Town square: Spring flooding risk is low, forecasters say

For all the snow we've had around here, there's little threat of flooding on the Minnesota River this spring, forecasters say.

The North Central River Forecast Center is predicting what officials in Shakopee are calling a "normal spring," by which they mean no floods.

Shakopee Police Chief and Emergency Management Director Jeff Tate did caution that spring rains could change the outlook.

FISH, the nonprofit collaborative in Scott County, is offering a community discussion of sex trafficking.

The event takes place April 10 at Friendship Church, 12800 Marystown Road, Shakopee, from 9:30 a.m. to 11 a.m.

It features Joy Friedman of Breaking Free, and local law enforcement professionals.

FISH, which stands for Families & Individuals Sharing Hope, asks for RSVPs at fish@fishgroup.net.

The public spaghetti dinner and silent auction will be held from 4 to 8 p.m. Dinner will be $10 per person.

Peterson, a Farmington High School alumna, and her friend were hit by a car in St. Paul last November and suffered serious injuries that left them in the hospital for nearly two months.

Donations can be sent to Bekka's Bright Benefit c/o Dolly Newberg, PO Box 189, Farmington, MN 55024-0189. Checks can be made out to the Bekka Peterson Medical Expense Fund.

The new presence of a full-time firefighter group apparently is raising eyebrows in town by tooling around in trucks when there's obviously no fire.

The city issued a formal statement last week explaining that there's a good reason for that.

"The truck allows the firefighters to respond more quickly to emergency calls should they receive one during their shift … instead of wasting valuable time for everyone to return to the fire station first."

The trucks "may not be the most fuel-efficient transport," the statement adds.

A full-time crew started in September, and response time has dropped to about half the 13 minutes per call of 2012, officials say.

Former Eagan resident John O. Roberts has been selected for induction into the Minnesota Aviation Hall of Fame, according to Noel Allard, chairman of the organization.

During his 22-year tenure at Mankato State University, Roberts tested and approved more than 3,000 students for pilot certificates and ratings, as well as structuring an innovative flight-training program that enabled 400 of them to obtain employment with airlines.

Roberts died of cancer in September 2012.

Inver Hills Community College has a $307,955 state grant to help train workers at the Shutterfly facility in Shakopee.

The college is helping Shutterfly create "a comprehensive workplace training program with customized course content to meet production goals for the new facility," officials said in a written statement.

The firm is one of several that have been lured to Shakopee over the last year or two.