COUNTRY
WEDNESDAY, MARCH 27, 2019
Serving Marine on St. Croix, Scandia, May Township
VOL. 35 NO. 48 www.countrymessenger.com $.75
TILLER CORP: Annual mining permit received. PAGE 2
Board considers digitizing
Scandia group hosts talk on climate change and resiliency
BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@COUNTRYMESSENGER.COM
CONTRIBUTED FRIENDS OF SCANDIA PARKS AND TRAILS
May Township Clerk Linda Tibbetts was organizing boxes in the town hall basement last November when she found something unexpected: records dating back to the town’s founding. The books were stored somewhat haphazardly, mixed in boxes with various files. No one knew they were there. “When I was going through, there would be files and then a couple minute books,” Tibbetts said. “They go back to the proclamation of the beginning of the township.” Addressing the board March 7, Tibbetts highlighted the importance of the records. “This is the book we didn’t know existed,” she said, book in hand. “This is Sheriff Adam Marty of Washington County, in 1893, doing a swearing in and creating the town right here. That was found somewhere it shouldn’t have been, digging through boxes and such.” With the discovery of the handwritten records, May Town Board members are considering how to preserve them. One option is digitization with a searchable index. An initial quote from
Learn how local watershed districts are adapting to a changing climate and what you can do to build resiliency on your own land. Climate data shows that Minnesota winters have become substantially warmer, especially in northern Minnesota, and heavy rainstorms that can dump 6-10 inches of rain within a 24-hour period of time are becoming more frequent. These changes can have a dramatic impact on our economy and way of life, in addition to impacting wildlife and natural resources. The Friends of Scandia Parks and Trails will host a talk by Angie Hong of the East Metro Water Resource Education Program, “Building Resiliency to Climate Change on your Land and in your Community.” During this presentation, Hong will share some of the actions local watershed districts and state agencies are taking to plan for extreme rainfall events. She will also talk about actions you can take to build resiliency on your own land, including managing woodlands for changing climate stressors and using drought tolerant species for lawns and gardens.
Handwritten records found in May Township
SUZANNE LINDGREN | COUNTRY MESSENGER
May Town Board members look at a bound book of handwritten minutes, found by Clerk Linda Tibbetts in the basement of the town hall. Clockwise from top: Supervisor John Adams, Chair Bill Voedisch and Supervisor John Pazlar.
digital archiving service ArcaSearch estimated the cost of archiving at a one-time $10,000, with an annual fee of $1,800 to host the documents with keyword searchable functionality. “We’re trying to protect the history,” David Frank of ArcaSearch told the town board March 7. “It can also provide access to information that’s there that over time people don’t know where it is and how to get to
it. It’s a catalyst for someone like Linda to help get records here organized, and things will be more searchable and findable for not only her, but anyone on the board now and in the future. If you want you can design it so the public can see certain things.” ArcaSearch’s archiving service includes two sets of backup images, though they are not searchable by text. Board members plan to
discuss potential digitization at the town board’s April 4 meeting. The town also plans to store the books in a fireproof safe, according to Tibbetts, who is still going through each book and counting the number of pages devoted to each year. “The writing is that beautiful cursive, but some of it is hard to read,” she said. “It’s a really good find. There’s some good history there.”
“Building Resiliency to Climate Change on your Land and in your Community” will take place at Prairie Restoration (21120 Ozark Ct., Scandia) Tuesday, April 30, 6-7:30 p.m.
Scandia students make Final Four in reading competition BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@COUNTRYMESSENGER.COM
Besting third grade classes at more than 200 other schools, Scandia Elementary third graders made it to the Final Four in a statewide Read to the Final Four competition. The challenge is now over, and students and teachers are awaiting April 8, when the winner will be announced. The Read to the Final Four program is designed to engage youth in the NCAA Final Four host region, leaving a lasting and positive impact. The 2019 NCAA Men's Basketball Final Four will be held in Minneapolis in April. To compete in the challenge, students read books on personal laptops. A computer program, MyON, tracked
the amount of time they spent reading, awarding points based on a system that took the size of each student body into account. Since the beginning of the school year, Scandia’s 38 third grade students have read for a cumulative 123,600 minutes, completing 8,987 books. Third grade teachers Laura Gerschke and Kelly Duncan praised MyON and the Read to the Final Four program. “It’s been valuable,” said Duncan. “I’ve seen some of my lowest readers get excited about reading, which has been really fun. Because MyON has a way to read to them, all my readers can be successful reading and understanding the books. So to see some of my lowest SEE FINAL FOUR, PAGE 2
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SUZANNE LINDGREN | COUNTRY MESSENGER
Students in Laura Gerschke’s third grade class at Scandia Elementary School read and listen to books on laptops. The Read to the Final Four competition is over, but Scandia students won’t find out whether they won until the winning school is announced April 8.
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