by Dennis Dalman
In 2015, Sartell experienced continued business and residential growth, major road improvements, city financial health, long-term plans for schools, academic and extracurricular achievements and many other positive developments.
The year, however, was marked also by contentious divisions among many residents concerning a planned Sartell Community Center and a long-wished-for branch library. Some residents liked the council’s decision to build a community center with sales-tax dollars at a south Sartell site; others preferred a more central site. In addition, a three-member majority of the council, which favored the southern site, refused to re-consider that site despite the fact it cannot contain a branch library. Those members also said the city cannot afford a large branch library, with its related expenses, as required by the Great River Regional Library system.
Many library supporters accused those three council members of being stubborn and arrogant in their refusal to seriously consider a library as an option for the city, either in a community center or as a facility separate from a center. About 50 library supporters carrying picket signs demonstrated in front of city hall, urging the council to set aside sales-tax money for a library. They noted many residents voted for the half-cent sales tax originally and an extension of it with the understanding a community center would contain a library.
By year’s end, the council decided it will not bring up for discussion the library issue until the Great River Regional Library completes its long-term assessment study, sometime in the first part of 2016. Library supporters, not happy with that decision, expressed their displeasure.
Meantime, those happy about the council’s community-center decision paid for an insert in the Sartell Newsleader to express their satisfaction with the decision to build a community center at the south Sartell site.
The following are capsule summaries of many of the news stories published in the Sartell Newsleader during 2015.
January
Bernick’s Arena receives a Mighty Ducks grant of $100,000 for much-needed repairs and updates to the arena, including the necessity to buy a new refrigerant used to freeze the ice layer. The grant will be matched by an equal amount, $100,000, from the city.
A mayor and two council members were sworn in during the first Sartell City Council meeting of 2015. The new mayor is Sarah Jane Nicoll, and the council members are incumbent David Peterson and former council member Pat Lynch, who served on the council for a term some years ago. All three were elected in the November 2014 election.
A program dubbed “Fire Up Your Feet” is started at Sartell-St. Stephen Community Education to help students stay healthy through the winter by offering afternoon sessions of snowshoeing.
A time schedule is slated for a Sartell Community Center, with hopes to start building the long-awaited center in summer 2016.
Janagan Ramanthan, a Sartell Middle School seventh-grader, wins the schoolwide Geography Bee.
The Sartell Sabre Boys Swim and Dive Team wins the Section True Team meet at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School. Later, the team places third in the state competition, the sixth year in a row the Sabres competed at the state level.
Sartell ranks seventh among Minnesota cities as one of the best cities for young people, according to NerdWallet, a consumer-advocacy website. The criteria included school ratings, home values, monthly homeowner costs, median income and long-term income growth.
Fifth-grader Ben Brandt, son of Kathy and Travis Brandt, wins the Sartell Middle School Spelling Bee by correctly spelling “havoc” and “outrageous.” Students in grades 5-8 participated in the competition.
Rep. Tim O’Driscoll (R-Sartell) is appointed Pro Tempore of the Minnesota House of Representatives. In the November 2014 election, O’Driscoll was once again re-elected as House member from House District 13B.
January weather has been so unusually and stunningly “balmy” the outdoor ice rinks and trails are closed Jan. 23. The weather is too “warm” for ice to freeze, and a lack of snow makes recreation trails useless for cross-country skiing.
February
The Sartell-St. Stephen School Board hires planners to start examining space needs in the school system. In the past 15 years, enrollment in Sartell schools has almost doubled, to 4,000. The planners, including an architect, will work with the Community Schools Planning Committee.
Thefts from mailboxes are reported throughout the Sartell area.
To help him earn his Eagle Scout award, Sartell Boy Scout Peter Amundson plans to install benches and trash receptacles at various places in the city. Amundson presented his plan to the city council.
A project consultant is hired by the city council to help set up the first stage for construction of a community center. Lyle Mathiasen, the man who was hired, has lots of experience with recreational facilities in St. Cloud, including its convention center.
