SSP Feb 10

February 2010

Volume 7

Number 2

IN THIS ISSUE...• Education .................................. Page 2• Sample St. Paul Event Guide ....... Page 4• News Briefs ................................ Page 6• Back in Time.............................. Page 8

2010 city budget teetering on state fundingBill Knight

Contributing Writer

“It would be hard to overstate the nervousness we have as we enter this year,” said Stephen King, South St. Paul city ad-ministrator as he talked about the 2010 budget. “We are not at all com-fortable that what we’ve done (with the budget) will have any reality as we move on. When the gov-ernor and the legislature

tackle their issues, well, no one knows what will happen.”

King and Josh Feld-man, city finance direc-tor, say this budget came together not only in the shadow of the financial uncertainty from the Capitol but also during the shaky economy of the past two years.

City officials are es-timating 2010 revenue at $12.4 million, down nearly 3 percent, and ex-

penses at $12.6 million, a decrease of 1.8 per-cent. The difference will be made up from city reserves, Feldman said. The South St. Paul City Council voted unani-mously in approving the budget at its Dec. 7 meeting.

The main source of revenue for the city is the property tax levy, which is up 5.6 percent. The next largest source is local government aid (LGA)

— state funds for cities, typically used for a vari-ety of purposes — which is projected to be nearly 28 percent less than last year. Also, fees for city services are expected to be down 18 percent.

On the other side of the balance sheet, the most notable change in city expenditures is a near 7 percent cut in public safety, such as police and

City Budget / Page 5

Despite budget woes, new South Metro fire trucks on the wayMary Diedrick Hansen

Staff Writer

Two new fire trucks will be on the streets of South St. Paul and West St. Paul by mid-summer. John Ehret, South Metro fire chief, said the de-partment had delayed the purchase as long as pos-sible, “but with one truck 34-years-old and another at 31 years, replacement time has gone over by a considerable amount.”

Ehret said the depart-ment delayed replacing the engines because, as a newly merged operation as of 2008, they wanted to control costs through repair work whenever possible while evaluating the needs, particularly in light of the budget crunch both cities are facing. Aging equipment translates into major re-pair costs, however. In 2008 alone, mechani-cal repairs amounted to $60,000.

According to Ehret, South Metro is the busi-est fire department in Dakota County, with 4,885 runs last year, up from 4,610 during the first year of the merger.

A joint powers agree-ment between South St. Paul and West St. Paul requires each city to con-tribute 50 percent to-ward the operation of the department. In the past, South St. Paul set aside funds for the purchase of

new vehicles. This time the city will take out a loan.

“The engines cost $570,000 each and will be purchased through the South St. Paul Housing and Redevelopment Au-thority,” said Josh Feld-man, finance director for South St. Paul. “Pay-ments will begin in 2011. The cost of $1.2 million principal will be paid off in 10 years.”

The South Metro Fire

Department now oper-ates with five fire en-gines, two ladder trucks and four ambulances. For optimal equipment use, Ehret explained that, “trucks on the front line operate for 10 years, then are pushed back for use as a secondary piece of equipment for 10 years. After that they are used as a reserve unit. We want to keep the most reliable equipment in the front lines.”

New SSP theater director getting fingers ‘dirty’ with first productionPage 2

Sample St. Paul event guidePage 4

Downtown South St. Paul disappearsPage 8

Page 2 - South St. Paul Voice - February 2010

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Taking a break from preparations for “Grease” are (left to right) Jane Burkitt, director Sheryl Schmit, Amelia Peacock and Sami Sobaski. “Grease” is presented at 7 p.m., Feb. 4, 5 and 6, and 2 p.m., Feb. 7, at the South St. Paul High School Auditorium, 700 Second St. N. Tickets are $9 for adults, and $7 for students age 18 and under and seniors age 60 and over. For more information, call 651-457-9430, ext. 1.

Your community news and information sourceE ducation

New SSP theater director getting fingers ‘dirty’ with first production

Mary Diedrick HansenStaff Writer

“Grease is the word!” It’s also the latest musi-cal theater production at South St. Paul High School, and the first production for Sheryl Schmit, the new direc-tor of the school’s theater department. Schmit is working with what she calls an amazing group of student actors in re-hearsals for the February production. She attri-butes the cast members’ talents and skills to their training under former di-rector, Emily Gill, who departed last summer to pursue a graduate degree in directing.

Schmit stepped into a demanding position. South St. Paul theater is known for its rigor-ous schedule, with four

full-length theater pro-ductions performed each year in a city that values the performing arts.

