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ST. PATRICK’S DAY: Shake your Shamrock PAGE 3
Downtown business aims to create go-to destination for St. Patrick’s Day BY SHANNON GRANHOLM MANAGING EDITOR
Green vibes only
This St. Patrick’s Day locals will have another entertainment option much closer to home. A local business owner is hoping this year’s inaugural St. Patrick’s Day event will turn into one of the many things White Bear Lake is known for, like Marketfest and Manitou Days. Corey Roberts, owner of The Minnesotan in downtown White Bear Lake, dreamed up the St. Patrick’s Day Hootenanny last year but not in time to get all of the necessary permitting in place to pull off the event. So, this fall he started planning for the big event, which is scheduled for Saturday, March 15. “The goal for year one, our inaugural event, is making sure that we're setting that tone here year one so we have something that we can run with for decades to come,” Roberts said. “The vision is to create a longstanding tradition in the White Bear Lake area to become a Saint Patrick's celebratory destination. We feel that there's opportunity for a town like White Bear Lake to own St Patrick's Day, similar to how Anoka owns Halloween.”
CONTRIBUTED
Big Wood Brewery in Vadnais Heights will host a St. Patrick’s Day Party Saturday, March 15. In addition to a featured cocktail and green beer, a Celtic band called MacDouble will perform from 6 to 9 p.m.
SEE ST. PATRICK’S DAY, PAGE 9
Treasure hunt for neighborhood history uncovers ample gems BY DEBRA NEUTKENS CONTRIBUTING WRITER
After retiring as a trend analyst for a technology company, Scott Costello turned his research acumen to a new hobby: delving into local history. “When we moved to the Lakeridge neighborhood 25 years ago, I started hearing stories about the people living here,” Costello recalled. “The population of the neighborhood has almost entirely turned over, with only a very few original homeowners still around. I worried that their stories would be lost as the older generation fades into history.” Describing his two-year quest as a treasure hunt of sorts, Costello has put together a 28-page tome filled with interesting facts, both known and unknown, about the movers and shakers who lived in a neighborhood nestled between McKnight Road to the west, South Shore Boulevard to the north, Bellaire
Avenue to the east and County Road F to the south. Entitled, “The History of White Bear Lake’s Lakeridge neighborhood: Schneider Bay, Lily Lake Pond, Hidden Hollow Park, and the people who shaped the neighborhood,” the booklet is the result of painstaking research. Costello read city council minutes and newspaper accounts, visited the Ramsey County records office and historical societies, studied plat maps and abstracts. A free online ancestry database maintained by the Mormon Church proved invaluable, not to mention personal accounts by family members of the deceased. Using expertise honed by years working remotely for tech bosses in Silicon Valley, Costello said, “making the switch to history research in retirement is up my alley. I had a total blast doing it.” As the amateur historian points out in the booklet, his neighborhood has been home to two
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mayors, Brad Stanius and Thomas Newcome; three state legislators, Dr. Robert (Bob) Reif, Stanius and Newcome; two inventors holding multiple patents, Spencer Silver and Dr. George Schossow; a seagoing adventurer, Gerry Spiess; and a mink farmer, Adolph Thome, among others. It was also the site of tragedy and heroism. Tragedy occurred in the late ’50s when a 14-year-old boy died in a cave-in. The man who rushed to save him suffered a heart attack, but survived. “I was curious about the kid who died right under our (future) houses,” Costello said. According to newspaper accounts, the boy was Stephen “Bucky” Young. He died on a Saturday, Aug. 11, 1957, while digging tunnels with friends into the side of a sandy gully next to Lily Lake Pond. The tunnel collapsed on Bucky, suffocating him. One of his friends
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