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HONORING OUR HEROES: Recognizing past, present service members PAGE 11
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Remembering Nicole Amor: ‘We were really close to forever’ BY SHANNON GRANHOLM MANAGING EDITOR
The first time Joey Amor saw the woman who would later become his wife, she was sitting on the back of his truck smoking a cigarette outside the military training barracks in Fort Eustis, Virginia. “I was walking back to my truck, and I was like ‘who the heck is this woman sitting on the back of
my truck?’” he recalled. Joey didn’t get to speak to her that night, but weeks later, classmates gathered for drinks on the final night of training. He recognized her as the girl who had been sitting on his truck. “I mustered up some courage and started talking to her. We spent the entire night talking. We literally sat there and talked until the sun came up,” Joey said. “That was the start of it.” More than a decade later, after two children
(Owen and Adeline) and multiple deployments, Joey is grieving Nicole’s loss and preparing for his first Memorial Day without her. Master Sgt. Nicole (Hoff) Amor, 39, of White Bear Lake, was one of six Army Reserve Officers killed while supporting Operation Epic Fury. Nicole enlisted in the National Guard as an automated logistics specialist in 2005. In 2006, she SEE FROM SERVICE TO SACRIFICE, PAGE 2
City Council considers premium cigar lounge proposal staff looked at the requirements of other cities that have cigar lounges, like Blaine, Maple Grove and Oak Park Heights. Blaine and Maple Grove identify cigar lounges as tobacco shops and stipulate that they must comply with the Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act (MCIAA). Lindahl said Oak Park Heights doesn’t have any specific zoning use or definition standards for them and considers the business retail sales. Lindahl said the application doesn’t seem to fit the city’s comprehensive plan or the land use guidance and it also would not comply with the buffer requirements. The Minnesota Clean Indoor Air Act (MCIAA) generally prohibits indoor smoking, though tobacco sampling is allowed in licensed tobacco shops. Founders’ owners argue the proposed lounge complies with the law, while city staff say Ramsey County and the Minnesota Department of Health disagree. For all those reasons, Lindahl explained that city staff, and the
BY SHANNON GRANHOLM MANAGING EDITOR
WHITE BEAR LAKE — City staff and the City Council say owners of the Founders Cigar Company have a lot of hurdles they will have to work through for their idea to come to fruition. Founders Cigar Company requested a text amendment to the city’s zoning code that would allow tobacco product shops as a conditional use in the Mixed Use Downtown (MX-D) zoning district. They also requested a new use, “premium cigar lounge,” to be added as a conditional use within that district to allow them to operate the business at 2160 Third Street. In 2023, the city updated its tobacco business and zoning regulations, limiting tobacco shops to conditional use permits in the Mixed Use Suburban (MX-S) district and prohibiting them in the Downtown (MX-D) district. Community Development Director Jason Lindahl explained that city
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Founders Cigar Company would like to operate the business at 2160 Third Street.
Planning Commission recommended the council deny the application for a text amendment.
Council input
Council Member Bill Walsh said he would not be supportive of a tobacco product shop downtown, but he
SEE PREMIUM CIGAR LOUNGE, PAGE 5
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could get behind a premium cigar shop. “The more narrow analysis of a premium cigar retail shop I think does fit in White Bear Lake … it fits in with the downtown vibe, bars, restaurants, shops.”
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