The year 2023 in Sartell-St. Stephen was quite a mixed bag of the good and the not-so-good. There were fractious issues arising from the city councils concerning approval of a solar-power ordinance and the decision to sell city-owned land to a private developer. However, there were also many accomplishments by the council, including improvements to city amenities, new amenities such as major road projects, a flood-mitigation plan and an all-inclusive playground – to name just four.
There was also some discord and vigorous disagreements among members of the Sartell-St. Stephen School Board, with three newly elected members, all belonging to a group dubbed “Kids Over Politics,” which called for the removal of some books from schools – books the three called pornographic or otherwise unsuitable for young minds. The three members also challenged methods and policies long followed by the board.
On the bright side, Sartell, as it has for years, had plenty to be proud of: new residential and commercial developments, superbly functioning police and fire departments, a new police chief, a hard-working city staff, award-winning academic and athletic achievements by students at all grade levels and for the third consecutive year, a flat-rate levy and tax agreement.
The following are just some of the many stories that made news in the Newsleaders last year.
January
Suspense has been rapidly rising about the outcome of a Jan. 8 college football championship game in Frisco, Texas, and among those in a state of eager anticipation is a Sartell family – Christy and Michael Schmidt and their children Shauna, 20; Kiley, 19; and Trevor, 16. Shauna is a 2020 graduate of Sartell High School, now a junior at South Dakota State University, where she has a job as a student equipment manager for one of the teams that will face off in the Jan. 8 championship game: the SDSU Jackrabbits vs. the North Dakota State University Bison. The game will be televised on ABC-TV beginning at 1 p.m. this Sunday. Shauna and her parents will fly down to Texas to watch the fast and furious competition as they cheer on the Jackrabbits. The SDSU and NDSU football teams are long-time sports rivals, a fact that is raising the nerve-wracking suspense and anticipatory excitement about the big game in Frisco.
St. Joseph Catholic Church parishioner Ted Bechtold, who grew up in St. Joseph, recently returned home after living in Ukraine during part of the Russian war of aggression on that country. He gave a presentation about his work in that war-torn country and shared photos Jan. 12 in Heritage Hall at the Catholic church.
A 2-year-old child is one of an increasing number of those who have overdosed on fentanyl in the St. Cloud area, accord- ing to a Dec. 29 news release and advisory alert by St. Cloud Police Chief Jeff Oxton. Fentanyl is a synthetic opioid painkiller. The child’s death was apparently “accidental,” but it is the subject of an ongoing investigation. The police department did not release further information about that child or when the death occurred.
After serving the city of Sartell for 32 years, Police Chief Jim Hughes will retire March 31. In his more than three decades as police chief, Hughes saw the city’s boom growth from a couple thousand residents to more than 20,000. Hughes was preceded by police chiefs Robert Ringstrom and by Jerry O’Driscoll, who served from the mid-1960s until 1993, after which point Ringstrom was hired. He served until 2004. At the Jan. 9 city council meeting, Hughes read his resignation letter after which he received bouquets of praise from the council members.
Sartell has a new look – that is, a new city logo, a new city tagline and a new city website. The logo was “unveiled” officially at the Jan. 9 city council meeting when a huge white sheet of paper was ripped down from the wall, revealing the new logo that was painted on the wall with the large word “Sartell” in blue to the right of the logo. The new city tagline is this sentence: “It’s not where we live but how we live that mat- ters. Live Sartell.”
When he was an active member of the U.S. Marine Corps, Joshua Kaeter drank a lot of cups of coffee when he had to rise in the mornings before the sun and then even more cups of coffee when he had late-night emergency duties. A 2009 graduate of Sauk Rapids-Rice High School, Kaeter, who is now a Sartell resident, served two tours of duty in Afghanistan before leaving the Marine Corps in 2016. “That (experience) solidified my passion for good coffees and for this industry,” he said. So much so that recently he opened his own “roaster” in Sartell, called Eminent Coffee, at 331 Fourth Ave. S.
The Stearns County jail and Law Enforcement Center in downtown St. Cloud hosted an open house Jan. 21. The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office will take the public on a walk-through of the Law Enforcement Learning Center, which will include portions of the jail, shooting range, 911 Dispatch Center, interview rooms, workout area and the garage containing sheriff’s deputies’ vehicles. Tours will run throughout the morning.
Christmas Eve and Christmas Day in Sartell were very busy, hectic days for the po- lice department and its officers, who went rushing to a variety of calls. Some of the officers worked past their schedules to help out, keeping them away from their families. At the Jan. 9, city council meeting, Police Chief Jim Hughes said it was the busiest Christmas Eve Day and Christmas Day in his more than three decades on the police department.
The fifth annual St. Stephen River Runners Vintage Snowmobile Show and Drive will take place Feb. 4 starting at Trobec’s Bar & Grill on St. Stephen’s main street. The event will feature a Vintage snowmobile awards show, a 50/50 raffle drawing, door prizes and a snowmobile drive on groomed trails to Bialka’s bar in Opole and back to St. Stephen, a round-trip of about 20 miles.
February
A commitment of $340,000 from three local Lions clubs was announced at the Jan. 23 Sartell City Council meeting for the construction of an inclusive playground at regional community Lions Park, 1013 First St. N., Sartell. Once it’s built, the inclusive playground will make possible access for all children, including those who may be physically challenged. It will be the only such playground in central Minnesota, accessible to all people from a wide area.
The City of Sartell is accepting applications from candidates for the position of police chief. The want-ad posting opened on Tuesday, Jan. 24 and will close at 11 a.m. Monday, Feb. 6. Earlier this month, current Sartell Police Chief Jim Hughes announced he will retire March 31. The city hopes to have a new chief in place who could start in April.
Sparks of amazement lit up the faces of Sartell’s Riverview Intermediate School’s fourth-graders when they learned about the sometimes-dangerous power of electricity in a recent presentation from the Stearns Electric Association. SEA employees – in particular, two linemen – taught the children about electric energy, how it works, home-energy efficiency, types of energy and how electricity can be dangerous for unwary people. During the linemen’s presentation of a “live, energized home and farm model,” the eager students watched wide- eyed as they witnessed crackling electrical sparks and arc flashes that were central to the demonstration.
For 19 years, until July 2019, Anita Archambeau worked for the City of Sartell as community development director and assistant city administrator, and now she’ll work for the city again, this time as a consultant. Archambeau will create a “Mill Property Master Plan and Redevelopment Strategy” for the former paper-mill site and possibly also for the mill’s former landfill site. The goal of that plan is to make the site ready and market it for development(s) that would enhance the city.