Sartell Middle School presents the musical Annie Jr., starring Emma Boenish in the leading role. The play is based on the famous Broadway musical Annie, which is about the adventures and misadventures of Little Orphan Annie of comic-book fame.
The Sartell Girls Nordic Ski Team takes second place at sectional competition, beating out Little Falls but falling behind Biwabik.
Sartell ranks high among safest cities in the state – 10th, to be exact. The honor was given by Movoto Real Estate, which used crime statistics for 2013 published by the FBI. At the time of the study, Sartell’s population was officially 16,258. The study noted the city has an “incredibly low” number of violent crimes.
The city council agrees not to over-regulate sales of e-cigarettes within the city.
The Sartell Sabres Dance Team wins the Class AA high-kick competition at Minneapolis Target Center.
The Sartell Sabres Girls Basketball Team whops Willmar to win the Central Lakes Conference championship.
Maddie O’Roarke, a Sartell ninth-grader, plans a massive clean-up in the city’s many parks and calls for volunteers to help her on her clean-up day, April 18.
March
The Sabre Boys’ Dive-and-Swim team wins the Section 3A meet, and seven of its members go on to compete in 10 events at the statewide tournament. At the March 7 state meet, Class A, the team places seventh among 33 competing teams. Several of the individual Sabre swimmers, including Spencer Sathre and Mitchell Dockendorf, are stand-outs at the meet.
The city council takes decisive steps for two major city projects – a community center and improvements on Pinecone Road. Both projects seem to be taking shape, with some detail, as the council and planners continue to discuss them.
HMA Architects, based in St. Cloud, is hired by the city council to design a Sartell Community Center.
Rylee Molitor, a sophomore and star wrestler, is the first individual in Sartell history to win an individual state championship in wrestling. In the state finals, Molitor defeated individual wrestlers from Rosemount, Farmington, Prior Lake and Anoka in the 113-pound weight class.
Three Reserve volunteer members of the Sartell Police Department are honored by Police Chief Jim Hughes at a city council meeting. The three are Todd Ackerman, Shane Cuperus and Chris Dahlman. Those three and others typically work hundreds of hours without pay for many needed city-security tasks.
The city council approved three more roundabouts in the city, in this case for Pinecone Road: at Scout Drive, Heritage Drive and Pinecone/Second Street S. The roundabouts, however, are not always popular, with one audience member at the council calling the ones on Pinecone “not necessary or productive.”
The city council renews a lifeguard contract with the St. Cloud YMCA for another swimming season, 2015-2016, in the city’s wading pools.
The annual Sartell Community Showcase at Sartell Middle School is once again a big success, with many attending fun activities and the booths of many local and area businesses. Sponsored by the Sartell Area Chamber of Commerce, the showcase gives residents and businesses a chance to get to know one another.
A new police officer, Jacob Walters, who lives in Sauk Rapids, is sworn in by Sartell Police Chief Jim Hughes at a city-council meeting.
Record warm temperatures bring the earliest-ever opening for Blackberry Ridge Golf Course. The course opened to the public at noon March 17.
Kurt Stumpf is chosen to become the new principal at Sartell Middle School in the next school year, to replace Julie Tripp, who announced her retirement earlier in the school year.
April
The Sartell Fellowship of Christian Athletes starts a mentorship program, with four boys from the Sartell High School hockey team. The boys help students at the middle school playing foot hockey, plus give inspirational talks about perseverance and personal character.
Construction begins on a massive project known as Chateau Waters in south Sartell, a resort-style senior-citizen living complex.
Jeff Westerlund of LeSauk Township becomes the new manager of Pine Ridge Golf Course in Sartell. Westerlund is the former owner of St. Cloud Bakery. He said he is eager to improve on the qualities of the current course and to make innovations that will be popular with golfers of all ages.
