Jan. 8 edition
The search for a new Sartell-St. Stephen school district superintendent is off to a fast start with an online survey and focus groups. The district hired consultants School Exec Connect to conduct the search after Superintendent Jeff Schwiebert told the board in December that he plans to retire at the end of June.
For many months, Sartell’s Celebration Lutheran Church Community Free Store has provided food, comfort items and – just as important – hope to COVID-positive households in quarantine, to families where a father had lost his job, to single mothers whose work hours have been cut back and to homeless families housed in motels. They’ve been helping area people in need since the COVID-19 pandemic began almost one year ago, and they are still working hard because the need for help continues.
Jan. 22 edition
The show must go on – even in the time of COVID-19 – for the theater students at Sartell High School. The students presented virtually four short shows, three of them written by current or former students Jan. 28-30, streamed on the school district’s YouTube channel. In place of a one-act play usually performed this time of year, the theater students have been rehearsing and recording the four productions via Zoom. Director Kelli Killmer planned to produce one show. When many students auditioned, she decided to add three 10-minute productions written by students.
Kindergarten through fifthgrade students returned to in-person learning on Jan. 11 while middle and high school students continued classes in the hybrid model while COVID-19 guidelines are in place.
This Christmas, Santa Claus arrived late for 8-year-old Ben Hengel of Sartell – three weeks late, to be exact. But when Santa finally “delivered,” on Jan. 15, Hengel was all smiles and wide-eyed when he saw the return address on a Christmas package from the mailbox. In the upper-left corner was written “Santa Claus.” It was then that Ben knew Santa must have received his “Dear Santa” letter, after all. He opened the present and there were three hockey pucks, some hockey-stick tape and hockey wax – just the items he’d requested from Santa.
Feb. 5 edition
The team leading the search for a new Sartell-St. Stephen school superintendent found focus groups and online survey responses agreed on the district’s goals, strengths, challenges and a profile for the next district leader. The team’s research revealed the new superintendent’s goals should be to improve and enhance academic achievement, implement the equity audit now underway and address student mental health needs, especially after COVID. The survey showed district strengths include a high regard for staff and the high expectations they set. Responses also cited new facilities, strong academics, the amount of parent and community support and the many academic and activity options for students. Addressing equity issues and embracing diversity was by far the top challenge.
State funds, the continuing COVID-19 pandemic and unusually uncertain enrollment projections complicate planning for next year’s Sartell-St. Stephen school district budget. The district expects to receive additional COVID-19 federal money that would be like adding 1 percent to the funding formula. State funding and expenses are directly tied to enrollment. Kindergarten enrollment dropped from 311 students at the end of the 2019-2020 academic year to 252 students as of January. Some parents may have held students back because of COVID-19 restrictions.
The Sartell City Council, at its Jan. 25 meeting, agreed unanimously to refund a total of $35,200 in on-sale liquor-license fees to 11 local bars/restaurants. It was part of a resolution passed by the council in ongoing efforts to help smaller businesses stay afloat during the interconnected difficulties brought about by the COVID-19 pandemic. In addition, small businesses in Sartell received just under $1 million last year in CARES Act funding approved by the U.S. Congress last March. CARES Act stands for Coronavirus Aid, Relief and Economic Security Act. A portion of that $2.2-trillion stimulus bill was intended to help businesses weather the virus crisis.
Young entrepreneurs are finding innovative ways of selling Girl Scout cookies in the COVID-19 era. Beginning Feb. 16, people can order Girl Scout Cookies for pickup or delivery on Grubhub.com or through the Grubhub app as traditional selling methods are limited for the second season in a row.
Feb. 19 edition
What started as an innovation to celebrate a high school tradition during a pandemic may become an annual event. Sartell High School parents are planning another Senior Parade for the night before the June 5 graduation ceremony. During the parade, socially distanced seniors will line up along Pinecone Road while family members drive by. The parade will be limited to two vehicles per graduate for a parade of more than 600 vehicles.
There’s some good news about the half-cent regional sales tax revenue for Sartell. At the Jan. 25 city council meeting, it was announced despite lowered sales-tax revenue in October of 2019, the city still managed to receive 0.4 percent above the 2019 allocation and exceeded the 2020 budgeted sales-tax amount by $43,244, or by 3.6 percent during the last two months of 2019.