A novel entitled “Him” has roused the hackles of several Sartell-St. Stephen school board members at its Jan. 23 meeting, and three board members, raising their voices in anger, called the book “hard-core pornography.” Some parents, too, expressed outrage about the novel in the school. It was removed from the school.
The City of Sartell has agreed to lease eight acres of land along Seventh Avenue S. to be used for electricity-generating solar panels, an installation sometimes called a “solar farm.” The lease, to a company known as “Enterprise Energy,” will bring to the city about $20,000 annually for the 25 years of the lease, which can be renewed after that time.
Edwina “Winnie” Troutt was one lucky woman. She not only survived the sinking of the Titanic, she also outlived three husbands, endured a near-deadly bout of pneumonia and then went on to continue living a long productive life, despite having the use of only one lung. She lived to be 100, dying on Dec. 3, 1984. Troutt was a cousin of the late Bernice Traut, the mother of John Villcheck, a long-time Sartell resident. In an interview with the Newsleaders, Villcheck explained “Traut” is a variable spelling of “Troutt.” The name was changed to “Traut” by many of the Troutt relations during World War II, Villcheck noted.
The annual Sartell Chamber of Commerce Showcase will take place from 9 a.m. to noon Saturday, Feb. 25 at the Sartell Community Center.
Scott Warzecha, president of Catholic Community Schools, recently announced he will resign, effective April 1.
A Sartell family of five may be moving into their Habitat for Humanity house on First Street N. by April. Sartell High School students built the top level of the six-bedroom bi-level. Now a two-car garage and lower level have been completed. Sartell students are now working on a second home.
March
New Sartell Mayor Lauren Boom would like to transform the city into a Water Wonderland. Mayor Boom presented her plan to the Sartell City Council at its Feb. 27 meeting shortly after the official mayor, Ryan Fitz- thum, proclaimed her as “Sartell Mayor for a Day” for Tuesday, Feb. 28. Council and audience members, all of them with big smiles, gave Mayor Boom a standing ovation. The daughter of Stacy and Josh Boom, Lauren is a fourth-grader at Sartell’s Riverview Intermediate School and the winner of a city-sponsored essay contest called “If I Were Mayor for a Day.”
For 32 years, Steve Penick’s mostly-undone “Do List” has been growing steadily, and now he hopes to start working on that Do List to fulfill some of his long-time dreams, including writing a book. Penick, the archivist at the Stearns (County) History Museum, recently resigned after more than three decades of work for the museum. He intends to pursue new ventures, other Do-List items.
The City of Sartell announced the name of its new police chief on March 2 – Brandon Silgjord, who is currently supervising deputy for the St. Louis County Sheriff’s Department in northwest Minnesota. Silgjord will be formally hired and take office in Sartell after completion of a comprehensive background check and a psychological evaluation. Sartell Mayor Ryan Fitzthum praised Silgjord on his skills when he was announced as the new chief.
Sartell-St. Stephen School District Superintendent Jeff Ridlehoover has submitted his resignation to take on a new job as superintendent of Rockford Area Schools.
The Sartell Sabres robotics team will travel to Houston, Texas toward the end of April to compete in the Robotics World Championship Tournament. In Duluth on the first weekend of March, the 20 members of Sabre Robotics Team 6045 competed in the Lake Superior Regional First Robotics Tournament. It won first place out of 60 teams. It also won the Sustainability Award for ensuring the safekeeping of its program and an individual dean’s list award for Paige Erickson, honoring her hard work and dedication. As of March 11, the Sartell team had the second-most wins of any robotics teams in the world and the most wins of any regional worldwide teams. Their remarkable “winner” is a nifty robot they dubbed “The Bismark” (as in donut).
April
The Sartell Sabre youth wrestling team won the Pool 5 statewide championship last weekend at the Northland Youth Wrestling Association’s tournament in Rochester. There were 32 teams, plus individual wrestlers, com- peting at the event.
Families are invited to a free presentation about the impacts of social media on students at 6:30 p.m. Monday, April 10 at the Sartell Middle School Performing Arts Center. The presentation is coordinated by a group of student volunteers from Sartell middle and high schools to address social media concerns. At the event, student volunteers will debut a public service announcement video for their peers about the impact of being online. After the event, the video will be shared with their peers.
Long-time Sartell teacher and community volunteer Joe Schulte is one of 44 teachers who has been named a Schulte semi-finalist for the 2023 Minnesota Teacher of the Year Award. Raised in Sartell, Schulte teaches technology education at Sartell High School. The annual Teacher of the Year winner will be announced at a May 7 banquet at the St. Paul RiverCentre. Now in its 59th year, the award is sponsored by Education Minnesota, a statewide educators’ union.
The Twin Cities-based QueerSpace Collective is about to open a branch organization in the St. Cloud area and will celebrate its launch with a gathering April 14 at Jupiter Moon Ice Cream, in downtown St. Joseph. QueerSpace Collective, which began in Minneapolis in 2021, is a mentor-mentee program to help youth who are LGBTQ. LGBTQ is an acronym for Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, Queer. According to its website, QueerSpace Collective’s governing board decided the St. Cloud area would be a good place for a branch because the feedback the board received indicated there is a strong need for supporting LGBTQ youth and their families in central Minnesota.
As an audience applauded, Sartell resident Randy Thompson gave big hugs to the people who helped save his life on Feb. 7. It happened at a recent city-council meeting after Sartell Police Chief Jim Hughes presented each of the seven individuals with the police department’s “Life Saving Award.” Those honored included three police officers and four employees of the Benton-Stearns Education District. Hughes praised them all for their professionalism and quick thinking. Hughes described what happened. At 10:34 a.m. on Tuesday, Feb. 7, the police received an emergency call from the BSED’s “Pioneers” branch building at 212 Third Ave. S. Travis Pinney, a paraprofessional in the BSED’s “Pioneers” building, saw a man had collapsed in a hallway. Pinney immediately notified program supervisor Stephanie Wruck, who made the 911 call. Meantime, before the police rushed in, BSED paraprofessional teachers in that building hurried down the hallway to help the man. They quickly noticed the man was gasping for air, his lips turning blue. Preston Dilley, holding an automated electric defibrillator, applied a shock from the machine to the man’s heart. Elyse Euteneuer then applied two more shocks. Vande Vrede began giving the man chest compressions as an ambulance raced to the scene. The BSED employees took turns doing cardiopulmonary resuscitation. Also helping to revive the man were police lieutenant Kelly Mader and police officer Shelby Lane, who administered oxygen to the man through a tube. An ambulance then rushed the man (Thompson) to the hospital where he gradually recovered well enough to go home again.
