COUNTRY
Serving Marine on St. Croix, Scandia, May Township
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 29, 2020 VOL. 36 NO. 40 www.countrymessenger.com $.75
HUNTING: Chronic wasting disease high in Southeast Minnesota. PAGE 13
Scandia receives funding for broadband expansion BY MATT ANDERSON EDITOR@COUNTRYMESSENGER.COM
SUZANNE LINDGREN | COUNTRY MESSENGER
Minnesotan Cup marathon at Vinterfest 2020 A skater for the Bears goes in for a shot, trailed by a member of team Trailer Puck Boys, during The Minnesotan hockey tournament, January 25. See more photos on page 2.
In an effort to bring reliable Internet services to underserved Minnesota communities, $23 million dollars in aid have been granted to 30 projects with Scandia being a recipient of $510,358 to extend their current services. In a show of appreciation, Scandia Mayor Christine Maefsky awarded the Scandia Internet Focus Group the Good Neighbor Award for their help in researching the lack of reliable Internet service in the community that helped in receiving this chance for network extension. The $510,358 grant was awarded to Internet service provider, Midco, through the Border-to-Border Broadband Development Grant Program which will use that to extend their services to 219 households in five different areas of the Scandia community. The need for this expansion reflects the concerns of the Scandia Internet Focus Group in the fall of 2017 when they first assessed the lack of reliable coverage. “Reliable access to broadband is essential and some underserved people in Scandia have been clamoring for it. This grant moves us closer to closing the digital divide in this community,” said Midco Sr. Director of Government Relations Justin Forde. “It was a highly competitive process, and we’re grateful to the state of Minnesota for supporting our vision of providing excellent SEE EXPANSION, PAGE 11
After stormwater fallout, solar company will purchase wetland credits BY KYLE WEAVER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
A small creek damaged by stormwater runoff in 2018 at the site of the former Zavoral gravel mine in Scandia will not be fully restored. Instead, the Scandia City Council last week agreed to allow BHE Renewables, the company that operates the Argo
Navis solar farm on the site, to purchase wetland mitigation credits to offset the damage. According to council documents, a Technical Evaluation Panel—comprised of officials from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers, the Washington Conservation District, the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources and
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the Carnelian Marine St. Croix Watershed District— recommended the mitigation credits, suggesting that additional onsite work could do more harm to the small creek than good. The panel noted that BHE Renewables has done considerable work at the site since the incident to repair and improve
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The Scandia Internet Focus Group (left to right): Steve Kronmiller, Mayor Christine Maefsky, Patti Ray, John Carney, Kristen Novak, Jesse Pereboom, and Chris Johnson.
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