COUNTRY
Serving Marine on St. Croix, Scandia, May Township
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 11, 2017 VOL. 33 NO. 37 www.countrymessenger.com $.75
MAY TOWNSHIP: How much to pave the road less traveled? PAGE 7
Marine Library celebrates five years BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@COUNTRYMESSENGER.COM
SUZANNE LINDGREN | COUNTRY MESSENGER
Todd’s Home Center closed Jan. 1. New owners will reopen the store in two months, but pay-at-the-pump gas service will likely be available sooner.
Todd’s Home Center closes BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@COUNTRYMESSENGER.COM
Scandia residents and others accustomed to buying gas, hardware or pet supplies at Todd’s Home Center on Highway 95 had to look elsewhere last week after owner Todd Cunningham closed the gas station and store Jan. 1. The business has been sold to
Federated Co-ops, but the company could not be reached for comment. “They’ll remodel and open the store in about two months,” said Cunningham. Pay at the pump gas service will likely be available sooner, in late January, he said. The new owners plan to sell feed and pet supplies alongside conve-
nience foods, according to Cunningham, but they will not sell hardware. Cunningham, who has owned Todd’s Home Center since 2004, plans to move his hardware business to western Wisconsin. “I want to thank the community for all the years of business,” he said. “Basically, I just don’t want to be in the gas business anymore.
Six years ago, the fate of Marine’s library seemed much less certain than it does now. At the time, it was becoming clear that Washington County was seriously considering closing the Marine branch. Faced with budget cuts, county representatives felt they had little choice. "No one wanted the library to go away, but with the new budget reality something had to change," Robin Brooksbank told the Country Messenger in 2012. Brooksbank was chair of the Marine Library Association when the library re-opened five years ago. By then, a group of residents from Marine, May and Scandia had formed to rescue the library, reimagining it as a volunteer-run, community venture. The Marine Library Association, or MarLA, worked with the City of Marine on St. Croix and Washington County to keep the library open, with books collected from local donors and access to Washington County’s stacks. The doors to the ren-
Swan rescued on Big Marine BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@COUNTRYMESSENGER.COM
Neighbors on Big Marine Lake teamed up with Washington County deputies, DNR conservation officers and the Wildlife Rehabilitation Center to recue a trumpeter swan on New Year’s Day. Mark Moratzke, the man who alerted authorities to the presence of the seemingly distressed swan, said he’d been keeping an eye on the bird for several days. “I’d noticed a few days or a week before, when we had the high winds, that we had a swan out on the lake,” recalled Moratzke, who’s lived on the lake for 18 years. “It’s kind of weird to see a solo swan like that,” he noted, alluding to swans’ tendency to mate for life. “They typically migrate when everything starts to freeze up,” he added. “But they don’t always leave, they might
stay in a river or something if there are areas where it’s open. As long as there’s food and water. … But I thought it was really odd having a
Eve. “We were four wheeling and I saw it standing on a muskrat house,” he recounted. “That was about 4:30 p.m.”
JEFF DAHLBERG
Mark Moratzke, left, and Brad Johnson, a retired DNR conservation officer from the Hastings area, with the swan. The bird, rescued from Big Marine Lake, is believed to have lead poisoning.
lone swan out there.” When Moratzke didn’t see the swan for a time, he thought it had traveled to safety. But then it appeared again on New Year’s NEWS 651-433-3845 editor@countrymessenger.com
Moratzke called Washington County — but the sun set that evening at 4:39 p.m. “They didn’t get out there until past dark,” he said. ADVERTISING 651-433-3845 sales@osceolasun.com
By then it was too late to find the swan and bring it to safety. “The next morning there were coyote and fox tracks all around this poor bird,” reported Moratzke. “He was probably up all night fighting these things off.” Hoping to bring the bird to safety before forecasted freezing rain and cold set in, the county organized a group including DNR conservation officers to meet early in the afternoon on New Year’s Day. This time, the rescue was successful. “The swan went into the cattails a little but they got the net over his head,” said Moratzke. “After that he just laid there.” Using a sled and dog kennel from Jeff Dahlberg, another Big Marine resident, they hauled the swan to shore. Retired DNR conservation officer Brad
EVAN JOHNSON AND GENE DI LORENZO
The Marine Community Library will celebrate five years on Jan. 20 with a party featuring a presentation from cookbook author Beth Dooley.
ovated space — complete with new carpeting, furniture, paint, shelving and ceiling tiles — opened Jan. 20, 2012. Today, the library is arguably more important to the community than ever. With a half decade of innovative and increasingly successful programming under its belt, MarLA continues to reach out to residents of Marine, surrounding communities, and beyond. “We’re known for our adult and children’s programming,” said Mary Burke, MarLA’s current chair and a board member for the last four years. Since 2012, the library has hosted countless readings and author talks for kids and adults, and extended children’s programming into the fields of art and music. For grown-ups, the library has hosted a poetry crawl, among other novel events. Notably, A Prairie Home Companion’s Garrison Keillor performed in the village hall in 2014 as a fundraiser for the library. “And,” adds Burke, “we’ve been successful with the documentary series (a partnership with the
SEE SWAN, PAGE 5
PUBLIC NOTICES 651-433-3845 editor@countrymessenger.com
SEE LIBRARY, PAGE 2
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