While the waning days of summer provide one last chance of a holiday for students, most teachers in Eden Prairie have been back at work participating in a number of staff training sessions.

“There’s a lot of deeper work that continues all through the summer,” noted Sue Feigal-Hitch, a gifted education teacher at Forest Hills Elementary.

The following obituaries are from the Aug. 21, 2008 print edition of the Eden Prairie News newspaper:

11 new girls will join the program, which offers ‘A Better Chance’ to students coming from disadvantaged areas

By Leah Shaffer

A Better Chance Foundation is getting a fresh start like no other this year. The organization will bring in 11 new students to Eden Prairie, along with three returning 10th-graders.

It’s a packed house for the ABC program, which offers young women from disadvantaged areas of the country an opportunity to go to school in Eden Prairie. Students and their parents begin arriving next week.

Filing is set to open Tuesday, Aug. 26, for two Eden Prairie City Council seats that will be up for election this fall.
The seats of Council Members Brad Aho and Sherry Butcher are up in the Nov. 4 general election. Both have indicated they will file to run for re-election. Former City Council Member Ron Case and Jeff Meyerhofer have also announced their intentions to run for City Council.
Each council seat has a four-year term and a salary of $625 per month. The filing fee is $5.
Filing closes on Sept. 9 at 5 p.m. and candidates have until 5 p.m. Sept. 11 to withdraw.

Pamela McElwain-Brown of Eden Prairie, a JFK Presidential Limousine historian, reports that an exact replica of the JFK Limousine, SS-100-X, is being brought for exhibition to the Minnesota State Fair.
“I’m still kind of the only one to focus solely on that,” she said of her focus on the presidential limo.

The state primary is Sept. 9. If you can’t make it to the polls to vote, absentee ballots are available, according to a news release from Hennepin County.
You can apply for an absentee ballot if:
* You’re going to be absent from the precinct on the day of the state primary.
* Illness or disability prevents you from going to a polling place.
* Religious discipline or observance prohibits you from going to a polling place.
* You are an election judge in another precinct.

Mayor looking for alternatives that would net higher rent

By Leah Shaffer

The franchise owner of a Dunn Bros. that operates out of Eden Prairie’s historic Smith-Douglas-More house was looking for a yearlong extension to her lease with the city.

Tuesday the City Council rejected that plan, instead looking for alternatives that could pay higher rent.

“There is no way that I’m going to support the renewal of this lease on the terms which this council agreed to last year,” said Mayor Phil Young.

JANESVILLE, Minn. - One of southern Minnesota’s best shallow waterfowl migration lakes is being prepped for a face-lift that will attract and hold more ducks.

Shakopee, MN  --  The 15^th annual Minnesota Festival of Champions, held Sunday, Aug. 10, at Canterbury Park, featured nine stakes races, seven for thoroughbreds and two for quarter horses, plus two additional turf allowance races. Purse money for the 11-race program was more than $415,000.

By Lauren Carlson-Vohs
I hadn’t given much attention to what I would write about in this week’s column, until one morning the words of this week’s title woke me around 5:00 a.m. and thoughts swirled about before I was able to fall back to sleep. I definitely was being called to listen and had the clear sense this week’s column would emerge from those thoughts.