News from the City of Lake Elmo
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Meetings this week:
Tuesday, July 18th: City Council 7:00 p.m.
Please note: the regularly scheduled Parks Commission Meeting on
July 17th has been cancelled
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Links to the 2017 City Meetings, Agendas and Meeting Minutes:
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Sky Lanterns and Fireworks
Please be aware that sky lanterns and certain fireworks are illegal in Minnesota. For more information, please follow this link to the State Fire Marshal website:
Fire Marshal
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The Lake Elmo Farmers Market is back for the summer 2017 season! The market will be open weekly at the Lake Elmo Elementary School from 9:00 am-1:00 pm on Saturdays thru September 9th.
Returning vendors include Grandma's Fresh Vegetables, Morsels, Old Village Artisans,Tumulty Bees, 4/R Farms, and Carols Award Winning Homemade Jams & Jellies. Some of the new vendors for the 2017 season include Love, Mom Homemade Eats, Hoppel Poppel Breads & Gluten Free. Vendors may change slightly from week to week, so stop out every Saturday to see what's fresh. It's going to be a great season!
Interested in becoming a vendor? All inquiries can E-mail Jerry at gbgoracki@hotmail.com.
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Cons
truction Updates
Old Village Phase 3 Improvements:
Utility work continues along Laverne Avenue with installation of water system, sanitary sewer, and storm sewer facilities. The contractor will be working to install sanitary sewer in easements over the next two weeks and hope to begin building the roadway with sand and gravel soon afterwards.
Small utility relocation has been ongoing recently with tree removal scheduled for the end of July in
the 31st Street Neighborhood. Pavement removal and deep utility installation is scheduled to begin in early August.
2017 Street Improvements:
Storm sewer installation will continue early the week of July 10th. Pavement removal along 55th Street, 57th Street, Jamaca Boulevard, and Jamaca Avenue is scheduled for early the week of July 17th. Draintile installation and shaping the gravel surface for concrete curb and gutter placement will follow.
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Lake Elmo Street and Utility Improvements
Work has resumed on the Downtown Lake Elmo Street and Utility Improvement Project.
Last week, concrete curb and gutter, and sidewalk were installed south of the railroad tracks. Work also continued on the retaining walls on the west side of Lake Elmo Avenue.
Lake Elmo Avenue This Week:
- Grading work in boulevards and disturbed yards, followed by topsoil placement.
- Some sod was placed in the areas where topsoil work was complete. See "Caring for your New Sod" recommendations below.
- Crews worked on the basin on 30th Street; as well as additional roadway work.
Lake Elmo Avenue Upcoming Work:
- Crews will continue with all clean-up and restoration (topsoil and sod) along Lake Elmo Avenue and 30th Street.
- Expect some minor work happening tomorrow (Saturday, July 15).
- Next week, the permanent striping will be placed on Lake Elmo Avenue. This work will impact parking in downtown for one day. Please be aware of any "No Parking" signs located along the road.
- 30th Street work will continue. This work will necessitate a one-lane roadway with a flagging operation. The road will remain open, but please be cautious and have patience while driving through this area.
Washington County will begin sending out weekly construction updates; as they have over the 2015 and 2016 construction seasons and we will continue to share that information every week in the Fresh. The current update from Washington County can be viewed here:
update
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As in the past, copies of the Washington County updates will be available to pick up at the Lake Elmo Post Office and The Lake Elmo Inn.
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CSAH 13 (Ideal Ave./Olson Lake Tr.) Project Update
PROJECT SCHEDULE
This Week:
* Seeding and blanketing of the stormwater pond.
* Removal of the road surface to 50th St continued.
* Construction of the road base resumed.
Future Upcoming Work:
* Work on the concrete face of the retaining wall will begin.
* The contractor is performing excavation and placement of granular backfill & gravel within the road core, working from south to north as the underground utilities are completed.
* Crews continue with the installation of storm sewer throughout the project and will resume construction of the sanitary sewer on the north end of the project.
* Remaining storm sewer work will continue on.
* Curb and gutter is expected to occur in the next two weeks.
ACCESS:
* Please continue to be cognizant of the construction zone - regardless of whether you are in a vehicle or walking on the road.
* CSAH 13 is closed between 40th Street N and 50th Street N and is detoured to the west, utilizing 40th St, Hadley Ave, and 50th St. Local access for residents is currently being maintained from both directions.
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Spitz Kern's Incident - A story told in two parts
Part 1
Yes, this really happened.
In 1932 Budd Schneider was ten years old. Two frightening and unusual events took place in Lake Elmo that year. One was the Uttendorfer bank robbery. The other is the "Spitz Kern incident," as told here.
Budd Schneider told the story of a repair shop on Main street where the Post Office now stands. In Bud's own words:
"The post office lot is where the Spitz-Kern Repair shop was located. Spitz's real name was Ernest, I think. He had two nicknames; one was Spitz and one was Battery."
"I don't know why he was called 'Spitz', but the name 'Battery' came from Norm Krieger. Norm said to us one time, 'Why do you call him Spitz? His nickname is Battery.' I said, 'Why is that?' He said, 'Have you ever been in his basement?' Well, actually I was in Spitz's basement, and yes, there were a lot of batteries."
"After my dad died, I was having a lot of trouble with my bicycle. The thing would never work. It had all of these disks in there that weren't lined up right. It just wouldn't work and I couldn't fix it by myself."
"One day Spitz saw me having trouble with my bicycle." He said, 'Bring it on up to my place and we'll look at it.'"
"Most of the kids were afraid of Spitz because he was pretty tough and sort of scary-looking, but I got along okay with him. So I pushed my bicycle over to Spitz's place, and, true to his word, he fixed it. He took it all apart and put it back together again. It never came apart after that. Of course this made me very happy and that's how I came to be in Spitz's basement."
"I have to agree that it was a strange place and the batteries did smell bad, but hey, I was just a kid, and I was fascinated by all of the strangeness. Spitz began to talk to me while I was wandering around looking at the machines and structures he had going all over his basement. One time he mumbled something about Good Friday, and then he said to me, 'Kid, you remember that I am going to die on Good Friday.' I didn't think much about it then, but later it came back to haunt me."
To be continued.......
(Sources: Memories of Lake Elmo, collected and authored by Gloria VanDemmeltraadt)
Scene from Google Maps with a shadow of the second floor of the Spitz-Kern Repair building as it existed on that site in 1921.. (Original photos courtesy of the Gorman's Lake Elmo collection and Google Maps)
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Next week at the Lake Elmo Library
For more information please click here
EVENTS
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Volunteers Needed!
Finance Committee
Human Resources
The City of Lake Elmo is accepting applications from residents interested in serving on the Finance Committee and Human Resources Committee.
Information on each committee and an application form can be found under the "Government" tab on the City's website:
www.lakeelmo.org
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