Joyce McCann, who was crowned as the 1951 Sartell Winter Haven Queen, died at the age of 90 March 3 in St. Cloud. Once upon a time, in the early 1950s, when Sartell was a small village of only about 800 people, a winter event dubbed “Sartell Winter Haven” was started at what is now Watab Park. The festival was very popular; people came from miles around, as far away as Minneapolis, to join the fun: ice skating, snow sculpting, musical performances and parades with marching bands and hand-waving royalty, one of whom – in 1951 – was a young Sauk Rapids woman, Joyce Yozamp (later McCann). Winter Haven was started in 1950, the year before Yozamp’s coronation.
When people ask “Big Brother” Nathan Molitor what he and “Little Brother” Justin like to do when they get together, Molitor laughs because the answer is so easy. “We like to have fun!” Molitor always says. Molitor, who lives in St. Joseph, is being honored as Minnesota Big Brother of the Year for 2023 by the Big Brothers Big Sisters organization. In an interview with the Newsleader, Molitor said he learned he’d won the honor during a phone call with his mentee, Justin, a teenage student who lives in Sartell. What made the award most special, he said, is Justin had nominated him and was the first to be notified of the honor. Molitor credits Justin for the award, too, because Justin contributes so much to the friendship the two have cultivated.
Once again, the Imagination Library program for children will get a boost during two progressive-dinner fundraisers in Sartell and St. Cloud. In Sartell, the dinners will be served from 4:30-10 p.m. Saturday, April 22. The St. Cloud dinners will take place from 4:30-10 p.m. Saturday, April 15. The dinners are a festive dining experience allowing guests to experience four-course “theme” dinners prepared by local chefs and hosted in a wide range of homes in both Sartell and St. Cloud.
Local authors who have disabilities of one sort or another will read from their works at a “Neurodiverse Author Reading and Book Signing” event April 15 at the St. Cloud Public Library. “Neurodiversity” is a word for a concept that no two brains function alike. Being “neuro- diverse” means having a brain that works differently from the average (“neurotypical”) person. Thus, people who are physically, mentally or emotionally challenged view the world around them in many different ways and those reactions are not “deficits.” The authors’ writings were compiled in a book published by Tipping Cow Press in Minneapolis.
A Riverview Intermediate School fifth-grader has been selected as one of 12 students from across the country as a member of The Week Junior magazine’s Junior Council. As a council member, Madison Evans, 10, will learn from the magazine’s editors to be a strong voice in the community. Madison is looking forward to improving her writing and learning “what other kids in the country are doing to help their communities. I wanted to do something special,” she said.
Sartell Fire Chief Peter Kedrowski announced to the city council Feb. 27 that he has received a $325,000 FEMA grant to purchase a new water-carrying fire truck. The council voted to approve acceptance of the grant. Kedrowski said a condition of the grant is the city would be expected to contribute a minimum of $16,274 toward the cost of the truck.
The Sartell-St.Stephen and St. Joseph Newsleaders is now increasing the number of stories/ photos/advertisements posted daily on the news-and-features web- site. Many readers nowadays like to access news online rather than – or in addition to – reading news stories or feature stories in printed newspapers. That is why the Newsleaders has bumped up on- line content.
Stearns County needs a Justice Center. It’s not a matter of if, but when, and it’s going to be very expensive, costing anywhere from $200 million to as much as $300 million, depending on which one of six options is chosen. The Minnesota Department of Corrections is urging the county to plan for a new facility because DOC inspections of the jail revealed deficiencies in the floors, walls and plumbing, as well as other inadequacies such as lack of space.
A multi-talented Sartell High School graduate, Meg Mechelke, is being honored by the University of Iowa for her pioneering research and work in teaching reading skills. Reading literacy is in the news a lot these days because test scores since the pandemic in 2020, there have been declines in reading skills among many young students. Mechelke’s type of teaching methods and those doing similar research/teaching may have a significant effect on improving those skills for students far and wide.
At its last meeting, the Sartell City Council agreed to give $100,000 toward the purchase of night-lighting systems for the two large baseball fields in Pinecone Central Park. The vote was 4-0. Council member Jill Smith was not present at the meeting. The request for the city’s help with the lighting project was made by the Sartell Baseball Association. The funding authorized by the city will come entirely from a city commission/board (Convention and Visitors Bureau) dubbed “Everything Sartell,” which collects hotel tax dollars. So far, there is only one hotel, AmericInn, within the city limits of Sartell.
Major road overlay projects are planned for Sartell streets, and the total price tag could reach nearly $2 million, an amount the city has already budgeted for.
Once again, Sartell is trying to do something about odors in the city emanating from its sewer system – a problem that has been ongoing, more or less, for years. At its last meeting, the city council approved $50,000 for a pilot program using a new chemical that is supposed to reduce the presence of hydrogen sulfide and other odor-causing chemicals. Hydrogen sulfide has a “rotten egg” smell. By far the worst and most persistent odors have been noticed in and near lift station 1, which is near Riverside Avenue N. south of the Heim’s Mill area. For at least 10 years, the city has received complaints about the odoriferous air in the lift station 1 location. The pilot test program will be done at lift station 1. It will start this spring and go on into the summer.
Four walking-trail gaps in Sartell will be filled in this coming summer after the city council vot- ed unanimously to approve an expenditure for the “Trail Gaps Project.”
Minnesota’s two U.S. senators, Democrats Amy Klobuchar and Tina Smith, brought a “gift” to the St. Cloud Regional Airport on April 10. At a press conference at the airport, they announced that $495,000 in federal funding will be given to the airport for improvements. That funding was made possible by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, which both Smith and Klobuchar strongly favored and helped approve in the U.S. Senate. The $495,000 is part of a $20 million annual amount available nationwide through the year 2026 for small-town and municipal airports to improve such equipment as control towers, non-approach remote-control towers, air-traffic control systems and more.
