Special Section Inside! Saturday, November 9, 2019
Community approves Pleasantview referendum Ballot tallies 3,054 yes votes BY ANNA HINKEMEYER STAFF WRITER
SAUK RAPIDS – Pleasantview Elementary School will be replaced with a new building on its current site after voters approved a $37.1 million bond referendum Nov. 5. All six district precincts, along with absentee ballots, totaled 4,276 votes. The community supported the referendum with 3,054 yes votes over the 1,222 no votes. “I am excited for a number of reasons,” said Aaron Sinclair, superintendent of the district. “I am excited for the students and staff at Pleasantview because in a few years, they will be walking into a brand-new building, which has been a long time coming. I am also excited for the district because now that Pleasantview will be replaced, we can accomplish so many things at our other buildings.” The proposed building will be 107,595 square feet with a capacity for 797 students. The current building educates 750 students in 85,229 square feet. Pleasantview Elementary has been a concern for the district for a number of
Same Local Coverage Since 1854. Vol. 165, No. 31
11 2nd Ave. N., Unit 103, Sauk Rapids, Benton County, MN 56379
Nemeth cousins harvest big bucks in youth hunt BY NATASHA BARBER STAFF WRITER
RICE – When the Nemeth family takes to the stands opening morning of Minnesota’s deer hunting firearms season, they will rest assured they already have meat in the freezer. And, a few new decorations on the way for their walls. Cousins Ari and Shelby Nemeth bagged monster bucks Oct. 19 when they participated in Minnesota’s first statewide youth deer hunt on land northeast of Rice. The two took advantage of the early season, which was available to ages 10-17. PHOTO BY NATASHA BARBER The 2019 Minnesota Ari Nemeth (left) and Shelby Nemeth stand with their Savage .243 bolt action rifles Nov. 2 in Rice. The cousins Statewide Youth Deer Season each harvested bucks in Minnesota’s first statewide youth deer season Oct. 19.
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Lest we forget Art club sells poppies as remembrance of sacrifices made BY ANNA HINKEMEYER STAFF WRITER
SAUK RAPIDS – Red flowers sit on a rack awaiting to be chosen, but these flowers do not sit in soil needing water. Rather, these flowers have been fired, molded and decorated with veterans in mind. Twelve students in the Sauk Rapids-Rice High School art club have spent the last six weeks constructing ceramic red poppies for the biennial poppy project.
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PHOTO BY ANNA HINKEMEYER
Shelly Chambers holds three ceramic poppies in her classroom Nov. 5 at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School in Sauk Rapids. Chambers is the art club advisor, which has completed its third poppy service project.
OBITUARIES • Clara Mae Hyslop
PUBLIC NOTICES
• City of Sauk Rapids Reg. Meeting Minutes, Oct. 15, 2019 pg. 11 • Benton County Notice of Public Hearing - pg. 11 • Benton County Reg. Meeting Minutes, Oct. 15, 2019 - pg. 11 • Sauk Rapids Rice School District Revenues and Expenditures pg. 4
“This is a way to honor the servicemen and women for their sacrifices while simultaneously allowing the students to be creative,” said Shelly Chambers, art teacher and art club advisor. “The students enjoy this project.” The art club has put 120 hours of after-school work hours into the poppies to have them ready prior to Veterans Day. Chambers started the project in 2015 during her first year of teaching at Sauk Rapids-Rice High School. She did a similar project with an art teacher at her previous position in South Carolina. The project was inspired by the poem “In Flanders Field” by Lieutenant Colonel John McCrae, as well as the artist Paul Cummins’s installment of “Blood Swept Lands and Seas of Red” at the Tower of London, where 888,246 red poppies commemorated World War I veterans. “People associate the poppy
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• City of Sauk Rapids Notice of Public Hearing on Special Assessments - pg. 13 • Summons - Revocable Trust Agreement - pg. 7 • Notice of Creditors and Claimants - pg. 11 • Mortgage Foreclosure - Knutson - pg. 7