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Wednesday, March 15, 2023
Number 11 • Volume 134
From naming a Miss Leprechaun, to kissing the Blarney StoneMelrose researching policing options ... pg. 3
ATKINSON TO TALK ABOUT SPACE MISSIONS BOOK AT MELROSE LIBRARY
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
pg. 6
COMMUNITY COVERAGE 127 YEARS
400 Block update PHOTO BY HERMAN LENSING
Counting
Barbara O’Brien stands near her Irish-depicted welcome sign March 7 at her home in Melrose. It is a reminder of March being, to her, the month of St. Patrick.
O’Brien fondly recalls celebrating St. Patrick’s Day in Melrose
their blessings
BY HERMAN LENSING | STAFF WRITER
The Irish heritage in the Melrose area can still be found in family names, St. Patrick’s Cemetery and looking at a list of early settlers. Forsun a time, the 1970s, thatMonday, heritage was noted As the wasinstarting to rise Commercial on March 17,Company St. Patrick’s Day, from with local Irishwere cele-inContractors workers Melrose brations. side the Lisa’s On Main building working on securing “Thewall. Irish familiesPHOTO kind ofBY stuck together for a the west CAROL MOORMAN while,” Barbara O’Brien said March 7 at her home in Melrose. “It was a way to celebrate their culture.” O’Brien was an import to the Melrose-Irish culture. She grew up in Baltimore, Maryland, moving in 1967 to Melrose, 3.5 years after marrying George O’Brien, who passed away in 2011. His parents, George and Sylvia O’Brien, relocated to Melrose in 1938 to run the Melrose Theatre. Today the door on the entrance to O’Brien’s house still has a shamrock-adorned green top hat with the word “Welcome.” That is about the extent of her St. Patrick’s Day notations today, but close to 50 years ago, the O’Briens were involved in events that included daylong Irish traditions. “For three years, from 1976 to 1978, we had a parade on main street,” she said. “There was a police car, a fire truck, Charlie Gebeke drove an old green car, and Bueckers Sanitary had a trash truck with a sign saying ‘Irish Camper.’ The rest of us walked behind.”
PHOTO SUBMITTED
Brandon and Heather Cruz and their sons, Kipp (left) and Case, March 9 in their temporary home in rural Avon, are thankful for continued community support following a Feb. 3 fire at their rural Farming home. They are grateful to Albany, Avon and St. Martin firefighters who responded that day.
Cruz family recovering from fire with humbling support, faith BY CAROL MOORMAN | STAFF WRITER
H
umbling is the word Heather Cruz uses to explain her feelings after the rural Farming house she and husband, Brandon, and their sons, Kipp, 9, and Case, 6, called home was deemed a total loss following a Feb. 3 fire. “People have been so willing to help and are praying for us,” she said March 1 sitting next to Brandon at a temporary residence until a new house is constructed.
“In a world of such negativity, it’s an amazing insight into how people really care,” Brandon added. It might be the bouquet of flowers they were gifted on Valentine’s Day, money raised from valentine’s baskets sold at a local business or a portion of one-day sales at another business. Then there is the family that offered an unoccupied house for them to live in right after the fire, and the many
people who have supported them. Unconditional support from family, friends, neighbors and the community pulls emotions just as they’ve felt once before. Ten years ago when their day-old daughter, Cardi, passed away from a conditional heart defect, people surrounded them with love, prayers and support much like today. Thankfully, they were able to save some of Cardi’s treasured items following the fire, including her foot and handprint imprinted in a ceramic heart displayed in their living room.
Cruz page 3
O’Brien page 3
Albany girls
STATE BOUND three -peat
Five crowned
dairy princesses
PHOTO BY MARK KLAPHAKE PHOTO BY EVAN MICHEALSON
The Albany Area High School Huskies’ bench storms the court after the team’s 49-41 win over Sauk Centre in the Section 6AA championship game March 10 at St. John’s University in Collegeville. This is Albany’s third consecutive trip to the Minnesota State High School League Class AA Girls State Basketball Tournament.
ST R
Publications The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
Five young ladies – Kalie Ritter (from left), of Avon; Lanna Walter, of Sauk Centre; Grace Woitalla, of Holdingford; Megan Ratka, of Cold Spring; and Sophia Schiffler, of Albany – were crowned Stearns County Dairy Princesses at the banquet March 11 at the Freeport Community Center in Freeport. Ritter and Ratka were scholarship winners, and Ritter was named Miss Congeniality.
PUBLIC NOTICES • Mortgage Foreclosures (2) - pg. 9 • City of Melrose Advertisement for Quotes - pg. 9 • Two Rivers Lake Aquatic Invasive Species Treatment Notice - pg. 9 • City of Melrose Notice of Comprehensive Plan Proposals - pg. 9 • City of New Munich Notice of Hearing on Improvement - pg. 9 • City of New Munich Property Assessment Notice - pg. 9 • City of Melrose Notice of Public Notice of Hearing on Conditional • City of Holdingford Property Assessments Notice - pg. 8 Use Permit - pg. 9 • City of Melrose Advertisement for Bids - pg. 9 • City of Melrose Notice of Public Hearing on Zoning Ord. • St. Wendel Township Notice - pg. 9 Amendment - pg. 9 • City of Melrose Notice of Public Hearing on Preliminary/Flat Plat - pg. 6
OBITUARIES page 4 Arlene W. Arnzen Joyce Ann Lahr Annella M. Ringwelski Frances “Fran” (Mareck) Blommel
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