(This is Part 2 of a two-part series. Part 1 was published Jan. 6.)
July
Krista Durrwachter resigns from the school board because she is about to launch a career that could give rise to questions of conflicts of interest. Durrwachter is a staff attorney for the St. Cloud-based Stinson Leonard Street Law Firm. She served on the board since January 2013. Lesa Kramer, a former board member, was appointed to fill in the position until it can be decided by voters in the next election.
The Movies in the Park series continues at Pinecone Central Park in Sartell, with The Notebook and The Good Dinosaur among the free offerings for movies under the stars.
Hugs and tears abound at the National Guard Facility at the St. Cloud Airport when 20 soldiers, all members of B Company, are given a warm send-off by family, friends and guest speakers. The men then left for a tour of duty in Afghanistan.
Sartell unveils its updated, detailed, in-depth comprehensive plan that will help guide policies and developments for many years. At a public hearing on the plan, library supporters criticize the plan because it all but ignores plans for a future library other than a brief mention of “monitoring” options for library service in the future.
The Sartell Muskies and Stone Poneys baseball teams get ready to host the first invitational tournament at Champion Field in Sartell.
The greater St. Cloud area is named the 12th healthiest area in the nation by 24/7 Wall Street, a Delaware-based analysis company.
August
About 700 volunteers, many of them from Sartell, gather in St. Cloud to pack 220,000 meal kits for food shelves, churches and other places that distribute food to the economically-strapped in central Minnesota.
Sartell students excel, once again, on the Minnesota Comprehensive test, surpassing on average their statewide peers.
Families gather for the annual “Take a Day Off at the Mississippi,” north of Sartell, a family-oriented day that combines fun games, recreation and learning experiences about the river and related eco-systems.
St. Stephen hosts a National Night Out event to promote neighborhood safety.
The 11th annual Sartell Chamber of Commerce Rock ‘n’ Block party, this year sponsored by BankVista, kicks off the fun with a triple-whammy of musical talent, including the perennially popular The Fabulous Armadillos.
The city council proceeds with plans to construct a parking lot in the big field just east of the Bernick’s Arena in Pinecone Regional Park.
People gather for a good time at the three-day St. Francis Festival, dubbed “Franny Fest,” on the church grounds. The event includes games, food, music, auctions and drawings. Funds raised help good causes undertaken by the church and school.
Terry Niehaus, Sartell postmaster who worked for 30 years in the postal service, 18 of them in Sartell, decides to retire and says she will miss many good Sartell customers whom she had come to know so well and enjoy so much.
Overflow crowds attend the grand opening of Chateau Waters, a luxury apartment complex for senior citizens in the Town Square development area in south Sartell.
The City of Sartell will be one of the subscribers to a “solar garden” after it is constructed in central Sartell. According to estimates, by subscribing to solar power for part of its energy needs, the city just might save as much as $428,000 during the next 25 years.
September
The gymnasium at St. Francis Xavier Elementary School gets a dazzling renovation, thanks to a gift of $80,000 raised by the Tom Bearson Foundation. Tom Bearson for whom the foundation was named, is the Sartell college student who was slain in the Fargo-Moorhead area three years ago. The crime is yet to be solved. Bearson, a St. Francis Xavier student, played many hours of basketball in that gymnasium and went on to become one of the best basketball players in the history of Sartell High School.
Central Minnesota residents – and people far and wide – are stunned to learn the body of Jacob Wetterling has been found buried in a farm grove near Paynesville. People expressed a mixture of emotions ranging from horror and sorrow to relief and closure. Jacob, 11 at the time, was abducted and, as it turned out, murdered 27 years ago on a road near his St. Joseph home. Confessed killer Danny Heinrich, whose most recent home was Annandale, led authorities to the body and admitted he kidnapped the boy, molested him and then shot him in the head, killing him and then burying him. Heinrich agreed to a plea deal, to confess the crime and to reveal the body’s location so he would not be charged with murder. Heinrich, however, later received a sentence of 20 years in prison for possessing child pornography at his Annandale home. Heinrich also admitted to kidnapping and sexually assaulting another boy in the Paynesville area about eight months before Jacob’s abduction-murder.
Sartell students score very well on American College Testing tests, bettering their statewide peers.
A 3-foot drawdown of Little Rock Lake and the river area between Rice and Sartell continues to be touted by the Department of Natural Resources as a way to improve the water quality in both the lake and that part of the Mississippi, but many obstacles remain to be resolved before it could be done. Residents along the river and the lake have attended many DNR-led meetings about the proposal.