March 5 edition
Three finalists were selected in the district’s superintendent search. The Sartell-St. Stephen school board selected a slate of six candidates from a pool of 18 applicants during a special meeting March 1 and then narrowed that down to three following initial interviews..
Sartell and St. Stephen Mock Trial and Math teams compete at state tournaments.
March 19 edition
The Sartell-St. Stephen school board picked Jeff Ridlehoover, currently the assistant superintendent for Mounds View schools, to be the district’s next superintendent. His contract begins July 1, 2021.
A perennially popular family activity – birdhouse building – will again take place in St. Stephen this year, but this time by “distance.” From 11 a.m. to 1 p.m. Sunday, March 21, the St. Stephen Sportsmen’s Club will hand out bird-building kits in what’s dubbed as a “Birdhouse Giveaway” in a drive-by at St. Stephen City Hall. In previous years, parents and children loved coming to city hall to pitch in and help one another build the birdhouses, with pre-cut wood pieces and tools supplied by Sportsmen’s Club members and other contributors and volunteers.
An extensive bike-trails plan is taking shape for Sartell’s Sauk River Regional Park, and construction might begin as early as fall 2021. The trail system will involve a paved trail from the park’s parking lot to a swimming beach at Sauk River, as well as many other interconnected trails designed for various skill levels of bikers.
April 2 edition
In a school full of innovative education transformations, none is more dazzling than Riverview Intermediate’s Pier. What was once the old middle school’s swimming pool is now a new space for a wide range of fitness activities for third-, fourth- and fifth-graders. The room’s centerpiece is a giant video interactive playground projected on an entire wall. Instructors cue up a range of interactive exercises from throwing at a target to dance and exercise.
Lori Dornburg, a highly esteemed Sartell-St. Stephen Middle School teacher, has been named Minnesota Teacher of the Year 2020-21 for grades six through eight by the Veterans of Foreign Wars organization.
With the increasing diversity among Sartell-St. Stephen students, the district is now eligible for a state program that supports American Indian students and raises knowledge of American Indian heritage for all students. The district recently passed a 20-student threshold requiring the district to establish an American Indian Parent Advisory Committee. The requirement also comes with state funding that will total $20,716 for the 2021-22 school year.
Quite often, it’s what you don’t know that can hurt you the most. Just ask Nathan Bonzelet, Sartell’s new building inspector. Almost every day he meets at least one resident who tells him, voice full of surprise, “I didn’t know that!” Smoke detectors and carbon-monoxide detectors are just two examples. Everybody knows the importance of periodic battery replacement, but not too many know the detectors themselves wear out, often between seven and 10 years. They should be checked and then replaced with new ones, Bonzelet advises.
April 16 edition
Mark Amundson and Tyler Braegelmann piloted a drone down the long aisles of the manufacturing floor at Northern Metal Products, capturing video for their latest project. The students in Joe Schulte’s advanced video production at Sartell High School class are working with the custom metal fabricator to produce a virtual video tour. The school’s partnership with the St. Cloud company offers the students hands-on experience working with a client, and the company will receive a high-quality video for prospective customers.
With COVID-19 cases rising, the Sartell-St. Stephen school district still wants to keep kids in school and is asking families “to help get us to the finish line,” Human Resources Director Krista Durrwachter told the school board April 14. School administrators don’t anticipate shutting down the whole district again unless directed by the state, but if there is significant spread in a specific school, it may be closed to students.
Sartell High School Student Council has been recognized as a 2021 National Gold Council of Excellence by National Student Council for its record of leadership, service and activities that serve the school and community.
Sartell playwright Meg Mechelke will soon hear her winning original play dance across the radio airwaves. Great River Education Arts Theatre and KVSC-88.1 FM partnered in a call for original, never before performed, feature-length scripts to be produced and performed as a live radio drama. Mechelke’s play, Sasparella Trauffea is Dancing!, was selected by a panel of five readers.
High speeds on all Minnesota roadways have forced law enforcement to step up crack downs. Stearns and Benton counties are cracking down on drivers who are traveling at dangerous speeds. Preliminary numbers from the Minnesota Department of Public Safety show 395 Minnesotans were killed on Minnesota roadways in 2020. Of those, 120 deaths were speed-related, the most since 2008. At least 35 speed-related deaths have occurred so far this year, compared with 13 this time last year. The Minnesota State Patrol saw an alarming increase in the number of drivers going 100 miles per hour or more in 2020. Troopers wrote 1,068 citations to drivers traveling more than 100 mph, compared to 533 in 2019, a 100- percent increase. Stearns County cited 38 drivers for traveling 90 mph or more and nine for 100 mph or more last year.
