Scott Neal, Eden Prairie City Manager

These are a pair of sad, but true, before and after photos.  On the left is the photo of our Prairiview Park warming house just after it was destroyed by an arson fire this past Sunday night.  On the right is the area after our crews cleaned up the area before kids came back to adjacent Prairieview Elementary School on Monday morning.

The original warming house at this park was also destroyed by an arson fire on Sunday, August 28, 1994.  Following that fire, the city placed a 10 x 44 foot modular trailer at the site in 1995 to fulfill the need for a park structure/warming house at this park.  The City's park maintenance crews built a platform and ramp on to the trailer to make it accessible the following year.  Excluding the cost of the ramp, the cost of that trailer in 1995 was $22,848.  The total loss in the fire is estimated to be about $40,000 in today's dollars.

The building was scheduled to be replaced next year with a permanent park shelter.  Its loss by fire, however, is still a loss.  We cannot replace the structure for this summer.  The real loss will be felt by people who use the park and our staff who programmed out of the building.

The Eden Prairie Crime Prevention Fund has established a reward for information leading to the arrest and conviction of the arsonist(s).  We caught the arsonists who burned down the Staring Lake Park slide last year.  I bet we'll catch these arsonists, too.