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Wednesday, May 10, 2023
Number 19 • Volume 134
Avon faces significant street maintenance issues after tough winter Melrose researching policing options ... pg. 3
ATKINSON TO TALK ABOUT SPACE MISSIONS BOOK AT MELROSE LIBRARY
Hiltner happy to carry on legacy ... pg. 7 Team’ has first baby boy in 2017 ... pg. 16 Public works foreman shares ‘A Gymnasts scoring with the best ... pg. 10
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estimates topping $16,000 BY TIM HENNAGIR | STAFF WRITER
Avon will need to spend considerable cash to repair winter-damaged streets. Public Works Foreman Chuck Pelkey said simple patching or crack filling won’t be enough to fix badly deteriorated street sections. He recently submitted two project quotes for city street work topping $16,000. Cold patch will not adhere to certain streets needing repair. Spray patching would cost about $10,000 a load, Pelkey reported during a May 1 city council meeting at Avon COMMUNITY COVERAGE 127 YEARS City Hall in Avon. Rough winter weather produced cracks in new streets in Suncrest Addition. “The bad news is it’s going to be pricey if you want to fix this stuff,” Pelkey said. “We are looking at some significant money for fixing our roads. It’s definitely something that we need to look at going forward.” Pelkey said Sixth Street is crumbling. “It’s just terrible, especially if you get closer from Chinook Avenue,” he said. He added spray patching may or may not PHOTO SUBMITTED actually fix anything, since that treatment is Gina Lomheim connects with her and husband Kris’s son, Henry, May 4 at their Farming Township farm in rural Farming. Henry was born a quick fix. Oct. 13, 2022, three months before his due date and today is a healthy, happy brother to Harrison and Madelyn. One load of spray patching from St. Cloud-based Asphalt Surfaces Technology Corp. would cost $9,525. Another option would be having Craig As the sun was starting to riseconduct Monday, Commercial Bardson Excavating in Albany recwith Henry,” Gina said May 3, from the registered nurse, she ended up in the St. Contractors Company lamation work on Sixthworkers Street. from Melrose were in- BY CAROL MOORMAN STAFF WRITER Farming Township home where she and Cloud Hospital where it was determined side City the Lisa’s On Main building working Engineer Jeremy Mathiasen saidon securing Kris are also raising Harrison, 5, and she needed her appendix removed. She Bardson is the only company in BY theCAROL area thatMOORMAN the west wall. PHOTO contacted Kris, a Melrose Electricelecina Lomheim has built a Madelyn, 3. has such a machine. Today, Henry is a happy – and trician. Her appendix was removed Oct. special bond with her son, “That’s just one option for fixing one healthy – chubby-cheeked, seven- 5, 2022, and the plan was for Gina to Henry. street that’s really busted up,” Pelkey said, He was born Oct. 13, 2022, at 26 month-old boy who loves to interact remain in the hospital until their unborn adding Barracuda Avenue and Hamlet Drive weeks gestation, weighing 2 pounds with his siblings. He has come a long baby was 34 weeks gestation. A comSouth have 25-foot to 30-foot sections where 7.5 ounces, and spent 87 days in the St. way since he let out a few squeaks when plication from surgery led to her water the road is deteriorated. Cloud Hospital neonatal intensive care he entered this world as a micro-preemie breaking, and Henry was born at 26 “Something really has to be done,” weeks by cesarean section. unit, with Gina by his side daily, often before his Jan. 13, 2023, due date. Pelkey said. “If you want to continue to crack Gina had a normal pregnancy up accompanied by his dad, Kris. fill like you have been, that’s the cheaper “That is something no one will ever until 25 weeks, when she experienced route.” be able to take from me, the time I spent pain on her right side. Working at the St. Avon streets page 3 Mother’s bond page 3 holding, praying, singing and crying Cloud Surgical Center, where she is a
400 Block update
A moth ’s bond
Henry’s Heroes Walk June 3 to benefit NICU families
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A lifetime of
sharing stories Luetmer’s ‘The View From The Hill’ captures people, places in rural Minnesota
Melrose prom page 6
A MyStIc gArDeN
Melrose prom
BY CAROL MOORMAN STAFF WRITER
Maureen Luetmer knows how to get to know people – by writing. Her feature stories and Remembering Country Potpourri columns have been published in local newspapers, including the Melrose Beacon. Maureen has also penned memories about her life growing up in New Munich and raising her family – Mary, Rose, Bob, Marty, Tony, Pat, Lois and Ted – with husband Al on a farm north of Meire Grove. Many of those stories, capturing the spirit of the people and places in rural Minnesota, are in “The View From The Hill,” a book compiled by Maureen and daughter Pat Luetmer with input from
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Publications The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
PHOTO BY CAROL MOORMAN
Maureen Luetmer talks about her book, “The View From The Hill,” May 4 at her Melrose home. The book is a collection of feature stories and columns published in local newspapers and her life growing up in New Munich and raising her and husband Al’s family on a farm north of Meire Grove.
daughter Mary Monroe. copy in her Melrose home. “We did it,” Maureen said to Luetmer page 3 Pat May 4, after signing the first
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PUBLIC NOTICES Mortgage Foreclosure Postponement .................................... pg. 7 Albany Township Dust Control Assistance Notice .................... pg. 7 Assumed Name - Backyard Blooms by Jadielyn...................... pg. 7 Albany Area Schools Work Session ......................................... pg. 7 Stearns County Planning Commission Pubilic Hearing ........... pg. 7 City of Freeport Notice of Hearing on Proposed Assessment... pg. 8 Spring Hill Township Notice.................................................... pg. 7 Albany School Agenda ........................................................... pg. 7 Notice of Application for a Livestock Feedlot Permit ............... pg. 7
PHOTO BY CAROL MOORMAN
Jose De Los Santos and Danica Kerzman smile for the grand march crowd, wearing heart-shaped glasses, during the May 6 Melrose High School A Mystic Garden prom at Melrose Area Public Schools in Melrose. Ninety-five couples and friends participated in the prom, which included a meal, photos and a dance.
BIRTHS page 3 Brooks James Moscho Taylor Alan Wenker
OBITUARIES page 4 David P. Bierschbach June M. Domine Dennis A. Heidgerken Rachel A. Kraemer Arnold F. Meier LuVerne A. Meyer
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