by Dennis Dalman
editor@thenewsleaders.com
Continued growth, the beginnings of exciting developments and financial health characterized the City of Sartell in the year 2016.
Residents approved a $105.8-million school bond that will bring a new high school as well as renovations and updates at Sartell’s other schools. The construction of an $11-million community center began in the Town Square area of south Sartell. New businesses opened their doors. And long-awaited projects started, including the reconstruction of Pinecone Road, a traffic-route reconfiguration at First Avenue S. near Hwy. 15 and finalization of plans for redoing and extending Fourth Avenue S.
Permits issued for all types of housing also increased once again in the city.
Last but not least, Sartell city staff and council kept a tight lid on expenses while managing to do so many projects and while funding numerous city services. The city portion of taxes for 2017 are expected to remain more or less “flat.” Sartell still has the lowest tax rate of the surrounding cities, a fact the city’s auditing firm pointed out when the city earned high marks for solid fiscal management in 2016.
Throughout the year, many family-fun events brought huge crowds to the city. They included the Sartell SummerFest 2016, the Rock ‘n’ Block music party and the Sartell Apple Duathlon.
The school district continued to rack up achievements, including scores exceeding those of statewide peers.
The following are just some of the notable happenings in Sauk Rapids and Rice during the past year as reported in the Sartell Newsleader.
January
Celebration Lutheran Church in Sartell invites some people of the Muslim faith to speak as part of its adult-education series. The get-together is an attempt to reduce hate, fear, ignorance and stereotyping that can rear up after hate crimes happen anywhere in the world.
Two Sartell High School students are honored as “2 Under 20” recipients during an annual recognition banquet hosted by the St. Cloud Times. The honorees are Gopi Ramanathan and Hannah Yackley, both honored for their achievements that have the potential to shape the future for the better in central Minnesota. A third Sartell high-school senior, Nicole Yang, was also honored as a runner-up.
The St. Cloud Optimist Club awards three Sartell High School students for their outstanding commitments to good causes. The honorees are Ben Fern, Bailey Mumm and Nicole Yang.
“Hoopin’ for Tommy B.” is a big successful basketball game and fundraiser at Sartell High School. The benefit raises money for the Tom Bearson Foundation, which honors the memory of Tom Bearson of Sartell, who was murdered when he was a college freshman in Fargo.
The Sartell High School Sabre Dance Team wins three consecutive conference meets, which means two performances rated as “perfect” in all of the meets. That winning streak has never been achieved previously in the team’s 30-year history.
The Sartell-St. Stephen School Board agrees to present a $105.8-million bond referendum to district voters in spring to build a new high school and make updates at the current schools.
Kristen Durrwachter is appointed as chair of the school board.
Three Sartell Middle School students are tops in the school’s annual spelling bee. First is Gopi Ramanathan, second is Grant Winter and third is Connor Hacker.
February
The planned Sartell Community Center now has preliminary designs ready, but it will have to undergo some tweaking and other changes to fit within its $11-million price tag. The changes can be accomplished by creative use of spaces and foregoing some of the architectural niceties of the building, according to the building’s planners.
Pine Meadow Elementary School is honored with a Food Safety Award for 2015 from Stearns County’s Environmental Services Department.
Three students are the top winners in the school district’s spelling bee for grades 5-8. They are Evan Windahl, first place; Anthony Berndt, second place; and Luke Zacher, third place.
The high school Sabre Dance Team earns two third-place awards, in jazz and high-kicks categories, at state competition in Target Center.
The Storm ‘n’ Sabres girls’ hockey team heads to the state tournament.
The Canadian-based company, Edmonton Trailer Mfg., announces it will close its business in Sartell. The company specializes in heavy transportation equipment and moved some of its functions to a huge building that had been part of the Verso Paper Mill before that plant’s closure. The company had only occupied that building for about a year. The reason given for the shut-down was “worldwide economic conditions.”
March
The Sartell-St. Stephen School District celebrates its 50th birthday. In 1966, voters approved the creation of an independent school district that would include the city’s own high school. Before that decision, students in Sartell had to attend high schools in St. Cloud or Sauk Rapids.
Stephen Reetz, a Christian, and Haji Yusuf, a Muslim, team up to host a meal at the St. Cloud-based Salvation Army. The event, with help from Celebration Lutheran Church in Sartell, was an effort to not only feed the hungry but to foster unity among faiths in the greater St. Cloud area and beyond. Reetz is a member of Celebration Lutheran, and Yusuf is a St. Cloud business owner and co-founder of a group known as UNITECLOUD that promotes peace and understanding among cultures in central Minnesota.
Four Sartell Middle School students qualify for MATHCOUNTS competition at the state level. The winners are Janagan Ramanathan, Luc Westling, Jacob Wieland and David Zhang.
Hannah Noel, 17, of Sartell, writes a futuristic novel entitled Profugorum (Latin for “Refugees.) She began writing the novel four years ago and recently had it published. The novel, with its young heroine going through many scary events, takes place in the year 2060.
