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WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 24, 2024 VOL. 129 NO. 15 www.whitebearpress.com $1.00
WHITE BEAR LAKE CONSERVATION DISTRICT: Ice in again PAGE 2
Two neighborhood streets to undergo summer remodel BY MADELINE DOLBY STAFF WRITER
CONTRIBUTED
Local band Freedom Train held a reunion after 53 years. The band started in 1969 and ended in 1971. Pictured in the front row from left are Joel Carlson and Louie Tuccitto. (From left in back) Myke Golben, Robin Cantor, Mark Larsen, Mark Heille, Donnie Frank and Dave Metz.
Local band reunites after 53 years BY NOELLE OLSON EDITOR
While babysitting his granddaughter, Louie Tuccito was showing her an old directory of North St. Paul High School. It sparked him to look up his old band members. “Our band was called Freedom Train and we were around from
1969 to 1971,” Tuccito, of Vadnais Heights said. “I was curious, and I missed them.” The band included Tuccitto, drums; Donnie Frank, guitar and vocals; Joel Carlson, keyboard; Mark Heille, bass and vocals; Mark Larsen, trumpet; Myke Golben, saxophone and keyboard; Robin Cantor, trumpet and trombone; and Dave Metz,
guitar and vocals. Frank went to Cretin High School, Heille to Mounds View High School and the others went to North St. Paul High School. Tuccitto was on a mission to reunite the band for a get together. He did some digging and made some calls. He reconnected SEE FREEDOM TRAIN, PAGE 7
White Bear Alumna makes way to the stars BY NOELLE OLSON EDITOR
CONTRIBUTED
Heidi Dierssen, class of 1985 Valedictorian at White Bear Lake High School.
SEE WHITE BEAR ALUMNA, PAGE 14
SEE SUMMER REMODEL, PAGE 8
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Heidi Dierssen may not be an astronaut, but she is the project manager for SpaceX Falcon 9 Block 5 launch scheduled for Feb. 6. According to Dierssen, a professor of Marine Sciences at the University of Connecticut (UConn), PACE (Plankton, Aerosol, Cloud, ocean Ecosystem) is a NASA Earth observation satellite mission. It will make global ocean color measurements to provide extended data records on ocean ecology and global biogeochemistry — carbon cycle — along with polarimetry measurements to provide extended data records on clouds and aerosols. “The ocean, scatters light back out a bit so you can see the color and the greener the ocean is, the more plant life there is,” Dierssen said. “The
bluer, the brown or the more sediment or milk chocolatey kind of thing we see is reflected light from the sun that's actually gone through the atmosphere and then enters the very surface of the ocean and scatters back.” There are approximately 100 people on Dierssen's science team. “What they do is they say the ocean is going to look like this from space and then what can we say about
Residents who live on Parkview Court and on Mallard Ponds Drive can expect new neighborhood roads this summer. The White Bear Township Board adopted two resolutions that would allow improvements to be made to the pavement and curbs in both neighborhoods. Due to the poor pavement rating on both streets, the planning commission recommended reconstruction of the streets, curbs and gutter replacements as well as minor unitality repairs. Planning Commission staff rate the quality of the pavement on a scale of five. Parkview Court received a rating of 1.53 and Mallard Ponds Drive received a rating of 1.17. Parkview Court Originally, Parkview Court was originally constructed in 1996. It is located right off of Portland Avenue, on the east side of the township. “If the board might recall, maybe three, four, years ago,” said Larry Poppler, White Bear Township town engineer, “we looked at a mill and overlay for this street and based on the study at that time, the roadway condition, mainly the curb and gutter, were so far deteriorated that mill and overlay didn’t make sense.” A feasibility study was done on the street at that time as well. The study looks at the costs of making improvements, funding assessments and schedule. A questionnaire was set out to the
public asking what improvements they would like to see on the street. “The joints for the curb are deteriorating at about eighty percent of the area,” Poppler said. “Street lighting was brought up as part of the questionnaires and the neighborhood meetings, so that’s going to be reviewed with this project if it moves forward.” Construction would begin in the summer of 2024 and be completed in the fall. Residents on Parkview Court should expect large equipment, uneven surfaces and temporary traffic chances, dust, noise and mud as well as impacts to yards, driveways, irrigation and private utilities. There will be an open house on the project in March to look at the plans. Bidding on the project would occur in April and May. Construction would begin in the summer of 2024 and end in the fall of 2024. If the project moves forward, a project newsletter will be sent out to residents living on or near Parkview Court that contains contact, information and other resources for the project. Mallard Ponds Drive The board adopted a second resolution that will allow similar improvements to be made to the pavement on Mallard Ponds Dr. The road was originally constructed between 1992-1999. Similar to Parkview Dr., Mallard Ponds Dr. received a rating of one-point-oneseven out of five. There would also be
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