Sartell Center receives generous donations

by Dennis Dalman

editor@thenewsleaders.com

The Sartell Community Center, due to open in August, has been given a boost to the tune of $120,000, thanks to the generosity of two recent gifts.

BankVista donated $20,000 to be used for amenities in the center, and Sartell resident George Torrey donated $100,000 for the center, to be used specifically for amenities for the senior-citizen space within the center.

At the last Sartell City Council meeting, Mayor Sarah Jane Nicoll thanked the benefactors. The Torreys, she said, declined to take part in a formal presentation at the council, but Nicoll added that doesn’t preclude the expression of thanks.

“On behalf of the City of Sartell,” she said, “we are very appreciative of his (Torrey’s) generosity that will go a long way in enhancing the community center, and I can’t express the appreciation enough for his very generous donation.”

Nicoll also expressed thanks to BankVista for its donation, which will be used to create an outdoor patio on the south side of the center, at the water’s edge of Lake Francis, which is a large water-collecting pond. The patio will be named for BankVista.

“Thanks for your generosity and for being a good steward to the City of Sartell,” she said.

At the council meeting, BankVista Vice President Mike Phillips addressed council members.

Phillips said when the bank was approached about possibly donating funds for the community center, he and others listened closely to the plans for the center from city staff, the center’s operation consultant and its hired manager. Phillips said he and other bank officials were impressed by the overall amenities, including a walking trail around the lake, a possible amphitheater and water recreation such as paddling boats and canoeing.

“The more we learned the more excited we became about it,” he said. “We decided it will be a wonderful addition to the community.”

BankVista has long donated to Sartell projects, including sponsoring the Chamber’s annual Rock ‘n’ Block Party and the summer Movies in the Park program at Pinecone Central Park.

In the year 2000, after much marketing research, BankVista discovered Sartell would be the best place to open a bank. In the years since, the bank has grown to about $200 million in assets, most of it connected to loans for so many building projects in Sartell.

The Torreys

George Torrey and his wife, Shirley, moved to Sartell last year and live in the senior-citizen apartments known as Chateau Waters just a stone’s throw from the Sartell Community Center now under construction.

They have lived in the St. Cloud area since 1971, and for many years Torrey was president of the G.R. Herberger’s Co. He later signed an agreement to begin the G.R. Herberger’s Foundation, which contributed to good causes, mainly ones having to do with education. In 1993, Torrey became an active member of the charitable Central Minnesota Community Foundation and served for a time as its chairman. Torrey began the Torrey Family Fund under the aegis of the CMCF.

Earlier, after the untimely death of his son, Dave, age 21, in 1971, the Torreys initiated the Dave Torrey Memorial Scholarship given annually to students of St. Cloud Tech High School who want to pursue post-secondary studies.

Shirley Torrey was a long-time nurse and started a nursing scholarship fund in 1996.

George was born in Eldridge, N.D. and grew up in Alexandria. Shirley was born in Tracy and also grew up in Alexandria, where the two met in 1957. They married in Minneapolis in 1961 and moved to the St. Cloud area in 1971.