Parents seeking clarity about the future leadership of their children’s Inver Grove Heights charter school left a Thursday informational meeting more confused and disappointed.

“I was hoping someone would have the guts to show up,” said Timbra Delgado, whose daughter just finished fourth grade at Discovery Charter School. Delgado and others have been critical of Discovery’s school board members, who so far have refused to answer questions about why they recently fired beloved school leader Dan Hurley.

But no board members attended Thursday’s parent meeting, which was called and led by Terri Siguenza, who parents were told last week would serve as the school’s interim director and leadership consultant. Siguenza started the meeting by downplaying her long-term role with the school to the gathering of more than 50 parents and students.

That was troubling for parents like Dave Woehler, father of a soon-to-be first-grader at the school. Woehler hoped to hear why board members called an unexpected Saturday meeting June 17 to vote not to renew Hurley’s contract and to learn more about how the school would operate without him.

“Instead I heard the board hired a director who says she’s not the director and she can’t answer anything for the board,” Woehler said. “I’m really concerned. There are concerns from parents and teachers. Who is going to show up if something doesn’t change?”

Siguenza did her best to appease the crowd of frustrated parents who filled the small school’s gymnasium. Discovery Charter School enrolls about 200 students in kindergarten through sixth grades and received about $2 million in state funding last school year.

Siguenza encouraged parents to voice their concerns, which she promised to relay to school board members before their next public meeting Monday. Siguenza’s insistence that board members would address parents’ problems was met with laughter from the room.

Enough parents have complained to the Minnesota Department of Education about the Discovery Charter School board that state education leaders have sent a series of letters to Noviation Educational Opportunities, the authorizer responsible for the school’s oversight.

Parents told state leaders the current board has too much power, community input is ignored and a push to add more parent board members has been refused. Parents have also argued that Hurley was fired in violation of school bylaws and that Siguenza was hired without the board holding a proper public meeting.

In correspondence between Novation and state officials, obtained by the Pioneer Press, the school’s authorizer claims Hurley’s firing and Siguenza’s appointment as interim director followed state rules and school bylaws.

Hurley disputes that finding and says he’s prepared to fight to get his job back. He hired attorney Brian Cote to to represent him in what Hurley said he hopes doesn’t lead to a legal battle.

Before Thursday’s parent meeting, Cote said school board members have so far refused to provide a reason for Hurley’s firing. “Dan wants to get back to work as soon as possible and I want to help him accomplish that,” Cote said.

In the meantime, Siguenza plans to make a series of recommendations to the Discovery Charter School board for ways they can improve transparency around decision making and win back parents’ trust.

“There’s a lack of trust obviously,” Siguenza said. “I felt it in the first five minutes of being here.”

A 14-year-old girl from Inver Grove Heights has danced her way into the finale of “World of Dance,” Jennifer Lopez’s dance competition series on NBC.

Tune in to KARE 11 at 9 p.m. local time on Tuesday to watch Eva Igo compete with just two other acts for the title, the prizes and the acclaim.

Could she win?

Some highly placed sources sure think so.

“The million dollars,” interjected Lopez.

The Pioneer Press interviewed Eva in May about how this opportunity came about.

“They saw me on YouTube,” she said. “I was invited to audition through direct message on Instagram.”

The 10-episode series debuted earlier this summer.

“It was the coolest thing ever,” Eva said of her experience. “It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and so I’m lucky I got to do it.”

In the series, dancers of all ages and styles, both individuals and teams, are judged by Lopez (an executive producer), Hough (an alum of “Dancing with the Stars”) and entertainer Ne-Yo. The show is hosted by dancer Jenna Dewan Tatum, who also serves as a mentor to the contestants.

Eva is a contemporary dancer in the junior category, a Larkin Dance Studio phenom who began winning regional titles by age 7 and national titles by age 11.

Viewers can get caught up on previous episodes at https://www.nbc.com/world-of-dance/episodes.

FYI
What: The finale of NBC’s “World of Dance,” the first season of a 10-episode dance competition television series produced by Jennifer Lopez and featuring local finalist Eva Igo, 14, of Inver Grove Heights.

When: The finale airs at 9 p.m. CST on Tuesday, Aug. 8, on NBC (KARE, Channel 11).

Info: Nbc.com/world-of-dance

River Heights Park is not your typical park; it has no playground, picnic tables or ball fields.

The 7.5-acre park is pretty much just grass, trees and a looping half-mile dirt trail.

And that’s just fine with neighbors.

“The dog walkers go there every day,” Al Meyman said Tuesday outside his home, across the street from the park.

