WEDNESDAY, JULY 8, 2015
Serving Polk County’s St. t Croix C i Valley V ll since i 1897
VOL. 127 NO. 49 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: Zurbriggen named top assistant baseball coach. P10
Bird lands Frederic Osceola reporter pens fiction teen in court BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
A Frederic teen accused of giving his dad’s ex the bird last fall will stand trial July 22 on a charge of disorderly conduct. No police report was filed — typical for a citation — but a version of the event was recorded by the teen’s mother, Kathy Atkins, who filed a complaint with the village last October. Atkins reported that on September 26, Kristi Swanson, Frederic’s village clerk, called Frederic Police Chief Dale Johnson, claiming that Roman Poirier, 17, drove by her house with a friend and extended his middle finger in her direction. Four days later, Johnson visited the school, talking to each of the boys separately about
where they’d been and what happened the afternoon of September 26. For Poirier, the question-and-answer session ended with a $250 ticket for disorderly conduct. At his intake hearing last October, Poirier pleaded not guilty to the charge. According to Atkins, the teen insists he never gave Swanson the finger. In a phone conversation June 24 Atkins also noted that, whether Poirier flipped the bird or not, Wisconsin precedence protects the gesture as free speech. “As long as there’s no other criminal activity surrounding it, it’s not illegal,” she said. The trial, originally set for July 1, was rescheduled to July 22 after Poirier’s family secured pro bono legal counsel shortly before the July 1 appearance.
Mark Peacock is not accustomed to being at the receiving end of an interview. “I’m used to asking all the questions,” says the Osceola freelance writer, w who regularly sees his w words on newsprint. “As far as I know, I’m tthe only freelancer from W Wisconsin published by tthe Pioneer Press,” he ssays. “Everything else iis bought or written by sstaff.” His string of profiles h has shone a spotlight o on people doing notable w work in western Wisc consin. The series began w with a highly skilled SUZANNNE LINDGREN | THE SUN r rare book restorer in Osceola writer Mark Pea- Clear Lake, and Peacock cock recently released a went on to feature an incollection of short fiction, novative farmer in Luck, “Four Break-Time Stories.” Amery’s restored theater and a man crafting Windsor chairs in St. Croix Falls. Recently, he profiled Osceola’s Robyn Foster, who plants and tends the village’s flower displays. “For those stories I just try to find people who are excited about doing something special, who are doing interesting things,” he says. “It’s been a fun series.”
Though he’s still writing for the Press — currently working on a story about homelessness in western Wisconsin — Peacock recently released a collection of four short works of fiction. “Four Break-Time Stories,” is not the writer’s first published fiction — he’s had work published in Minnesota Ink — but it is his first digital release. “I did it on Kindle because that seems to be the way things are going,” he says, noting that shorts were also a practical choice. “I see people at work, reading a book and then they go back to work. So the idea is that you can read the story, have your lunch and get back to work on time.” Peacock, whose professional history includes acting, preaching as a Methodist pastor and a stint as the foreign student advisor at Macalester College, believes his writing has benefitted from his varied background. “I think having a hodge-podge background has served me well,” he says. “I’m fairly good at editing myself. I look at the stories and two of the four have a fair amount of dialog — I’m sure that comes out of my theater background — to help reveal who a character really is. … There’s not a lot of nitty detail and descriptions like a lot of other writers would have.” Peacock has been chipping away at his collection of stories for years. At least one, which features the treacherous driveway to a previous home, was written before he moved to Osceola. But he says fiction has rarely been viable, practically speaking, until now. “We had to eat,” he says. “I’ve been in print for SEE PEACOCK, PAGE 2
Gunslingers come to town Name, signage trigger controversy in SCF BY SAMANTHA FOUNTAIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Sitting shoulder to shoulder, at least 50 residents packed into St. Croix Falls’ small city hall meeting room, all with one common cause: F-Bomb.net. The tactical firearms and accessories dealer recently set up shop in the former Red Brick Grille on Washington St. The building and business are owned by Troy Chamberlin, formerly associated with Chateau St. Croix Winery & Vinyard. “It’s like going to church on Easter,” Loreen Clayton-Morrell joked about the crowded room. Then she became serious. “What do we want our river city to become? Lots of hodgepodge? Do you want your children seeing the
F-Bomb sign? What’s going to happen next, a strip joint? That’s the innuendo. Take down the sign, do something about this.” Clayton-Morrell returned to her seat as the council room erupted with clapping. Al Kruger stepped up to the microphone. “A number of us have been collecting signatures with a petition,” he said. “We finally turned the whole downtown around and this counters everything. We need to eliminate the name.” Again, unanimous applause. After a short digression to express dismay at the disbandment of the Park and Recreation Committee (“It’s a decision we will regret. The town will see a decline of benefits.”), Ann Turner let the council know that she doesn’t unSEE GUN SHOP, PAGE 2
SAMANTHA FOUNTAIN | THE SUN
St. Croix Falls residents packed into the city hall June 29, bringing concerns about the name and signage of new downtown retailer, F-Bomb.net.
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