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BRUCE VENTO TRAIL: County seeks input PAGE 3A
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Downtown bus station gets second look BY SARA MARIE MOORE VADNAIS HEIGHTS EDITOR
PAUL DOLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
Homecoming crowd convergence Above: O.H. Anderson Elementary School students display a Positive Peers banner as they work their way through a bottleneck of spectators while marching in the annual Mahtomedi Homecoming Parade Friday, Sept. 28. At left: Wildwood Elementary School Kindergarten teacher Michlyn Newman, the Mahtomedi 2018-19 Teacher of the Year, basks in the afternoon sunlight and cheers from the crowd while riding in the parade with her entourage. Find more photos online at presspubs.com.
MAPLEWOOD — The Rush Line policy advisory committee said it would reconsider the location of a proposed bus station in downtown White Bear Lake. The station will be the terminus of a 14-mile rapid transit bus line to and from Union Depot in St. Paul. It is planned to operate seven days a week from early a.m. to late p.m. Buses will arrive in 15-minute increments, or every 10 minutes during rush hour. About a dozen residents came to a Rush Line policy advisory committee meeting Sept. 27 to express concern over the station location that had been recommended by a working group of about a dozen volunteers from White Bear Lake. The group met three times over the summer to evaluate several options for a downtown station location, said City Manager Ellen Hiniker. The station location that was highlighted is at Second Avenue and Clark Street, near US Bank. It was proposed the bank could be reworked into a parking facility, which had a potential to include four levels of parking and be 35 feet high. A platform would be located in the parking area to the west. However, the 25-member policy advisory committee is back to considering other downtown locations after resident feedback. The policy advisory committee SEE RUSH LINE, PAGE 8A
Hockey association delivers check as city engineer bids adieu BY DEBRA NEUTKENS EDITOR
WHITE BEAR LAKE — Good on its word, the White Bear Lake Area Hockey Association (WBLAHA) presented a check for half a million dollars to the city last week. The money is a first installment on the $2.5 million pledged to renovate the Sports Center ice arena. “On behalf of the hockey association, boy and girls side, and me personally and my family, thank you for supporting this project. I’d like to present this check,” association President Kevin McFarlane said to City Council. “We promised to come up with $500,000 for a down payment for the Sports Center; it was fun writing this check out.”
McFarlane pointed out that he was a hockey coach for 20 years who finally got to work with a referee. “That doesn’t happen very often.” He was referring to City Engineer Mark Burch, who moonlights as a high school hockey ref during the winter and supervised the $5.5 million renovation with input from the WBLAHA. It was Burch’s last council meeting. He purposefully delayed his retirement to see the Sports Center completed and chose the Sept. 25 council meeting as his last. The facility officially re-opened Sept. 29. City Manager Ellen Hiniker said she was “dreading this moment” when the longtime engineer retired. Hiniker stated that Burch was “incredibly dedicated SEE COUNCIL, PAGE 9A
DEBRA NEUTKENS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
Retiring City Engineer Mark Burch displays the keepsake statue he received from the mayor at the City Council meeting.
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