New Helping Paws leader is named

New Helping Paws leader is named

Helping Paws, a regional leader in the assistance-dog industry that also is part of the Eden Prairie Community Foundation’s “Hub” and participated in last fall’s GIVE Gathering volunteer fair in EP, has named Alyssa Golob as executive director. The mission of the Hopkins-based non-profit is to further people’s independence and quality of life through the use of assistance dogs. Golob joins…

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City to take ownership of Eden Prairie Cemetery

City to take ownership of Eden Prairie Cemetery

Eden Prairie city officials have agreed to take over control and management of Eden Prairie’s oldest cemetery. At the request of its current caretakers, Eden Prairie Cemetery – like Pleasant Hill Cemetery before it – will come under the city’s control on March 1, folded into the Parks and Recreation Department. The cemetery at 8810 Eden Prairie Road, nearly 160 years old and the resting place…

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Way cleared for lower rent on some Ellie apartments

Way cleared for lower rent on some Ellie apartments

The Eden Prairie City Council has directed city staff to make tax-increment financing (TIF) a part of the final-approval documents for The Ellie apartment project proposed along Eden Prairie Road at Lincoln Lane. The decision Feb. 8 ensures that the financing tool, frequently used by cities – including in Eden Prairie, for several other apartment projects – will increase the number of apartments…

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Rue named Minnesota '2021 Engineer of the Year'

Rue named Minnesota ‘2021 Engineer of the Year’

When Rod Rue was named the “2021 Engineer of the Year” during last month’s City Engineers Association of Minnesota annual conference, it came as a surprise—at least for him.  The Eden Prairie city engineer’s family knew. They were hiding in the back, waiting for the big reveal. His co-workers did, too. He joked that his “boss” Robert Ellis, the city’s public works director, made sure Rue didn’t…

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Allina Health opens new Eden Prairie clinic

Allina Health opens new Eden Prairie clinic

The Minneapolis Heart Institute (MHI) and Abbott Northwestern General Medicine Associates (ANGMA) have collaborated to open a new Allina Health clinic in Eden Prairie.. The clinic, which opened Jan. 11, features an integrated care model that provides adult patients cardiovascular and primary care in a differentiated, seamless way, according to a news release. “Our mission is to ensure patients…

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Lee Smith to step away from classroom and EPHS hockey after 29 years as head coach

Lee Smith to step away from classroom and EPHS hockey after 29 years as head coach

Lee Smith remembers driving through Eden Prairie with his dad and grandpa back in the 1980s. What does he remember about that drive? “It was gorgeous,” said Smith. “I wanted to be in the cities, but Eden Prairie looked like home.” Home was Willmar, Minn., and 1980s Eden Prairie looked a lot like Willmar. Thirty-three years ago, Smith, then a recent Mankato State University graduate, accepted…

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Criminal sexual conduct among felony charges filed by EP Police

Criminal sexual conduct among felony charges filed by EP Police

Eden Prairie Police have filed felony charges against three defendants in unrelated cases for criminal sexual conduct, mail theft and fleeing police. Criminal sexual conduct A Bloomington man is charged with one count each of 1st and 5th degree criminal sexual conduct in a case involving a 16-year-old female who reported being sexually abused multiple times beginning at the age of 5. The girl…

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Colleges announce fall 2021 academic achievements

Colleges announce fall 2021 academic achievements

The following colleges and universities have announced Eden Prairie students named to their fall 2021 Dean’s Lists: Augustana University (SD) Ella Bakken Abigail Carter Alysse Grohs Atianna Hernke Meghan Kuntz Katerina Leisen Elmhurst University (IL) Blake Dickson Hamilton College (NY) Jacob Rhee Kansas State University (Manhattan) Gabriela Gutierrez Miami University (OH) Kylie…

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Hunt for Sheldon’s wrench begins Feb. 21

Hunt for Sheldon’s wrench begins Feb. 21

Sheldon Smith’s wrench will go missing, later this month, and the person who finds it will receive a $200 gift card from Smith Coffee & Café, located in the historic Smith-Douglas-More House that Sheldon built at 8107 Eden Prairie Road. The wrench hunt, which starts Feb. 21, is a Smith Coffee tradition. Prior to the start of this year’s hunt, the wrench will be hidden in an Eden Prairie city…