Tami Huberty of Sartell starts a new business, part of a franchise, called “Moms on the Run,” which is designed for beginning runners – mainly moms – who want to run and exercise at their own pace. It’s also meant to be a social connection, an energetic release for fun and a way to network.
A sure sign of spring, the Sartell baseball season starts April 18 with multiple games and lots of excitement at Pinecone Central Park in Sartell.
The city council warms to the idea of a “Solar Garden” to be constructed in south Sartell. The concept, presented by SolarStone of Minneapolis, consists of the erection of rows of solar panels that will generate electricity that can be purchased by customers via Xcel Energy. The project, one of countless others across the nation, is a way to encourage the use of non-carbon energy production and a means to reduce the emission of greenhouse gases.
The city council gives the go-ahead for development of a dog park within Pinecone Central Park. The park will consist of a fenced-in area where dogs can wander, romp and run to their hearts’ content. Organizers hope to add other features to the park in the future, such as training sessions, educational activities and other fun programs for dogs and owners alike.
A proposal to hire a city facilitator is nixed by the city council on a 3-2 vote. The idea was raised by council member Amy Braig-Lindstrom, who said a facilitator would enhance council functioning by promoting transparency, encouraging consistency and helping council members communicate based on equally shared information. In her comments, Braig-Lindstrom was critical of the way that, in her opinion, some council members and the city administrator either do not communicate well or put up barriers to communication.
The city council decides to sell a parcel of riverfront property just south of Rotary Park along Riverside Avenue. A decade ago, the city bought the abandoned property from a private owner; the house on it was moved; leaving the lot empty. The city paid $195,000 for the lot; it plans to sell it at a current property value of about $93,000.
The need for a paved parking lot to the west of Bernick’s Ice Arena is once again discussed by the city council, but the drawback of creating such a paved lot would probably cost as much as $500,000.
Sartell gets an “A” rating from an accounting firm, which praises the city’s fund balance, prudent expenditures and overall financial health. However, it advises the city re-examine the practice of three city-staff members doing overlapping work in the areas of financial and accounting functions.
The city council hosts an open meeting for many sports-and-recreation spokespersons who tell the council what they would like to see in a proposed community center. Their wish list includes a need for up to six basketball courts, walking-running tracks, an indoor field for baseball-softball practice in bad weather, a permanent batting cage, a sheet of ice for practice, scoreboards, portable bleachers, a field or fields with artificial turf, gymnastics equipment, perhaps a sports dome and more. Other speakers at the meeting spoke up for a place in the center for arts, performing arts and a senior center. Before the meeting, former Mayor Joe Perske gives an impassioned plea for a branch library within a community center. A library, he emphasized to the council, should be the number-one priority in a center.
Sartell High School performs the Stephen Sondheim musical Into the Woods.
May
Fire Chief Ken Heim, who joined the Sartell-LeSauk Fire Department in 1985, announces he will retire from the department Jan. 1, 2016. He was named fire chief in 1995. After his announcement, the city council gave Heim a standing ovation and praise for his many years of dedicated service to the safety and well-being of the residents of Sartell.
Sartell Pediatrics is named “Business of the Year” by the Sartell Area Chamber of Commerce during a banquet at Blackberry Ridge Golf Course. Jim Shulte is named Citizen of the Year, and Jim Wasdyke is chosen as “Senior Citizen of the Year.” Sartell Pediatrics is owned by Dr. David Smith and his wife. The business has not only grown dramatically in a short period of time but has demonstrated innovations of all kinds in its programs and services and has been socially and economically connective and philanthropic in Sartell, especially as regards the needs of children. Joe Schulte, a high-school industrial-arts instructor, has been involved in a staggering array of volunteer projects in just about every aspect of life in Sartell. Jim Wasdyke, besides being a musician, poet and artist, has dedicated his time generously to Sartell, including as a member of the Sartell Senior Connection.
Many Sartell students, grades 7-12, excel at the annual Math Contest held at St. Cloud State University.
