Serving Polk County’s St. t Croix C i Valley V ll since i 1897
WEDNESDAY, DECEMBER 26, 2018 VOL. 121 NO. 22 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: Cooper signs letter of intent with U of M. PAGE 11
Man’s life saved after fiery explosion Responders honor courageous citizen BY BRITTANY SHERMACH CONTRIBUTING WRITER
August 11, 8:30 p.m. Cody Austin was in his boat when he heard the explosion. He and Glen Kobs had been planning a brush fire for the evening, nothing out of the ordinary. From 75 feet away he saw Kobs engulfed in flames that reached far over his head. The fire was so large that the explosion could be seen across the lake, despite the 100-foot pine trees circling the property. Austin left his boat
and ran towards Kobs, yelling for him to stop, drop and roll. After reaching Kobs, he tried patting out the fire that still covered his arms. Kobs laid on the ground, moaning in pain. “He was ready to give up,” Austin recalls. “I wasn’t going to let that happen.” Dec. 16, the Osceola Ambulance Service recognized Austin for his action that day. Ambulance members awarded Austin with a plaque reading, “On behalf of the Osceola Ambulance Service we would like to recognize Cody Austin SEE HONORED, PAGE 12
BRITTANY SHERMACH |THE SUN
Cody Austin and Glen Kobs with Osceola area first responders. Austin was recognized in a Dec. 16 ceremony for his courage in saving Kobs from fire. From left: Jeremy Porter, Cody Austin, Glen Kobs, Matt Kramer and Mariah Zegarski.
Game offers first-person perspective of St. Croix River history BY GREG SEITZ REPRINTED FROM ST. CROIX 360
I stand on the banks of the St. Croix River and watch it flow past, listen to the birds singing o overhead. The water i clear and sounds is l like a whisper. On the other side, s something glows g golden, and I walk i into the water and p past an island, Beck coming up to a birch bark canoe. The glowing object is a basket of wild rice, and I pick it up. An Ojibwe woman’s voice fills the air, talking about old ways of living off the land that had been disrupted by the arrival of rifles, alcohol and companies with an unquenchable thirst for beaver furs. Decades later, I stand in the
same spot and watch lumber and paddleboats compete for space on the St. Croix. The bluffs have been stripped naked, the water is filled with white pine floating down to the mills. Big flat-bottomed craft carry immigrants, provisions, newspapers and the mail upstream to what was recently the far-flung frontier of America. Leaping through time, a new video game immerses players in a small slice of the St. Croix over a significant span of 200 years. Players wander a section of braided river channels, bluffs, and a cabin perched overlooking the river among a stand of huge white pine. Titled “Tombeaux,” the game was developed by Dave Beck, a professor at the University of Wisconsin-Stout. Its objective is not to score points, or set speed records, or blow up bad guys, but
Gandy back in sights for motorized use
simply to witness a couple centuries of stories. Born on the banks Beck first began work on the game while an artist-in-residence at the historic Pine Needles cabin on the river in Marine on St. Croix. (All proceeds from the $4.99 game are being donated to the St. Croix Watershed Research Station, which runs the artist residency.) The game was released this fall after four years of development. It was first available to play at The Phipps Center for the Arts in Hudson during the Heart of the River art show. It is now available to purchase and download on game platform Steam. At a wandering pace, it takes about a 30 minutes to cover the two centuries of story. “’Tombeaux’ encourages the
A pitch for year-round ATV and UTV traffic on the Gandy Dancer is before the county board again under a resolution sponsored by Supervisor Chris Nelson (Balsam Lake). The trail plan currently allows snowmobiling and winter ATV use in addition to hiking and biking. “[T]here is interest within the recreational community to expand uses on the Polk County segment to allow for all-season ATV and UTV usage,” the resolution reads. The document calls for revising the county’s plan for the trail “with consideration of expanding ATV winter use to all-season ATV and UTV use.” As with past proposals to allow motors on the Gandy Dancer, the idea proved contentious. ATV and silent sports enthusiasts took sides, each camp offering reasons for board members to support or oppose
SEE GAME, PAGE 13
SEE GANDY, PAGE 2 0
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