The city council votes 3-2 to approve a tax-abatement financial plan for a community center and other amenities. At the meeting, as in many previous meetings, about two dozen library supporters expressed their displeasure at the council’s lack of attention to so many residents’ wish for a library in the city. Two speakers at the public hearing spoke to support the council’s community-center plan.
The Waters Church breaks ground for a youth addition.
April
Staff members from PineCone Vision in Sartell return from a mission trip to Panama where they helped people with vision problems, including the distribution and fitting of hundreds of pairs of used eyeglasses. Many of the people, too poor to afford eye care, were astonished when, suddenly, they could see clearly.
David Zhang, a middle-school student, is now on a four-member Minnesota MATHCOUNTS team that will compete for the national championship in Washington, D.C. The team took first place statewide in competition at Plymouth.
Fred Skuza and a friend, Bonnie Witz, are presented a Police Commendation Award for helping save the life of a neighbor, Gary Theis, who was choking in his apartment in Sartell. The Heimlich maneuver saved the man’s life.
Sartell Robotics Team Beat-Botz (Sartell Boy Scouts Troop 211) heads to national competition in Louisville, Ken. after winning the state tournament in St. Cloud.
Families gather in St. Stephen for the annual birdhouse building event. Parents, grandparents and children have a great time putting together pre-cut birdhouses, courtesy of the St. Stephen Sportsmen’s Club.
Ruth Lindstedt of Sartell, a Catholic, is ordained a priest in a ceremony at First United Methodist Church in Sartell. Although Lindstedt’s ordination is not recognized by the Vatican, she is a member of the international Womenpriest movement who has defied papal authority in the belief the scripture allows for both men and women to serve as priests.
Sartell High School stages a production of The Drowsy Chaperone, a musical comedy about a crazy variety of kooks, eccentrics, con artists and misfits.
A longtime beloved teacher and coach, Dean Taylor, died at age 70 after suffering a long bout of cancer. Tributes from mourning students, teachers and coaches pour in to honor the man who profoundly affected, so positively, the lives of many. Taylor taught history and social studies for years in Sartell and was a superb, inspirational football coach.
The Sartell Mock Trial team excels at state competition, with multiple wins for members. The wins were a historic statewide first for the team.
At Sartell Middle School, volunteers fill an astonishing number of food bags for the Kids Fighting Hunger program – 34,992 bags, to be exact.
After 25 years of service, Brad Borders announces his retirement as director from the Sartell Public Works Department. The city council praises him for all the good work he has done for the city. John Kothenbeutel, a longtime worker in the department, will become the new director.
May
The staff of the City of Sartell and its city council gets kudos for its handling of finances in the previous year. An auditing firm rated the city’s financial management as excellent, great and very good in various categories. Sartell City Administrator/Financial Director Mary Degiovanni, especially, was singled out for praise.
Pick-It-Fence, a shop specializing in the creative repurposing of old objects, opens in Sartell’s Riverside Plaza.
Sartell’s city council proposes a moratorium on the site of the former Verso paper mill. In the meantime, a task force will explore potential uses for the site, including any environmental impacts those uses could cause.
A final plat for the Sartell Community Center is approved by the city council on a 3-2 vote.
By a very narrow margin, the Sartell school bond referendum is approved by voters 2,281 to 2,034. The $105.8-million bond will pay for a new high school and updates and improvements at the city’s other schools. Voters in the City of Sartell were decisive in the bond’s passage. Voters in St. Stephen and the townships of Brockway and St. Wendel nixed the proposal by a 2 to 1 margin, 584 to 216. The bond will be paid back over a period of 25 years.
The Sartell Boys’ Sabres Track-and-Field Team takes second place in the True Team state tournament May 21 at Stillwater High School.
Headlines Salon and Spa in Sartell gives free haircuts all day to homeless people.
June
In déjà vu performances, Matthew Payne of Golden Valley and Diane Hankee of Lino Lakes are the two top male and female finishers in the 34th annual Sartell Apple Duathlon race. Both duathletes have won the Apple before, Payne last year and Hankee several years ago.
Homeschooled students from the greater St. Cloud area perform the musical fantasy Brigadoon at the Sartell High School Theater.
The Sartell City Council approves bids for an $11-million community center at a site in south Sartell.
Bob Becker, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Sartell, is honored with an “Honor Cane” at a ceremony in the city. Becker was wounded twice while serving in Vietnam.
Despite withering, sweltering heat, Sartell SummerFest 2016 draws large crowds to the city for its big parade, street dance, fireworks and other events.
Clare Minnerath, Sartell hockey goalie, is named Female Athlete of the Year at the annual Central Minnesota Sports Awards Banquet.
(The second half of the Year in Review will be featured in the Jan. 13 edition of the Sartell-St. Stephen Newsleader. To read any of the above stories in their entirety, visit thenewsleaders.com then click on the Archives button mid-way down the home page.)
