Travis Grimler
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travis.grimler@pineandlakes.com
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- Member for
- 5 years 10 months
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Business for Lucette's restaurant in Hackensack was mostly good this year. It celebrated its 15-year anniversary on Valentine's Day with its popular stuffed pizzas, and except for an early business slowdown thanks to Highway 371 road construction, owner Cindy Paulsen (Czuczor) was looking ahead to the future. Then what doctors had suspected were kidney stones turned out to be something worse, and the business's future was suddenly in question. "I was recently diagnosed with kidney cancer," Paulsen said. "It was an incidental finding."
A lack of seniors is not just an issue for some athletic activities at Pine River-Backus High School this year. It also affects the theater. In the past seven or eight years, most cast members were seniors. This year the show features just one senior.
The Emily City Council addressed issues between the city, Minnesota Department of Transportation, businesses and residents during the Oct. 9 meeting, according to unapproved draft meeting minutes. Minutes state that the MnDOT State Highway 6 reconstruction project has created issues with flooding, standing water and/or drainage issues with Emily Meats, The Log Cabin, Pine River State Bank, Emily Cooperative Telephone Co. and The Landing. In addition, there have been issues with re-seeding at the old city hall location.
The journey to convert the old Backus dump into a viable business property may not fit into Black Line Conversions Inc.'s preferred timeline, so the city council tables discussion until it learns more from business owner Micah Eveland.
The Pine River First Lutheran Church youth group dressed up for Halloween and hit the streets to collect not candy, but canned goods for a Scaring Away Hunger event. The group split into four before going in different directions to ask Pine River residents for donations to the food shelf. Together the 20 youth ages 12-16 collected 376 pounds of donations in a little more than an hour of trick-or-treating.
A tip submitted through Facebook messages uncovered a large stream bank restoration project that could improve both Willow Creek and the bodies of water downstream, yet the restoration started largely without fanfare. Terrie Griep, who lives on the stream, asked a staff member with the PineandLakes Echo Journal about the project. She said that over the course of 15 years the creek has been the subject of different alterations on an almost yearly basis. She was concerned about this restoration and wanted to know its purpose and who funded it.
After a close race, voters chose two new board members for the Pine River-Backus School Board - Ryan Trumble and Wanda Carlson. There were four seats open on the board with one incumbent, Richie Bean, not filing for re-election. As a result, a new face on the council was guaranteed. There was no guarantee of a return for one incumbent - Katy Botz, Garny Gaffey or Leslie Bouchonville - after Trumble and Carlson applied for a board seat.
From the moment candidate filings were complete in August, it was obvious that this election could significantly change the Hackensack City Council with two seats open and no less than four applicants seeking those seats. But it was anyone's guess that Jim Schneider and Bill Kennedy, both challengers, would win the election. Kennedy was the only candidate who could be reached for comment Tuesday night. He said he would like to work on strengthening the cohesiveness in the city.
The Nov. 6 election was a night for incumbents for legislative districts 10A, 9A, 5B and 10B. In several races the margins were very wide from the start, but in at least the 5B race, the outcome was too close to call until the end. House District 10A Incumbent Rep. Josh Heintzeman, R-Nisswa, claimed victory over DFL candidate Dale Menk from Brainerd late Tuesday night. Heintzeman commanded a 4,696 vote lead with 11,907 votes over Menk's 7,211 votes. Heintzeman was grateful to his district for what will be his second term.
The wind is blowing cold and that white stuff is starting to crop up unsolicited on my doorstep. While that makes me envy the bear and its ability to sleep through the cold months, I am reminded of my financial obligations and that thing that keeps me from being a hermit when it's cold outside - work.