Football Contest page 6
Sauk Rapids Herald Pulse page 8
PRSRT STD ECR U.S. POSTAGE PAID PERMIT #861
Sports page 1B
New Look. Same Local Coverage since 1854. Vol. 163, No. 27
Staff nominated for Excellence Award BY ANNA SALDANA STAFF WRITER
SAUK RAPIDS – Interim superintendent Bruce Watkins recognized Àve district staff members who are nominated for the Leadership in Educational Excellence Award. Nick Ostendorf, a sixth grade social studies teacher, Erin Bakke, a Àfth grade teacher at Pleasantview Elementary, Marsha Ergen, a physical education teacher at Mississippi Heights Elementary, Lyrae Ganz, a science teacher at SRRHS, and Jessica Markgraf, an early childhood teacher, will all be recognized. The recognition event will take place Oct. 26 at the River’s Edge Convention Center. The event will acknowledge educational leaders from nearly 40 school districts. In other school board news: • Sharon Henry, Carl Newbanks, April Diedrich, Amanda Groethe and Kelli Pederson were named new Sauk Rapids-Rice Education Foundation board members at the SRREF Sept. 19 meeting.
Ambassadors host 10th annual Parade of Lights BY NATASHA BARBER STAFF WRITER
SAUK RAPIDS — Sauk Rapids and surrounding community members will again be invited to partake in the annual Parade of Lights and Family Fun Day. The event, which is a fundraiser and service project for the Sauk Rapids Community Ambassador program, will be celebrating its 10th year and take place Saturday, Dec. 2. The council approved the festivities at Monday’s council meeting. City staff will work with parade organizers to facilitate the event. The day will begin at 10 a.m. with a living Nativity scene presented by Living Waters Lutheran Church in the Coborn’s Superstore parking lot and a Toys for Trots drive at the Sauk Rapids Fire Department. A silent auction and kids’ bingo will commence at 11 a.m. at the Sauk Rapids VFW Post No. 6992, followed by a visit from Santa and Mrs. Claus. A Trots for Tots 5K starts at 3 p.m.; and steak fry, meat rafÁe and the Holiday Parade of Lights launches at 5 p.m. More information can be found at the city’s website http:// ci.sauk-rapids.mn.us under City Celebrations. In other council news: • Approved posting old city Christmas decorations for sale on a municipal website. If the city is unable to sell the items, they will donate to another town. • Approved the site plan for Dutch Maid Bakery. • Approved Ànal change order to the 2016 Eighth Street North and Third Avenue North Improvements Project. • Awarded the Second Avenue South overhead to underground electrical conversion project to Electrical Solutions, Inc for $10,200. • Approved storm sewer repair on Fourth Street North between Seventh and Eighth Avenues. The project was awarded to Kuechle Underground, the same contractor currently working on Second Avenue. • Approved appointment of James Warzecha to the street maintenance position. Warzecha is a former employee of the city of St. Cloud.
Saturday, October 14, 2017
11 2nd Ave. N., Unit 103, Sauk Rapids, Benton County, MN 56379
District prepares for referendum Open enrollment, security hot topics BY ANNA SALDANA STAFF WRITER
SAUK RAPIDS — A new school, increased security, expanded early childhood, new athletic facilities and rebuilding Pleasantview Elementary were all concepts the Sauk Rapids-Rice School District had plans for as they put a referendum to vote May 23. That $86.9 million referendum failed to pass with 54 percent [2,367 individuals] of voters casting “no.” With an unsuccessful referendum, the district went to work almost immediately to determine what to do next. Board members believe a referendum remains important due to the variety of existing facility needs. “The district is experiencing overcrowding at two of the three elementary schools – Pleasantview Elementary and Mississippi Heights Elementary. Pleasantview also needs signiÀcant remodeling and the district would like to be able to get rid of the portable classrooms at that site,” said Bruce Watkins, SRR Interim Superintendent. “The district would like to expand and improve early childhood spaces. There is also a strong desire to improve the high school athletic facilities and to have these improvements on the site of the high school. The space for athletic improvements already
PHOTO BY NATASHA BARBER
The Sauk Rapids-Rice District has hired a consulting Àrm to administer a community survey through the beginning of November. The district intends to put a referendum to a vote in 2018.
