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Council schedules public hearing for downtown trees BY SHANNON GRANHOLM MANAGING EDITOR
Residents who want to weigh in on whether four mature trees downtown should be preserved or removed as part of the downtown parking lots project should plan to attend a public hearing on April 8. Council Member Andrea West requested a public hearing after reading letters in the Press and hearing from people in the community about the topic. “I thought it would be a good idea to actually hear from the community in a public hearing,” West said. “I think that there was an understanding that there would be the ability to have public comment about the parking lots … I just want to give the space to do that. I myself haven’t decided one way or another, so I really would like to hear from the community.”
Learning from loss: Scam victim, detective share tips to protect others BY SHANNON GRANHOLM MANAGING EDITOR
Imagine getting a phone call from your child in tears who tells you their bank account is empty. That’s exactly what happened to Hugo resident Lisa Hippe. But it wasn’t just her daughter Jasmine’s account. The accounts that belonged to her and her husband Ted were also drained — to the tune of over $40,000. “The reality of ‘Oh my God. What did I just do?’” hit,” Hippe said. “I hate this. It’s never going to leave me.” Hippe received a text message asking her if she had recently charged something. She responded “no” to that text and was subsequently contacted by
someone claiming to be a part of a Huntington Bank fraud alert investigation team, working with the FBI. The person told her that they were investigating bank employees at local branches for transferring money out of customers’ accounts. “He told me that my accounts had been compromised,” Hippe explained. He told her that he could see wire transfers were set up to transfer her money out of her accounts. To protect her money, she was advised to withdraw all of the money from her account and to put it on a “safe” Chase card that the scammer loaded onto her phone. The scammer told her that there was a $20,000 withdrawal limit, so Hippe headed to Maplewood and subsequently
Attempted fraud numbers are low — most of the time if there is no actual loss, an incident report is not filed; it is simply taken for informational purposes only.
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White Bear Lake. “I was in front of the bank, and I was freaking out, but he told me there was an undercover cop inside the bank, so I was
“He was playing on my fear. That’s what got me going first was the fear that somebody was going to take all of my money,”
Frassati still discovering its identity decade after merger
Lisa Hippe Hugo Resident
BY SHANNON GRANHOLM MANAGING EDITOR
safe,” she recalled. “He made me feel comfortable … I was not thinking about a scam. It was not even in my realm.” Hippe said she was convinced it was legit because the person knew all her account numbers. “He was playing on my fear. That’s what got me going first was the fear that somebody was going to take all of my money,” she said. She said another convincing factor was that he was able to load the “safe” card onto her phone. She realized it was a
After a decade, Frassati Catholic Academy is still trying to find its identity and what it means to be “Frassati.” The K-8 Catholic school, located on Bald Eagle Avenue in White Bear Lake, is celebrating its 10th anniversary this school year. “We are only 10 years old. I see Frassati Catholic Academy like the child of the parents of St. Mary of the Lake and St. Pius X,” said PJ Butler, who took over as principal last July. In 2010, as part of the Archdiocesan strategic plan, it was decided to merge St. Mary of the Lake (1914-2014) and St. Pius X (1955-2014) schools serving the White Bear Lake community. In September 2014, Frassati Catholic Academy opened with a renewed vision for Catholic education, serving families in the northeast
SEE SCAM, PAGE 23
SEE FRASSATI CATHOLIC ACADEMY, PAGE 19
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