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TUESDAY, OCTOBER 27, 2020
PD 4 By Jeff Reinert for Commissioner Campaign, Lino Lakes, MN
VOL. 39 NO. 2 www.quadcommunitypress.com $1.00
CENTENNIAL SCHOOLS: Grades 6-12 will switch to distance learning PAGE 3
Daylight Savings ends on Nov. 1
Haunts of the Northeast Metro
Lino Lakes reconsiders metal roofs BY SHANNON GRANHOLM LEAD EDITOR
JACKIE BUSSJAEGER | SUBMITTED
One notable gravesite at St. Genevieve’s Cemetery in Centerville is surrounded by an unusual iron structure and displays the name Louis Wenks on its stone. The Anoka Historical Society doesn’t know much about the grave’s occupant—only that he was a teenage boy who died sometime in the 1870s or 1880s. BY JACKIE BUSSJAEGER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
The human fascination with stories of the strange and unexplained transcends time and place. Every community has its share of skeletons in the closet. Whether you’re a skeptic or a true believer, it’s fun to share in the stories and legends built over generations that feature the places closest to home.
St. Genevieve’s Cemetery— Centerville
Black Panther—Hugo Sightings of large, mysterious black cats have been reported all over the world, and in the 1990s, Hugo had a few of its own. In 1999, a Hugo resident captured photos of the large animal in a pasture. He believed it to be the size of a German shepherd. Some theorized that sightings of the cat were due to mistakes in perspective—in the wide, empty farm fields around Hugo, sometimes it’s hard to tell just how far away things are. Without objects for reference, a nearby housecat might appear to be the size of a mountain lion standing farther away. But most everyone who has lived in the countryside has
encountered a wide variety of wildlife and knows a large animal when they see it. Even if the animal was a roaming mountain lion, which have been known to wander through Minnesota, the odd color is tough to explain. Wildlife experts say there has never been a melanistic, or dark-colored, mountain lion documented in the wild. In the southwestern United States, there’s a slim chance people could cross paths with a black-colored jaguar, but this animal’s home range doesn’t come anywhere near Minnesota. Some postulated that the mysterious animal was an escaped exotic pet.
Union Cemetery—White Bear Lake The ghost stories tied to Union Cemetery just off Highway 61 stretch back thousands of years to the fi rst people who lived in this region of the world. A culture of early humans known as the Woodland Indians interred several of their dead in enormous earthen mounds near Lake Avenue and Shady Lane. The mounds went undisturbed for centuries until Euro-American colonists moved into the area and built roads into modern-day White Bear Lake.
SEE LOCAL HAUNTS, PAGE 9
SEE METAL ROOFS, PAGE 2
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Centerville is one of the oldest settlements in Anoka County, and St. Genevieve’s Cemetery contains a great deal of history since the town’s settlement. There are many mysteries about who lies beneath this hallowed ground. One notable gravesite is surrounded by an unusual iron structure and displays the name Louis Wenks on its stone. The Anoka Historical Society doesn’t know much about the grave’s occupant—only that he was a teenage boy who died sometime in the 1870s or 1880s. The reason for the iron bars is forgotten by history, but there are rumors that sometimes graves were enclosed this way because of a fear of witchcraft. Witches were said to be able to rise from the dead. However, this theory might be a stretch—suspected witches
weren’t usually buried in holy ground at a parish cemetery. More likely, these bars were meant to protect the person beneath, according to the Anoka County Historical Society. People were paranoid about being mistaken for dead and therefore buried alive, so some gravesites included contraptions that would allow the person below to signal to the world above if they woke up in their coffin belowground. The iron frame in St. Genevieve’s might have been part of one of these contraptions, or possibly installed to deter grave robbers.
LINO LAKES — The City Council will soon consider if it should make changes to its zoning ordinance to allow for hidden fastener (standing seam) and exposed fastener metal roofs. The topic fi rst came up last month when the Planning and Zoning Board and City Council considered a variance for 7831 Lake Drive, which would allow property owner Kathy Thayer to install a metal roof with exposed fasteners. The current city ordinance only allows for metal roofs with hidden fasteners. The Planning and Zoning Board recommended the council approve the variance. Its members also requested that city staff present an ordinance amendment for board and council consideration to allow for metal roofs with either hidden fasteners or exposed fasteners, provided the exposed fasteners are the same color as the roofi ng material. The council ultimately approved the variance for the home, but denied the variance for the two garages. At the Oct. 14 meeting, City Planner Katie Larsen presented some research detailing the differences between exposed and hidden fastener metal roofs as well as what neighboring communities allow. She said Andover, Anoka and Forest Lake do not allow metal roofs on single-family homes; Blaine allows hidden fastener metal roofs with restrictions; and the city of Hugo does not address metal roofs. Board Member Perry Laden said that in the same way the city doesn’t specify what kind of siding or shingles to put on homes, it should not specify the type of roof. “I think our ordinance with regard to the standing seam metal roof is too restrictive for this city. To say you can have a metal roof, but only if you are rich and can afford the best metal roof available … As long as it is a manufactured roofi ng system, we ought to allow it.” Board Member Jeff Reinert, who voted against the recommendation, shared some history on the topic. “It used to be considered a rural kind of roofing, it had a rural look and didn’t belong in neighborhoods. Then they came up with a more sleek, polished look, and really upgraded that look, which made it more of a finished product,” he recalled. “Rivets look very rural and belong on a machine shed on a farm somewhere. It is OK for a city to have standards and stick with it and say no to things sometimes.” The Planning and Zoning Board, once
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