Here's what's been going on in and around Belle Plaine lately, according to the Belle Plaine Herald:

- The city council agreed to pay as much as $18,630 to the University of Minnesota Center for Rural Design to come up with guidelines for restoring downtown buildings and creating a new commercial and industrial development district along Highway 169.

- One resident showed up to speak at Belle Plaine's Truth-in-Taxation public hearing. Cary Coop, who sits on the city's park board, said he did not want the city's proposed tax levy reduced, even though the city wasn't going to spend $37,800 on its ambulance service. He asked that the money go toward building a skating rink instead. Belle Plaine approved a tax levy increase of about 16 percent, and the council voted to put money toward the park fund, which could make up the remainder of the $44,900 proposed rink.

- Belle Players theater group put on "It's a Wonderful Life, the Radio Play."  

- Scott County and its cities made a favorable impression with the Minnesota Senate's bonding committee, which visited the historic Mudbaden in Sand Creek Township, where locals are asking for $3.2 million for further development of a public safety training facility. Police officers and firefighters train at the site, which most recently had been used as a county jail annex.