exists due to forward thinking of the original planning and layout years ago.” Watkins said the district believes the items, which were brought forward by the community facilities task force, are still of signiÀcant need. The board has hired the Morris Leatherman Company to assist in gathering community input in order to better determine priorities related to the facility needs. Surveys will be conducted via phone and available online later this month through early November. “We are expecting to have survey results from the Àrm by
late November,” Watkins said. “The surveys are intended to help align future building and facilities referendum questions with the community values and priorities. The surveys will also provide valuable information to the administration on other district programs. Responses from the surveys may indicate that the public would like more information; that certain items on the last referendum should be changed or that different items should be added or considered. In general; the surveys will help align the community priorities with the district facility needs and provide
direction as we move forward.” The Àrm’s survey is at a price of $20,000, with the possibility for additional cost. Sauk Rapids resident Dan Johnson feels that money could have been spent elsewhere. “I feel they wouldn’t have had to spend $20,000 on that,” Johnson said. “That $20,000 could go a long way in upgrading security in our schools.” Sauk Rapids City Council member Jason Ellering feels similarly. “The district probably could
Referendum page 2
Dutch Maid Bakery plans relocation in Sauk Rapids
add something that is already there,” is no other Old Capital Tavern. It’s cream or gray colored block. The said Jeff Muntifering, who took over Coborn’s home base. That brings approximately 2,880-square-foot as owner of his father’s business in that identity to Sauk Rapids. I just building will include over 1,000 2001. “I mean, Jimmy’s Pour House want to add to that with Dutch Maid square feet of retail space, with — there is no other Jimmy’s Pour Bakery. We’re going to bring a the rest used for production. Nine Manea’s House. Manea s Meats — there is bakery, obviously, but I want to add parking spaces will accommodate the BY NATASHA BARBER BER other Manea’s Meats. There is business. Muntifering said they will to what’s already there.” no STAFF WRITER The site plan describes a cedar- serve coffee with their confections no other Czarnetzki’s [Sauk colored sided establishment with and seating will be available inside, SAUK RAPIDS — Dutch utch Maid Rapids Hardware red brick and with potential for outdoor seating Hank]. Bakery is moving to Sauk Rapids. as well. Sauk Rapid Housing and The iconic bakery thatt has been T h e r e Development Authority currently operating in East St. Cloud oud since owns the property and sale 1959 is planning to relocate cate negotiations will be its business behind the Sauk uk Ànalized in the coming Rapids Dairy Queen at 81 1 months. Fifth Street N. A site plan The move comes for a new building was after Muntifering’s approved at Tuesday’s uncertainty with his city council meeting. “I’m not looking to ILLUSTRATION BY STEPHEN A RUDNICKI DESIGN bring something to Sauk Dutch Maid Bakery intends to relocate and construct a new facility on Fifth Street North, Sauk Dutch Maid Bakery page 3 Rapids; I’m looking to Rapids. The building will house retail and production space and have storefront parking.
Site plan approved for downtown
Checkmark Alaska Kath completes travel to all 50 states BY NATASHA BARBER STAFF WRITER
SAUK RAPIDS — Kathy Kath never quite set out to tour all 50 of the United States. But following a handful of trips, she realized how close she was to achieving the milestone. “As I went to more and more states and I saw how many I had been to, I thought, ‘Oh, I can do this,’” said Kath, who retired as a paraprofessional from Sauk RapidsRice High School. “I think I was down to six or eight states left when Walter [Kath’s late husband] died [in 2008].” Kath made the feat a goal, and the 67-year-old Sauk Rapids resident reached her destination when she completed a trip to Alaska this past August. With good friend Winnie Doroff by her side, Kath Áew Àve hours to Anchorage, Alaska for an inland bus tour that lasted 12 days from Aug. 8-20. The two participated in a group tour that circled a portion of the state’s southeast corner, visiting Anchorage, Denali National Park and Reserve, Fairbanks and Valdez. The Ànal checkpoint in Kath’s lifelong United States travel came many years after her Àrst vacation. Her passion for tourism had been initiated by her father when she was a young girl. By the time Kath was an adult she had set foot in most all the western
states. “He did a lot of traveling, so I grew up traveling,” Kath said. “I went to Glacier and Yellowstone [National Parks], Wisconsin Dells, the Black Hills — a lot of those places as I was growing up.” Having been bit by the travel bug early, Kath continued to travel on her own to see family members and with her husband and children after marrying. The family would often tour different places in the motor home — some the same locations Kath had enjoyed as a young girl — even taking the kids on a 17day California road trip. Kath tallied Pennsylvania, Washington D.C. and all the states i n between while chaperoning her daughter’s marching band trip, and eventually
Kathy Kath page 2
PHOTO BY NATASHA BARBER
Kathy Kath, of Sauk Rapids, sits with photographs of her past travels. She recently completed visiting all 50 United States.