When Kaleb Kuklok goes to Indianapolis this summer, he will have his loyal fan club along with him – mother Al- lison, father Jamie, sister Abigail, 15, and both sets of grandparents. They will drive to the tournament. Kuklok, 16, is a member of the Sartell High School Bowling Team. He qualified for individual national competition this July in Indiana.
At the Sartell Community Center, about a dozen people worked hard but had fun creating tie-blankets. It happened during a volunteer project called “Positive Vibes – Blankets of Love,” organized by Carolyn Bertsch, a Sartell resident. The 19 blankets they created were delivered, on Valentine’s Day, to the local Coborn Cancer Healing Center.
A photographer and a reporter for the Sartell-St. Stephen and St. Joseph Newsleaders were honored with state awards from the Minnesota Newspaper Association’s Better Newspaper Contest for work done in 2022. Carolyn Bertsch, the Newsleaders’ assignment editor and chief photographer, won second and third place in the “Feature Photo” category. It was her second consecutive statewide win. Last year, she won first place in that same category. Dennis Dalman, reporter/columnist/editorial writer, won second place in the “Columns” category and third place in the “Human-Interest Story” category. The Newsleaders contest entries were submitted in the category of non-daily newspapers with circulations of more than 7,000. All entries were judged by members of the Kansas Press Association.
May
Fifty years ago in the summer of 1973, scuba-diver Richard Schwegel found a mysterious box on the bottom of a Waite Park quarry, and the contents of that box still perplex him. A long-time St. Joseph resident, Schwegel was born and raised in St. Cloud. Now and then, he still opens that box and wonders why in the world it contains two very old straight-edge foldable barber razors.
What would you like to see developed on the large property that once was the site of the now- gone Sartell paper mill? Sartell residents have a chance to give their opinions on that question in an online survey that can be taken now through May 10.
Some of the people standing or sitting in the Sartell Community Center on the morning of April 29 looked a bit antsy but eager, like runners do before a race. The three dozen people – puzzlers all – were there to participate in a jigsaw puzzle contest. Proceeds from the event will be given to the Autism Society of Minnesota since May is National Autism Month. The jigsaw puzzle used in the contest was designed by Devin Wildes, a talented autistic artist who lives in Stillwater. The name of his puzzle, one of a series, is called “Art Is My Voice.” Coordinator Rose Schulte of Sartell welcomed them all and before long there was a puzzle box on every table, each box containing the 500 pieces of an identical puzzle.
Michael Busch, a former infielder for the St. Cloud Rox baseball team made his debut In Major League Baseball April 25 as a member of the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Sartell officials are receiving lots of complaints about potholes, especially on pock-marked 12th Street. Fickle weather during this so-called spring have made it difficult to fill them all, and the snow-and-rain mix, plus the freeze-thaw, freeze-thaw conditions for months, have made the potholes worse (and deeper) than ever.
Kaia Swenson, who lives in the Rolling Meadows neighborhood in Sartell where there is a large holding pond, dubbed “Brian’s Lake,” watched for 15-20 minutes as a loon tried to take off. Swenson is an early-education teacher in the St. Cloud School District. When she returned home from work the next day, her spirit instantly lifted when she noticed the loon was gone. She even took three walks around the big pond, looking and looking. No loon! “I was so happy,” she said. “That made my day!” Because of odd, mixed-up, unseasonal conditions during this so-called spring, atmospheric conditions at high altitudes are causing ice to build up on migrating loons’ (and grebes’) bodies. That causes them to make “emergency landings,” stranding them on the ground or on watery places that are not large enough for them to fly off again. They become stranded because loons cannot walk. Their “feet” toward the backs of their bodies are for swimming only, like paddles.
To sell or not to sell? At the May 8 Sartell City Council meeting, that was the big question at the most contentious council meeting in recent memory. The question: Should the council approve the sale of city property to a company called Three Tees LLC? Its chief manager is Brandon Testa, who also owns House of Pizza. Three council members spoke in favor of that proposal – Tim Elness, Alex Lewandowski, Jill Smith. Two strongly disagreed with it – Jed Meyer and Mayor Ryan Fitzthum. After an hour of vigorous disagreements, the council voted 4-1 (Smith voting no) to table action on the issue until the May 22 meeting.
Opposition is rapidly mounting to a proposed sale of city-owned land to a private developer – a proposal that was tabled at the May 8 city council meeting and will be revisited at the May 22 meeting. Some months ago, the city received offers from four private developers interested in purchasing the golf-course land. One of them – the one now under consideration, was from Three Tees LLC to sell 81 acres of land that has long been leased by Boulder Ridge for use of the nine-hole Pine Ridge Golf Course. Under the proposed agreement Three Tees would have to operate a golf course there for 30 years. Those on record as opposing the sale are current Mayor Ryan Fitzthum and former mayors Bob Pogatchnik, Tim O’Driscoll, Joe Perske and Sarah Jane Nicoll; current city council mayor Jed Meyer and former council members Paul Orndorff, Dennis Molitor, Sandra Cordie, Mike Chisum, David Peterson, Brady Andel, Jeff Kolb, Steve Hennes and Pat Lynch; and former Sartell Parks Department member Michael Burzette. The proposal involves selling for $426,000 the 81 acres of golf-course land to a company known as Three Tees LLC, whose manager is Brandon Testa, owner of the House of Pizza in Sartell.
A co-owner of Boulder Ridge said he and his business partner never requested a termination of their lease to operate their Pine Ridge Golf Course on land owned by the City of Sartell.
Drew Danielson, 18, is back in Sartell for the summer after competitive snowboarding down the sides of many mountains way out west. Some of his friends and acquaintances call him a “dare devil.” Some call him “crazy.” But Danielson always grins and laughs it off. “I tell them I’ve been doing it for a long time, and I’m used to it now,” he said. “I know what I’m doing.”
June
Many people in a central Sartell neighborhood think it was an “accident waiting to happen” that severely injured 10-year-old Thomas Zimmerman on the afternoon of May 24. It happened at 3:38 p.m. on Fifth Street near Pine Meadow Elementary School when a car and the bicycle Zimmerman was riding collided, knocking the boy from his bike, causing his face and head to collide with great force against the curb. Thomas, unconscious at first, was rushed by ambulance to the St. Cloud Hospital. He was then transferred to Children’s Hospital in Minneapolis. He underwent several reconstructive surgeries to repair facial damage that included his jaw broken in two places, a broken nose, a gash, lacerations and nine broken or knocked-out teeth. Fortunately, he is recovering well and should be back home soon, said his mother, Abby Fann during an interview May 26 with the Newsleader.