Meyman and his wife, Karen, are leading a charge against an idea floating around city hall: Sell all or part of the park for single-family homes.

The couple has collected 140 signatures from residents who live nearby who oppose the idea.

“River Heights Park was dedicated green space when the area was developed and is part of the character of River Heights Way,” a neighborhood petition reads. “We do not want any part of our neighborhood park to be sold.”

On Wednesday, the city’s parks and recreation advisory commission will hold a public hearing on the matter and make a recommendation to the city council.

“Hopefully they listen to the neighbors,” Al Meyman, 63, said of city officials.

Selling part of the park could help the city facilitate a land transaction for a third fire station, City Administrator Joe Lynch said Tuesday.

The city is negotiating with a resident who owns property at 9250 Courthouse Blvd. Court, the city’s preferred location for a fire station, he said.

As part of a deal, the city would buy the property and sell a 2.5 acre lot in the park to the property owner, he said. The parkland had previously been platted as three 2.5 acre lots for a development that did not happen. The 2017 taxable assessed value for each lot is $157,000.

Meanwhile, proceeds from a sale of one or both of the other park lots would go to the city’s park acquisition and development fund.

River Heights Park is among 10 city-owned properties the city council deemed “excess” land in 2016, Lynch said. Two additional parks — Marcott Woods, which is 14 acres, and Dehrer, 5.5 acres — also are on the list.

The city this month sold the first property on the list — a former drainage and utility easement at 68th Street and Clayton Avenue.

Eric Carlson, the city’s parks and recreation director, said the last time the city “disposed” of parkland was in 2009, when Cameron Warehouse Liquors moved to a 1.3-acre park across the street as part of reconstruction and widening of Concord Boulevard.

The Meymans, who have lived along River Heights Way the past 32 years, said this is their second go-round in trying to keep their park away from developers. The parks and recreation advisory commission discussed selling the park back in 1995, prompting the couple to circulate their first petition.

“We had many of the same signatures that we do now,” Al Meyman said.

Neighbors of River Heights Park cleared their first hurdle Wednesday when the Inver Grove Heights Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission recommended that it be taken off a list of city properties for sale.

The recommendation followed a failed vote by the commission to “dispose” of the 7.5-acre park, which is undeveloped green space between homes east of Concord Boulevard.

River Heights Park is among 10 city-owned properties the city council deemed “excess” land in 2016. Two other parks — Marcott Woods, which is 14 acres, and Dehrer, 5.5 acres — also are on the list.

But River Heights Park was before the commission this week because a city resident is interested in building a house on one of its three 2.5-acre lots.

As part of a possible deal with the city, the resident would buy the lot and the city would buy the resident’s lot on Courthouse Boulevard Court, where it would like to build a new fire station.

Several residents near River Heights Park spoke in opposition to selling, including Mark Hatfield, who called the park an “asset that you could never replace if you choose to eliminate it.”

Irene Jones, river corridor program director for the nonprofit Friends of the Mississippi River, noted how the park lies within the Mississippi National River and Recreation Area.

“While we have no opposition to the city’s need for a new firehouse or increased revenue, we strongly believe that selling public park land to accomplish these needs is short-sighted and not in the best interest of our national park or of the residents of Inver Grove Heights,” she said.

The issue goes before the city’s planning commission Sept. 5, followed by the city council on an undetermined date.

A man who was trying to rob a Verizon Wireless store in Inver Grove Heights on Thursday morning was shot by a clerk during an exchange of gunfire, police said.

The man, who is believed to be in his mid to late 20s, has several gunshot wounds and was taken by ambulance under police custody to Regions Hospital in St. Paul, Lt. Joshua Otis said. His condition is unknown.

A male accomplice who fled the store after the shooting remains at large.

Police were called to the store — The Cellular Connection, at the northeast corner of Concord Boulevard and Cahill Avenue — about 11 a.m. for an armed robbery in progress. While officers were responding, dispatch relayed that shots were fired and at least one person had been hit.

When they arrived at the scene, officers found the wounded suspect on the ground near the back of the store.

During a preliminary investigation, police learned multiple gunshots were fired inside the store, located in the Concord Crossroads strip mall.

According to police, the two suspects, one of them brandishing a gun, approached the male clerk in the employee area in the back of the store.

While being held at gunpoint, the clerk drew his own gun from his waistband and shot the suspect who had the gun. The second suspect ran out of the store and fled the area in a vehicle.

An employee of a dentist office next door told a police dispatch operator the suspect fled south on Concord Boulevard in a light-blue minivan that has a dent in the rear bumper, according to dispatch audio posted online by MN Police Clips.