The Pine Groove Arts Festival at Sartell Middle School once again raises funds for the Sartell Music Association for much-needed musical equipment and scholarships.
The Sartell High School Student Council gets a Gold Award from the National Association of Student Councils. It is only one of four high-school councils in 2015 to receive that award.
The Tom Bearson Foundation is started by the family, friends and supporters of Tom Bearson, who was found murdered in September where he was a new student at North Dakota State University. Bearson, who grew up in Sartell, was an ace basketball player with a lively, contagious outgoing personality. The founders of the Foundation want to create more opportunities for recreation and to enhance security on school campuses.
Sartell Middle School hosts a Special Olympics track-and-field event at Sartell Middle School with 21 teams competing from area schools.
Soldiers are remembered during the annual Memorial Day ceremony in Sartell’s Veterans’ Park. The event, despite a rainy drizzle, features speeches, music, the playing of Taps and they laying of a wreath at the park’s Veterans’ Monument.
June
The annual Sartell SummerFest 2015 attracts thousands, including many out-of-towners, for the Grand Day Parade with more than 75 units, family fun and food on the grounds of the middle school, a street dance and fireworks.
Market Monday, a well established farmers’ market in Sartell, is now also Market Thursday, with a weekly venue right outside of CentraCare next to the Coborn Cancer Center in St. Cloud, just across the road from north Sartell.
Thanks largely to the efforts of three local women, a railroad crossing at CR 55 and Benton Drive will become a “Quiet Zone,” meaning trains will not be allowed to blow their whistles when approaching it. The whistle noise, especially with an increase of train traffic, had become a frequent annoyance for people living near that intersection.
A Relay for Life cancer fundraiser is a huge success on the grounds of Sartell Middle School, with many cancer survivors and loved ones walking to raise funds to help fight the dreaded disease. Almost $110,000 is raised.
The annual music-and-movies festival in Pinecone Central Park begins with a free showing of the movie Wall-E. Other upcoming movies include Dirty Dancing and A Bug’s Life, not to mention a musical line-up of excellent musicians-singers from the area.
The Rotary clubs of Sartell and Sauk Rapids announced they will merge soon. The merged clubs are now known as the Great River Rotary Club.
Dogs and their owners are happy about the Dog Park that finally opened in Pinecone Central Park. Organizers, who raised funds for the park along with contributions from the city, plan to add more amenities to the fenced-in area in the future.
A new state-of-the-art PineCone Vision Center opens in south Sartell, and open-house visitors express wide-eyed approval of the results.
Julie Tripp, who has given 25 years of service to the Sartell-St. Stephen School District, retires in June and is honored at an outdoor ceremony by staff and students. For many years right up to her retirement, Tripp was the principal at Sartell Middle School.
The Sartell-St. Stephen School District hires four assistant principals: Zachary Dingmann and Michelle Raml for Sartell Middle School; and Brian Baloun and Sara Gabrielson for Sartell High School.
Duathletes from far and wide take it to the limit at the 33rd annual Sartell Apple Duathlon. Matthew Payne, 38, Columbia Heights, finishes first with a time of 1:20:46. Elaine Nelson, 36, Duluth, is the top female finisher, with a time of 1:34:06. More than 200 duathletes, many of them local, participated in the prestigious race.
July
The Sartell City Council begins to ponder which amenities a community center should house. The center, to be built with half-cent sales-tax money, will cost somewhere between $10-$11 million, the council decides.
A funeral is held at St. Francis Xavier Church for Sam Traut, 24, Sartell, who was murdered in Fargo after opening his door to a stranger who had asked Traut for a glass of water. That man, it was alleged, murdered another man in the same neighborhood hours before killing Traut, who was a civil engineer and a Bible-study leader for St. Paul’s Newman Center in Fargo. At his funeral, he was described as a kind, helpful, hard-working Christian with a unique sense of humor. Traut was a 2009 graduate of Sartell High School.
