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WEDNESDAY, FEBRUARY 26, 2020 VOL. 36 NO. 44 www.countrymessenger.com $.75
THE LUMBERJACK: Stillwater bar offers axe-throwing. PAGE 2
Pies with a purpose: Sara's Tipsy Pies opens storefront in Stillwater BY ELIZABETH CALLEN LOWDOWN EDITOR
For the last several years, Sara's Tipsy Pies have been a staple at the Minnesota State Fair. Now that owner Sara Hayden has opened a retail storefront in Stillwater, locals need not travel far (or wait until August) to get their fix of her handheld pies, which also come complete with a little boozy kick. Sara's Tipsy Pies grew from Hayden's lifelong love of baking, which she inherited from her mother, along with a secret pie crust recipe. At the encouragement of a friend, she made the leap from home baking to professional baking around 2012, first baking in a community kitchen and later out of the basement of the Marine General Store. Her pies debuted at the Minnesota State Fair in 2015 and were immediately a hit; Hayden SEE TIPSY PIES, PAGE 2
Heritage Alliance given OK to assess new barn site Tiller Corp granted annual permit BY KYLE WEAVER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
PAUL DOHLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
Sara Hayden, owner of Sara’s Tipsy Pies, displays a group of pies that have just been given a final touch of syrup topping at her retail storefront on the South Hill in Stillwater.
The City of Scandia and the Scandia Heritage Alliance are inching closer toward an agreement that would allow the group to re-erect the historic former Hilltop Water Co. Water Tower Barn. The Scandia City Council last week agreed to issue a temporary site license that will allow the Heritage Alliance to conduct soil borings at the proposed site for the barn—the youth ball field just south of the Scandia Community Center on Olinda Trail. “If you guys feel confident that we can work out the details, we feel confident enough to spend the money on the soil borings,” said Susan Rodsjo, president of the Heritage Alliance. The Heritage Alliance has asked the city for a 99-year lease on the site for $1 per year, and has proposed a five-year period in which the group can prove its ability to fundraise and write grants for the project. City Attorney Eric Sherburne noted that ironing out the details of a long-term lease on the site was going to take a little more time. “There are not necessarily disagreements,” Sherburne said, “but things that need to be discussed with more specificity.”
Tiller granted AOP
'Gateway to Scandia' gains support for trail BY MATT ANDERSON CONTRIBUTING WRITER
A major step in bringing the Gateway Trail to Scandia is in place after many years of hard work. The 2020 Gateway Extension project submitted by the City of Scandia will request $4.6 million in state funds to complete an expansion that is hoped to bring the Gateway Trail to Scandia by 2024. “The Gateway trail has been
proposed to come to Scandia for many, many years and every time there is an exception… But now it looks like it has some real potential,” says Cycling Scandia member Janie O’Connor. In addition to Cycling Scandia, the city will also receive support from other community groups like Friends of Scandia Parks and Trails, the Gateway Trail Association, Scandia Heritage Alliance and Gammelgarden Musem The proposal will also cooper-
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ate with Washington and Chisago counties, Marine on St. Croix, Lindstrom and May Township throughout the project. In an effort to bring the appropriate attention to this project, Scandia community members will be visiting the Minnesota State Capital March 16 for what is being called the “Gateway to Scandia Day at the Capitol.” The meeting is set from 10 a.m. to 1
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The Scandia City Council last week granted Tiller Corporation’s Scandia Mine its annual operators permit. City Planner Merritt Clapp-Smith noting in her report to the council that the company had met or exceeded all the conditions of its permit. The mining operation is monitored regularly for environmental compliance with groundwater quality, air quality, truck traffic and signage, fencing and screening, and hours of operation. Approximately 425,000 tons of material was removed from the site in 2019, according to ClappSmith’s report.
Other business: • The council approved the appointments of Dan Squyres, as chair, and Travis Loeffler, as vice chair, of the Scandia Planning Commission.
SEE TRAIL, PAGE 2
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SEE SCANDIA CITY COUNCIL, PAGE 2
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