Exactly two months after the baseball team faced the last pitch of the 2016-17 season, the Forest Lake girls tennis squad took the first swings of the 2017-18 season placing second in a four-team tournament at Centennial on Aug. 19.
River Falls and Maple Grove joined the Rangers and the host, playing each of the others in team matches throughout the day. Individual matches were played to eight games rather than two sets.broadstreet.zone(48036);
The Ranger lineup was, for singles, as follows: No. 1 Kaitlyn Culver, No. 2 Jenna Zowin, No. 3 Noelle Gorka, No. 4 Natalie Runquist. In doubles: No. 1 Avery Jorgenson and Annika Lamppa, No. 2 Carrie Voss and Abbi Evans, No. 3 Biz Valley and Sydney Rydel.
In the first match of the day, the Rangers defeated Centennial 4-3. In singles, Culver lost to QuinBliss 8-3 and Zowin fell to Claire Peloquin 8-4, but these setbacks were cancelled when Jorgenson
Category: The Latest From Forest Lake Times
Audrey J. Hansen
enly and unexpectedly on August 20, 2017.
She was born September 2, 1935 to Marvin and Ruby (Williams) Olson on a farm near Luck, Wisconsin, where she lived until graduating from Milltown High School. Audrey studied secretarial courses at the Minnesota School of Business in Minneapolis. Upon graduation, she was employed in the general offices of the Northern Pacific Railway in downtown St. Paul.
In 1955, she married Eugene Hansen of Luck. Their daughter and first son were born when they lived in Minneapolis and Coon Rapids, respectively. In 1962, Eugene built a home for the family in the country near Forest Lake. There, two more sons were born.
In addition to homemaking, Audrey was active in the women’s group of her church and served for a time in the community as a 4-H leader.
When her children were older, she entered the work force again, doing several temporary office jobs in the North
Forest Lake Baseball Association seeks board members
The Forest Lake Baseball Association has openings on its board and encourages anyone interesting in joining to apply at flbaseball.org. Applications are due Sep. 6. Elections will be held later in the month.
Local MCA scores show little change overall
The results of the Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments were released in early August, revealing that the Forest Lake Area Schools assessment scores for the 2016-17 school year were similar to its 2015-16 scores. However, science scores continue to be a point of pride for the district.
Graphics courtesy of Forest Lake Area Schools
The MCAs are state tests in reading, math, and science that are used to meet federal and state legislative requirements. The tests are administered every year to measure student performance relative to the Minnesota Academic Standards that specify what students in a particular grade should know and be able to do. A full breakdown of individual school scores as well as state averages can be found at rc.education.state.mn.us.broadstreet.zone(48036);
“Overall, MCA results [percentage of students scoring in the “meets standards” and “exceeds standards” ranges] have been flat, especially in reading, at both the state and district levels,” Forest Lake Area School District
Hello darkness, my old friend
Students from Lino Lakes Elementary School struggled through clouds and some rain on the first day of school in an attempt to view the eclipse at the optimal Minnesota viewing time of 1:06 p.m. Aug. 21.
Comfort Lakes Association talks mussels, land
Photo by Amy DoeunComfort Lakes Association members hear from Wyoming Mayor Lisa Iverson and City Administrator Robb Linwood at the CLA’s Aug. 10 meeting, held at Wyoming United Methodist Church.
Amy Doeun
Wyoming Reporter
On Thursday, Aug. 10, the Comfort Lakes Association held its monthly meeting at United Methodist Church in Wyoming. The organization has steadily grown over the years to about 53 members.broadstreet.zone(48036);
“We all want to be really good stewards of the lake,” CLA President Mary Renn told the crowd. “We all realize that the lake is really beneficial to us all.”
But the topic of the day was an unfortunate one: Zebra mussels had been found in Comfort Lake, starting in early July (learn more about the discovery of the mussels in the Aug. 3 story “Zebra mussels found in Comfort Lake or online here). Within a few weeks, five adult mussels had been found in different locations on the lake’s northern
A milestone in conservation
Angie Hong
Guest Columnist
On July 16, 1939, the front page of the St. Paul Sunday Pioneer Press was filled with images of eroding farm fields and crumbling ravines in the St. Croix Valley.broadstreet.zone(48036);
“War has been declared on erosion that has cut into mutilated hillsides of the St. Croix Valley…Under the direction of the Soil Conservation Service, and in cooperation with farm owners, CCC boys will plant trees on these naked and mutilated hill pastures to stop gullies that are wreaking havoc on pasture land…”
The story continued, in similarly dramatic fashion, with descriptions of how the erosion began and what the impacts had been for the Mississippi and St. Croix Rivers. Conservation in Minnesota was front page news.
The tale of the eroding hills and valleys had actually begun more than a decade earlier when farmers began clearing native prairies and woodlands to plant fields of crops. Then, the stock market crashed in
MnDOT won’t fund entire paving overrun
At the Forest Lake City Council’s Aug. 21 work session, City Administrator Aaron Parrish reported that Minnesota Department of Transportation Aeronautics would not be financing all of the remaining cost of a construction overrun on last year’s Daniel DePonti Airport paving project. The project went several hundred thousand dollars over budget while it was being completed, and the project’s engineering firm SEH did not tell the city about the cost overrun until work had been completed.
This spring, SEH, the city, and construction contractor Dresel Engineering struck a deal in which the SEH and the city would pay Dresel $843,000 for its extra work – $74,000 from SEH (10 percent of the cost beyond the project contingency) and the remainder from the city, which would then ask for a reimbursement for its share from MnDOT. MnDOT has financed 90 percent of the project costs up to this point.broadstreet.zone(48036);
However, Parrish told the
Forest Lake school bus involved in crash
A tow truck operator sweeps up debris around the SUV before it can be loaded onto the truck at a crash site on the intersection of Scandia Trail and North Shore Drive in Forest Lake Aug. 22.
Two vehicle collisions occurred at the intersection of North Shore Trail and Scandia Trail in Forest Lake in quick succession around 2:45 p.m. Aug. 22. According to initial reports from law enforcement, the first collision was between a driving school vehicle and a dump truck, resulting in a minor injury to an occupant of the driving school car. The second occurred shortly thereafter, when a westbound SUV rear-ended a school bus carrying Forest Lake Area Schools students. The driver and a passenger from the SUV were transported by ambulance with unknown injuries. An occupant of the driving school car sustained minor injuries. Two students from the school bus also received minor injuries. At this
Supervisors change Linwood Town Hall hours
Amy Doeun
Linwood Reporter
At the Aug. 7 meeting of the Linwood Town Board, the board voted to change the hours of the town hall. The question had come up at the previous meeting. Then, Town Clerk Pam Olson brought up several scheduling conflicts with limited staff in the office. Supervisors Ed Kramer and Bob Millerbernd discussed the possibility of closing the office early on Friday. The topic was sent to the Human Resources Committee supervisors, Carol Searing and Mike Halliday.broadstreet.zone(48036);
Searing and Halliday came to the Aug. 7 meeting with a proposed to schedule.
“We wanted to come up with something that was the most fair,” Halliday said. “We also wanted to have two people in the office at all times like Bob (Millerbernd) suggested.”
The proposed hours are 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 8 a.m. to noon on Friday. Kramer said that he would prefer to see the town