Vicki LaMere of Lake Shore poses at her Home Brook Township farm with one of her family's four horses, Bess. In the background is Willie, and the LaMeres also own Jack and Angel. Besides caring for and riding the horses with her daughter and friends, Vicki enjoys embroidery, which her maternal grandmother taught her, and rubber stamping. She has a hobby room at the farm. Vicki LaMere of Lake Shore poses at her Home Brook Township farm with one of her family's four horses, Photo by Nancy Vogt

Except for two and a half years when she lived in rural Brainerd, Vicki has lived her entire life in Lake Shore. She has been a Lake Shore City Council member since 1995, where she is able to give back to the city that has given her so much.

When she was just a few months old, Vicki's parents, Bob and Mabel "Tootie" Holsapple, bought the property off County Road 77 where Vicki currently lives with her husband, Lyle, and daughter, Mandi, 16. Son Ron, 25, attends North Dakota State University in Fargo.

Vicki grew up in a white house on County Road 77, and when she was 13, her parents built another house next door, where she lived until getting married at age 20. A Brainerd High School graduate, Vicki attended the Brainerd vocational school and what was then Brainerd Community College. She met Lyle while employed at St. Joseph's Medical Center in Brainerd. A construction worker from St. Louis Park, he was doing work at the hospital.

For the first few years of their marriage, Lyle worked in the Twin Cities while Vicki stayed here. While she wanted to go to the Cities, she had just gotten a job with Crow Wing County. She's worked nearly 30 years now in the auditor's office, where she is a technical coordinator.

Lyle eventually moved to the area, and Vicki's parents gave both her and her brother some of their land in Lake Shore. There, she and Lyle built the home where they live today.

Vicki also owns family property in Home Brook Township, just over the Lake Shore border to the west. Just six miles from her home, she owns a farm, complete with a house, a steel quonset hut, four horses and a couple of cats. That property had belonged to her grandparents, Ben and LaVada Holsapple. Her grandfather homesteaded the property when her dad was just a boy.

"This was all theirs, all you see, all these open fields," Vicki said, gesturing out the back windows of the Home Brook Township house. Her grandparents had about 340 acres. Eventually, her dad's brother, Jim Holsapple, took care of the property. When he died in 1998, her father acquired the land. He later sold the land to ETOC for a housing development. However, Vicki and her brother were able to acquire about seven acres of her grandparents' land.

"He must have felt it was important to keep a small part of it in the family," Vicki said of her father. "I'm just grateful I have this little piece. There's development all around me, but I started fencing and moved the horses over here."

Vicki has been around horses all her life, and continues to enjoy caring for and riding horses with her family.

Obviously, the city has changed since Vicki was a child.

"The thing that sticks out in my mind the most is the homes and cabins that were just summer establishments - most have been torn down and replaced with year-round homes, whether people are there all year or not," she said, noting the city also has lost mom and pop stores and resorts.

The changes aren't necessarily bad, she said, but, rather, are a sign of the times.

Vicki first ran for the city council in 1994. She and Lyle had sought a variance to build a garage that was larger than what the ordinance permitted. Their request was denied.

"We felt like we were being picked on. We felt it was unfair," Vicki said, noting they didn't understand the laws and ordinances.

The couple didn't give up. They acquired more property from Vicki's parents, researched the laws and learned.

That was her introduction to city government. Some neighbors encouraged Vicki to run for the city council and an older neighbor active in city government at the time helped her campaign.

She was elected, and decided after a four-year term not to run again because she was working full time and her daughter was young. However, the man who won her seat resigned after serving about three months, and people encouraged Vicki to return to the city council.

"I guess I just never knew what people thought, their reaction to having me on the council, until I didn't run," Vicki said. "I received lots of phone calls and encouragement to apply for the position and get back on."

She was appointed and has been on the council ever since.

"I guess I feel when the residents feel my usefulness on the council is used up, they'll let me know that by not putting me back on," she said, "or feedback will tell me it's time to move on."

Vicki enjoys serving on the council and tries to be receptive to residents and their feelings while still doing what's best for the majority. She said an awesome city staff makes her job as a council member that much easier.

"I think we have a great bunch of people in Lake Shore and they're easy to work for," she said of residents.

"The public support and encouragement have been really way up there. I feel like I'm giving back to the city where I've spent my life," she said.