South St. Paul police, St. Paul police K-9, the Minnesota State Patrol and the Dakota County sheriff’s office helped search the area for the suspect; he was not located.

The motive behind the robbery — whether they were after cash or cellphones — was unclear, Otis said.

“Whatever their intent was, it occurred behind the retail sales floor,” Otis said, adding that the suspect still at large did not make off with either cash or store goods.

The gun used in the robbery was recovered at the scene.

The store clerk has a permit to carry a firearm, Otis said.

No one else was in the store at the time of the attempted robbery and shooting, Otis said. The clerk had been waiting on a customer just before the attempted robbery, and “it appears the (suspects) hung around inside the store until she left,” Otis said.

Nancy Brown was sitting in a dentist’s chair at Metro Dental next door and heard the shooting.

“I was talking to the dentist and her assistant was there, too, and we heard three loud bangs just on the other side of the wall where we were sitting,” Brown, 63, said. “And the assistant said, ‘Those were gunshots!’ And the dentist said, ‘Oh no, no, no … it can’t be.’ So we finished our little talk and about a couple minutes later we went to the front door and we were locked in with about 20 squad cars out there. They said we were not allowed to go out there.”

Brown said the magnitude of the ordeal didn’t hit her until she was driving back to her Inver Grove Heights home.

“I thought, ‘Oh my God! What if a bullet went through the wall? It could’ve hit either the dentist or myself.’ Then I started shaking and got pretty shook up,” Brown said.

Inver Grove Heights police on Friday identified the man shot by a clerk at a Verizon Wireless store during a foiled attempted robbery Thursday morning, and also released details about a second suspect who remains at large.

Jamaal Marquie Mays, 32, of Crystal, was shot by a clerk at the Cellular Connection as the two exchanged gunfire at about 11 a.m. Thursday.

Mays, a convicted felon with a lengthy criminal history in Minnesota, is recovering from multiple gunshot wounds at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. He was listed in critical condition Friday evening.

Mays held the store clerk at gunpoint before the clerk drew his own gun from his waistband and shot Mays, police said.

The second suspect ran from the store and fled in a bluish-green 2000 Honda Odyssey minivan, police said Friday.

Inver Grove Heights police Lt. Joshua Otis said Friday that Mays is no longer under police custody while at Regions Hospital.

“We know where he is at and where he is going to be,” Otis said, referring to the hospital. “And we can monitor his situation.”

Investigators on Friday sent the case against Mays to the Dakota County attorney’s office for possible charges, Otis said.

Authorities are still working to identity the second suspect. He is described as a black man, about 20 to 30 years old, and wearing dark-colored pants, a dark-green jacket, baseball hat and black Nike shoes with a white swoosh.

Police also released a photo of him taken from video surveillance within the store.

The minivan he fled in had Minnesota license plate number 897-RKM, according to police.

“(The minivan) is very distinctive as it has a dent on the rear passenger side of the hatch as well as a dent on the front passenger side quarter panel,” police said in a news release, which asked the public to be on the lookout for the vehicle.

Otis said they learned during the course of the investigation that an employee at a restaurant next door was grazed by a bullet during the gunfire. The Super Wok Chinese Restaurant adjoins the cellphone store, at the northeast corner of Concord Boulevard and Cahill Avenue.

Investigators believe the robbery was not random because at least one of the suspects had been in the store previously “doing a little preplanning” before the stick-up, Otis said.

The motive behind the robbery — whether they were after cash or cellphones — remains unclear, he said.

Investigators also spent Friday working with other metro-area police departments to determine if the robbery is linked to similar recent heists at other cellphone stores, Otis said.

Mays’ criminal history in Minnesota includes convictions for felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, in 2003; being an accomplice after an attempted murder, in 2006; and felony theft in 2015, as well as possession of marijuana in a motor vehicle, misdemeanor disorderly conduct and misdemeanor driving after suspension.

Inver Grove Heights residents will soon get a glimpse at plans for a new dog park along the Mississippi River.

Planned for the larger Heritage Village Park, the dog park will take up 10 acres, with one acre set aside for small breed dogs, according to Eric Carlson, parks and recreation director. It will also include a parking lot, trail improvements and benches and other amenities.

Details will be unveiled at an open house 6 to 7 p.m. Wednesday at the park, located at 65th Street and Doffing Avenue.

Supporters of a pooch park say it is long overdue and would go a long way toward building up Heritage Village Park, a former contaminated railroad yard site that is pegged for passive recreation but has been slow to be developed.

The city acquired the park land from the Rock Island Railroad after the property went into tax forfeiture about 20 years ago. In 2008, the process of top-filling the polluted land with clean soil began.

