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CENTERVILLE STRONG: ‘Growing city with thriving businesses’ PAGE 2
Area business owner granted birthday wish
Intricate Easter egg decorations
BY SHANNON GRANHOLM MANAGING EDITOR
PAUL DOLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
Shannon Kilmartin uses a candle to melt beeswax, revealing rich, underlying colors, while recently demonstrating the process of decorating Ukrainian Easter Eggs. She and her mother Debi Johnson are continuing to practice the annual tradition that they learned from dear family friends Tamara and Alex Zaluckyj, who had family connections to Ukraine and have since passed away. Kilmartin, at left, displays a couple of her favorite egg designs. Find more photos and information about the traditional process online at presspubs.com.
Population, housing options on the rise in area BY RANDY PAULSON STAFF WRITER
The past decade and change has been a time of growth for central and northern Washington County in terms of population and places for people to live.
Lake Elmo
Nowhere has that growth been more pronounced than in Lake Elmo, which from 2010 to 2020 grew in population from 8,069 people to 11,335. More recently, the city’s population stands at close to 13,000 people, per U.S. Census data. The jump in number of residents — and housing — didn’t take off
in earnest until the middle of the decade, though, according to City Administrator Kristina Handt. “We’ve been adding about 250 to 300 new homes each year since about 2016. Our growth really kicked off in 2015,” Handt said, adding the population spurt is because the city was connected to a regional sewer system at the urging of the Met Council in 2014. The city went from 41 permits for new housing units in 2014 to 142 permits in 2015 and 336 permits in 2016. “I would say we do about 250 new homes on average each year. Sometimes it’s closer to 300. This past year, I think we just barely crossed 200,” Handt said. She noted the growth has been
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Pizza Man owner Farrell Tuohy (right) poses for a photo with his “kidney buddy” Jeff Engler. If everything goes as planned, Engler plans to donate his kidney to Tuohy.
SEE POPULATION RISE, PAGE 7
SEE KIDNEY BUDDIES, PAGE 5
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contained to main spots: along I-94 to the south, and in the city’s downtown or “Old Village” area to the northeast along Lake Elmo Avenue and Stillwater Boulevard. “It’s not our plan to have all of Lake Elmo be developed at these high densities; we still really value the rural areas,” Handt said. Handt noted a shift in the types of new housing in Lake Elmo. Although most of the earlier developments were for singlefamily units (which also is what 82% of the city’s housing stock was as of 2017), newer developments have tended toward townhomes and apartments. According to projections from the
Farrell Tuohy had one wish for his 60th birthday — better health. That might just happen, thanks to White Bear Lake resident Jeff Engler. After a yearlong process, Engler found out he is a match and may be able to donate a kidney to Tuohy. Tuohy’s wife Kim is Engler’s cousin. Tuohy, owner of Pizza Man & Corner Malt Shop in White Bear Lake, has been on dialysis for nearly three years, something he says he can’t do forever. (See “Area business owner patiently waiting for kidney, June 8, 2021.) So far, three people have come forward as potential donors but none of them have been a match. Engler is the first person to make it all the way through the testing phase, although there are still a few things that need to happen in order for the surgery to take place. Last summer, the Englers stopped by Pizza Man’s booth at Marketfest and they started talking about blood types. Later, after realizing his blood type matched Tuohy’s, Engler decided to go through the testing to see if he was a match but he had one condition for Tuohy’s wife, Kim — she couldn’t tell her husband.
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