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MEDICINE CHEST: Continues business after owner’s unexpected passing PAGE 3A
Park pickup game At left: White Bear Lake Police Officer Antonio Brown tips a shot by Caleb Anderson on a basketball court at Podvin Park Tuesday, Aug. 16. He and fellow police officers Peter Butte and Isaac Tuma, below, played an impromptu pickup game of basketball with Caleb and his friends NIck Watson, Preston West and John Kirschling, after making a stop at the park while on patrol. While at the park, the police also gave the young players a tour of their vehicles. PAUL DOLS | PRESS PUBLICATIONS
Proposed community ice arena nears goal BY SARA MARIE MOORE VANDALS HEIGHTS EDITOR
GRANT — Community members plan to build an ice arena and community center that would be built and operated at zero cost to taxpayers. A land lease agreement with nonprofit organization Recreational Ice and Neighborhood Center (RINC) was approved by the District 832 School Board Aug. 11. The ice arena, which would occupy 42,500 square feet, is proposed to be sited next to playing fields east of the high school and middle school. “There will be no cost to taxpayers,” said Alex Rogosheske, one of four Mahtomedi residents who came together to propose the idea. The ice arena would be built through private donations. “We don't just envision this to be an ice arena, but also a community center,” Rogosheske said. He and two of the other people involved are lifelong residents of Mahtomedi and grew up playing hockey in the area. “Ever since we have been little kids there has been a need for an ice arena in Mahtomedi,” said Rogosheske, who practiced at an arena in St. Paul when he played hockey for Mahtomedi High School. Rogosheske went on to play college hockey and pro hockey in California for two years, in the ECHL (similar to AA baseball). Rogosheske wants to improve ice time for the next generation of area hockey players. Currently, Mahtomedi players travel as far away as Stillwater and Hudson to practice. “We want to provide a community service,” SEE ICE ARENA, PAGE 8A
Memory-robbing disease can't erase family member's lasting impact BY LOUISE ERNEWEIN CONTRIBUTING WRITER
Bob Taylor can pinpoint the day — even the hour — that it all began. "It was 2 a.m. on July 27. I woke up and she was beating the heck out of me, and I thought she was having a nightmare," he said. "So I woke her up and she just did not make any sense — I couldn't get anything out of her. I thought she was having a stroke because she was confused and I called 911." But it wasn't a stroke. Unknown to the couple, Helen, Bob's wife of more than five decades, had dementia — although it took several weeks to receive that diagnosis. The middle-of-the-night episode was the end of life as they had known it. Helen, hospitalized while doctors tried to determine what was going on, missed her son Jim's wedding held later that same day. She was in the hospital for two more days, before being dis-
charged to a nursing home where she spent the next few months until succumbing to the disease that is the sixth leading cause of death in the United States. Helen never returned home and never got to see the townhome off Otter Lake Road in White Bear Lake she had persuaded Bob to purchase when they realized the maintenance of their home in East Bethel was getting too much. During those last seven months, Bob, 82, visited her daily. He watched, devastated, as his wife turned from a bright, witty, articulate, well-read, politically savvy and loving woman, wife, mother and grandmother into someone who could no longer speak, smile, feed or care for herself. Her three children and seven grandchildren came regularly to see her and witnessed the decline for themselves. "It's just a cruel disease. It's heartless," said Eliza-
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Bob Taylor supported his wife through the unthinkable — dementia.
SEE DEMENTIA, PAGE 8A
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