The city has discussed the idea of a dog park several times since 2009. Two years ago, the city held public open houses, formed a committee to explore sites and surveyed residents to gauge their interest. But discussions eventually fizzled out.

“We think this would be the best spot,” Eric Carlson, the city’s parks director, said of a dog park. “But we want to hear feedback from residents.”

The plan will go before the city’s parks and recreation commission Sept. 13, followed by the city council at an Oct. 2 work session meeting.

Faced with neighborhood backlash, Inver Grove Heights is dumping the idea of selling River Heights Park — at least for now.

In a letter sent late last week to neighborhood residents, Eric Carlson, the city’s parks and recreation director, said the planning commission will not discuss the issue at its Sept. 5 meeting, as was previously scheduled.

“We have listened to your feedback and are delaying any further action at the Planning Commission at this time,” he wrote. “Should a new time/date be established you will be notified in a separate letter.”

Asked Wednesday whether the idea of selling all or part of the park was off the table in perpetuity, Carlson said the city could not make that commitment.

“It could be reintroduced, but right now it’s not being considered,” he said.

River Heights Park is among 10 city-owned properties the city council deemed “excess” land in 2016. Two other parks — Marcott Woods, which is 14 acres, and Dehrer, 5.5 acres — also are on the list.

But River Heights was first because a city resident is interested in building a house on one of its three 2.5-acre lots.

As part of a deal that was in the works, the resident would have bought the lot and the city would have bought the resident’s lot on Courthouse Boulevard Court, where it would like to build a new fire station.

Earlier this month, neighbors began fighting the plan. A petition opposing the idea was signed by 140 residents around the 7.5-acre park, which is open space with grass, trees and a looping half-mile dirt trail.

On Aug. 9, with many of those residents in attendance, the Inver Grove Heights Parks and Recreation Advisory Commission recommended to the city council that the park be taken off the list of city properties that could be sold.

One person died in a fire at an Inver Grove Heights home Thursday night.

When police and firefighters responded to the Delilah Avenue address at 9:22 p.m. Thursday, they found the structure engulfed in flames. Heat and smoke prevented entry, according to city officials.

The blaze was extinguished minutes later and a search of the home revealed the deceased victim. The person’s name is being withheld until family can be notified.

The cause of the fire and the death are being investigated.

Two thieves are on a hotel-robbing spree, and Woodbury police are asking for help in catching them.

Police believe the thieves have hit five area hotels since July, most recently the Hampton Inn in Woodbury at 4 a.m. Thursday.

In each case, the thieves entered during early-morning hours, asked for a room, then pulled a gun or implied they had a gun in a pocket.

The episodes have become increasingly violent. “In the Woodbury incident, the suspects charged at the clerk while forcing their way behind the counter,” said Woodbury police detective Jeremy Miller.

The suspects are described as black men in their mid-20s. One has dreadlocks, is about 6 feet tall, last seen wearing a black sweatshirt and black pants. The other is about 5 feet 7 inches tall, wearing a red hooded sweatshirt and red sweatpants.

Police believe that in addition to the Woodbury robbery this week, the two robbed the Nichols Inn in Hastings on July 29, Days Inn in Red Wing Aug. 2, AmericInn in Inver Grove Heights Aug. 12 and Budget Host Hotel in North Branch Aug. 13.

Anyone with information is asked to call Woodbury Public Safety, 651-714-3600.

During an Aug. 17 robbery of a Verizon Wireless store in Inver Grove Heights, Jamaal Marquie Mays allegedly pointed a .45-caliber handgun at a clerk’s head and told him to “make it easy on me.”

The clerk had another idea: He pulled his own gun from his waistband and fired three shots, hitting Mays twice and critically wounding him.

The allegations against Mays are detailed in a criminal complaint filed Monday in Dakota County District Court in Hastings charging him with first-degree aggravated robbery and two weapons violations — possession of a firearm by ineligible person and possession of a firearm with an altered or removed serial number.

Mays, a 32-year-old convicted felon with a lengthy criminal history in Minnesota, is recovering from gunshot wounds at Regions Hospital in St. Paul. He was listed in serious condition Monday.

A second suspect, who ran from the store after the clerk and Mays exchanged gunfire, remains at large.

According to the criminal complaint:

Police were called to the store — The Cellular Connection, at the northeast corner of Concord Boulevard and Cahill Avenue — about 11 a.m. for an armed robbery in progress. When officers arrived at the store, the clerk said he had shot one of two robbery suspects in self-defense.

