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COUNTY TASK FORCE: Keep indoor rinks on ice PAGE 8A
Conservation board assumes fiscal agent role to help lake BY DEBRA NEUTKENS REGIONAL EDITOR
WHITE BEAR LAKE — Augmentation advocates breathed a sigh of relief last week when the people tasked with conserving the lake agreed to take on an unprecedented role. That role is to serve as fiscal agent should bonding money be procured this session to build a pipeline from Vadnais Lake to White Bear Lake. An entity had to step forward to take the money before area legislators would introduce a bill. The buck stopped with the White Bear Lake Conservation District (WBLCD). The decision wasn’t easy. In fact, it took months of research and task force meetings to delve into the aspects of the role and what it would mean to the group’s budget. The WBLCD gets an allowance from five communities around the lake and operates on a budget less than $100,000. The group of 10 board members mostly work to control invasive species and issue dock permits. Dellwood’s representative, Pat McCann, felt the decision was now or never. “If we decide not to be fiscal agent, I don’t know when we’ll have another shot. We are the entity responsible for White Bear Lake. We have a chance to fix the lake. The planets are finally lined up to get it rolling.” Several legislators attended the meeting to push for a commitment.
PAUL DOLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
Sliding (and slipping) toward home Scared Shirtless team member Doug Lacktorin slides toward home plate during the ninth annual White Bear Lake VFW Softball Tournament on Ice Saturday, Feb. 20. Players on the Hollihan’s, Gephardt, Pitch Please, Easton, Miss Fits and Scared Shirtless teams were challenged with the task of staying on their feet while chasing balls and running the bases in the slick and slushy conditions on the quickly melting surface of White Bear Lake.
SEE FISCAL AGENT, PAGE 8A
Mother’s letters gave addicted son a dose of reality BY LOUISE ERNEWEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
WHITE BEAR LAKE — “It led me to the misery that led me to rock bottom.” Those are the words of recovering addict David Hay, 19, speaking about his mother’s letters, published on her blog, Missing David Hay, during Hay’s addiction, treatment, relapse and recovery from drugs. The letters from that blog, along with others, previously unpublished, have been released in a book, “Dear David: Dealing With My Son’s Addiction One Letter at a Time.” Last Tuesday (Feb. 16), Hay and his mother, Martha Wegner, gave readings and fielded questions from a small audience gathered in a classroom at the White Bear Lake Area Learning Center (ALC) on Orchard Lane — where Hay graduated from School District 624’s Insight Program in 2014. Now sober — the recovery term for being drug-free
— for 16 months, Hay has joined his mother for presentations on the struggle of addiction and the reality of recovery for both the addict and loved ones. It has meant coming to terms with the content of the letters — first in blog form and now in the printed word — that, in the midst of his addiction, he could not stomach to read. Hay learned of his mother’s very public online journal when a number of friends sent messages through Facebook to offer help after reading her posts. “When you are using [drugs], that’s the last thing you want,” said Hay. “You are running from reality and when people point out the reality, it’s upsetting. I was really upset that Mom was writing these things because it was the truth that I didn’t want to look at. It was hard to run from once it was out there like that.” Hay had been, if not a model student, impressive by most standards. An Eagle Scout, he was awarded the Academic Achiever’s Award as a senior, was named Student of the Month and featured on the ALC’s honor roll, and
was part of the student leadership team. Traci Bowermaster, adviser for the Insight Program — one of four recovery schools in Minnesota and just 40 across the country — said of Hay, “He finished strong academically; he was a stellar student.” But his ongoing struggle with addiction to marijuana caught up with him once again and, the day after his graduation from the Insight Program in June 2014, Hay went missing. Over the next four months, as Hay bounced between unsuccessful attempts at treatment programs and friends’ couches, jail, homeless shelters and the occasional visit to his family home in St. Paul, Wegner took up her keyboard and started pouring her heart out in the series of letters which now form “Dear David.” One letter began: “Dear David, Today I called the police. I suddenly realized that you could be in a hospital or morgue, and because you don’t have identification SEE LETTERS TO DAVID, PAGE 9A
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