COUNTRY
WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 2, 2017
Serving Marine on St. Croix, Scandia, May Township
VOL. 34 NO. 14 www.countrymessenger.com $.75
OSCEOLA BRIDGE: Hole in deck causes closure. PAGE 2
Gammelgården interns to present history in harmony BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@COUNTRYMESSENGER.COM
Gammelgården Museum interns Natalie Redinger and Megan Storkan will present their summer research projects on Sunday. Storkan will highlight the lives of five pastors at Elim Lutheran Church and Redinger will sing Scandinavian songs contemporaneous to each pastor’s era (see sidebar for event details). The Messenger visited the young women last week at the farmers market to find out more about their internship experiences.
CITY OF SCANDIA
Solar panels off Highway 97 in Scandia. The commercial solar project was the first the city approved and was not controviersial.
On the ground, small town solar is complicated
Natalie Redinger Redinger, 19, grew up in Wyoming, Minn. and is now a student at Bethel University in St. Paul. What drew you to the Gammelgården internship? I had been volunteering here for awhile and when I was a child I attended different activities. Midsommar was one of my favorites. This year when I came back from college I read in the newspaper that they were still looking for an intern. I jumped at the opportunity. Being a mu-
BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@COUNTRYMESSENGER.COM
JENI O’BRIEN
Gammelgården interns Natalie Redinger and Megan Storkan will present their summer research projects on Sunday.
sical theater major I get to, in a way, act out the part of being an immigrant from the 1850s. What are your duties as an intern? We assist wherever help is needed. We get a chance to help out in
the Butik, work on sales, and help plan children’s activities and programs. We also get to give tours so we’re constantly engaging with people of all different ages. As tour guides we get to learn about the people I’m giv-
ing the tour to. We hear about where they came from and their family history and we tell about ours. How is the internship different from your SEE INTERNS, PAGE 2
Starwatch at Washington County Parks Visit Washington County Parks 8:30 to 10:30 p.m. Friday, Aug. 11, at Big Marine Park Reserve, and 9 to 11 p.m. Friday, Sept. 1, at Lake Elmo Park Reserve to watch the great celestial show in the sky with Minnesota Starwatch hosted by Mike Lynch of WCCO. The group will meet at the beach building at Big Marine Park Reserve and on the Swim Pond grounds at Lake Elmo Park Reserve. Get to know the constellations like The Big Bear, Cygnus the Swan, Scorpius the Scorpion, and some of the stories behind them. View natural wonders of the sky – constellations, planets, star clusters, galaxies, nebulae, and more. Visitors will use large reflecting telescopes, including two 20-inch reflectors that are among the biggest mobile telescopes in Minnesota, and a new astronomical camera-telescope system for views of the more distant parts of the universe. Participants will receive
When the rural city of Scandia opened its land to commercial solar farms in June 2015, many locals applauded the move. “Scandia had prided itself on being a forward-looking city,” said Mayor Christine Maefsky, who chaired the plan commission at the time. “We had taken steps to become a GreenStep City and philosophically we were a city that supported alternative energy. Along with that, there was the idea that landowners might have an opportunity to profit from their land in a way that was different than traditional development.” The city hasn’t changed its position, but two years and six solar farm approvals later, Maefsky is asking whether Scandia should institute a moratorium on commercial solar. It would be the city’s second break from the technology since 2015. “A lot’s happened in two years,” Maefsky said. A brief overview: The first solar proposal was an easy yes. “It was being proposed for the site of an old gravel pit and the land wasn’t part of the scenic landscape of the city that we pride ourselves on,” Maefsky explained. “There had been a lot of thinking about what could be done with this site. … This seemed like a really good use, something that would be beneficial to the property owners and a statement about Scandia’s commitment to green energy.” But the second proposal, sited on Oldfield Road, was more complicated. “That was the first one that had an impact on a residential neighborhood,” said City Administrator Neil Soltis. “It was dramatically different than the first one in that it was in a most scenic area,” Maefsky added. “The challenge came in the topography and elevation of the lot they were choosing. … It was on multiple hills.” Most of it was on a hill that would be visible from the road and the neighborhood. According to Soltis, initial screening requirements for solar farms were only for road right of way. In other words, neighbors who used to look out at the hills would soon have a very different view.
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SEE STARWATCH, PAGE 2
Mike Lynch aiming a telescope
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