said. Malt-O-Meal has indicated it is willing to create additional screening, he said. The next step is for the city to meet with residents in the area, Olson said. “There’s not legal requirement, but seems like
36B race a battle for the soul of education
the right thing to do,� he said. Currently, Malt-O-Meal is in the process of remodeling 29,000 square feet of warehouse at the current Lakeville building into office space, which will provide space for an additional 100 employees, Fisher said. This is in addition to Malt-O-Meal’s 200 Lakeville employees. The project will require additional parking, Olson said, adding that there is no easement hindering a lot from being created on the former Hearth and Home Technologies property. The conservation easement vacation, as well as any potential building plans, will still need City Council approval prior to moving forward. Jessica Harper is at jessica. harper@ecm-inc.com.
The numbers are in and they are lower than the District 192 administration’s budget targets. There were 6,433 students enrolled in Farmington Public Schools as of Oct. 20, which is 125 fewer than the 6,558 the district projected it would have for this school year, said Superintendent Brad Meeks. The margin seems slim, but Meeks told the School Board on Monday night it could mean a difference of $637,000 and present some financial challenges in the future. This is because the state funds school districts based on a per-pupil formula. “We’ve already hired
Brad Meeks
the staff,� he said. “The impact of this number will most likely be felt as we develop the
next budget.�
It’s elementary The grades that have felt the biggest hit are kindergarten and first, Meeks said. Middle school grades 6-8 also were under projections but the margin was slimmer. “We will take these numbers into account when building the budget for next year,� Meeks said. In a district that has See 192, 4A
Eight vie for just two Lakeville council seats One incumbent, seven outsiders to be on Nov. 2 ballot by Derrick Williams THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS
Lakeville will have at least one new member on the City Council following the Nov. 2 election, with two seats up for grabs but only one incumbent seeking reelection. Seven candidates, all of whom describe themselves as conservative, will join incumbent Kevin Miller in a crowded race for the two available seats. The other incumbent, Mark Bellows, decided to run for mayor instead of council, leaving his seat for the taking. Among the seven newcomers to the ballot are
RACE PREVIEWS Read about the Lakeville School Board election on Page 5A. a Burnsville police officer, Lakeville planning commissioner, real estate agent, entrepreneur, landscaper, and tutor. And all of them have pledged to keep taxes flat, or even lower them. And while taxes are the main concern for the candidates, for some, giving the Lakeville business community a voice on the See Council, 21A
Farmington business tour
Both candidates seek to protect K-12 funding from destructive cuts, but differ on the methods by Aaron Vehling THISWEEK NEWSPAPERS
It is a battle of sorts: how to preserve the quality of K-12 education in Minnesota during tough economic times. K-12 funding comprises 40 percent of state spending. With a $6 billion budget deficit (20 percent of the total state budget) looming, public school administrators and school boards across the state are bracing for cuts. In such an environment, it is no surprise that education is a campaign issue this year. But in State House District 36B, which encompasses Farmington and parts of Lakeville and Northfield, primary and secondary education have a special place in the dialogue because both the DFL and GOP candidates General 952-894-1111 Distribution 952-846-2070 Display Advertising 952-846-2011 Classified Advertising 952-846-2000
have a vested interest in their success. Incumbent Patrick Garofalo, the GOP candidate running for his fourth term, is the lead Republican on the K-12 Education Finance Committee. Garofalo Iversen Garofalo’s wife, Julie, is a kindergarten teacher in Garofalo Farmington public schools. During Garofalo’s time Sigrid Iversen, the DFL as a legislator, the Farmingchallenger, is a social stud- ton man has made a name ies teacher at Eagan High for himself as an agent of School. Her husband education reform and critic teaches in the Lakeville of teachers’ unions. public schools and her dad But in an interview with was an athletic director at Thisweek, Garofalo asApple Valley High School. serted he is not an enemy It is from these vantage of the union per se. He just points that Garofalo and does not agree with its apIversen set forth to provide proach to protecting all different solutions to the teachers, instead of focusnagging problem of how ing on rewarding the good to maintain high-quality ones. schools during an era of “We should reward the decreasing state aid. See Battle, 20A
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Photo by Laura Adelmann
Studio 305 owner Sherri Warner talked with members of the Farmington Economic Development Authority who visited the new store Oct. 25. The visit was part of a tour EDA members took of downtown businesses before their regular meeting. Other businesses visited were Pizza Man, which is set for an 800-square-foot expansion, the Post Office, where exterior damage was recently repaired, Buds and Bytes, Market on Oak, More Shidor, Longbranch and AK Performance Graphics, where owner Adam Kurth is going through a major remodeling project.
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