Help me fix the VA death certificate problem

My dad served his country and today is 91 years young. His primary doctor is within the Veterans Administration Hospital system. He will often praise the doctors at the VA for what a good job they do and tell me what good people they are; but the VA hospital system has a practice that causes many military families additional grief when a loved one passes.

The practice is to not sign a patient’s death certificate if the primary VA doctor has not seen the patient within 120 days. While grieving, our family would not be able to plan a funeral, close bank accounts, access life insurance or military benefits, cash out 401k’s, or transfer real estate, just to name a few issues.

This delay could last for up to six weeks while the county coroner’s office tracks down medical records so they can determine cause of death and sign a death certificate. As you can imagine, the entire extended family will not understand why they must wait so long to pay their final respects.

This VA practice is a huge problem for Anoka County’s Coroner’s Office since we service half of the counties in Minnesota and many counties in Wisconsin. However, this is not just a problem in Minnesota but is a problem for millions of military families in every state across the nation.

While in Washington D.C. last February, I lobbied all our Federal elected officials on this topic. They support and are listening, but action needs to take place now. We need to make fixing veterans’ problems a priority. This should also be an easy fix because it won’t cost taxpayers a dime.

It involves using simple language that we have already supplied to our legislators and adding it to another Veterans Bill to solve the problem. All we are reasonably asking is in the case of a veteran passing of natural causes, that the VA Hospital clinician sign their patient’s death certificate within 72 hours.

I would ask anyone who reads this letter to contact your legislator and ask them to support and “act” on resolving this issue. Military veterans and their families deserve better.

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• The Rice Creek Watershed District (RCWD) will continue to work on Ditch 53-62 longer than expected. City Administrator Patrick Antonen explained that the project is not going as well as they had hoped. Most of the work was supposed to be done over the winter, but work will likely continue on the ditch through late summer or early fall. After the project is done, Antonen said RCWD plans to plant some native grasses along the banks of the ditch and will have to continue to treat for buckthorn on a yearly basis so it doesn’t take over the areas around the ditch that used to be covered by trees.

• The Centennial Lakes Police Department (CLPD) plans to hold more Coffee with a Cop events in Centerville and Circle Pines. More details to come.

• CLPD Chaplain Joel Heckman will retire from the position after about 12 years. CLPD will be searching for a replacement.

• Come the end of May, CLPD will be fully staffed for the first time in a long time, according to City Council Member Dean Goldberg, who serves on the Police Governing Board.

• Going forward, the formula that determines how much the cities of Lexington, Circle Pines and Lexington pay for police services from CLPD may change. Goldberg explained that currently, the formula is based on the average number of calls over three years, the city’s population and the severity of calls. Some possible changes to be included in the formula could be the value of properties, the physical size of the community, the amount of road miles within the city, etc.

• Circle Pines will have to pay an additional $1,400 so that the Centennial Fire District can use a new record management system. The software was recommended by the Anoka County Fire Protection Council, Council Member Matt Percy explained.

• Ordinance No. 162 regulating cannabinoid products will go into effect after the City Council decided to waive the second reading and order a summary publication of the ordinance. The council previously discussed the ordinance at length at its first meeting in May, but made a couple of changes before adoption.

One change was aligning the penalties to be the same as alcohol penalties; the first violation will be a minimum of $1,000, second violation $1,500, and third violation $2,000.

Lexington City Council Snippets

Another change is that businesses will not be required to have both an alcohol/tobacco license and a cannabinoid license, but can have one or the other depending on the business.

Antonen explained that both the state House of Representatives and the Senate have signed off on a cannabis bill, but nothing is set in stone just yet.

“This is a stop gap until the state gets all their ducks in a row. This ordinance might be on the books for a couple months, it might be on the books until the end of this year, but once the state releases their guidance, we will marry up with their state statutes and make sure we are following the law,” Antonen said.

Council Member Steve McChesney said it would be important for existing businesses to be grandfathered in and not get hit with a violation right away; Antonen explained that there would likely be a 90-day grace period once the ordinance goes into effect.