April 30 edition
The third round of federal COIVD-19 relief money will boost the Sartell-St. Stephen school district’s budget for the 2021-22 school year. The district received $794,506 in the most recent round of federal support, Joe Prom, director of Business Services, told the school board at its April 19 meeting. With the money, the district will be able to maintain current staffing levels and add mental health and academic intervention positions, Prom said.
In one of the most ambitious projects in Sartell history, County Road 1 (also known as Riverside Drive) will be completely restructured and enhanced for utilities, safety, aesthetics, river access and recreational options. The project, estimated to cost about $12.5 million, will even include a pedestrian walkway on the old abandoned bridge that has long served as a utility connection between east and west Sartell. The changes will be made from Sartell Street at the south end to 12th Street N.
Throughout the decades, there have been thousands upon thousands of church services at the Catholic Church of St. Stephen, but the two Masses that took place April 24 and 25 were very special indeed. The two-day celebration was billed as “Slovenian Heritage Weekend” – not surprising since St. Stephen and its church were founded by immigrants from Slovenia, many of whose descendants still live in or near the city. The services on Saturday evening and Sunday morning commemorated the 150th year since the founding and construction of the European-style yellow-brick church.
May 14 edition
A major piece of the Sartell-St. Stephen school district’s effort to address education equity has been completed. Board members heard a plan for how an Education Equity Committee would function at its May 5 work session. More than two-dozen people contributed to a planning group that developed the plan during the past four months via Zoom meetings.
The “twin” arenas at the Scheels Athletic Complex in Sartell are now united physically, and the brand-new one – with its all-sports artificial turf – will be open for rentals starting May 17. Arena officials call this week a “soft opening,” meaning the arena will be in use for play but that the grand opening, with all the public speeches and hoopla, won’t happen until early this fall. The long-anticipated new facility is known as RDR Arena, named for its major donor, Regional Diagnostic Radiology. Ice rentals for the other ice-only arena (Bernick’s Arena) will be available starting Nov. 7.
Minnesota roads are no stranger to the damage of de-icing in winter. Now, a Sartell native is working on a research project at the University of Wisconsin-Platteville to study the long-term impacts of these treatments on concrete durability. After receiving the Undergraduate Research, Scholarly and Creative Activity Scholarship his freshman year at UW-Platteville, Dylan Notsch, a sophomore this current academic year, is working on this research with Dr. Danny Xiao, assistant professor of civil engineering.
May 28 edition
Despite difficulties made worse by uncertainties, Sartell not only made it through the worst of the COVID-19 pandemic, but the city is poised to flourish the rest of this year and beyond. That was the upbeat message delivered by Sartell Mayor Ryan Fitzthum during his State of the City speech at a recent Chamber of Commerce meeting at the Sartell Community Center.
After a standing-room-only public hearing at the May 24 Sartell City Council meeting, council members approved preliminary assessments on property owners for an ambitious reconstruction project along CR 1 (also known as Riverside Avenue). There are 77 homes and businesses located along that stretch of road, from Sartell Street at the south end to 12th Street N. Some assessments will be as high as $8,000. The project, estimated to cost $12.5 million will involve Stearns County reconstructing the road. In addition, the city will redo old water and sewer pipes, add bicycle paths, create a river overlook, changes or elimination of retaining walls in one area, flood-mitigation installations, controlled pedestrian crosswalks, parking changes at Veterans Park and installation of a pedestrian path across the old Sartell bridge. Construction will begin in spring of 2022.
An innovation born of necessity during last spring’s COVID-19 lockdown will return this year for Sartell High School seniors. The Senior Salute, featuring a parade on Pinecone Road, will take place Friday, June 4. Seniors will be lined up 15 to 20 feet apart on the walking path along Pinecone Road, and family will be able to drive the parade route.
Much to the chagrin of most of the neighbors who live there, the River Oaks Lane area in southeast Sartell was rezoned from “residential” to “commercial” at the May 24 city council meeting. The vote was 4-1, with council member Jeff Kolb voting against the request. The triangular-shaped area of land is located near the intersection of Hwy. 15 and CR 1 (also known as Riverside Avenue). About a dozen residents have homes in that area.