“South St. Paul has a strong tradition of the-ater,” said Schmit. “Ev-erything is very high quality here, from the sets, to the costuming, to the performers.”

Schmit brings a wealth of knowledge from her days as a professional actor in Seattle, Wash. She also has a master’s degree in education and plenty of classroom ex-perience from teaching in Seattle. She returned to Minnesota to be closer to family. Before accept-ing her current position, she taught English and language arts at Hopkins Junior High, in an alter-native learning school for at-risk adolescents.

The South St. Paul job

appealed to her because it combines her interests in theater and education. Once she settles in, she hopes to involve the the-ater department in the Minnesota One-Act Play Festival. She would also like to offer after-school theater workshops and, in the future, develop a theater arts or drama class as part of the school cur-riculum. Now, she is busy organizing the costume and set design area of her department, and working with a large cast of char-acters who need to learn lines, songs and dance moves for “Grease.”

To prepare for the show, Schmit had the cast members design posters illustrating 1950s pop culture. The exer-cise proved useful since many students remarked that they were mystified

by some of the references and slang in their lines.

“Like ‘what do you say, fruitie boots?’” said senior Amelia Peacock, who plays “tough on the outside, soft on the inside” Rizzo. Peacock also played Maria in the school production of

“The Sound of Music,” which she called “the role of my lifetime,” adding, “If I died tomorrow my life would be fulfilled!”

Senior Jane Burkitt takes on the role of San-dy, played by the unfor-gettable Olivia Newton-John in the original

movie version. Burkitt wants to be true to her own interpretation of the character, however. For every role she has played during her high school career, she takes what she has learned and applies it to her next role. For ex-ample, in “Blithe Spirit,”

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St. Paul VoiceLa Voz LatinaDowntownSouth St. Paul

Mn/DOT and your local officials invite you to an

INFORMATIONAL OPEN HOUSEThursday, Feb. 18from 4 to 6 p.m.

at the Paul and Sheila Wellstone Center, 179 Robie Street East, St. Paul

Find out about the Highway 52 Lafayette Bridge replacement project This is your opportunity to get details about the Highway 52 Lafayette Bridge replacement project. This project marks a significant change for the area, and all residents and business owners are encouraged to attend. Now is the time to get involved.

For further information, call Kent BarnardMinnesota Department of Transportation, 651-234-7504

South St. Paul Voice - February 2010 - Page 3

Your community news and information sourceE ducationBurkitt played Madame Arcati, a medium who led séances. Burkitt intends to take parts of Madame Arcati’s character and ap-ply them to Sandy.

“I really had to step outside my comfort zone to play Madame Arcati,” said Burkitt. “She went into trances and fell on the floor. There was a lot of physical comedy in the performance.”

Burkitt got her start in theater in third grade through the South St. Paul Community Theater program. Her first major high school performance was in “Steel Magno-lias,” in which she played the character portrayed by Dolly Parton in the movie. She recalls an em-barrassing moment from that show. She stuffed a pecan candy into her mouth then realized she had the next line.

“There was silence as I tried to swallow it,” she said with a grin.

Sami Sobaski, also a se-nior, will not be perform-ing in “Grease” because

she is gearing up for 40 shows at Stages Theater, a children’s theater in Hopkins, where she will perform in the world premiere of “The Snowy Day.” She has been per-forming since age five, starting on ice as a com-petitive figure skater. At 15, she injured her back and had to quit. That’s when she turned to the-ater. Her first role as a sophomore was in “Oli-ver.” She had no lines but sang in the chorus. Her favorite play was “Steel Magnolias,” in which she was one of a cast of six girls.

Sobaski said she had one of the best experienc-es of her life when she au-ditioned and was selected to perform last summer in eight shows of the Children’s Theater’s pro-duction of the “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee.”

“Everyone in the cast was from all over. I learned so much from the cast, the directors and the choreographers,” she

said. As a 4.2 GPA stu-dent, she has also learned that being in theater means, “you really have to learn how to manage your time.”

Theater is a collabora-tive art form, like a team sport, said Schmit.

“You try out, work to-gether and everyone has to participate,” she said. “It takes 8 1/2 weeks to produce a musical, which is a short amount of time. It says a lot about the students and their performance skills and commitment.” Schmit also noted that parents and community volun-teers are an important part of the production.

Peacock’s career began at the Minnesota Wal-dorf School, which she attended through eighth grade.