The clerk, identified in the complaint by initials JCR, told police he had been helping the two suspects look at cellphones. After coming out of the backroom with a phone, Mays pointed a gun at his head.

The clerk has a permit to carry a firearm, police said.

The serial number had been scratched off the pistol that Mays used in the robbery, charges say.

No one else was in the store at the time of the robbery, police said.

During the gunfire, a bullet grazed an employee at Super Wok Chinese Restaurant, which adjoins the cellphone store.

“This was a very frightening experience for the store clerk and others in adjoining businesses,” Dakota County Attorney Jim Backstrom said Monday in a statement. “We are thankful that neither the store clerk nor any other individuals were seriously injured as a result of this armed robbery.”

A 2000 Honda Odyssey minivan the second suspect used to flee the area was found Monday in St. Paul, Inver Grove Heights police Lt. Joshua Otis said.

Authorities are still working to identify the second suspect, who is described as a black man about 20 to 30 years old. He was wearing dark-colored pants, a dark-green jacket, baseball hat and black Nike shoes with a white swoosh.

Authorities ask that anyone with information about his identity or whereabouts call Inver Grove Heights police at 651-450-2525 or 911.

At the time of the stickup, Mays, who lives in Crystal, was on probation for a 2015 theft conviction in Hennepin County, according to court records. His criminal history in Minnesota also includes convictions for felony second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon, being an accomplice after an attempted murder, trespassing and misdemeanor disorderly conduct.

The Dakota County attorney’s office said Monday in a statement that a first court appearance for Mays has not been scheduled because it is not known when he will be released from the hospital.

Meanwhile, the store clerk has not yet returned to work, manager Drew Barns said Monday.

“He seems to be doing well,” Barns said. “We haven’t pushed him to come back. It’ll be up to him.”

READ THE CRIMINAL COMPLAINT

Sherry Robinette said she felt helpless as she saw smoke billowing out of Judy Lawrence’s home and knowing the 69-year-old was still inside.

Robinette said the thick smoke and heat stopped her and a neighbor from going inside the house and finding Lawrence, who died in the Thursday night fire in Inver Grove Heights.

“We couldn’t get in to help her,” Robinette said Monday morning outside the charred home. “The smoke was too much. I was yelling, ‘Judy!’ Judy!’ I was shaking.”

Robinette had lived with Lawrence for five years, and said she would help anyone with whatever they needed.

Police and firefighters, called to the blaze at 9:22 p.m., found the house at 6425 Delilah Ave. engulfed in flames, according to a statement by Fire Chief Judy Thill.

Heat and smoke prevented them from getting inside, she said.

The blaze was out about 10 minutes later, and crews found Lawrence during a search of the house, Thill said.

On Monday, the Hennepin County medical examiner’s office said Lawrence died of smoke inhalation and burns. The manner of death is pending additional investigation.

Inver Grove Heights police and the state fire marshal’s office are investigating the cause of the fire, the medical examiner’s office said.

Robinette, who lives in the upstairs area of the 1½-story home, said she was in the detached garage fixing her glasses when the fire broke out. She said a neighbor alerted her to the fire, which was mainly in the living room where Lawrence slept.

“I wanted to go through the window, but I couldn’t,” said Robinette, 62.

About five years ago, Lawrence retired from her longtime job as a switchboard operator at Gillette Children’s Specialty Healthcare in St. Paul, Robinette said.

But Lawrence also experienced hard times in recent years, Robinette said. About 10 years ago, Lawrence’s only child, Ross, died unexpectedly at age 39. Her husband, Steve, died in February at age 68.

“She was in a sad place ever since her son died,” Robinette said.

Inver Grove Heights Days, the city’s annual festival, runs Friday through Sunday.

Friday’s events include a community fun night from 5:30 to 7:30 p.m. at Oakwood Park and a street dance with country musician Tim Sigler from 8 to midnight outside Drkula’s 32 Bowl.

Saturday’s parade begins at 11 a.m. and runs along Cahill Avenue between 65th and 80th streets.

Viktor the Viking, local soccer teams and other volunteers, including Mayor George Tourville and Dakota County Commissioner Joe Atkins, will be pushing grocery carts in the parade again this year, collecting food and household items for Neighbors Inc., the local food shelf.

The parade’s food drive has collected more than 30,000 pounds of donations since 1997.

Other events Saturday include professional wrestling at 2 p.m. at Drkula’s, a five-mile ride on the Mississippi River Regional Trail at 4 p.m., the 12th annual Royal Coronation at 5 p.m. at Simley Performing Arts Center, and fireworks at 9:30 p.m. above Simley Island.