June 11 edition
The city of Sartell issued a watering ban June 9 due to extremely low water levels. No irrigation is allowed on public or private properties, and the Watab Park Splash Pad has been closed. Anyone found watering up until the ban is lifted may receive a citation – $100 for the first citation and each consecutive violation increases by $100 increments.
The Sartell Muskies baseball team scored a resounding championship in the annual Omann Invitational Tournament held last weekend in Sartell. In the tournament’s three games, the Muskies gave up only one run. So far this season, the Muskies have had no errors in their last six games and only two errors out of 12 games.
COVID safety plans are in place for summer school and activities in the Sartell-St. Stephen school district. For children ages 11 and younger, masks are required indoors for all students and unvaccinated staff. Masks are not required outdoors. For children ages 12 and older, masks are encouraged but not required for all unvaccinated staff and students. Masks are not required outdoors. Masks are required for all students on school transportation vehicles.
June 25 edition
Equity Alliance MN presented its long-awaited report and recommendations at the June 21 Sartell-St. Stephen school board meeting, but not before 12 people, mostly opposed to the equity effort, spoke during the board’s open forum period at the beginning of the meeting. Equity Alliance staff outlined findings of its study that included reviewing data, focus groups with students, staff and community members and observations of the district’s schools. The district’s effort to address equity, which promises that each student, particularly students of color, receive the support needed to be successful in school, picked up support following last summer’s killing of George Floyd. During a listening session in June 2020, students and parents shared stories of racism, and hurtful comments about religion and gender.
Sartell’s star is bound to shine brightly Wednesday, June 30 when Fox 9 TV News features the city throughout the day and evening as part of its “Town Ball Tour” series. “Town Ball Tour Sartell” will spotlight a variety of aspects of what makes the city unique: industries, restaurants, the river, parks, recreation, sports and more. There will be news features throughout the day, including interviews with many Sartell residents. A major highlight will be the Fox 9 News live-streaming of a baseball game between long-time adult amateur rivals – the Sartell Stone Poneys and the Sartell Muskies.
July 9 edition
When he shares his vision for the coming school year, Jeff Ridlehoover’s eyes light up when he talks about Friday night football games with athletes and families coming together, music concerts, full classrooms and a return to a normal school year. “I’m very optimistic about this school year,” said Ridlehoover, Sartell-St. Stephen’s new superintendent. “Normal is going to be great. A normal start will be welcomed by a whole lot of people” after a year of hybrid, distance and in-person learning. Ridlehoover, who was the assistant superintendent in the Mounds View district, officially started his new job on July 1, replacing Jeff Schwiebert, who served seven years.
After a swift winning streak, the Sartell Sabres varsity baseball team made it all the way to state Class AAA championship competition in mid-June where it took fourth place.
At the last city council meeting, Sartell received some good news about its regional half-cent sales-tax revenue. Sartell Finance Director Rob Voshell said St. Cloud has computed the percentage amounts of sales tax each of the surrounding cities will receive in 2021. For Sartell, that percentage is 14 percent compared to a 13.52 percent increase in 2020. That means, said Voshell, that Sartell will get about an extra $50,000 this year.
July 23 edition
About 20 people showed up for the July 19 Sartell-St. Stephen school board meeting wearing blue shirts with the message Kids Over Politics. But that message was soon lost as the national debate about critical race theory dominated the meeting’s open-forum period. A crowd of about 125 packed the old elementary school gymnasium after the meeting was moved from its announced location in the District Service Center board room down the hall. Typically, few people attend school board meetings and the board room is adequate. Most came to voice their concerns about the district’s equity audit report. Eighteen people spoke during the open-forum period, which allows each speaker up to three minutes to address the board. During this time, the board listens but doesn’t respond.
The brand-new Center for Pain Management in Sartell will host an open house from 4:30-7:30 p.m. Monday, July 26, and all area residents are welcome to attend. There will be a ribbon-cutting ceremony and hors d’oeuvres served throughout the event. The new building, built by Nor-Son Construction, is at 804 23rd St. S. just off Pinecone Road S. and near the Sta-Fit gym. For several years, the Center for Pain Management was located on Connecticut Avenue within the Sartell Medical Campus area.
