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FL students win college scholarships through Twitter contest

Forest Lake Area High School students Hailey Moore and Heather Sauve received a $2,500 and $1,000 scholarship, respectively, for competing in a Twitter contest run by the Office of Undergraduate Admissions at Minnesota State University Moorhead on March 22. The contest was open to any incoming student or transfer student that will be attending MSUM in the fall.
Both students had to send a Tweet to @AdmissionsMSUM stating why they want to #BeADragon, including the hashtag. The tweet had to show off some creativity using photos, videos, and anything else that was allowed within the 140-character limit. Four students were selected by a committee of faculty and staff based on the quality of their tweet for a $2,500 scholarship. Two students were selected for a $1,000 scholarship based on who had the most likes and whose tweet had the most retweets.

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Visions of gardens danced in her head

Angie Hong
Guest Columnist
T’was the first week of spring when at many homes, people gazed wistfully at garden gnomes. Leaning askew on muddy brown lawns, the statues elicited nothing but yawns. No flowers, no bluebirds, and nothing was green. Their yards were the ugliest they’d ever seen.broadstreet.zone(48036);
According to the calendar, spring officially began on March 20. Up here in Minnesota, however, the view outside our windows remains unconvincing. The grass is still lifeless and brown. Trees are bare, and gardens look like little more than a tangle of dried stems lying in a heap on the ground. Early spring can sure be ugly.
Even so, there are signs here and there that the world around us is slowly returning to life. A robin hops across the barren lawn. Geese and ducks are returning to local ponds, and two weeks ago, I heard a sandhill crane flying overhead, playing an off-key tune as

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Boehm family helped start Columbus, build Forest Lake

Photos courtesy of Myra Boehm MorelloThe John and Anna Boehm family portrait with the patriarch and matriarch seated in front. Standing in back left to right: George, Wenzel, Joe, John C., Margarette, Frank, Anna, Amanda, Paulina and Katherine.
It was in the late 1940s when Muzzie Boehm set about the task of building a new home on his property, situated just off Anoka County Road 23 and Kettle River Boulevard on what is known as Boehm’s Corner. As Boehm went about the excavation, he uncovered remnants of the foundation where a hotel had once stood.
Old bricks, big iron kettles, white clay pipes and even a 2-cent piece were found. It was a flashback to a time more than a century earlier, when Boehm’s Corner was the centerpiece for a progressive plan to plant a village in what today is the city of Columbus.broadstreet.zone(48036);
It was the vision of two early pioneer developers:

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Board approves final budget cuts; 10.78 full time equivalent teaching positions to be eliminated

A series of difficult cuts came to an end April 6 as the Forest Lake school board approved another round of budget reductions of approximately $1.02 million for the 2017-2018 school year. These most recent cuts, the third in a series of reductions that began Feb. 2, brings the total amount to $2.6 million.
Perhaps the most significant announcement came in the form of 10.78 full time equivalent positions announced to be cut as of the 2017-18 school year. At the elementary level, Forest Lake will lose 5.35 full time equivalent teaching positions at a cost savings of $267,000. Some support staff positions will also be cut for a savings of $39,000. Also at the elementary level, special education funds will be reallocated to the general fund. That move will save $31,000.broadstreet.zone(48036);
At the secondary level, full time equivalent teaching positions will be reduced by 5.35 for a savings of $271,500, and

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