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Council to consider financing help to increase affordable rents for The Ellie

Council to consider financing help to increase affordable rents for The Ellie

The City of Eden Prairie is being asked to provide tax-increment financing (TIF) assistance to The Ellie apartment project proposed along Eden Prairie Road at Lincoln Lane as a way to increase the number of apartments that will have lower rents. The proposal is among the items the Eden Prairie City Council will consider at its meeting Tuesday, Feb. 8. TIF is a common financing tool that allows…

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Eden Prairie Lions Club wants to turn your cans into cash for worthy causes

Eden Prairie Lions Club wants to turn your cans into cash for worthy causes

Chuck Rodman and Steve Wilson are the unofficial kings of cans in Eden Prairie. The pair has been involved in generating funds for the Eden Prairie Lions Club by cashing in an assortment of aluminum soda, fizzy water and beer cans for many years. They can reel off the current going rate for aluminum and they happily shed their warm coats in below zero weather so that the Eden Prairie Lions’…

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Three EP teachers are nominees for Minnesota Teacher of the Year

Three EP teachers are nominees for Minnesota Teacher of the Year

“Teaching is a hoot.” That’s how Prairie View Elementary School teacher Nate Gabel’s describes his work, even after two years of COVID-19, hybrid learning, online classes and figuring out how to make it all work. That attitude probably explains why he is one of three Eden Prairie Schools’ teachers that have been nominated for Education Minnesota’s Teacher of the Year honors. The two others,…

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World premiere for new play 'Eden Prairie, 1971'

World premiere for new play ‘Eden Prairie, 1971’

The new play “Eden Prairie, 1971” is having its theatrical world premiere this month at Riverside Theatre in Iowa City, Iowa. Set in an Eden Prairie backyard, the play takes place the night of the 1971 Apollo 15 moon landing, when Vietnam draft dodger Pete, home from Canada, initiates a conversation with high school classmate Rachel. The play grew, in part, from the time playwright Mat Smart…

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Mayor Ron Case on SWLRT price hike and delay

Mayor Ron Case on SWLRT price hike and delay

In a Thursday, Feb. 3, news release, Eden Prairie Mayor Ron Case Eden issued his reactions to the revised, estimated $2.75 billion cost and the delay of passenger service of the Metro Green Line Extension (SWLRT) until 2027. The news about the light rail transit project was announced during the Metropolitan Council meeting on January 26 and again during the February 2 Corridor Management…

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Life on Eden Prairie's Lincoln Lane is soon just a memory, but a good one

Life on Eden Prairie’s Lincoln Lane is soon just a memory, but a good one

At just seven homes, the Lincoln Lane neighborhood along County Road 4, just north of Smith Coffee & Café, isn’t big by Eden Prairie standards. But it’s deep in Eden Prairie history. The families that lived there in the 1960s and beyond included Eden Prairie High School’s (EPHS) basketball coach, a future Eden Prairie mayor, and kids who would stick around to become an Eden Prairie teacher or…

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Optimist Club taking essay contest submissions

Optimist Club taking essay contest submissions

Students have until Friday, Feb. 18, to turn in submissions for the 2022 annual Eden Prairie Optimist Club essay contest. Participants are encouraged to contemplate the phrase, “How does an optimistic mindset change my tomorrow?” as part of the Optimist International Essay Contest. It’s open to any area students under 19 as of Oct. 1, 2021. The contest includes three age categories, with the…

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Missouri fraternity sued over alcohol-induced brain injuries to 2021 Eden Prairie grad

Missouri fraternity sued over alcohol-induced brain injuries to 2021 Eden Prairie grad

The parents of an Eden Prairie man have sued a University of Missouri fraternity after their son suffered brain injuries during a pledge party in October 2021, according to media reports. At Eden Prairie High School, Daniel Santulli was an accomplished athlete and a student manager for the state championship hockey team. Daniel Santulli, 19, has been unresponsive and requires constant medical…

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