Aug. 6 edition
After weeks of backlash to a consultant’s equity audit survey and report, the Sartell-St. Stephen school district voted Aug. 2 to part ways with the group Equity Alliance MN and move ahead to tackle the district’s equity issues with a committee of parents, students, community members and staff. Superintendent Jeff Ridlehoover recommended the move and the entire board agreed during a special meeting. The move came after mounting criticism of how the audit survey was conducted and how Equity Alliance analyzed the data.
Long-time Sartell dragster Gary Olson’s win at Brainerd International Raceway July 17 was almost literally “frosting on the cake.” It happened on Olson’s 52nd birthday, and what a birthday triumph it was to be named “Summit King of the Track” after winning by .0004 of a second or literally about 13 inches of roadway at the finish line, a hair’s breadth, a mere squeak ahead of his competitor.
After 41 years of dedicated service, Tom Jensen “TJ” has retired as the director of physical therapy at St. Cloud Orthopedics, but not before helping welcome the new director – a longtime colleague. Jensen not only started the original physical therapy and athletic training program at the clinic but also helped select the new director, Chad Ritter, who has worked at St. Cloud Orthopedics for 18 years, and prior to that was a recipient of Jensen’s training and mentorship during high school.
A Sartell resident, Zurya Anjum, pleaded with the Sartell mayor and the four city-council members to join the school district in active efforts to develop ways to stop harassment and bullying of students. Anjum spoke for three minutes during the Open Forum portion of the July 26 city council meeting. Anjum, a psychiatrist, is originally from Pakistan. She and her family moved to Sartell 15 years ago, partly because of its reputation as an excellent school district. But schools are in “crisis right now,” she added.
Aug. 20 edition
Despite being a new a business and making it through a pandemic, Studio B, a dance studio in Sartell, is moving to a larger location – the old police station in Sartell. Studio B has been a part of the Sartell area for the past two years. Owner and founder Catie Bunde has been teaching dance for more than 23 years. She was inspired by some of her students’ parents to start her own studio.
Sartell Police Chief described the recent “National Night Out” celebrations in Sartell as really fun events with lots of good food, good neighbors, good people. A total of 24 neighborhoods in the city organized their own outdoor parties for National Night Out, which is an annual event observed in cities nationwide to enhance public safety within neighborhoods. The get-togethers also allow neighbors to get to know one another, to raise awareness of safety issues and to open lines of communication between police officers, firefighters and other public servants.
A total ban on the use of non-essential outdoor water usage was implemented Aug. 17 by the city of Sartell as ordered by a requirement from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.
All students and staff will be required to wear masks in the Sartell-St. Stephen school district when school opens. The mask requirement affects pre-kindergarten through high school seniors and staff, regardless of vaccination status, indoors during the school day.
Sartell’s population grew by 22 percent during the last decade, according to data from the 2020 Census released Aug 12. Sartell has 19,351 people as of April 1, 2020, up from 15,876 in 2010.
Sept. 3 edition
Troop 101 Girl Scouts started a free food pantry in Sartell on Aug. 31. The troop along with their guides have set up a free community pantry at Riverside Evangelical Church at 405 Riverside Ave. N.
Sartell-St. Stephen school district students outperformed the state average for all grade levels and tests, according to results of the latest statewide tests released Aug. 27. The Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments measure reading and mathematics achievement for grades three through eight and high school. Science tests measure proficiency for grades five and eight and high school students.
Sept. 17 edition
A city-owned public basketball court in “The Wilds” neighborhood of Sartell will be moved next spring to Pinecone Central Park. The Sartell City Council at its Sept. 13 meeting agreed unanimously to take that action. Four residents from that neighborhood spoke up at the council meeting, as did five residents at the Aug. 23 meeting. The controversy over that basketball court first came before the council 18 months ago. About a year ago, the council voted to keep the park within the neighborhood while hoping a solution to the residents’ complaints could be found. Some speakers spoke forcefully for keeping the court in the neighborhood, and one man presented the council with a petition signed by 68 of the residents there who are in favor of keeping the court, which has been there for 20 years.
A Sartell High School assistant principal has been named the interim activities director. Nick Peterson, an assistant principal at the high school since 2016 will replace Ryan Hauge. Hauge, activities director since 2017, left to take the secondary school principal job in the Rocori school district.