At its May 22 meeting, the Sartell City Council, by a 3-2 vote, approved the sale of golf-course land in the heart of the city. The discussion and decision about that controversial issue came during the last half of a 4.5-hour marathon meeting. Voting for the sale were council members Tim Elness, Alex Lewandowski and Jill Smith. They all maintained the sale would improve that property, bring new and improved amenities, retain that land as green space and avoid that property from becoming a financial liability to the city’s taxpayers. The irrigation system there is old and badly in need of major repairs. A new one would cost in a range of $200,000 to nearly $1 million, it was noted. Elness said he had received many comments very much in favor of the land-sale.
A Texas city went Kyle Krazy May 21 when 1,490 peo- ple named Kyle showed up for “The Gathering of the Kyles,” and one of those Kyles was Kyle Hedke of Sartell and his wife Amy’s cousin, Kyle Glaeser of St. Michael. The Kyle Gathering took place on the last day of a three-day Kyle Fair at the edge of Lake Kyle. The purpose of the gathering was to beat a Guinness Book of World Records entry for the most people with the same name who get together in a city at one time. Only those with first names spelled KYLE were eligible. The Sunday event was the fourth time the city has held an attempt to break the record. The current record holder is a city in Bosnia-Herzegovina in southeast Europe where on July 30, 2017 a total of 2,325 people – all of them Ivans – gathered together on that day. The Kyle event didn’t top that record, but Glaeser and Hedke weren’t too disappointed.
SummerFest will be back in full glory June 9-10 with its Libertyville family fun day, a big parade with marching bands and floats, a street dance, fireworks and other fun surprises.
Isaac Knoernschild, a seventh-grader in Sartell, has qualified for national competition in a history competition in Washington, D.C.
Kade Lewis, a stand-out on the Sartell-St. Stephen Sabres baseball team, was the subject of an April 12 feature story broadcast on WCCO-TV.
An ambitious, comprehensive Master Parks & Trails Plan was outlined by Sartell City Administrator Anna Gruber at a recent city council meeting.
The highly detailed guiding document is intended to help planning processes by the city’s Park Department, Parks Supervisor Tony Krueger and a future Park Commission.
The Minnesota State Legislature has approved funding that will make possible two projects in Sartell, including a major road improvement and neighborhood flood-mitigation efforts.
For the second year in a row, Sartell resident Andrew Zabel was the overall top winner in the 41st annual Sartell Apple Duathlon’s long course race. As if that weren’t remarkable enough, his 17-year-old son, Hudson, placed third in the duathlon’s short course, just as he did last year. The race took place May 14. It started and finished on the grounds of Riverview Intermediate School.
A harrowing, tragic day in Cold Spring (Sept. 24, 2003) was a life-changing day for Jerry Sparby because since then he has dedicated much of his life trying to prevent violence in schools. On that traumatic day, Sparby was the principal of Cold Spring Elementary School. A teenage student named Jason McLaughlin took a gun to Rocori High School and shot to death Aaron Rollin, 14; and wounded another boy, Seth Bargell, 17. Bargell, who had been put on life support, died of his wounds two weeks later in the hospital. Sparby felt compelled to write McLaughlin letters when he was incarcerated, and one day he went to visit him. “I promised Jason and those families that I would work hard in my life to make schools safer,” Sparby said in an interview with the Newsleaders.
A historic session at the Minnesota Legislature approved a veritable cornucopia of new laws, provisions and bonding money that caused swift reactions from those strongly in favor and those adamantly opposed. The legislation was made possible mainly because Democrats now have a trifecta – that is, the control of the House and the Senate and the governorship, Tim Walz.
The St Cloud Duplicate Bridge Club will hold its American Contract Bridge League-sanctioned Granite City Sectional meet June 22-24 for three days of bridge games for all experience levels. It will take place at the Sar- tell Community Center.
A former Sartell mayor, Joe Perske, sharply criticized the current city council at its June 12 meeting, claiming a land sale it approved has brought “shame and disgust to this community.”
Sartell now has a three-month moratorium on the installation of “solar gardens.” At its May 8 meeting, the Sartell City Council voted unanimously to approve the moratorium.
Celebration Lutheran Church was transformed into a dazzling otherworldly dimension in early June with all of its rooms brimming with stars, planets, rockets, shining foil and even a floating astronaut. The occasion for the ambitious and vividly imaginative displays was the annual Vacation Bible School for children, which took place from June 5-8. The theme of this year’s Bible School was “Stellar Shine Jesus’ Light.”
The Sartell robotics team worked hard and had a great time the end of April at the robotics world championship tournament in Houston, Texas, but unfortunately the team didn’t win. The team (“Team 6045”) had a great beginning on the first day, but a pesky mechanical glitch suddenly happened in their robot, causing the team to fall behind.
The Sartell High School Student Council has just been honored with National Gold Council of Excellence Award from the National Student Council. The council was praised for its exemplary record of leadership, service and activities that improve the school and community.
July
At long last, after more than 10 years, it’s a done deal: The City of Sartell now owns the large site of the former Verso paper mill. As part of that agreement, Sartell also now owns property on Fourth Avenue S., which was owned by the paper mill and part of it used as a landfill by the mill. The closing on those properties took place June 14. The mill site is 51 acres of land; the property along Fourth Avenue S. is 167 acres. Both of those properties will be held by the Sartell Economic Development Authority.
In a series of emails in late June between the Newsleaders and Sartell City Administrator Anna Gruber, Gruber expressed how controversy and sharp criticism over a golf-course land sale has caused low morale among city staff. The email exchange was initiated by the Newsleaders and took place several times over two days just before the June 26 city council meeting. Some of the flak from the public, Gruber said, arose from
the following: that the city council members from the beginning were adamantly divided about the land sale, that there was an attempt by city staff to keep the landsale proposal from public scrutiny and that city staff and/or some council members were somehow showing personal favoritism to Sartell business owner Brandon Testa, who purchased that land from the city.
Brandon Silgjord, Sartell’s new police chief, was sworn in at the June 26 city council meeting. Silgjord (pronounced Silyord) is the successor to former police chief Jim Hughes, who resigned effective March 31 to retire, after serving on the department for 32 years.
A Sartell resident, John Ellis, called for the resignation of some Sartell City Council members, accusing them of conflict-of-interest issues in voting for the sale by the city of golf-course land to a private developer.