The Sartell City Council votes 3-2 in favor of a partial library service in the community center once it’s built. The service would involve the St. Cloud-based Great River Regional Library System delivering ordered books or other library items to a locked locker system in the center where customers living in Sartell could pick them up and then return them. The Sartell Friends of the Library and other library supporters are not happy with the plan, which they called a measure far from what voters voted twice for – an inclusion of a bona-fide branch library in Sartell to be paid for by half-cent sales-tax revenue.
An investigation continues into the multiple stabbings by a St. Cloud Somali man at Crossroads Mall. The assailant was shot dead by an off-duty Avon police officer who happened to be in the mall at the same time. Fortunately, none of the people who were stabbed in the rampage suffered life-threatening injuries. Authorities believe the man was “inspired” by terrorist propaganda.
The LeSauk Lions Club donates $5,000 to be used for any amenities the city sees fit in the Sartell Community Center, now under construction.
A community service is held at the College of St. Benedict for Jacob Wetterling and is well-attended by officials, including Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton. Friends and families eulogize Jacob as a happy-go-lucky – sometimes humorously mischievous – child who had a kind heart for one and all.
October
Ground is broken in south Sartell for the $11-million community center, which will include three gyms, an elevated walking track, a senior-citizen meeting place, a public meeting place, a kitchen, kids’ play area, a library pick-up and drop-off materials area and a learning area.
Legendary pop singer Bobby Vee dies of Alzheimer’s disease. The famed rocker and his family chose to live first in St. Cloud and then in Cold Spring for many years. He and his sons set up a recording studio in the old bank building in St. Joseph. The Vees were known to share their talents, gratis, for many good causes, including fundraisers for years for Cathedral High School (where his children attended school) and for years at the Fourth of July Joetown Rocks music festival in St. Joseph. Vee, whose fame endured through decades, sang many gold-record hits in the late 1950s and early 1960s, such as Take Good Care of My Baby and Devil or Angel.
Michael Maurer, a Vietnam veteran who lives in Sartell, writes a novel entitled Perfume River Nights, a harrowing fictionalized account of his and others’ experiences in that divisive war. Maurer is donating sales proceeds from the book to the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund.
The St. Stephen Fire Department hosts its annual open house, and families have a good time talking with firefighters and checking out the firefighting rigs.
November
Headlines Spa and Salon in Sartell gives free haircuts for many homeless people. The staff also gives the recipients a buffet luncheon and gift bags.
Tim Broda, an investigator for the Sartell Police Department, is hoping to start a support group for younger people and their loved ones who suffer from Alzheimer’s disease. Broda’s wife, Jane, developed the disease at a young age and is now in an Alzheimer’s care unit. Jane’s mother died of the disease.
On Nov. 8, voters have their say-so. Nationally, Donald Trump is elected as president, winning the most electoral votes but coming in second in popular votes. In Sartell, the following are elected: Mike Chisum and Ryan Fitzthum (newcomers to city council); and Lesa Kramer, Jason Nies, Pam Raden (incumbents to school board).
The Sartell Dog Park in Pinecone Central Park is honored with a “Best” award from the St. Cloud Times “Best Of” contest.
The Sartell-St. Stephen “Farm to School” program is praised highly by a group from the Minnesota Department of Agriculture that toured the schools recently. Farm to School is an effort to use fresh, locally grown products in school luncheons, which boosts nutritional value and helps local growers.
December
Randy and Tami Kruzel are named Sartell Citizens of the Year by the Sartell Area Chamber of Commerce at its annual awards banquet. The Kruzels are parents of BriAnna Kruzel, who died unexpectedly and suddenly of natural causes three years ago in her home. The Kruzels set up a foundation to raise funds for the good causes their daughter was so passionate about as a volunteer, including Big Brothers Big Sisters, education and the dance program. The Kruzels also raised funds to install an Angle of Hope monument in the Town Square area of Sartell. Other Chamber honors were given to Roger and Jan Farley as Sartell Senior Volunteers of the Year; Blackberry Ridge Golf Course as Business of the Year; and Logan Payne as Student Volunteer of the Year.
The Sartell tax rate for 2017 will remain basically “flat” from what it was in 2016. The city budget for 2017 is $6.2 million, which is a slight decline ($25,000) from that of 2016.
Sartell City Council member Steve Hennes says farewell to the council after serving for 10 years on the council.
The hopes of residents of Sartell Mobile Home Park were dashed when they could not secure a loan and/or grant to redo the park’s sewer-and-water infrastructure, which would have cost $1.5 million. Many of the residents formed their own corporation almost a year ago with the hopes of buying the park from its company owner and then operating it themselves. Now, the owner is free to put the park up for sale once again.
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