Country Messenger 09.23.2020

Page 1

COUNTRY

WEDNESDAY, SEPTEMBER 23, 2020

Serving Marine on St. Croix, Scandia, May Township

VOL. 37 NO. 21 www.countrymessenger.com $.75

NEWS : Scandia native named Mrs. North Dakota. PAGE 2

Franconia Commons to make its debut Saturday BY JASON SCHULTE EDITOR@COUNTRYMESSENGER.COM

SPICY MEATBALL PHOTOGRAPHY

The children who wrote stories about the Internet. Pictured from left to right: Bodie and Sofi Anderson, Rhett Langreck, Ella Arcand, Greta Langreck, Addy Van Abel, Derek Kaiser, Henry Nittl and Diesel Lundeen. Mayor Christine Maefsky is in the back.

Internet comes to Scandia CONTRIBUTED

Midco threw a big celebration for Scandia on Wednesday, Sept. 16, to celebrate the build out of a million-dollar Internet expansion project. The project was government/private business collabora-

tion between Scandia, Midco and Minnesota DEED. “It’s exciting to focus on local neighbors who don’t have broadband and bringing it to them,” said Justin Forde, Senior Director of Government Relations for Midco. Forde said those words during

a ribbon cutting ceremony at Scandia’s Hay Lake Park Shelter. Scandia Mayor Christine Maefsky also spoke and stressed the importance of high-speed Internet to the long-term success of Scandia and SEE INTERNET, PAGE 2

Those associated with Franconia Sculpture Park have had Saturday circled on their calendars for a long time. Sure, it’s the 24th annual Art and Artists celebration, but the headline event is the Grand Opening of the Franconia Commons – an event five years in the making. The event starts at 3 p.m., with socially distanced speeches and a ribbon cutting ceremony at the front entrance of the Commons. RSVP tours of the Commons will be held the first hour and then it will be open to the public from 4-8 p.m. “We are going to have a permanent space for the community,” said Ginger Shulick Porcella, Franconia’s Executive Director and Chief Curator. “We’ve never had an indoor gallery space before.” And, they are going to take full advantage of it. During the celebration, “New Domestics,” an exhibition will make its initial showing. The exhibition explores themes of domesticity in contemporary art. Artists from around the globe will be featured. “New Domestics” is scheduled to run through Dec. 31. The 7,000-square-foot building also includes a visitor center, café and patio, event rental space, public restrooms and a gift shop, which has been a popular request in past years, Porcella noted. “Art and community are going to come SEE FRANCONIA, PAGE 2

Council approves stormwater fix BY KYLE WEAVER CONTRIBUTING WRITER

Help is on the way, but not until next year. The Scandia City Council last week approved a temporary drainage project that will help address flooding in a number of homes in the Bliss neighborhood west of Big Marine Lake. The project, which is estimated to cost around

$47,000, will not be completed this season. Instead the work will be added to the city’s 2021 road improvements project. City Engineer Ryan Goodman, who called the project an “extreme temporary fix,” said the city would be hardpressed to complete the project yet this spring. Even if the city could find a contractor willing to do the work, allow-

ing the necessary time for design and getting quotes would put the construction into late October. “We’re getting close to freeze-up time,” Goodman said. Goodman said rolling the project into next year’s road work would both put it on a more feasible timeline and help lower costs. During the city’s public hearing over Zoom,

at least one unidentified resident noted his disapproval of the timeline, blurting out an expletive to do so. For his part, Brad Bergo, the Bliss resident whose complaints about flooding at his home over the past few years led to the city admitting fault for part of the problem, was grateful for the city’s attention. SUBMITTED

SEE COUNCIL, PAGE 2

The Franconia Art and Artists celebration is Saturday.

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