A lot of old friends – and new ones – will gather in Sartell Saturday, Aug. 5 to enjoy the inaugural Sabre Alumni & Friends Cross Country meet. The event is a way to celebrate the legacy of Sabre Cross Country. All proceeds will be split between the Rustie Froemming Cross Country Memorial Scholarship Foundation and the Sabre Cross Country Team.
CentraCare health organization will sell 12 senior-living facilities in Sartell, St. Cloud and Monticello to Ecumen, a nonprofit service organization for older adults.
A lack of daycare for children affects not just panicking parents but virtually everyone in society in one way or another. Just one example is employers. Many of them struggle to retain employees who, because of lack of daycare, quit their jobs and stay at home with one or more children. Those points were brought home strongly by two employees of United Way of Central Minnesota. The Newsleaders recently conducted an interview with Sara Hagen, community childcare coordinator; and Alexis Lutgen, director of financial stability and co-chair of mental-health work.
The Sartell City Council voted unanimously to add a new category to the city’s Community Grant Program – “Childcare.” Sartell City Administrator Anna Gruber presented the proposal to the council. United Way of Central Minnesota has done extensive research into the lack of child care and its negative impacts on employers, parents and others. According to United Way’s current statistics, in Sartell alone there is a lack of 443 “spots” among childcare facilities. The Community Grant Program in Sartell helps organizations deliver programs and services, such as for an all-inclusive playground being planned and discounts at the community center to rent it for a high- school prom program.
Marit Ortega will become the new executive director of the Tri-County Humane Society when its current director, Vicki Davis, retires in February 2024. Davis has been with the humane society for 40 years. Ortega has demonstrated a long-time, passionate commitment to the St. Cloud-based nonprofit humane society and the animals in its care.
Tyler Hemmesch had just graduated from Sartell High School this spring when a couple weeks later he was pitching a game for the St. Cloud Rox baseball team.
Fourteen-year-old Ben Marushin and his Sartell family will board a flight July 9 to Washington, D.C. to participate in the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation Children’s Congress.
August
Tom Lee, the interim superintendent for the Sartell-St. Stephen School District, is in the swing of things after he’s gotten to know so many teachers, school staff, school-board members, students and parents. Lee, who lives in Bloomington and commutes to Sartell, began his job July 1. He was hired by the school board to replace Jeff Ridlehoover who resigned in March after accepting the superintendent job for the Rockford School District (west of Minneapolis). Lee was hired to be the interim principal throughout the school year until June 30, 2024.
A former Sartell community director and assistant city administrator, Anita Archambeau, spoke at a special meeting of the Sartell City Council recently, updating plans for development of the former paper-mill site.
This summer’s Police Activities League, dubbed PAL, was a huge and popular success in June and July with young children and parents who gathered weekly at Sartell’s Val Smith Park in east Sartell.
Thanks to a grant from the Firehouse Subs Public Safety Foundation, the K-9 unit program received a kick-start at the Sartell Police Department. At its last meeting, the city council approved acceptance of the grant on behalf of the police department, which had applied for the grant earlier this year. The last time the department had a canine unit was almost 20 years ago. Officer Lt. Kelly Mader was the handler/coordinator of the K-9 unit back then, and he will once again be in charge of it.
Math and reading tutors are badly needed in Sartell schools, starting in August, and time is of the essence because the deadline to apply for tutor positions is Wed. Aug. 9.
Fifty-four years ago, on Aug. 15, 16-year-old Mike DeLuca, now a Sartell resident, decided to go camping with a friend for a few days – up near the Housatonic River in western Connecticut. Well, that’s what he told his parents, anyway. But the truth is he and friend Guy Lang, also 16, packed a tent in DeLuca’s rust-blue Volkswagen “Beetle” and headed west, from their home town of Ridgefield, Conn. to Bethel, N.Y. They were about to enjoy the biggest music festival in world history – “Woodstock,” billed as “3 Days of Peace & Music.”
Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison on July 20 announced he has charged a Sartell resident (a former Cloquet police officer) for alleged financial exploitation of a vulnerable adult. Cloquet is a city just south of Duluth. Filed by Ellison in Carleton County District Court, the county in which the alleged offenses occurred, the three-count criminal complaint includes charges of gross misdemeanor of financial exploitation and felony attempted theft by swindle. The three-count criminal complaint had been referred earlier to the Minnesota Attorney General’s Office by the Carleton County Attorney’s Office. The woman charged, Laci Marie Silgjord, is the wife of Sartell Police Chief Brandon Silgjord, who was chosen in March to be the city’s new chief and who began the job on June 5. He has had 16 years of experience in law enforcement, primarily as a deputy sheriff for St. Louis County in the Duluth area.
Once again, for the 12th time in a row, the Sartell Muskies have qualified to compete in the Minnesota Class C Amateur Baseball State Tournament. It will be their 20th appearance at the state tournament. The team is now the champion of Region 11C after defeating the Luxemburg Brewers 4-0 in 10 innings Aug. 12. Muskies pitcher John Schumer threw 95 pitches throughout the game and gave up only two hits.
At a public hearing about a cannabis (marijuana) ordinance, the Sartell City Council members found themselves at a loss about what should or should not be included in such an ordinance.
A new childcare center will be built in Sartell, with spaces enough for 150 children. At the Aug. 14 city council meeting, members unanimously voted to give up to $22,000 from a Community Childcare Grant Fund to help the center with platting fees that include one to cover trunk-storm water lines, water, sanitary sewer and park dedication.
A third St. Cloud woman has been arrested in Texas for allegedly helping traffic drugs from a Mexican drug cartel to North Dakota.
A feasibility study will be done for the ambitious and expensive “West Side Reconstruction” project in Sartell. The plan was presented to the city council at its Aug. 14 meet- ing by April Ryan, city engineer. The estimated cost of the project, which has been a long time coming, is $14.5 million, which is $1.5 million more than was estimated at an earlier time for the project. Since that time, the project has expanded to more streets and market costs have increased.
Stearns County Agriculture Inspector Bob Dunning was recently honored with the Agricultural Inspector of the Year award. He was recognized for his leadership, commitment and hard work.
Eleven-year-old Madison Evans of Sartell recently returned from Pebble Beach, Calif., where she had a three-day whirlwind of fun and excitement reporting on the U.S. Women’s Open Golf Championship that took place there. Madison is the daughter of Jen and James Evans and was accompanied on the trip by her mother. She has a brother, Xander, 9. At the Pebble Beach golf course, she was able to walk along with and interview some of the golfers, including the three-time Women’s Open Champion Annika Sorenstam of Sweden, who has won 90 international tournaments, the most of any woman golfer in the world.
