WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2015
Serving Polk County’s St. t Croix C i Valley V ll since i 1897
VOL. 118 NO. 11 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: Osceola football at top of MCB standings. PAGE 14
Osceola history book could help fund library’s future BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
Osceola resident Richard Hoverman hopes his mission to compile a collection of stories about Osceola’s history, sourced from residents, will help connect the village’s past to the present, and help change the future. With a planned title of “The Story of Us,” the book will include noteworthy facts, photos and interviews with people from Osceola. A hall-of-fame basketball coach and dog that rides the train are already on the list. Hoverman, who was born and raised in Osceola, is hoping community members will submit ideas for more stories. “I want the community to be involved and have input on what they want to see in the book,” he said. Hoverman hopes to publish the book this spring. Proceeds will go to the planned hybrid library and municipal office building, the Mill
Pond Discovery Center. The idea evolved from Hoverman’s sense that noteworthy elements of the village’s past were known but dispersed and difficult to access. “If you talk to people from my generation and younger and ask them about Osceola,” said Hoverman, 23, “people
say we have a waterfall and it kind of ends there. They don’t really know the history of how the town came to be or different things that have happened here.” Hoverman has worked at the library’s service desk and the train depot since this summer. He’s enthusi-
astic about the idea of the Discovery Center, especially the Fabrication Laboratory, or Fab Lab, an MIT-standard facility housing equipment for making a wide array of objects, both high and low tech. “The fact that we’d have a Fabrication Lab attached to the library is cool,” he said. “We’d be the first ones to have it in a public library.” Hoverman has been working on the book for a couple months, and shared the idea with library staff, friends and family about a month ago, many of whom have offered to help. Hoverman has long imagined making some type of snapshot or time capsule for Osceola. “I don’t think we’ve ever had one,” he said. “It would show the history and connect the community. Growing up here, there’s no class on the town or its history, and nobody really telling you about it.” To submit a story idea or photo, email Hoverman at osceolasubmissions@gmail.com.
Gaglio, Salewski advance to State tennis tournament BY RON JASPERSON SPORTS WRITER
The Osceola Chieftain tennis team has had a very good 2015 season, and it isn’t done yet. Mariah Gaglio and Ann Salewski, the Chieftain No.1 doubles team, have qualified to compete in the individual portion of the State tournament. This is the first time that Osceola has had an entry at State since 2007. Gaglio and Salewski earned the trip to State in a nail-biter at the Lakeland Sectional when they defeated Chelsea Rausch and Shantel Faude of Medford in three exciting sets. The Chieftain duo won the first set in the best-of-three format by a score of 7-5. Medford evened the match with a 6-3 win in the second set. The third set went into overtime with the Chieftains pulling out the win 7-6 (7-4). “They (Gaglio and Salewski) played a hard 2 hour and 50 minute match in the first round (at Sectionals) to earn the trip to State and then SEE TENNIS, PAGE 28
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St. Croix Valley author uncovers hidden history BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
Between the high bluffs of historical fact and modern fiction sits “Eureka Valley – Grandfathers’ Grandfathers,” a novel true iin its telling o of settler h history in tthe St. Croix V Valley. The ttale’s historiical characDoerr ters are men who settled in Scandia and Cushing, their stories fleshed out through research by author Lisa Doerr. A journalist by training, Doerr’s curiosity was initially piqued by
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Dollar General supports teen reading with grant BY MELISSA BUTLER CONTRIBUTING WRITER
There’s a new store in town, but Dollar General has been investing in local communities since before breaking ground in Osceola. The nationwide small box discount retailer recently opened the doors
“We were super fortunate in St. Croix Falls to win such a great collection of books.” Cole Zrostlik St. Croix Falls Youth Librarian
Mariah Gaglio and Ann Salewski qualified for the State tennis tournament at No. 1 doubles. This is the first time Osceola has had an entry at State in tennis since 2007.
her husband’s family tree. “My husband’s greatgreat grandfather was a Swedish settler in Scandia in the 1850s,” she said. “They called him Wood John because he cut down most of the trees in Scandia, particularly hardwood to use for firewood.” Once felled, Scandia’s trees made their way through Stillwater and on to St. Paul, where they stoked wood stoves. “He cleared Scandia Township,” continued Doerr, “then started ripping stumps out. Cutting the trees down was the easy part, imagine these
to its newly constructed store just off Route 35 at 240th Street near Dresser, joining over 120 other Dollar General stores in the state. The Tennessee-based company also runs a literacy foundation, established in 1993, that has awarded over $100 million dollars in grants to SUBSCRIPTIONS 715-294-2314 office@osceolasun.com
nonprofit organizations and schools. In the spring of 2015, the St. Croix Falls Library received one of the foundation’s grants, which let the library buy a selection of books for Teen Read Week, an annual event sponsored by the American Library Association since 1998. The program, held every October beginning on Columbus Day, advocates literacy by encouraging teens in grades 6-12 to read and visit their library regularly. The list of 24 books is curated by teens across the country, who nominate titles released the previous year. “Teens’ Top Ten” winners are named after a voting period that runs from mid August until the conclusion of Teen Read Week in late October. St. Croix Falls Youth Services librarian Cole Zrostlik was one of sixty Teen Read Week book winners for 2015, and the only library in Wisconsin to receive the Dollar General Literacy FounSEE GRANT, PAGE 12
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