BURNETT COUNTY
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 1, 2017 VOL. 55 NO. 24 www.burnettcountysentinel.com $1.00
ACHIEVEMENT: Kids beating the benchmarks in Webster. P9
The end of Lake Roundabout? BY TODD BECKMANN SENTINEL
TODD BECKMANN | SENTINEL
The wrecking crew
SIREN—Are the days of numbered for “Lake Roundabout?” That’s the term motorists and others have affectionately given the basins which are west of the roundabout intersection north of Siren. If the newest plan the Department of Transportation (DOT) shared with the Burnett County Board of Supervisors takes root, come summer, that lake will be a thing of the past. “You’ve termed it ‘Lake Roundabout’ but it isn’t a joke to me — it’s a serious issue,” noted DOT Project Development Specialist Todd Stensland. “I won’t rest easy until the situation is resolved.” He was at Thursday’s county board meeting to describe the three-phase plan the DOT has for eliminating the basins, which have been full of water almost from the day they were installed. “It wasn’t a screw-up by the design people,” Stensland contends. “We had to make a last-minute decision to install basins to provide more surface area to allow the standing water to infiltrate.” But, the basins didn’t work because the water table is too high. “We could never get the basins dry enough to get
The 100-year-old building, the former Webster High School, will soon be a memory as site clearing continues through March for a St. Croix Regional Medical Center satellite health clinic.
Police interact with students BY TODD BECKMANN SENTINEL
WEBSTER—Area cops have been in the county’s schools this year to teach them about the big issues they may face as teenagers and to build rapport, but it’s the police who say they are getting schooled. “We are learning students know a lot more than we ever give them credit for,” Webster Police Officer Bridget Getts said of the twice-weekly sessions she has been having with Webster fifth graders last month and this month. She said one example is the general knowledge SEE SCHOOL, PAGE 8
SEE WATER, PAGE 6
Ice out sets record GRANTSBURG—“Awfully early” is the consensus of the ice going out at the Hwy. 70 Bridge over the St. Croix River. Apparently not that early, according to the record books. “It breaks the record by three days,” reported Jean Van Tatenhove, park ranger for the National Park Service. “The previous record was Feb. 26, set in the late 1990s.” This year, the ice-out came between 2 and 4 p.m. on Thursday, Feb. 23. The NPS has been keeping track of ice out dates for 34 years. “It’s the earliest ice-out since we began recording the date in 1983,” she remarked. Van Tatenhove said the average ice-out comes in late March, so this year the ice-out is about a month early. “It lets light into the river — it’s kind of a wake-up call to plants and animals who make their home in the river,” she explained. “It’ll trigger things earlier than usual.” The mussel is but one example. “It’ll disrupt their normal cycle,” she said. “And the water will be warmer than usual.” Beyond cycles starting earlier than normal, she’s not sure what the impact will be. For Jerry Dorff, owner of the Wild River Outfitters, who makes his living renting canoes and kayaks to river enthusiasts, said the early ice-out doesn’t mean anything to his business. “It’ll depend on spring rains and the rest of the weather STACY COY | SENTINEL in the watershed which feeds the St. Croix, he observed. The ice out as seen from under the Hwy. 70 Bridge on Thursday, Feb. 23. by Todd Beckmann, Sentinel
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