A moratorium on solar-energy projects in Sartell has been extended for a maximum of three more months in order to gather more public input about a newly drafted restrictive solar ordinance presented to the city council at its July 24 meeting.
September
Some people in the Heritage Place neighborhood in north Sartell are upset that city mowing near a two-pond wetlands area is killing milkweed, a plant that is vital for the survival of the endangered monarch butterfly. And it’s not only monarchs they’re worried about, said Laura Kerkvliet, a Sartell resident. Tree frogs, lady bugs, grasshoppers, moths and more small critters rely on milkweed too.
State Rep. Dan Wolgamott (DFL-St. Cloud) was charged Aug. 7 with a fourth-degree misdemeanor for operating a motor vehicle with a blood-alcohol concentration of 0.09 percent, which is 0.01 percent over the legal limit. He was expected to make a court appearance Sept. 5 in Kanabec County.
Last year’s Sartell High School Homecoming Parade was a big success, and this year’s parade, set for Friday, Sept. 22, promises to be even bigger and better.
Two best of buddies, both 15, crossed the finish line within seconds of each other, taking second and third place Aug. 13 at the Green Lake Triathlon in Spicer. Tommy Runkle of Sartell and Corbin Deichman of Mankato are not only good friends but dedicated triathletes and members of a triathlete team dubbed “Z3,” based in Des Moines, Iowa.
Money will be raised for homeless animals when the Tri-County Humane Society hosts its annual companion walk on Sept. 9 in Wilson Park, east St. Cloud.
Children giggled, shouted for joy, went round and round and jumped up and down when Lions Community Park’s Inclusive Playground officially opened on Sept. 10 in Sartell.
Residents of Sartell can have fun playing bingo for prizes while at the same time learning about the people, places, culture and history of Sartell. Starting on Sept. 28, people – including young people – can pick up a bingo card at three places: Sartell City Hall, the Sartell Community Center and the Knotty Paws shop pet-grooming and doggie daycare business located at 600 First Ave. NE across the road from the former paper-mill site.
Stearns County Deputy Joel Schmidt recently received an award of appreciation from the U.S. Attorney’s Office for his hard work in helping put together a case against a drug-trafficking operation between Mexico and the United States.
The Boulder Crest Farm in St. Stephen offers lots of fun for families centered around pumpkins and gourds and picture-taking opportunities with picturesque autumnal backdrops of straw bales, corn stalks, old wagons, a red barn and more. The farm will open for visitors on Sept. 22 and will remain open every day until Halloween.
Long-time St. Joseph residents, Gaida and his wife, Loyola, own Homestead Artisans, a crafts-and-arts shop on their property in a stray pocket of LeSauk Township, located just south of County Road 120, the road that runs past Epic Center shopping plaza in Sartell.
Sartell area residents will have until Sept. 29 to take an online survey to express their opinions about solar power in the city and adjacent townships.
October
After seven years of on-and-off-again writing, a memoir entitled “Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope” that was co-written by Patty Wetterling and Joy Baker, will be published and released Oct. 17. A two-hour nationally televised program about the Wetterling family of St. Joseph will be broadcast at 8 p.m. CT Friday, Oct. 13 by ABC TV’s “20/20” show, which focuses on crime cases. The documentary precedes by four days the publication/release of Patty Wetterling’s book, a memoir entitled “Dear Jacob: A Mother’s Journey of Hope.”
There’s no doubt Sartell residents will do instant double takes, turning their heads when they see some of the Sartell Police Department’s new squad cars. The stunning cars are gussied up with an eye-catching abstract camouflage design with several emblems, an American flag and the Sartell police badge logo. On the side of the vehicle it states, “NO ONE FIGHTS ALONE.”
A very young recruit has joined the Sartell Police Department. Her name is Kimber, and she is 5 months old. Kimber is a Belgian Malinois, who will be trained as a therapy dog. Her handler is Sartell Police Officer Kari Bonfield.
Sartell will soon have a series of eight traffic security cameras mounted on the top of poles strategically placed on some of the main ingress-egress roadways of the city. Another camera, a ninth one, will have mobile capabilities.
Sartell resident Nina Pazik recently opened a new restaurant called Nana’s Asian Bistro in Sartell’s Riverside Plaza – Nana’s because Nana has long been Nina’s nickname. The restaurant opened in late August.
Though she did bring much-needed rain, Mother Nature did not cooperate for the annual Relay for Life event Sept. 23 in Sartell. But it didn’t matter because the event took place despite the weather – inside the Sartell Community Center. “No, Mother Nature did not stop our fight against cancer,” said Sartell resident Kathy Wilson, one of the five key planners of the event. It was the third consecutive year ace in Sartell. The events, which take place throughout the nation, raise money and awareness in the battle against cancer. Cancer survivors, their loved ones and supporters gather for the event.
Nine former students, all of them stand-out Sabre athletes at Sartell High School, along with a former swimming/diving coach, were inducted into the Sartell Athletic Hall of Fame Oct. 6 at an honors banquet at the Boy Scouts of America building in the city.
No definite decision resulted from a public session Oct. 10 about a proposed major update to an HVAC (heating, ventilation, air-conditioning) system at Riverview Intermediate School. The meeting was held by the Sartell-St. Stephen School Board in the modernized commons area at RIS. The listening session raised a number of concerns. What was up for discussion is an estimated $19.6 million upgrade of the HVAC system. The need for a building-wide upgrade of that system was identified in 2015 by Design Tree Engineering and Land Surveying, and that upgrade was approved by Sartell-St. Stephen voters in 2016. It was addressed again in 2021 when the estimated cost came in at $16 million.
The Sartell Fire Department welcomed 400 area kindergartners to enjoy behind-the-scene glimpses of the fire station Oct. 10-12 during annual Fire Safety Month.
Bob Erickson is a man of many smiles. A visit to his apartment in Sartell’s Country Manor can stun a visitor with visual reminders of his long life: stories that span 90 years cover the tabletop in envelopes and albums; framed pictures cover the walls, making the small room feel as large as the life Bob Erickson has led, one brimming with good cheer.