Sartell becomes a place of detour frustration because of all of the roadwork and road repairs underway in the city. But it’s not alone; detours have become a fact of summer life throughout the entire greater St. Cloud area.
The city council narrows potential sites for a community center from eight to three, based on input from studies done by hired consultants.
The Sartell Lions Club gears up for its 50th birthday party. The charter was signed Oct. 27, 1965 at the old Sartell Village Hall. Of the original signers of the charter, only one – 86-year-old Charlie Schafer – is still living. Schafer, who lives in Sauk Rapids now, is still an active member of the club.
The Great River Regional Library staff says it’s ready to help Sartell create a branch library but first needs to know a community-center site and details of the center’s architectural design. Plans have long called for a library to be included in the community center. Mark Bromenschenkel, a Sartell resident and Stearns County commissioner, is president of the GRRL Board, which approved a branch library for Sartell. He said he and others are excited about a branch library in the city because, he said, it’s long overdue and will be a state-of-the-art facility for the future.
Granite Logistics opens in its new building in south Sartell. The 41 employees and visitors during the open house sing the praises of the expansive and relaxing design of the facility.
August
Many neighborhoods in Sartell celebrate National Night Out with informal get-togethers where residents share potluck food and refreshments and get to know one another while learning safety tips from police officers, firefighters and other guests.
Once again, Sartell students in grades 3-12 exceed their state peers on the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments tests. They surpass, on average, test scores in other school districts by anywhere from 10-30 percent in the categories of math, reading and science. The tests help teachers fine-tune programs to maintain and improve excellence.
In a decision that will bring much controversy throughout the rest of 2015, the Sartell City Council votes to select a south site for the city’s community center. The facility will be located to the east of Pinecone Road S. near the edge of Lake Francis (actually a large holding pond). That site is known as “Town Square” a place that is expected to become a “downtown” Sartell area. Those who voted for the site are council members Steve Hennes, Pat Lynch and Mayor Sarah Jane Nicoll. They all agree a community center at that site would add synergistic energy to the dynamic excitement of other developments in that area, including nearby apartment complexes and other new residential areas. Council members Amy Braig-Lindstrom and David Peterson vote “no,” saying they much prefer a more central location. The southern site is one of eight the council had been considering.
The annual Rock ‘n’ Block party, sponsored by the Sartell Area Chamber of Commerce, draws a large crowd with plenty of activities, including a beer-brewing contest.
The Sartell Muskies baseball team heads to the state tournament in Cold Spring and Watkins after winning the Class C playoffs the week before in Mora and Hinckley.
St. Francis Xavier Church hosts its third annual Franny Fest Teen Night for children in grades 7-12. The fun event includes human foosball, races and a jousting match.
The city council decides to join a partnership with private interests to develop a recreational/picnic spot near Lake Francis in south Sartell. At its previous meeting, the council voted to dedicate $165,000 in park funds for trails and other amenities in the Lake Francis area, contingent upon other members of the partnership following through with their intentions. Lake Francis is a 12-acre pond.
Sartell City Administrator/Financial Director Mary Degiovanni is given a “commendable” rating by the Sartell City Council after a performance review.
The Tom Bearson Foundation hosts a successful fundraiser at Blackberry Ridge Golf Course in memory of the young Sartell man, a superb basketball player and college student who was murdered in the Fargo-Moorhead area in 2014. The crime remains unsolved. The Foundation is raising money to encourage the development of gymnasium space and to strengthen safety on school campuses.
A trio of police officers suddenly finds themselves acting the role of midwife assistants at the birth of a baby in Sartell. They were called to a residence for an emergency in which a woman was giving birth at home with no time to get to the hospital. The officers (John Lester, Kelly Mader, Steve Mathews) did their jobs admirably, helping birth Delaney Rose Eaton. The baby and mother, Barbara, were rushed to the hospital after the birth and were doing just fine. The officers were later honored by the city council for their expertise and grace under pressure during the emergency.