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Wednesday, February 1, 2023
Number 05 • Volume 134
Permit data shows Avon set new home value record
ATKINSON TO TALK ABOUT SPACE MISSIONS BOOK AT MELROSE LIBRARY
Melrose researching policing options ... pg. 3 Hiltner happy to carry on legacy ... pg. 7 ‘A Team’ has first baby boy in 2017 ... pg. 16 Gymnasts scoring with the best ... pg. 10
Construction report recaps 2022 building project totals
pg. 6
BY TIM HENNAGIR STAFF WRITER
Avon set a record last year with permitted value of new homes, a city report states. Information in a report from zoning administrator Amy Pease was reviewed during the Jan. 9 rescheduled monthly council meeting. Twelve new homes accounted for $4.48 million in new value, the highest total since 2005, the first year the city began tracking that data point. The total value of all permitted building projects in the city of Avon was $6.86 million, Pease said. That $6.86 million included new homes, one commercial/industrial permit and 98 other permits.
Donation
COMMUNITY COVERAGE 127 YEARS
400 Block update
PHOTO SUBMITTED
St. John’s-St. Andrew’s Catholic School fourth grader Morgan Hellickson holds a mixing bowl and her sixth grade older brother, Ethan, holds his chicken, Road Runner, and two dozen eggs Jan. 26 in their rural Padua home. Ethan is donating two dozen farm fresh eggs once a month for one year, and Morgan is offering a once a month dessert for one year on the school’s live auction Feb. 4 at the Greenwald Pub in Greenwald.
duo
to share their eggs and desserts with winning tion by myself.” Hellickson siblings excited cited bidders from the St. John’s-St. Andrew’s Catholic He is in his first year raising chickens. School-Greenwald online auction Saturday, Feb. is also Morgan’s first year donating her Avon council page 4 to contribute eggs, desserts 4, at the Greenwald Pub in Greenwald. Also on the ownThis homemade item. Sitting around an auction-doAs the sun was starting to rise Monday, Commercial online and live auction are many other homemade nated child’s picnic table at the school Jan. 26, with to from SJ’s-SA’s Contractors Company workers Melrose Feb. were in-4 auction and donated items, including class projects and a a box of her homemade, decorated heart-shaped
side the Lisa’s On Main building working on securing BY CAROL MOORMAN the west wall. PHOTO BY CAROL MOORMAN
Kwik Trip purchases Melrose property
Hopes to open 24-hour business by December BY CAROL MOORMAN STAFF WRITER
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STAFF WRITER
than and Morgan Hellickson are the donation duo. Ethan, 12, loves raising chickens and eating the by-products – eggs – especially on an English muffin for breakfast and in Grandma Sandy’s potato salad. Morgan, 10, has a passion for baking, and she loves eating refrigerated cookie dough – if her three brothers, Ethan, Aaron and Ryan, don’t beat her to it. The two siblings and children of Steve and Katie (Lieser) Hellickson of rural Padua are ex-
$10,000 voucher for drainage tile installation from an area business. Ethan, a SJ’s-SA’s sixth grader, is donating two dozen farm fresh eggs once a month for one year, and Morgan, a fourth grader, is offering a once a month dessert for one year. The winning bidders will be able to take home the eggs and dessert – valentine cookies and caramel bars – the night of the auction. “Sometimes we have extra eggs, and I wanted to help out the school,” said Ethan, when asked why he chose to donate to the auction. “I’ve helped make school projects for the auction and last year helped my mom set up the auction after school. This is his first year donating something to the auc-
sugar cookies in front of her, Morgan said her mom encouraged her to do so. Morgan was wearing an apron and chef’s hat, one of two sets gifted to her on her birthday by Grandma Sandy Hellickson, who farms in rural Padua with husband David, a dairy farmer, with a sweet tooth. Their other grandparents are Don and Irene Lieser of rural Meire Grove. Morgan’s baking mentor is Grandma Sandy. “My grandma is a really good cook,” Morgan said. “I started helping my grandma make stuff at her house two years ago, and now I’m doing it myself.”
Hellickson page 3
CTE conundrum
MAHS trade classes Kwik Trip, Inc., has purchased the former U.S. prepare students for careers Bank/Melrose State Bank property in Melrose. Melrose City Planner Sheila Hellermann informed council members about this during their Jan. 19 meeting at the Melrose City Center. She said plans call for demolition of the current bank building in March or April, with construction of a new facility to start in July and a December completion date and opening. Kwik Trip is proposing to build a 9,200-squarefoot full-service, 24-hour store, with 10 gas pumps on the east side, and a twolane diesel fuel area on the south side. There is no car wash planned for the Melrose site.
Kwik Trip page 3
BY CAROL MOORMAN | STAFF WRITER
Editor’s note: The Star Post will feature each of the three components of the Feb. 14 $34,805,000 bond referendum in the Jan. 18, 25 and Feb. 1 issues – Restore and Rebuild Our Aging Community Spaces $18,435,000, Provide Safety and ADA Accessibility for All $4,305,000 and Invest in Career and Technical Education Classrooms $8,185,000. Other project pricing includes site improvements $2,175,000 and interest and issuance costs $1,705,000. Metals students welded Jan. 26 in the Melrose Area High School metals shop/lab built in 1969. While equipment upgrades have been made, some of the equipment is close to 50 years old and the shop is not in compliance with the Americans With Disabilities Act. Teacher Mike Swartz estimates between 90-120 different Melrose Area High School students come through at least one of his Career and Technical Education manufacturing and transportation trades classes during one school year. During the 4.5 years Swartz has been at MAHS, he has taught Introduction to Metals, Metals 1, Metals 2, Metals 3, Metals Independent Studies, Automotive Maintenance, Automotive Maintenance 2, Computer Aided Drafting, Robotics (formally Mechatronics), House Wiring 1, House Wiring 2, Home Improvement, Small Engines 1, Small Engines 2 and Basic Auto Body.
Melrose referendum page 4
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PHOTO BY CAROL MOORMAN
Zach Coenen cuts pipe in the metals shop Jan. 26 at Melrose Area High School in Melrose, while other students work on welding projects. Welding is one of the many Career and Technical Education trade classes taught at the school.
PUBLIC NOTICES • Melrose Area School Notice of Polling Place - pg. 8 • Melrose Area School Notice of Special Election - pg. 7 • Melrose Schools Optical Scan Notice - pg. 7 • Holdingford School Board Briefs - pg. 8 • Melrose Area Public School Reg. Minutes, Dec. 19 - pg. 8 • Melrose Area Public Schools Special Mintues, Jan. 4 - pg. 8 • Melrose Area Schools Ballot counting location - pg. 7 • Assumed Name - The Editor - pg. 8
BIRTHS page 3 Mia Beth Arnzen
OBITUARIES page 4 Clarence A. Blonigen Stanley A. Patyk
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