The Sartell-St. Stephen school district’s Educational Equity and Student Experience committee met for the first time on Sept. 13. Overviews and notes from the committee and listening-session information are available on the district’s Educational Equity webpage: www.sartell.k12.mn.us/EducationalEquity.
Oct. 1 edition
Now that the latest data for the school year is available, the COVID-19 dashboard is back on the Sartell-St. Stephen school district’s website. The dashboard reports the current numbers of student and staff cases and absences for the last 14 days. The dashboard was posted Sept. 24 and will be updated every Thursday. For the previous 14-day period, there have been 54 positive COVID-19 cases among students and 11 staff cases. Those numbers translate to 238 student absences and 22 staff absences.
Sartell police cars will soon be sporting new decals after Police Chief Jim Hughes and other officers recently agreed to replace the “thin blue line” flag decal that some Sartell residents considered inappropriate and/or offensive. The new decal will show the words “REMEMBERING OUR FALLEN” above a blue line. Under the blue line it states “IN VALOR THERE IS HOPE.”
The need for more and a wider range of counseling services topped the list of issues raised during the first listening session organized by the Sartell-St. Stephen school district’s new Educational Equity and Student Experience committee. About 30 people, mostly adults, gathered at the high school’s Learning Stairs to share experiences and opinions during the 45-minute session led by Superintendent Jeff Ridlehoover on Sept. 20. The session’s topic, Student Support Services and Mental Health, was chosen by the committee after its first meeting on Sept. 13.
Sartell now has a Parks Department supervisor, Tony Krueger, who will start his new job Oct. 3. Krueger is currently one of the maintenance workers for the Sartell Public Works Department. His appointment as parks supervisor was approved by the Sartell City Council at its Sept. 27 meeting. Selecting a supervisor is just one more step in Sartell’s plan to have a full-fledged Parks Department for the first time.
The Sartell city budget for the coming year is remarkable for its “flat tax” rate, which means many, if not most, residents will not see a property-tax increase unless their market value increases.
Oct. 15 edition
Supply chain shortages affecting restaurants, grocery stores and car dealers are now hitting school cafeterias. Shortages and delivery delays of school lunch staples such as chicken patties and chicken tenders send food services workers scrambling for replacements, according to Shelby Tanner, Sartell-St. Stephen school district Food Service director. Product shortages, discontinued items, on-time deliveries and price increases force school meal planners to look for substitutes and adjust menus.
Many Sartell residents will get brand-new water meters, a decision approved late August by the city council.
Worries about so-called TikTok challenges prompted school and law enforcement officials to warn Sartell-St. Stephen parents about possible dangerous and illegal student behavior.
Without its school system, Sartell might well have become a village or a town rather than an ever-growing city. Time and again on a recent citywide survey, respondents praised the school system, many saying its reputation for excellence is a major reason they moved to Sartell and a big reason they continue to live in the city.
Sartell and its Public Works Department received a 2021 “City of Excellence Award” for a road pre-treatment program on the city’s main arterial roadways. The award was given by the League of Minnesota Cities.
Starting in spring of 2022, the concessions stand in Pinecone Central Park will be operated by “Mr. Twisty,” an ice-cream shop whose permanent location has been in northwest St. Cloud for years.
Oct. 29 edition
A listening session focused on bullying, harassment and social media quickly turned to the special challenges of keeping students safe on social media.
A purchase agreement for a former landfill site that is currently owned by American Iron and Steel Development was approved by the Sartell City Council at its Oct. 11 meeting. The 167-acre site, once used as a landfill by the Verso Paper Co., is on Fourth Avenue S., south of the former Sartell Police Department. The reason for the city’s purchase agreement is to obtain control of that former landfill site because some years ago AIM Development intended to open it again as a landfill. Because that land is in the heart of Sartell and because of its location near the Mississippi River, in 2016 the city of Sartell began litigation with AIM to prevent it from using the acreage as a landfill. Sartell plans to dig up and/or close the landfill, plat that land and sell it for future development, which could recoup the purchase costs for the city.
At a special election set for Tuesday, Feb. 8, Sartell residents will be asked to consider adopting a food-and-beverage tax of up to 1.5 percent.