Sunday’s events, which run from 11 a.m. to 4 p.m. along Cahill Avenue between 65th and 70th streets, include a pet contest, a classic car show, a food court. and a public safety display with fire trucks, police squad cars and other city vehicles.

Best Buy is closing two of its east metro locations this fall, one in Inver Grove Heights and the other in Blaine.

The Inver Grove Heights location on 50th Street opened in 1974 and the Blaine location on Ulysses Street opened in 2007. Both will close on Oct. 28.

“Both of these stores are in areas where we have a lot of stores,” said Jeff Shelman, Best Buy spokesperson, spokesperson for the Richfield-based electronics giant. “We close if we see a lease that doesn’t make sense.”

Shelman said employees were informed Sunday night of the closures.

Each store employs 25 full-time workers who will most likely be transferred to other Best Buy stores in the metro area.

Best Buy has more than 1,000 “big-box” stores in the U.S., with 20 locations in Minnesota — 14 of which are in the Twin Cities and surrounding suburbs.

For almost seven decades, a historical marker on U.S. 52 in Inver Grove Heights paid homage to the site of a former Sioux village.

Joe Atkins, who grew up in Inver Grove Heights, recently recalled how the limestone and red-brick marker, which measured 12 feet wide and 15 feet deep, “popped out of the landscape.”

“There just wasn’t much out there when we were kids,” said Atkins, a Dakota County commissioner. “There was a refinery on one side and not much else on the other.”

The marker, on a roadside pull-off, was taken down brick by brick around 2005 as part of a bridge and interchange construction project at 117th Street — and stashed away inside a county maintenance building.

Now, plans are in the works to erect it near the proposed Pine Bend trailhead on the Mississippi River Regional Trail, about a half-mile from its original site.

“I think most folks just thought it was gone forever,” Atkins said.

Curious about the marker’s fate, Atkins started a search in 2015 that grew to include staff from Dakota County, the Minnesota Department of Transportation and Pine Bend Oil Refinery. The lost monument was found at a county maintenance building at Spring Lake Park Reserve near Hastings, said Steve Sullivan, the county’s parks and recreation director.

“It’s been basically just collecting dust,” he said.

Referred to as the Pine Bend Historical Marker, it was built between 1939 and 1940 by the National Youth Administration and Minnesota Department of Highways, as MnDOT was known at the time. Dakota County took ownership of it from MnDOT about a decade ago.

“It’s great that it has survived this long,” Inver Grove Heights Mayor George Tourville said this month, “because it warrants telling the story again.”

SIOUX FORCED OFF LAND TWICE

An 1837 treaty ceded the Kaposia Village area to the north to newly arrived white settlers, forcing the Sioux band off that land and into the new village, which was named Medicine Bottle in honor of the band’s leader.

The leader was considered a friendly man, according to a bronze plaque that accompanies the marker, and is often confused in historic circles with his nephew, who was also known as Medicine Bottle.

The nephew was a key figure in the U.S.-Dakota War of 1862, which raged for six weeks throughout southwestern Minnesota, and was one of 40 men executed by the government.

Another treaty was signed with the government in 1851, and the band moved to a new Sioux reservation on the upper Minnesota River in 1852. The senior Medicine Bottle died that same year.

The village was later renamed Pine Bend, meaning the “bend in the river where the pine trees are,” according to the 1915 book “Historical Notes of Grey Cloud Island and Its Vicinity,” which was written by John H. Case and published by the Minnesota Historical Society.

“The land on which this Sioux village stood, together with their gardens and cornfields, was afterward pre-empted by William A. Bissell, the first white settler at Pine Bend, the present day Inver Grove Township,” the book reads.

MNDOT, COUNTY EYE RESTORATION

MnDOT owns 100 historic roadside properties within highway rights-of-way that include scenic-overlook walls, wayside parks, stone picnic tables and fireplaces, interpretive markers and small stone bridges.

Most of them were built during the 1930s and early 1940s by unemployed Minnesotans under the federal relief programs of President Franklin Roosevelt’s New Deal, said Kathryn McFadden, MnDOT’s historic roadside properties program manager.

“These are part of our cultural history,” McFadden said, adding that 18 properties are on the National Register of Historic Places and many more are eligible. “They marked the start of road tourism, when people started to get cars after the war and they could afford to travel more. They needed a safe place to pull over on the side of the road to rest.”

But many are showing their age, she said, and “have been deteriorating for a very long time.”

Since 2006, MnDOT has allocated $2 million a year to restore or rehab its roadside properties. In 2013, the Lake St. Croix Overlook in Oak Park Heights was restored, while the Garrison Concourse, a Mille Lacs Lake overlook that’s home to a giant walleye statue, was rehabbed in 2010.