• Residents who live along Golden Lake may now be able to have a fence that they weren’t allowed to have before after the council made some changes to its shoreland overlay district ordinance (No. 163). The ordinance, which hasn’t been updated since 1988, did not allow for a structure/fence within 75 feet of the shoreline. Antonen explained that he looked at a model shoreland overlay ordinance from the Department of Natural Resources, which allows fences as long as they don’t encroach upon the “shore impact zone.”

“If the structure is 100 feet away from the shoreline, the shore impact zone is 50% of the structure setback, so you could have a fence up to 50 feet from the structure,” Antonen explained.

• The city recognizes May as Building Safety Month. Building Safety Month is sponsored by the International Code Council to remind the public about the critical role of communities’ largely unknown protectors of public safety, local code officials, who assure safe, sustainable and affordable buildings that are essential to prosperity.

The next City Council meeting will be at 7 p.m. Tuesday, May 23, at City Hall.

Shannon Granholm

Lino Lakes City Council Snippets

• Bradley Kaye, a representative from Legacy Restoration, can now travel from door to door offering exterior renovations for roofing, siding, windows and gutters, now that a solicitor’s license was approved. Residents can find a complete list of solicitor’s licenses on the city’s website.

• Blue Heron Elementary School will host Family Fun Night Friday, May 19. The event will include a DJ, food trucks, craft vendors and bounce houses.

• Rice Lake Elementary is celebrating its 30th anniversary this year. The school plans to host a spring carnival Sunday, May 21. (See full story on page 2 for more information.)

• Michael Carlson is the city’s newest paid on-call firefighter. Carlson’s hourly rate of pay will be $15. The city also has a new community service officer, Adam Crowl. His hourly rate of pay will be $23.88.

• Lyngblomsten has been given the okay to use motorized golf carts and maintenance carts on Blanchard Boulevard. Lyngblomsten plans to use

Business Brief

golf carts to transport prospective residents throughout the campus as an efficient means of transportation when showing the campus property. Additionally, Lyngblomsten would like to use motorized maintenance carts to conduct utility and maintenance work throughout its properties. Per city ordinance, all-terrain vehicles (ATVs) are prohibited from operation on any city street unless a specific area is approved by council by resolution.

• WSB will get started on phase I of a prospectus for $33,742. The prospectus is the second step of three as the city establishes a wetland bank on property located east of I-35E and north of Main Street. The complete prospectus is expected to cost $76,269.

The next City Council meeting will be at 6:30 p.m. Monday, May 22, at City Hall. There will also be a work session immediately beforehand at 6 p.m. in the Community Room.

Shannon Granholm

Humble Roots Boutique to open this summer

A Home Enhanced, located at 7095 Centerville Road in Centerville, has been sold. Owner Laurel McGinnity, who has owned the location for 10 years, recently announced that new owners Tiffany Downing and Evonne Bisson will assume ownership on June 1.

“I have so loved this store, these customers, and the many friends I have made here over the years. But as with all good things, they eventually must end … ” McGinnity wrote in part. “They are the perfect partnership pairing. We are all confident these two along with the continuing support of our wonderful team of vendors will steward the store successfully into an even brighter future.” Humble Roots Boutique plans to open its doors at the end of July. The boutique will have carefully curated and handmade home décor, gifts, clothing and more. For more information, visit http:// humbleroots.boutique.

• It’s that time of year when motorists are dodging potholes. Council Member Kim DeVries said he has received several complaints from residents and wanted to know whether the city would patch the potholes. City Administrator Bill Petracek said that that the asphalt plant in Blaine is not open yet but should be soon. He said one of the biggest priorities in the city right now is patching potholes and that crews will start on it as soon as they’re able to.

• The city continues to monitor its water quality. Petracek was asked a question about whether the water quality has been tested recently. He said that the city’s gross alpha is within normal limits and noted that the naturally occurring isotope is in the water in every city in the northwestern suburbs. While Lexington’s level spiked a few years ago, he said they’ve been deal- ing with it since then but that the Minnesota Department of Health is still requiring the city to provide notice to residents because it’s on the edge of normal limits.