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Sports season begins: page 6 New Look. Same Local Coverage since 1854. Vol. 163, No. 19
11 2nd Ave. N., Unit 103, Sauk Rapids, Benton County, MN 56379
Thursday, August 17, 2017
Koepp recognized for 40 years Kruger stable, positive despite paralysis BY NATASHA BARBER STAFF WRITER
SAUK RAPIDS — The city of Sauk Rapids recognized an employee for a milestone of service Monday evening. Denny Koepp received a plaque for his 40 years of employment with the city at the Aug. 14 Sauk Rapids City Council meeting. Koepp is a member of the public works department. “An anniversary is an occasion to look back at what you have done. You can do this with satisfaction because you’ve always done a pretty good job,” said Sauk Rapids Public Works Director Pete Eckhoff with a smile. “Forty years of service not only includes your 8-hour work day but it counts nights and weekends here for the pool or splash pad or sewer back-ups. You’re one of the best Denny, and we want to send you warm wishes. Congratulations on your anniversary and I look forward to your next 40 years of service.” The crowd chuckled and Koepp was congratulated by fellow staff members. In other council news: • Appointed Jason Ellering to the Community Education Advisory
Council, with Nick Sauer as an alternate. The council meets with the Community Education staff to offer feedback on average every two months. Phillip Klaphake, Recreation and Middle School Activities Director, gave a presentation about the progress in the Community Education programs and asked for the city’s support in Àlling one vacant spot on the current advisory council. • Authorized the execution of the commercial construction contract with Project 1 regarding the remodel of the Old Log Building at Municipal Park. • Approved the replacement of eight laptop computers and computer mounts in squad cars. • Approved the Ànance director’s attendance at the Minnesota Government Finance OfÀcers Association conference in September. • Amended the animal control ordinance to include raptors. A city resident will be participating in the Minnesota DNR Falconry program. The raptor(s) will not be permitted to be Áown within city limits. The amendment does not include
SRCC: page 3
PHOTO BY NATASHA BARBER
Sauk Rapids Mayor Kurt Hunstiger (left) and Public Works Director Pete Eckhoff (right) congratulate Denny Koepp Aug. 14 for his 40 years of service in the public works department at the city of Sauk Rapids.
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Mark Kruger, 22, of Rice, is visited by cousin and best friend Mitch PÁipsen Aug. 12 at the North Memorial Hospital. Kruger is paralyzed from the chest down after a diving accident Aug. 7 on Little Rock Lake. BY NATASHA BARBER STAFF WRITER
RICE — One week after a diving accident, a Rice man is in good spirits and staying positive, despite having lost mobility to most of his body. Mark Kruger, 22, was airlifted from the shores of Little Rock Lake to North Memorial Hospital Aug. 7 after diving head Àrst into the water from an inoperable boat. Mark struck his head on something under the water, and as a result lost all movement to his legs and sustained limited movement to his arms. Mark’s father, Gary, who was in the boat with him, jumped into the water and held Kruger above water until help arrived. According to Mark’s brother David, Mark had been working on a boat that had been running poorly. Gary and Mark, along with Mark’s dog, girlfriend and uncle, took the watercraft on the lake to test drive it and did some tubing before the boat’s motor completely failed. The two were in the middle of the lake, and after trying multiple remedies with the motor, Mark decided to jump in, swim to shore and use his own boat to retrieve the others.
“It was only two feet deep when my Dad jumped in to roll him over and resuscitate him, but Mark has an incredible memory of the whole thing happening,” David said. “He remembers details of my Dad yelling at him after he was in shock and he swears he did not hit the [lake bottom]. Mark says it was a log or something that he hit. He remembers diving in, and he got completely Áat in the water and then he hit something. He came up and he couldn’t feel his legs and he was in a lot of pain.” Unable to communicate to his dad that he needed help and fearful of drowning, Mark held his breath in order to render himself unconscious. That was when Gary noticed something was wrong and came to Mark’s rescue. David said his brother has always been fun to be around, optimistic and worried about others more than himself, so it was just like Mark to tell them, “You guys are more worried than me. It’s going to be OK” while they were waiting to be admitted to surgery in the emergency room. Mark fractured his spine in multiple spots and severed his spinal cord at the C6 vertebrae. Surgery
consisted of fusing together his top three vertebrae C1, C2 and C3, as well as C5, C6 and C7 and T1. Mark is paralyzed from the chest down and has limited mobility of his arms and hands. He is unable to move his Àngers, but he has learned to coordinate a passive grasp and release mechanism by Áexing and extending his wrists. But despite the injuries, Mark is making progress. “He’s been seeing PT (physical therapy) and OT (occupational therapy) every single day, twice a day,” David said. “They have him sitting up in his bed. Today he brushed his teeth. He can’t use his hands but they have a Velcro device they put on his hand and he can still move his right arm well enough where he is brushing his teeth. He has been itching his head. He’s been feeding himself. When they sit him up, they make him hold himself up and he’s almost to the point where he can hold himself up with nobody else supporting him.” Once Mark’s pain is under control and manageable, David said his brother would be transferred
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Earning an Eagle Durant revamps city park BY NATASHA BARBER STAFF WRITER
RICE — At the corner of Division Street North and West Main Street in Rice, rests a patch of grass surrounded by stone pillars and wooden posts. Three poles stand without Áags and a monument has been missing for a number of years. Veterans Memorial Park will be getting a facelift this summer as part of a local resident’s determination to receive his Eagle Scout award. Jared Durant, son of Dan and Sandy Durant of Rice, will be repairing and refurbishing the park with help from his troop. “I really want people to know this park,” said Jared Durant, who has been involved with the Scouts since eligibility in Àrst grade. “People don’t know what this park was — you can’t see by any means that this is Memorial Park. I want people to know this is an actual park and there is a purpose as to why it is here.” A member of Troop 473 of the Central Minnesota Council Boy Scouts of America, Durant plans to restore the park by painting, trimming, and upgrading items in the park, as well as by reinstalling PHOTO SUBMITTED a monument which commemorates The former monument at Veteran Memorial Park in Rice will be refurbished the area’s World War II veterans. and restored with a new engraved nameplate. “I’m redoing some of the
boarding around the monument because it needed to be sanded and refurbished,” Durant said. “Then I’m actually going to place a sheet of metal in there with all the names of those who served during WWII from Rice. When I got the former monument from Mark Sauer [Rice Public Works and Utilities Department], it had all thee names on it, but most of the plaquess were broken and needed to be restored. The monument itself was really worn and it all needed to be repainted and everything.” The Eagle Scout award is the highest achievement or rank attainable in the Boy Scouts of America program and was established over 100 years ago. Only 4 percent of Boy Scouts are granted the status after a lengthy review process of their time spent within the Scouts. The young men must obtain at least 21 merit badges and exhibit an attitude in accordance with Scout Oath and Law. They must also present and execute a service project — the Eagle Project — which displays planning, organizing, leadership and management skills.
PHOTO BY NATASHA BARBER
Jared Durant, of Rice, is restoring Veteran Memorial Park in Rice for his Eagle Scout Project. He is a member of Boy Scout Troop 473.
Upon completion l i off the h project j bby the age of 18 and acceptance by a board of review, Eagle Scouts are presented with a medal, badge and lifetime acknowledgment of the award. Durant decided on the project in late April. “I remember one [a monument] being there and had commented to my dad when they took it down. It’s been in the back of my mind forever,” Durant said. Using his own money, he enlisted Mustang Signs and Graphics to help create the new nameplate and has solicited donations from local businesses to help offset the costs
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