Pioneer PINE CITY
THURSDAY, JUNE 7, 2018
VOL. 133 NO. 23 www.pinecitymn.com $1.00
STEELE TO STATE: Alaina Steele to represent Dragons in 800m at State track meet. P10
New hotel planned in Pine City BY MIKE GAINOR EDITOR@PINECITYMN.COM
Plans are underway to build a 51-room hotel with a pool behind the McDonald’s restaurant at 1450 8th Street NW in Pine City. The proposed three-story hotel would be part of the Grandstay Hotels chain, and has received site plan approval by the Pine City Council. There are currently 18 Grandstay hotels across Minnesota, with the nearest branch in Cambridge. Jerry Buseman of Pine City Hotel Investors, LLC/Turner Properties, LLC said that the developers hope to start construction in 2018. Pine City Mayor Carl Pederson said that the city is in regular touch with the project developers, and said they are moving along in their process, and are now working to get financing for hotel construction. Pederson said that once the developers can show they have established their own private
MIKE GAINOR | THE PIONEER
Friday food, fun and music A smiling crew of Pine City Girl Scouts offered visitors a tasty meal at the June 1 Art in the Park before the Church of Cash took the stage to perform the tunes made famous by the legendary Man in Black.
SEE HOTEL, PAGE 13
Hazardous waste site makes it easy to do the right thing BY CJ GUSTAFSON NEWS@PINECITYMN.COM
If you’ve lived in the area for a few years and you try to be conscientious about the environment, chances are you experienced the mile-long queue of people waiting to drop off their household hazardous waste during the free annual collection events sponsored by the county in the past. So many people had potentially dangerous items to dispose of that the wait could often be over an hour, making doing the right thing a bit frustrating. Fortunately, people recognized the need for an ongoing disposal site, and in 2016 the Pine County Household Hazardous Waste Collection Facility opened on Airport Road in
Pine City. The collection center, which shares space in the Pine County Highway Department Building at 405 Airport Road NE in Pine City, is open 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. on Wednesdays and Saturdays from mid-May through September. Now, disposing of hazardous household waste in Pine County is as simple as driving out to the building and unloading, with the help of Aleah Orlowski or Randy Osterdyke, two PHASE employees who staff the site along with Caleb Anderson, Land and Resources Manager for the Pine County Solid Waste Department, the agency that operates the facility. Free of charge, Pine County residents and property owners can protect the environment
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and avoid fines and criminal charges by disposing of items such as paint and varnish, aerosol products, antifreeze, insecticides, weed killers, and other chemicals in a safe and legal manner. The site workers sort through the items, putting them in their proper waste designation, and pulling out any items, such as paint, motor oil, bug spray and construction materials, that are still stable and usable. These salvaged goods are added to the Product Reuse shelves and are available to customers for free on a first-come-first serve basis. “A couple people each day stop in to see what we’ve added to the free shelves,” said Osterdyke. Tonja Miller of Hinckley CJ GUSTAFSON | THE PIONEER
SEE HAZARDOUS, PAGE 13
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PHASE employees work with Pine County staff to support the Pine City site.
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