Author: EPLN Staff Reports

Eden Prairie police officers are stepping up efforts throughout July to crack down on speeders. It is part of a statewide push this month by the Minnesota Office of Traffic Safety to increase speed enforcement. Preliminary reports, according to that office, show 166 people died in speed-related traffic crashes in Minnesota last year, the most since 2003. Eden Prairie officers stopped 2,043 people for speeding in 2021, according to a July 7 posting on the EPPD blog. To date in 2022, EP officers have made 1,103 speed-related stops. The EPPD blog post titled “Speed Kills” noted consequences for speeding, such as the greater potential…

Shirley Peterson Rodde, age 94, was received into the arms of Jesus on June 27, surrounded by her loving family. She will be greatly missed by many who knew and loved her.  Shirley and her husband, Fritz, were blessed with 66 loving and fulfilling years together. They lived an active life with lots of friends and family. They lived in Richfield for many years, where she worked for the school system and then NW National Life until she retired. She was blessed to have a strong faith, a close family, and good health for years of golfing, boating, waterskiing, snow-skiing,…

A nominating committee has forwarded the names of four finalists to Gov. Tim Walz and Lt. Gov. Penny Flanagan to fill the open Metropolitan Council District 3 seat. The four finalists are Dr. Tyronne Carter, Sherrie Pugh, James White and Kenneth Wilcox. They were among six candidates interviewed by the nominating committee in April to complete the remainder of Christopher Ferguson’s four-year term as the District 3 member through Jan. 2, 2023. Ferguson, a longtime Eden Prairie resident, resigned his seat on Jan. 31 after deciding to move out of the district. District 3 includes Eden Prairie and 16 other…

The Hennepin County Board is recruiting volunteers for two vacancies on the Nine Mile Creek Watershed District Board. Members serve three-year terms. A member may not be a public officer of the county, state or federal government and must be a district resident. Portions of Eden Prairie, Bloomington, Edina, Hopkins, Minnetonka and Richfield are within the district. There is also one vacancy on the county’s Human Resources Advisory Board. Members serve four-year terms and must reside in Hennepin County. A member must not be a public official or candidate for public office; must not be a Hennepin County employee or within…

Eden Prairie Lions Club presented a check last month to KSTP-TV Channel 5 morning news personality Chris Egert in support of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF). The money was raised during the club’s annual steak fry on May 2 at Camp Eden Wood in Eden Prairie. Egert was the guest speaker at the event that drew neighboring Lions clubs. He and his wife Kate have a son with Type 1 diabetes. The Egerts, according to the EP Lions Club, work hard for local organizations such as JDRF to help find a cure. Eden Prairie Lions Club and Lions International…

Open Your Heart (OYH) to the Hungry and Homeless will match a portion of all financial gifts at PROP Food Shelf during July.  PROP’s goal is to raise $50,000 toward this matching opportunity. The match is part of an annual food shelf grant challenge to help food shelves during their time of greatest need when giving can be at its lowest. This summer, PROP reports seeing more families with children coming to the food shelf. Between kids being home from school and more families experiencing economic hardship due to inflation, soaring food and gas prices, and the impacts of expiring…

Work will begin Tuesday, July 5 on a project to prolong the life of city streets mostly in the north and southwestern corners of Eden Prairie. Known as mill and overlay/full-depth reclamation, contractor Valley Paving will remove the top layer of existing bituminous pavement to improve street drainage and remove surface defects, according to a city news release. The actual bituminous overlay is placed after the milling and repair work has been completed, generally lagging the milling by one to four working days and is weather dependent. As part of the project, crews will apply a maltene-based rejuvenating agent to the…

Look for the EPLN banner, walk over to our canopy tent newsroom and meet our editors, photographers, reporters and publishers at Eden Prairie’s 4th of July Hometown Celebration on Monday. They’ve published more than 1,000 stories and maybe 3,000 photos since October 2020. Sign up for a free subscription to EPLN’s newsletter because you’ll get fact-based local news. On Monday only, new subscribers qualify for our proprietary, exclusive, unusual, fun and amazing list of amazing people, situations, events and sights around town that the EPLN team has covered or will soon write about. Eden Prairie unplugged!

Priya Elayath, Deepak Ganapathy, and Spiwe Jefferson were elected as new members of the Eden Prairie Community Foundation’s board of directors on June 16, and Jay Lotthammer was elected board chair for 2022-23. Elayath, an Eden Prairie resident since 2015, is an assistant attorney general at the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office, advising health-related licensing boards and representing them in litigation. She has been a volunteer with the Foundation’s strategic-planning team that works on diversity, equity, and inclusion issues. She and her husband have two young children. Ganapathy is vice president of the FACTS Business Unit at Danfoss Power Solutions in…

Charlie Mo Alleman passed away tragically at age 19. Charlie was born in Guatemala on March 9, 2003. He was adopted by Doug and Nadia Alleman when he was 1, along with his sister, Maria. His love of art and music was perfectly countered by his intense hatred of both math and science. Charlie went to the Eagle Heights Spanish Immersion elementary school, where he formed his deepest, long-lasting friendships. However, his best friend in the whole world was his overly bossy and protective sister, Maria. He graduated from Eden Prairie High School in 2021. Charlie will always be remembered…