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Saturday, January 13, 2018 • Vol. 62 • No. 52
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Photo contributed Residents say marbles, nuts, ball bearings and nails have become dangerous projectiles for drivers near Durham and 12th/13th Street. From the types of dents left on cars and shattered windows, they believe the objects are being shot by someone; but police say there is no video evidence to prove it.
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Canvasing Winter. 30 Women of Winter Street host art show.
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Courting Strong. LHN Lions girls basketball team begins TAPPS play strong.
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Find it. CARE FOR YOUR ELDERLY:
Flying projectiles raise concerns and questions
Heights Boy Scouts brave frozen tundra
By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com
By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com When sub-freezing temperatures hit earlier this month, many of us ran for the scarves and jackets without a second thought; but in the meantime, a group of local boy Scouts was putting our toughness to shame. Last week, a group of three adults and four youths from Boy Scouts of America’s Troop 30 (based at St. Mark’s UMC in the Heights) participated in the Okpik Dogsled Trek at BSA’s Northern Tier High Adventure Base near Ely, MN, just six miles south of the Canadian border. Part of BSA’s High Adventure program, youth campers Johnny Kramer, David Buckles, Jacob Buckles and Mitchell Poche joined adults Evan Kramer, Mike Buckles and Leo Poche for a three-day, two-night dog-sledding trek through the frozen wilderness, returning late in the day Jan. 7. In and of itself, the frozen trek consisted of three days and two nights camping on ice with four dogsleds and 25 dogs, along with a guide and a musher to keep everyone in line. Scouts and leaders established a base camp on a frozen lake about 12 miles from the base, ultimately traveling about 40 miles in the dogsleds, with each of the four sleds pulled by a team of six dogs. “The rest of the time, we were just trying to survive. I’m not sure many of them even owned long pants before going up there,” Troop 30 Assistant Scoutmaster Evan Kramer reflected Monday with a slight chuckle. Along with Kramer, the boys and the rest of the group had to chisel through nearly a foot of solid ice to obtain water for boiling and conducted all cooking over fires built on the ice while on the trek. Further, with all food fro-
Contributed photos Boy Scouts of America Troop 30 (based at St. Mark’s UMC in the Heights) participated in the Okpik Dogsled trek in Ely, MN. from Jan. 2-7. The threeday two-night trek spanned about 40 miles of sledding through the frozen forest in sub-zero temperatures.
zen solid, Scouts had to put many items in their boots during the day to thaw them out enough to eat once the group made camp. “It was essentially an adventure and survival trip all rolled into one. It’s like being on the moon [facing those temperatures],” Kramer said. One might think there would be some relief come nightfall; but as Kramer described it, the battle was heightened even a bit more
during the night. Upon removing it, Scouts had to pack each individual layer of clothing underneath their sleeping bag before diving deep into it, desperate for any shelter from the frozen tundra. “You could hear the ice cracking beneath you at night, and it would wake you up,” Scout Mitchell Poche said. “Early on, it was very iffy there – I don’t really know how to describe it. The first night was pretty rough,” Kramer added, describing in detail the complex sleeping pattern the Scouts must undergo simply in attempts to get a few hours reprieve from the biting wind and cold. “You can’t wear anything even slightly damp to bed [because of the temperature]. You can’t leave anything laying out either, because it’ll be frozen solid as a rock in the morning. It was a real challenge just to get into the sleeping bag and through the whole routine.” The experience conjured up more than a few frightening times for the crew once night fell – genContributed photo erally around 3 or 4 p.m. [“The boys] were a little scared, A Scout attempts to put a collar on one of the sled dogs prior to another leg of the group’s trek through the frozen tundra.
By Landan Kuhlmann landan@theleadernews.com
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From decimation in June to resurrection in the New Year, Simos Diner is back – and judging from the lunchtime crowd, it was as though that tragedy never happened. Last June, The Leader had to tell the heartbreaking story of the burning down of beloved neighborhood restaurant Simos Diner at 5004 N. Shepherd. However, the family pledged to bring the diner back to life in short order, and that promise came to fruition as they re-opened their doors to the neighborhood Jan. 8. “We basically gutted the building ourselves,” Steve Simos said of the long road back. And that wasn’t all they had to endure. Following Hurricane Harvey, the restaurant’s contractors were pulled off that job to assist in the recovery efforts
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Simos returns to business after fire damage
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Motorists making their way down Durham Drive in the Heights have experienced what they thought was BB gun pellets shattering their windows. But now some say the flying objects are of a more damaging variety – and the problem is worsening,. In our Dec. 31 edition, The Leader briefly detailed a report where drivers reported having their cars and windows hit by flying objects near Durham and 13th Street – once thought to be BBs, but now said to be slingshot marbles, metal nuts and ball bearings after another occurence near Durham and 12th. “It happened to me two nights in a row, so I assumed it had to have happened to somebody else,” a resident named Holly said after she was hit. As it turns out, she was right. Almost immediately after putting out a call on social media, she received multiple responses confirming her suspicions, along with a lengthy thread on a neighborhood NextDoor page that wound up totaling about 20 reports. “People have been getting dents and broken windows, and the car (drivers) feel as if they’re getting shot at,” Holly said. Deputies with the Precinct 1 Constable’s Office investigated the happenings in the area last week, and concluded that the occurrences are the result of a marble spill onto the road, which have then been disturbed and kicked up by passing drivers, causing the subsequent damage. “The landlord behind [the nearby house being blamed] has video that goes all the way around that house. When I watched the whole thing, nobody comes out with a slingshot,” said Deputy Bowden with the Precinct 1 Constable’s Office, who investigated the claims. “When I walked to the other side – where the house was – there’s these marbles and things all over the place. At this point, I have video evidence this guy isn’t shooting a slingshot at these people.” However, the explanation seemed a bit odd to Holly and her husband, who walked down to investigate – and she says what they found points to more than just a simple marble spill. “When we walked down there, we found various tracers (slingshot marbles). There were also metal nuts and ball bearings, and metal nuts were what hit our car the second night,” she said. “The more
– essentially decimating their workforce down from seven or eight workers to just a couple. “That’s when our family came into the picture and did what we could do. It’s been a wild ride.” Along the way, the family knows their progress would have been substantially stunted without community support, and expressed endless gratitude for the tireless support the family received throughout the rebuilding process – an outpouring of love Steve called “beyond words” as they worked to restore Simos to glory. At one point – with investment in repairs coming in around $350,000 – Steve even had his house up for sale as a contingency plan should additional funding not come through. Thankfully, it never got that far. “Every day I would come up here and just find See Simos P. 6A
Photo by Landan Kuhlmann George Simos flips over a tasty-looking steak during the diner’s late morning/early lunch rush. After a fire severely damaged the diner back in June, they re-opened for business Jan. 8.
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