News from the City of Lake Elmo
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Meetings this week:
Monday, July 24th: Planning Commission
7:00 p.m.
Thursday, July 27th: Finance Committee 1:00 p.m.
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Links to the 2017 City Meetings, Agendas and Meeting Minutes:
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41st Annual Huff n Puff Days
August 10th - 13th
Join the Lake Elmo Jaycees at this annual fundraiser for community and youth activities in the St. Croix Valley Area. More than just a four-day softball tournament, the Lake Elmo Jaycees make this truly a fun family weekend event for the St. Croix Valley area. The main location for this event is Lions Park in Lake Elmo, but several other ball fields are used throughout this 4-day tournament.
Volunteers Wanted! Just a few hours of your time can be a tremendous help! Click
Here
for the details!
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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:
Draintile installation and shaping the gravel surface for concrete curb and gutter placement are upcoming.
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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.
- Striping on Lake Elmo Avenue was completed.
- Concrete work (curb and gutter, sidewalk, and driveway aprons) on 30th Street.
Lake Elmo Avenue Upcoming Work:
- Crews will continue with all clean-up and restoration (topsoil and sod) along Lake Elmo Avenue and 30th Street.
- 30th Street work will continue, which includes paving the road. 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.
Caring for your New Sod:
- If you have historically maintained the area where the new sod was placed, even if it is on City or County right of way, the sod will have the best chance of survival if you take care to follow the maintenance instructions below.
- Avoid walking on your new sod for the first two weeks
- Watering: Please begin watering your new sod as soon as it has been placed. Your efforts, when combined with the contractor watering the sod, will help ensure the sod will grow and your lawn will look its best. The rule of thumb for watering new sod is 2 inches per week. It is especially important to maintain your lawn if there is little rainfall or hot temperatures.
- Mowing: Your new sod should not be mowed until either grass lies over and mats down when wetted or the grass goes to seed. It may take longer than 30 days for these conditions to occur. Prior to mowing, set the mower deck at the highest setting and cut the new sod with this setting for the remainder of the year. Your new lawn will die if you cut it at the same setting as you ordinarily cut your mature lawn.
- Fertilizing: Your new sod was fertilized at the place it was grown and during placement; therefore, it will not need fertilizer until the fall or next spring. If you fertilize sooner, you risk killing the sod.
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:
* Work continues on storm and sanitary sewer throughout the project.
* 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.
* Work on the concrete face of the retaining wall will begin this week.
Future Upcoming Work:
* Curb and gutter work is expected to begin within the next 2 weeks or so.
* Erosion control is ongoing throughout the project.
ACCESS:
* The contractor is letting residents know when they are working in front of their driveways.
* There are extremely wet conditions on the north end. The contractor is working to create a passable surface by the end of today. This passable surface will be delineated with traffic cones - please stay on the passable surface to avoid getting stuck in the mud. Residents south of #4774 please enter and exit to the south.
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Spitz Kern's Incident - A story told in two parts
Part 2
Budd Schneider continues his story.
"Not too long after he fixed my bicycle, Good Friday came along and my mom said, 'We're going to church'." I said, 'Okay.' That was the brick church up here that was St. John's then. I was all dressed up in knickerbockers and was ready before the others were, so I started to walk over to the church. I told my sister to have my mom pick me up on Main Street and I started walking."
A block from his house, Budd saw men with rifles gathering around Spitz's repair shop and heard many shots being fired. Shocked into stillness, he watched the scene unfold.
The March 26, 1932 St. Paul Pioneer Press article read:
"Barricaded in the basement of his Lake Elmo battery repair shop where he fought off police with rifle and pistol fire, Ernest Kern, 38 years old, was shot to death about 3 p.m. Friday, after a two-hour attack with tear gas and shotgun volleys. The killing climaxed a night of terror in which Kern, believed crazed, shot at the homes of his sleeping neighbors.
"The entire village of Lake Elmo, a community of 250 persons about twelve miles east of St. Paul, suspended business to join or witness the ambush. Several shopkeepers armed with rifles left their stores to join Washington County officers and St. Paul police in stalking the barricaded battery man."
The article goes on to say that Kern had locked himself in the basement of his repair shop, where he lived amid smelly batteries and a remarkable perpetual motion contraption. For unknown reasons, he began shooting wildly through windows and above his head. Several shots narrowly missed the sleeping George Beers family who lived upstairs in the building next door. (He did hit a pillow, sending feathers flying). A water tank was also hit when a shot penetrated the kitchen wall. Kern also shot at the upper level of the building on the other side where several railroad workers lived.
Authorities from Lake Elmo and St. Paul tried to capture Kern alive, and twice they released tear gas to the cellar, but his guns still blazed.
Budd Schneider continued,
"While I was watching, here came Constable Arnold Nippoldt, Tom Maher, the Washington County Sheriff, Ed Wendt, and some other guys. All of a sudden everybody started shooting. Spitz was shooting up through a hole in the floor and they'd shoot down at him. The Sheriff yelled at me and said, 'Kid, get out of here!' I ran across the street and hid behind the tree that was in front of the Elmo Inn. I always had to be right in the middle of things and I wasn't scared, just curious. My mom never came to get me, so I just hung around to see what happened."
When the guns were silent for about half an hour, the sheriff and others went down to the cellar and found that Kern had been shot dead. Apparently, two weeks earlier he had fired several shots in the night. He told someone that 'spirits' had ordered him to shoot.
No one will ever know what evil spirits told him to shoot this time or why, but his prediction of dying on Good Friday was sadly true."
(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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