Reaching Everybody!
Presorted Standard U.S. Postage Paid St. Joseph Newsleader St. Joseph, MN 56374 Permit No. 21 ECRWSS Postal Customer
Newsleader St. Joseph
Friday, May 9, 2014 Volume 25, Issue 19 Est. 1989
Town Crier
Summer farmers’ market opens today, Friday, May 9
The St. Joseph Farmers’ Market summer market opens today from 3-6:30 p.m. and will run every Friday into October. The market is located north of St. Joseph on C.R. 2 next to the Wobegon Trail Center (near Resurrection Lutheran Church). All are welcome – come on out, rain or shine, and purchase locally grown produce and more. Follow the market at facebook.com/ stjosephfarmersmarket to stay informed.
Citywide garage sale set next weekend
The St. Joseph City Wide Garage Sale, sponsored by the St. Joseph Jaycees, will be held Friday and Saturday, May 16-17. Maps are available at Sentry Bank and all gas stations in St. Joseph.
Stamp Out Hunger food drive set May 10
On May 10, postal carriers across the country will collect food for families in need. It’s easy to help. Collect and bag non-perishable food items. Place items by your mailbox for letter carriers to deliver to a local food bank or pantry.
Postal Patron
Greenhouse tip: Don’t love plants to death by Dennis Dalman news@thenewsleaders.com
It’s OK to love your plants; just don’t love them to death. That’s a good bit of advice from Arno Shermock, owner of Thomsens Greenhouse and Garden Center near St. Joseph. Loving a plant to death means giving it more care than it really needs, such as overwatering and overfertilizing. “It’s important to find a balance between too much and not enough,” Shermock said. One way to do that is to read and heed directions on fertilizer products and water only when the top half inch or so of the soil is dry. Killing plants with love can happen to green plants, flowers and even trees and shrubs, Shermock noted. There are many good fertilizers available, but at Thomsens, they have had good luck Plants • page 3
photo by Dennis Dalman
After a long, cold winter, it’s time to plant. JoAnn Fleischhacker, an Albany resident, tends to a small field of daisies at Thomsens Greenhouse and Garden Center near St. Joseph.
A historical perspective from 25 years ago
Fishing opener creates traffic safety concerns
The fishing opener weekend of May 10-11 will be a busy traffic period, especially in northern Minnesota. According to Regional Public Information Officer Sgt. Jesse Grabow, “Some of the main concerns are drivers who are not paying attention, following too closely and speeding, especially around the lakes areas. Drivers are strongly encouraged to buckle up, take your time and pay strict attention to your driving.” Drivers are also asked to keep an eye on their following distance and stay back far enough to prevent a crash with the vehicle ahead. For more information, visit www.thenewsleaders.com and click on Criers.
Help prepare community gardens for planting
The Central Minnesota Sustainability Project is opening their Community Gardens on Saturday, May 10 from 10 a.m.-2 p.m., and as a part of that they are organizing a work day where volunteers will wheelbarrow compost to all of the plots in their garden. The work can be done earlier in the day, from 8-10 a.m., if that works better. Contact Florence Orionzi, gardens education and volunteer coordinator, at 320-356-0369 or Florence@sustainmn.org.
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Lee’s Ace Hardware
Al and Virginia Pfannenstein, owners of the St. Joseph Meat Market, are running “business as usual” in spite of the fire setback. This metal structure is the only front part of the building yet standing after the March 20, 1989 fire at the St. Joseph Meat Market slaughterhouse. The actual slaughter room in the back of the building was salvaged and will be incorporated into the new slaughterhouse building. April 28, 1989
Meat Market pushes forward in spite of fire setback by Janelle Von Pinnon
The remodeling of the St. Joseph Meat Market slaughterhouse was finished Friday. All day Saturday, the boys had cleaned up the construction dust and debris for the federal inspection scheduled on Monday morning. Then fire struck at 7:15 a.m.
Sunday, March 19 (Palm Sunday) gutting the entire front of the building and leaving only the cement block walls of the back slaughter room and a few pieces of charred equipment. “It was a ‘let-down feeling,’” said Al Pfannenstein, co-owner with his wife Virginia of the St. Joseph Meat Market. “I couldn’t believe it, because everything
was supposed to be new and redone. And we’d reroofed that building last fall because of hail damage last spring. “It was a real sickening feeling going into that new place and seeing it all black and burned. It’s been determined a total loss. “But at the same time,” Al continued, “we were happy no one was hurt, killed or injured during the fire, or while the firefighters were putting it out.” Mutual aid response brought firefighters from five departments including Sartell, Rockville, St. Cloud Township and Waite Park, as well as St. Joseph. “The St. Joseph Fire Department was here until the next morning – nearly 24 hours after the fire began,” Al said. “They had an aerial ladder shooting water into the back room,” he continued. “The water splashing back into the room salvaged the slaughter room, but may have prevented them from saving more of the front of the building, which housed large cutting and storage areas, a large freezer, an office and a sausage spice area.” Construction is already under way for the new fireproof building, which will be located on the same land the previous building occupied. Completion date is set for Aug. 1, but the Pfannensteins are optimistic it may be finished
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earlier. “The new building will be arranged differently than the one that burned, but we’ll be using it for the same purposes,” Al said. “Before, we kept pushing back toward the alley adding new rooms and shifting operations from one room to the next as we needed to expand. Now, it will be set up in a more orderly fashion with appropriate positions for equipment.” During the lag period until the new building is completed, the meat market has discontinued doing any custom work, but continues to slaughter whatever is needed for retail selling. “We’ve been slaughtering at Plantenberg’s Market in Richmond,” Al said. “They offered us the place to use until we’re ready to go into our own. We’ve been referring custom work to them. Other than that, business has been going on as good as always.” Al said he hasn’t had to lay off anyone of his 15 employees. His part-time help have been scrubbing equipment to salvage what they can; some stainless has been saved. “I feel fortunate to have the community we do,” Al said. “A lot of people were really concerned. We had full support from the city council. Young Perspective • page 2