BRICK AND MORTAR NEEDED FOR SCHOOLS
ONE OF WHICH IS PROPOSED FOR VICTORIA
School District 112, which includes the communities of Victoria, Chanhassen, Chaska, Carver, and East Union, is hold-ing a referendum on November 4th, 2003, asking its property owners to help support close to $57 million in expenditures.
At the city council meeting of Sep-tember 25th, three representatives of the school district spoke to the issues.
Lou Wack, a 12-year Victoria resi-dent, said, "This school district is undergoing a lot of growth.  We need to build another house at the high school, an elementary school in Victoria, and repair and maintain existing facilities.  I want to express my support for this referendum.  We need to do this for the kids today and for the kids coming into the district."
Bev Staufferahn, Superintendent of School District addressed the Victoria City Council and gave many facts and numbers that indicate a positive report on the education students are receiving.  "A lot of good things are going on in this district," she said.  "We need to be good stewards of what our taxpayers afford us."
She said the district now educates just under 8,000 students, almost double the number of ten years ago.  She referred to three parts of the referendum package:
*$54,750,000 will pay for the brick and mortar.
*$1,500,000 will open and operate the new spaces.
*$1,250,000 is the levy increase to pay for ongoing operating expense.
She said that the tax impact on a $250,000 home in the district will amount to $12.50/month, "the price of a pizza."  She said the cost isn't more than that because "there are more of us today to share the tax burden."
"We want you to be informed," she said, and in that regard the district will be putting out an informational newsletter toward the end of October, many details are available at www.district112.org, and all e-mails will be answered.
Said Diane Koban, a member of the District 112 School Board and resident of Victoria, "The school board has worked very hard to put together this package.  Hopefully you'll jump behind us and sup-port this."  She also thanked Victoria city councilmembers for their work and ser-vice to the community.
In responding to questions, Superin-tendent Staufferahn said the district would be trying to open the elementary school in Victoria, as well as the addition to the high school, in the fall of 2005.
When Victoria Councilmember Terry Bishop asked, "Will the referendum language specifically identify Victoria as the site for the elementary school?" the superintendent replied, "Yes, it will."  That issue was a pretty big bone of con-tention in the last referendum when the written language differed from the spoken language.
Commented Councilmember Richard Tieden, "I've always found the district to be very responsive to parents.  I like the direction that things are going.  Thank you."
"We've developed good relation-ships," said Superintendent Staufferahn.
Victoria city councilmembers unani-mously voted to support the referendum, part of which will fund an elementary school in Victoria.  Mayor Jerry Bohn read the entire resolution that evening and then stated, "I'd like to encourage the residents of Victoria to approve this refer-endum.  We want our district and commu-nity to have a reputation for good schools."
Additional information from the school board members of District 112 appears on page 6 in this edition of the Victoria Gazette.

TAKE CARE, STEVE SARVI!
AND GOD BE WITH YOU
On Friday, September 26th, employees and city councilmembers held a surprise going away luncheon in honor of City Administrator Steve Sarvi who is once again called away from the City of Victoria, not to mention his family and hometown of Watertown where he is the mayor.  Steve is in the Minnesota Army National Guard.  After 9/11 he was on airport duty from October 2001 to January 2002.  Now he has been called to active overseas duty for almost a year.  In Steve's own words ...
"We go from Minnesota to Fort Stewart, Georgia, on October 11th until early January, 2004.  Early January we go to Germany.  Early Febru-ary into Kosovo until mid to late August.  I should be back in Minnesota early to mid September, of next year ...
"Our mission is to enforce the agreements made between Serbia and the UN/NATO as conditions which ended the conflict there.  Specifically, my squad and I will be conducting mounted (in Humvees) and dismounted (on foot) patrols, operating vehicle checkpoints, and guarding specific sites (mostly churches and, ironically, city halls) to interdict smuggling of weapons, ammunition, and other illegal supplies ...
"We will be giving the people there, on both sides -- the minority Serbs and the majority Albanian Kosovars -- a sense of peace and stability so they can make a final determination about their status, ... if they are going to form a new country or rejoin with Serbia, which is highly unlikely."  Steve has already said goodbye to Victoria.  Now he says goodbye to wife Barbara, and children Daniel, 12; Mary Kate, 9; and Nathan, 5.

SHORTER SCOOP FROM SEPTEMBER
NEW LEGAL COUNSEL FOR CITY OF VICTORIA
*RFP's for legal counsel to the City of Victoria went out a few weeks ago.  Three proposals were received.  On Sep-tember 25th, council followed recommen-dations of a subcommittee and entered into a professional services agreement with Kennedy & Graven as the new city attorney firm.  Stated Mayor Bohn, "This is an economic issue.  Some firms can offer municipal services at a significantly lower cost."  Stated Richard Tieden, "We appreciate your good service.  I've called you and you've always been very helpful."  Said Attorney Laurie Miller, who has been representing Fredrickson and Byron at Victoria, "Thank you for your kind comments.  This is a wonderful city, and it's delightful to see how you've carried this city into the new millennium."
*Council approved revisions to the Waterways section of the city code that restrict the use of motors on Tamarack Lake, Church Lake, Kelzer's Pond, and Carl Krey Lake.  Electric trolling motors are the exception and allowed.  The revisions do not affect using a gas-powered auger in the winter time.
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