Meanwhile, the Pine Bend Historical Marker is among just 10 former MnDOT properties the agency no longe owns because they either were too deteriorated or were in the way of road projects, McFadden said.

MnDOT will not pay for the cost of erecting the Pine Bend marker because the agency no longer owns it, she said.

Sullivan, Dakota County’s parks director, said the county will apply for a Minnesota Historical Society Legacy grant next year to help fund the project. When the marker is erected depends on its condition and the cost to rehab it, he said, adding 2019 is a realistic goal.

A 1998 MnDOT report describes the marker as being in “fair to poor condition.” It was rectangular and included a terrace with steps to a lower-level flagstone plaza. A wide-curving limestone step allowed visitors to get close to the plaque. In 1943, the Pine Bend 4-H Club added a flag pole to the site.

“It’s a beautiful structure,” Sullivan said. “Part of our mission is to provide education and interpretation, and being a historic structure, it has merit to be saved. So we’re working on resurrecting it, giving it a new home.”

A provision in a proposed sex-offender ordinance in Inver Grove Heights has prompted an online petition to city officials.

The provision, an exception which the city council added this month after a first reading of the ordinance, would allow Level 3 sex offenders to live with a spouse or another immediate family member within any distance of schools, child care facilities, parks and other places where children congregate.

The petition asks the council to remove the exception and restrict Level 3 offenders from living within 1,000 feet of where children congregate.

As of Friday, more than 600 people had signed the petition on change.org.

The council is scheduled to vote on the ordinance during its meeting at 7 p.m. Monday at City Hall, 8150 Barbara Ave E.

The city has had an interim sex offender ordinance — without the exception — since October 2016.

The former leader of an Inver Grove Heights charter school claims religious discrimination and violations of Minnesota’s whistleblower protections led to his ouster in June.

Dan Hurley filed a lawsuit last week in Dakota County District Court that alleges leaders of Discovery Charter School fired him after he voiced concern the school could be violating the constitutional separation between church and state and questioned a maintenance contract. Hurley also claims his Catholic faith played a role in his firing.

Discovery’s board of directors voted not to renew Hurley’s contract during a Saturday meeting called on short notice. Before that meeting, Hurley said, he had no warning his employment was at risk.

After Hurley was fired, parents of Discovery students rallied to save his job and demanded a public meeting with board members.

That meeting came about a month later and was unsatisfying for many. School leaders read from a prepared statement to answer some of the parents’ questions, but largely failed to address concerns about Hurley’s dismissal.

School leaders did not respond to messages seeking comment about Hurley’s allegations.

In his lawsuit, Hurley says he was fired shortly after he told Samuel Master, school board chair, that he feared a prayer room at the school could violate the separation between church and state. The prayer room was near an office used by Asad Zaman, director of the Muslim American Society of Minnesota, or MASM.

Zaman’s organization has rented space in the building occupied by Discovery, which is owned by the Minnesota Education Trust, a nonprofit with ties to MASM.

Nothing in federal or state law prohibits a charter school from renting from or sharing space with a religious institution. In fact, several former Catholic schools in the Twin Cities are now home to public charter schools.

But public schools are prohibited from endorsing a particular religion or giving preference to members of a particular faith.

Zaman is not listed as a defendant in the case and he did not respond to a phone message seeking comment. But this isn’t the first time his name has come up in accusations that a school had inappropriate religious ties.

Zaman is the former leader of the Tarek ibn Ziyad Academy, or TiZA, which closed in 2011 after being sued by the American Civil Liberties Union for allegedly teaching Islam and funnelling money meant for educating students to religious organizations. The lawsuit was settled in 2012 with school leaders essentially acknowledging the ACLU’s allegations.

TiZA was located in the building Discovery Charter School now occupies.

Hurley also claims his dismissal was tied to questions he raised about the school’s $30,000 maintenance contract. Days before his firing, Hurley asked to see financial records about the contract, his lawsuit said.

Finally, Hurley claims that Zaman asked him to cover up a crucifix necklace that he wore and that his Catholic faith played a role in the decision to fire him.

He is asking for damages, back pay and a declaration that school leaders violated his constitutional rights.

The Inver Grove Heights City Council on Monday unanimously passed a permanent sex-offender ordinance, but without a contentious provision that would have allowed Level 3 offenders to live with a family member near places where children gather.

Earlier this month, 685 people signed an online petition opposing the family-member exception. Several residents also criticized the exception at Monday’s meeting.