An updated cannabinoid ordinance that was approved by the Sartell City Council at its last meeting clarifies where cannabis (marijuana) products can be sold in the city. Liquor establishments (bars, restaurants, liquor stores) will be able to sell THC beverages. THC stands for the tongue-twisting term “tetrahydrocannabinol.”
For the third consecutive year, the Sartell City Council approved at a public hearing Dec. 11 an annual flat-tax budget for the year 2024. “Flat tax” does not necessarily mean no increase in taxes, however. That all depends on a resident’s or business’s property valuation and how much that has increased.
The Sartell Historical Society hosted its annual Verso Paper Mill remembrance event Sept. 30 at the Sartell Community Center. On May 19, 2012, an explosion happened at the paper mill, claiming a worker’s life and injuring four others. The explosion caused a rapid spread of fire. It took the work of 14 area fire departments to extinguish the flames. Later that year, the mill, which was founded way back in 1905, was officially closed – signaling the end of an era.
Riverside Evangelical Church, whose congregation first met in a one-room Sartell schoolhouse, is about to celebrate its 125th anniversary Sunday, Oct. 22.
November
On a vote of 4-1, the Sartell City Council voted at its Oct. 23 meeting to approve the updated version of the city’s solar-power ordinance. The meeting was a public hearing, partly because nearly 700 residents recently took an online citywide survey on how they feel about solar-power installations in Sartell. The results of that survey were recently released. City council member Jill Smith was the only member of the council to vote against the approval of the solar ordinance. The three other members and Sartell Mayor Ryan Fitzthum voted for approval. Smith said she thought the solar ordinance should have been sent to the planning commission for further review.
For the past 10 years or so, retired firefighters have replaced batteries and/or smoke detectors (an average total of 80 detectors) in residences throughout Sartell and LeSauk Township. Retired Sartell firefighter Dennis Molitor is one of four retired firefighters who volunteers every fall for a public-service community project dubbed “Smoke Alarms Save Lives!” The others this year are Al Schulte and brothers Bob and Steve Heins. All of them are members of the Sartell Retired Firefighters Association.
Outside of Sta Fit Gym in Sartell on Sept. 8, it didn’t take long for good people to come rushing to the scene to help an injured juvenile Cooper’s hawk, and the story has a happy ending.
The Stearns County Board of Commissioners voted to consider the use of a sales tax to fund the cost of building a new Stearns County jail/justice center but only if voters agree to a referendum for that tax on next year’s ballot in November. The county board’s action made that vote referendum possible to be placed on the ballot. Earlier this year, the Minnesota Legislature approved the county’s use of a local-option sales tax of three-eighths of one percent to fund the project up to $325 million. At their board meeting, commissioners agreed to use the sales tax as an option to pay for the facility.
Rep. Tom Emmer of Minnesota’s Sixth Congressional District was nominated on the morning of Oct. 24 to become speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives, but it turned out to be a very short-lived honor because he withdrew his nomination just hours later.
Life changed drastically on Sept. 16 for the Miller family of Sartell. Jaymeson Miller, 12, was diagnosed with medullo-blastoma, a common type of cancerous brain tumor in children. While his father, Adrian, and mother, Heather, are by his side at the Mayo Clinic Hospital in Rochester, Jaymeson’s sister, Carissa Miller, 29, of Foley is planning a fundraiser to help support the family.
The Aldi discount store in Sartell hosted its grand opening starting with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Nov. 16.
In a shameless act of massive vandalism, 90 percent of the many artificial trees at the site of the annual Sartell Festival of Lights have had their light cords cut sometime right after Nov. 1. That senseless act of destruction occurred just weeks before Sartell planned its grand opening on Nov. 24 of the Festival of Lights that takes place around Lake Francis near the Sartell Community Center. The many volunteers, who strung the lights onto the many trees, are prepared to do that job all over again, using new or repaired strands of lights.
Inside Sartell’s St. Francis Xavier’s Gathering Place Oct. 28, the scene resembled Santa’s workshop: home-baked treats, wooden carvings, holiday decorations, specialty soaps, gift baskets galore and silent-auction items. The occasion was the annual “Area Churches Craft and Bake Sale” with all of the items, baked goods and other tasty treats for sale made and donated by members of five Sartell churches: Celebration Lutheran, Messiah Lutheran, Riverside Presbyterian, Unity Spiritual Center and The Waters Church.
Four Sartell students are involved in a 102-year-old play entitled “R.U.R.”, which portrays the inherent, insidious dangers of artificial intelligence. It will be performed at St. John’s Prep School Nov. 17-19. The Sartell residents – all SJP students – are Sam Dupuy, Cecilia Weldon and Emma Zaun, who have acting roles in the production; and Lauren Martinson, a member of the play’s stage crew.
The Sartell High School Student Council is once again sponsoring its holiday program dubbed “Thanksgiving in a Box,” for which food is gathered so people in need can enjoy a delicious, nutritious Thanksgiving dinner. Students are hoping to gather enough food to fill 100 boxes. Last year, they packed 75 boxes.
December
All five members of the Sartell City Council held a special meeting Nov. 21 to discuss a tangled series of mis-communications, personal accusations, some degree of distrust and other issues that came to the surface in recent months. The recorded special meeting took place in a meeting room at Sartell City Hall and included the Sartell City Attorney Adam Ripple. (The Newsleaders wasn’t aware of that special meeting until Nov. 27 because the newspaper rarely covers special meetings, just regularly scheduled council meetings.) Many of the council members disputes or misunderstandings had to do with recent controversies that arose from two council decisions: the agreement (vote of 3-2) to sell public golf-course land to a private developer and the approval (3-1) of a solar-garden ordinance. Mayor Ryan Fitzthum had recused himself from voting on that topic.
Eight Sartell High School students were honored during “Fall Signing Day” Nov. 8 in the Performing Arts Center in the high school.
Twins Abby and Grace Bjerke, 5, love to shop with their mother, Pam – not for themselves, but for the women and children who are sheltered at Anna Marie’s Alliance in St. Cloud. The Bjerke family members (Pam, Ryan and their twins), who live just north of Sartell, have decided to channel their holiday spirit into helping others. Anna Marie’s Alliance was an easy choice because Pam Bjerke, a Stearns Bank employee, is a board member of Anna Marie’s Alliance – thus, her family members are well aware of its needs.
Lori Connolly was beaming as she accepted the Sabre Staff Star Award for October, recognized for her dedication to special-education students and Sartell Middle School staff.