Newly released data from the 2020 census shows that while some Central Minnesota cities such as Waite Park and St. Cloud recorded dramatic increases in their nonwhite populations, Sartell still remains overwhelmingly white. For example, white residents in St. Cloud dropped from 85 percent to 68 percent of the total population in the last 10 years and Waite Park dropped from 84 percent white to 60 percent white. Meanwhile Sartell’s population was 89 percent white in 2020 compared with 95 percent in 2010. Statewide, Minnesota is becoming more diverse with the number of white residents dropping for the first time. Minnesota’s population increased by more than 400,000 people in the last 10 years to 5,706,494, an increase of 7.6 percent, with residents who identified as Black, Asian, Hispanic or two or more races driving the growth.
Nov. 12 edition
When seventh- and eighth- graders in Sartell Middle School’s What I Need classes head off to high school, they’ll leave behind a lasting contribution to their school. This fall the classes built and installed 23 benches at two outdoor learning spaces overlooking a pond west of the school.
There are more than 100 homeless people living in or next to Sartell, according to Harry Fleegel, executive director of the St. Cloud-based “Homeless Helping Homeless,” a nonprofit organization. Based on Fleegel’s research and many personal connections, there are at any given time about five to 10 people living outside in tents, even in the coldest weather, in or near Sartell. Many others sleep in the homes (often on couches) of relatives, friends or acquaintances. During the day, those people tend to wander, seeking help in various places, Fleegel said. In the greater St. Cloud area, including Sartell, there are more than 1,000 homeless people in all categories of homelessness, according to Fleegel.
Nov. 26 edition
Health topics – both physical and financial – dominated the Nov. 15 Sartell-St. Stephen school board meeting. District leaders will discuss modifications to the current Safe Learning Plan, including masking, at its Dec. 1 work group meeting. In the meantime, the district needs to comply with federal and state OSHA guidelines for staff vaccinations, Human Resources Krista Durrwachter said. The state has advised the district to comply with the rules while lawsuits in federal court move ahead.
Thirty-one employees of the DeZURIK Co. in Sartell recently completed 48 hours of training to become members of a medical responder team at the plant and beyond. DeZURIK, the maker of specialty valves, has for many decades been one of the economic bedrocks/employers in Sartell. The company started in Sartell and is known throughout the world for its valves, some of them huge in scope. The company has about 300 onsite employees and others who work remotely. The state-certified licensed responders are now gung-ho ready to respond immediately to any medical crisis or workplace accident on the premises. Their training will allow them to help anywhere outside of the plant if they should witness or be called to an emergency, including right in their own homes with their own family members, guests or neighbors. The responders are now also Red Cross-certified.

Riverview Intermediate School Principal Zachary Dingmann welcomes students arriving for class on Jan. 19. Kindergarten through fifth-grade students returned to in-person learning on Jan. 11 while middle and high school students continue classes in the hybrid model while Covid-19 guidelines are in place.

A group of co-workers from Encore Capital Group walk the Annual Country Financial Pot-o-Gold 5K together March 13 on a beautiful 45 degree morning in Sartell. They are (left to right) Christy Biss, of St. Cloud; Becky Wallin, of St. Cloud; Sue Baker, of Sartell; Justina Gomes, of Sartell; Russ Overman, of Cold Spring and Denise Condon, of Sauk Rapids.

Marin Darling (left) and Harlow Hines, both 7 and of Sartell, beat the heat June 3 at the Watab Park splash pad.

Claire Holstrom hands out a book and a coloring sheet during the I Love to Read Giveaway Feb. 23 at Blue Line Sports Bar & Grill. The event was sponsored by Sartell-St. Stephen Education Foundation. Three $25 Blue Line gift certificates were stuffed in random books. Claire is a fourth-grader at Riverview Intermediate School and she was helping her mother, foundation board member Amanda Holmstrom, pass out books. Board member Hilary Burns (right) waits with more books.

Sartell High School student Tyler Braegelmann records video at Northern Metal Products for a project his team is producing for the custom metal fabricator.

A sign of spring!
A mother mallard proudly leads her brood of ducklings across Eighth Avenue North in Sartell on May 7.

August Fleming, 15 months, and his brother Henry, 4, both of Sartell, hop into a car Aug. 31 at the Pine Meadow Elementary playground and “drive to Sartell.”

Rozlynae Dawson, 5, of St. Cloud, tries on her new Firefighters hat Oct. 30 at the Monster Dash Event in Sartell.