The ordinance, which goes into effect Sunday, prohibits Level 3 offenders from living within 1,000 feet of a school, park, playground, church, licensed child care facility or any other place where children congregate.

The city has had an interim sex-offender ordinance — without the exception — since October. The city has no Level 3 sex offenders as residents.

Assistant City Attorney Bridget Nason said a 2016 survey showed that 20 of the 25 Minnesota cities with predatory sex-offender ordinances included a family-member exception.

Inver Grove becomes the seventh Dakota County city with sex-offender restrictions. Of those, four include a family member exception — South St. Paul, West St. Paul, Hastings and Rosemount, Nason said. Apple Valley, Farmington and now Inver Grove do not.

The belief in some cities is that not having the exception means they’re more likely to be challenged on the constitutionality of the ordinance, Nason said.

Mayor George Tourville said he is “not worried” about a lawsuit.

“No exception,” he said after the vote. “If the lawsuit comes, we’ll have to deal with it like anything else, but I think we are safer.”

Minnesota rates the likelihood of sex offenders to re-offend, upon their release; Level 3 is considered the highest risk.

Since 1991, Minnesota law requires all felony-level sex offenders to register their home address with local law enforcement. In addition, the Legislature passed the Community Notification Act in 1996, tasking local law enforcement with informing the public about sex offenders living in their community.

Town Square Television is inviting the public to its “30th Birthday Bash,” set for 4:30 to 8 p.m. Thursday at its offices in Inver Grove Heights.

Town Square is the local community cable station serving South St. Paul, West St. Paul, Inver Grove Heights, Mendota Heights, Mendota, Sunfish Lake and Lilydale. Each year, the nonprofit airs between 1,400 and 1,500 hours of new programming, half of which is produced by its own staff and volunteers.

The open house, sponsored by the South Robert Street Business Association, will include free food from Hometown Meats, courtesy of the South St. Paul Lions Club. There will be games and door prizes, including Wild tickets and a signed Glen Perkins baseball.

Guests can tour two editing suites that will be named after Mark DeJoy and Bill Wolston, who were “two very special individuals who’ve had a big impact on Town Square Television,” said Jodie Miller, executive director.

DeJoy, who died in 2014 at age 49, was an award-winning producer whose primary work was the monthly news program “Insight 7.” Wolston’s “90 Seconds of Local History” segment aired on the news program for about 15 years. He died in 2015 at age 88.

Town Square Television is at 5845 Blaine Ave. and online at townsquare.tv.

Inver Grove Heights has secured its preferred spot to build a fire station for the city’s southern half.

The city has signed purchase agreements to buy 11.68 acres of land, located south of U.S. 52 and west of Concord Boulevard, at a cost of $1.93 million. The sale’s closing is expected before the end of the month.

“This is a huge step forward in this process that’s been going on for a while,” Mayor George Tourville said this past week after the council approved purchase agreements for the land at 9250 Courthouse Boulevard Court.

In 2015, a fire station committee ranked six recommended sites, all in the middle of the city and near main roads and highways, and the one on Courthouse Boulevard Court was at the top of the list, City Administrator Joe Lynch said.

The city had the triangle-shaped property appraised, but the city council considered it too high and directed city staff to negotiate with two other landowners. When those discussions went nowhere, council members asked for a second appraisal of the first property and “they liked the price point,” Lynch said.

The city only needs five acres for a fire station, but the landowners, William and Muriel Carlson, would agree to the sale only if the city bought their entire property, Lynch said. The city plans to eventually sell the 6.68 acres it does not need, possibly for commercial development.

A new station will cut between five to eight minutes off firefighter drive times to the southern areas, where average response times are about 16 minutes — or double that of most other areas, Fire Chief Judy Thill said.

“I’m excited. The fire department looked at this need for a third fire station long before I started,” said Thill, who in 2007 was hired as the city’s first full-time fire chief.

Inver Grove Heights built its two existing stations in the northern third of the city in 1970 and 1987, when the city’s population was about half of what it is now.

To compound matters, city officials say, more development has moved to the south, and additional expansion is planned for the northwest area in the coming years.

The fire department has 65 paid on-call firefighters who cover the city’s 32 square miles. This year, the department is on pace to respond to more than 1,500 calls (fire, medical and rescue), which is up from the recent annual average, Thill said, partly because in 2016 the city switched to a “duty crew” service model where three paid on-call firefighters are at the station in shifts, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“We’re now picking up different types of medical calls that we didn’t go to in the past,” Thill said.

Last month, the city council hired an architectural firm to design final plans for the new station — a project that with land cost, sewer and water connections and other site improvements could reach $10 million, Lynch said. It will be financed by general obligation bonds.