WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 12, 2015
Serving Polk County’s St. t Croix C i Valley V ll since i 1897
VOL. 118 NO. 02 www.osceolasun.com $1.00
SPORTS: Osceola wins Gopher State baseball league championship. PAGE 11
Changes to Wheels & Wings include admission SUBMITTED
Lily Springs Farm will cosponsor this year’s Wild Springs Festival, an annual fundraiser for the Minneapolis-based nonprofit Eat for Equity.
Festival brings cultural ‘crossfertilization’ to Osceola farm BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
Recess games, paddleboards, late night pizza and morning yoga: a shortlist of things to do at the upcoming Wild Springs Festival, a celebration of local food, music and mutual support at Osceola’s Lily Springs Farm. The festival is a fundraiser for Eat for Equity, a Minneapolis-based organization that cooks meals for friends and strangers to raise money for grassroots change. At each dinner, guests pay what they can for food and hospitality, knowing that the evening’s takings will be donat-
ed to a local group — different each feast — working to address inequities. The organization’s Minneapolis branch has given to the Land Stewardship Project, Cycles for Change and Gardening Matters, to name a few. Although the festival is in its third year and has been held at Lily Springs until now, this is the first year the farm will co-produce the event. Molly Sonsteng, who manages the farm’s online presence, has helped coordinate events. “We’re trying to have a lot of surprises at the festival to bring community together,” she said. “We’re working with an orga-
OSHA fines Kapco citing safety violations
nization called Grown-Up Club that will have recess games. We’ll have paddleboards available to use in the lake, and little surprises in the woods that I want to keep secret. Also, we’ll have farm tours showing what we’re doing out there, led by people from Lily Springs.” Regeneration has been stirring at the 100-acre farm for the last few years and it’s now ready for show, said Nina Utne, who owns the property. “We wanted to co-sponsor this year to open the farm up,” she said. “It’s an opportunity to show SEE FESTIVAL, PAGE 15
BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
After investigating an injury at Kapco, Inc.’s metal stamping plant in Osceola, the U.S. Department of Labor Occupational Safety and Health Administration [OSHA] found the Grafton-based company had failed to implement safety procedures at the plant and issued fines of more than $207,000. On Feb. 5, 2015, a 19-year-old worker amputated part of her finger on a spot welding machine. The injury came a year after a similar one on the same type of machine, according to a news release from OSHA. Touring the plant, Health Administration inspectors found that employees were required to weld thou-
Susan Stepka, the new director of Dresser’s public library, has a hard time putting her finger on the exact moment she knew she wanted to be a librarian. She’s always loved reading and, growing up on a hobby farm near Marine on St. Croix, spent a lot of time at the local library. In
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SEE CHANGES, PAGE 17
History nuts take note: Dresser’s new librarian joins ranks
BY SUZANNE LINDGREN EDITOR@OSCEOLASUN.COM
SEE KAPCO, PAGE 20
In its first year as an official nonprofit organization, Wheels and Wings has had to deal with a very hot topic: charging admission. “We know this isn’t going to be popular with some people,” said Bob Wolf, president of the new nonprofit. “But then again, we’ve heard others say they are very surprised that we don’t. Either way, we’ve had some very spirited discussions.” Admission ($10 at the door, $8 in advance, free for kids), along with sponsorships and vendor fees, will go toward paying for the event. All proceeds after that will go back into the community. “We set out to ensure that admission will be as modest as possible. We also are determined to give all proceeds back to the community,” he said, adding that this will be done through the Osceola Lions Club and Osceola Chamber of Commerce, and through ticket sales commission and involvement by area organizations such as the Boy Scouts and churches. Wheels and Wings is 35 years old this year. As an official nonprofit, it’s celebrating its first birthday. It was only last year that all of the major players in this event joined together to create Wheels and Wings, Inc. This 501(c)(3) corporation has a board of directors made up of representatives from the Chamber, Lions Club, Osceola Airport Commission and Osceola Village Board. “One of the very first things we did was create a mission and goals. And as community groups, it was easy for us to choose to continue an event that attracts visitors to Osceola, raises awareness of aviation and automobiles, and raises funds for the community,” Wolf said. As the largest non-military air show in the Twin Cities metro area, with a 600- to 800-vehicle classic car show to boot, Wheels and Wings was drawing thousands of people to the L. O. Simenstad Municipal
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Susan Stepka
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high school, she worked there. “I shelved books, so I didn’t interact with people a lot,” she said, “but just being around the books and magazines, realizing that we got to see them first, made me think about it.” Though she recalls the librarians of her youth as kind, helpful and interested in what she and others were reading, it wasn’t until her last year as an SUBSCRIPTIONS 715-294-2314 office@osceolasun.com
undergraduate at the University of Minnesota–Morris, that she seriously considered pursuing an education in library science. History, a passion of Stepka’s, served as a conduit. “The Minnesota Historical Society in 1970s had established a network of history centers,” she said. “I really liked working in an SEE STEPKA, PAGE 17
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