WEDNESDAY, MAY 24, 2017
Serving Polk County’s St. Croix Valley since 1897
VOL. 119 NO. 43 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: Osceola boys track team wins conference meet. PAGE 12
Prosperous pub turns 100 BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
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Memorial Day observance
The Dresser and St. Croix Falls Area Veterans Of Foreign Wars Post #4186, and the Auxiliary will hold a Memorial Day Service to honor all veterans of the community who have given their lives for our country. It will be at the Dresser VFW Post, May 29 at 9:15 a.m. FFI: (715) 755-3292.
Little fanfare was made, it seems, when Prosper Young opened his Osceola saloon in 1917. But a century later, having outlasted Prohibition, the Great Depression and the Great Recession, the door at 109 North Cascade Street still opens to a bustling bar. And PY’s initials are still emblazoned on the sign hanging above it. Young, born in 1890, would have been about 27 when he opened the tavern. He proved himself a shrewd businessman and was eventually instrumental in making the bridge across the St. Croix River passable even when the river swelled. As was written in the Oct. 21, 1943, edition of the Osceola Sun, “Through the generosity of Prosper Young, Osceola businessman for the past quarter century, the tortuous road that links the village with the west side will be straightened and made passable the year round. Across the St. Croix River, beyond the bridge, there is a fill and a rickety, old timber bridge that, when the spring thaws come, always inundates often to the depth of several feet.” Because the waterway was a state boundary, neither Minnesota nor Wisconsin could be convinced
SUZANNE LINDGREN | THE SUN
Steve Johnson, current owner of PY’s Saloon & Grill, has stewarded Prosper Young’s tavern into the 21st Century.
SEE PY’S, PAGE 2
Award will help launch Chieftain Outpost BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
SADIE WOLLER | THE SUN
Osceola High School graduation
Whitley Olson and Joe Swanson share a few last laughs before Osceola’s graduation ceremony last Friday evening.
A student-led retail shop is in the works at Osceola High School. If all goes as planned, the Chieftain Outpost will bring school spirit merchandise to fans while offering first hand entrepreneurial experience to business students. Although the idea to open a store in the high school isn’t entirely new, start-up funds from First National Community Bank set this effort apart from a previous attempt. As students in Amy Krenz’s entrepreneurship class sketched out plans for the shop earlier this year, they knew they’d need start-up funding. “Chieftain Outpost will need a
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large amount of funding to successfully start,” they wrote in the business plan they eventually pitched to First National. “This was the roadblock for the previous school store attempt at OHS. Funding is needed for fixtures, (point of sale) equipment, technology, display/organization, accessories, time and inventory.” Krenz, who taught previously in Ellsworth and is new to Osceola this year, brought experience in making a school store successful. “We built (the Ellsworth school store) up immensely,” she explained. “It became the go-to place for Panther sportswear. It was a lot of sweat and hard work with my
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