Week in Review: Feb. 20 Edition

Here is a brief summary of what made news in Oakdale this past week:

• Former Minnesota Senate Education Committee Chair Chuck Wiger (DFL-District 55), of Maplewood, spoke and voted against teacher pay freeze and alternative teacher licensure bills, which ultimately passed in the Minnesota Senate.
• Oakdale’s Park and Recreation Commission is recommending that the city discontinue funding lifeguards at Tanners Lake Beach and use the cost savings for other recreation programs. The Oakdale City Council will discuss the issue at its meeting Tuesday, Feb. 22.
• School District 622 officials have asked that the Oakdale Athletic Association install ball field lighting somewhere other than the spot they’d been looking at on the property north of 12th Street. Other possibilities include fields on the east side of the Skyview Community School property, or at Tartan High School between the school and Tartan Arena.
• Oakdale’s Parks and Recreation department is looking at adding “playtrails,”  or a series of small nature-themed play structures, at one or more parks within the city.
• The Gateway (I-94) Corridor Commission announced Wednesday that it had narrowed the options for transit between Eau Claire, WI, to Minneapolis to seven. Among those options are light rail, bus rapid transit and commuter rail lines that would travel through Oakdale.
• Skyview Middle School students brought the books of Dr. Seuss to life this weekend while performing the musical Seussical Jr.
• On Friday, local residents went to the Oakdale Nature Preserve to snowshoe through the woods by moonlight and candlelight. 
• Oakdale Patch featured a number of students including University of Minnesota High School Honor Band members Brent Windham and Andrew Singer, talent show participants and boys basketball captain Ryan Burns.
• Nigel Bath, sales director for Oakdale’s , has spent stints in countries all over the world, from China to Scandinavia. 
• In sports: the Tartan boys hockey team lost to Hill-Murray Tuesday, Tartan girls basketball player Alexis Burbul committed to play next year for Davenport University, the Tartan boys basketball team lost a heartbreaker to St. Thomas Academy Friday, Tartan’s girls basketball team beat Henry Sibley Friday and the Tartan wrestling team competed in the 4AAA quarterfinals Saturday.