“Each class put on one play a year, so I had to perform, which was the best torture of my life, since I love to perform,” she said. Because there was a shortage of boys in her class, Peacock had

to play male roles in sev-eral plays. “This is when you learn about adapting to your role, and about physicality. You have to really be open to new interpretation,” she said. “You must take risks.”

Added Schmit, “In or-der to do that, you need a lot of self confidence.”

Peacock transferred to South St. Paul in ninth grade and immediately gravitated to theater. In her first production, “Moon Over Buffalo,” her job was to “cue the telephone” or do the sound effect. She had so much fun develop-ing new friendships that she has been in every theater production since then. “Grease” will be number 14.

Her most challenging role was Ruth Condo-mine in “Blithe Spirit,” which called for her to use an aristocratic Brit-ish accent. Among the other accents performed by the three seniors are Polish, English Cockney and American Southern.

They admit to occasion-ally mixing up the ac-cents while playing dif-ferent characters. They have one more to go: a Norwegian accent for the last play of their high school career, “I Remem-ber Mama.”

“It will be devastat-ing at the last play,” said

Peacock, “but it’s still ex-tremely exciting to move on.”

Burkitt agreed. Both plan to major in theater in college. Sobaski is de-bating between a major in theater or medicine

“No matter what my thing is, I want to keep performing,” she said.

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Your community news and information sourceS ample St. PaulOrdway Center for Performing Arts

“DANCEBRAZIL” is presented at 7:30 p.m., Fri., Feb. 19, at the Ordway Center for Performing Arts, 345 Washington St., St. Paul. Experience traditional Afro-Brazilian Dance and Capoeira movement in choreography that blends contemporary dance and sound in performances that echo the traditional movement, spirit and color of Brazil’s rich multicultural influences. Tickets are $25-$30. For more information, call the box office at 651-224-4222.

History Theatre“Sister Kenny’s Chil-

dren” is presented through Feb. 14, at the History Theatre, 30 E. 10th St., St. Paul. This

new play is a powerful retelling of how Sister Elizabeth Kenny battled adversity to make her ground-breaking thera-pies the standard in po-lio treatment. Tickets are $25-$30 for adults, $22-$28 for seniors and $10

for children. For more information, call the box office at 651-292-4323.

Children’s Museum“Dinosaurs: Land of

Fire and Ice” is present-ed through May 31, at the Minnesota Children’s

Museum, 10 W. Seventh St., St. Paul. This exhibit will transport families back to the Cretaceous Period (145 - 65 million years ago) to explore di-nosaur habitats and bet-ter understand how these mysterious animals lived. Tickets are $8.95. For more information, call 651-225-6000.

Park Square Theatre

“Rock ’n’ Roll” is pre-sented through Feb. 7, at Park Square Theatre, 20 W. 7th Place, St. Paul.

Spanning two countries and three generations, the music of revolution, protest, liberation and emotional survival proves that love, and rock ’n’ roll, live on. Tickets are $36-$40 for adults, $31-$35 for seniors and $15 for age 30 and under. For more information, call 651-291-7005.

Science Museum of Minnesota

Omnifest 2010, a gi-ant screen film festival, is presented through Mar. 11, at the Omni-theater, located in the Science Museum, 120 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul. The featured films are “Africa’s Elephant King-dom,” “Into the Deep,” “Van Gogh: Brush with

Genius,” “The Greatest Places,” and “Ski to the Max.” Tickets are $8 for adults and $7 for chil-dren. For more informa-tion, visit www.smm.org, or call 651-221-9444.

Minnesota History Center

“Benjamin Frank-lin: In Search of a Bet-ter World” is presented through July 4, at the Minnesota History Cen-ter, 345 W. Kellogg Blvd., St. Paul. You know about Benjamin Frank-lin’s famous experiment with a kite, a key and some lightning, but did you also know about his rebellious youth? That he pioneered wind surfing and invented swim fins? That he helped found the nation’s first hospital, was an environmentalist and charted the Gulf Stream to assist in ocean travel? In many ways Benjamin Franklin is the founding father nobody knows – misunderstood because of the sheer breadth and diversity of his accom-plishments. Discover the many ways Franklin has affected our world today in this exhibit.

“MN 150”- Meet 150 people, places, events and things that have sparked significant change within Minnesota and beyond.

Tickets are $10 for adults, $8 for seniors and college students, and $5 for children ages 6-17. The Center offers free admission on Tuesdays, from 5-8 p.m. For more information, call 651-259-3000 or visit www.mnhs.org.

Omnifest 2010“Africa’s Elephant Kingdom,” “Into the Deep,” “Van Gogh: Brush with Genius,” “The Greatest Plac-es,” and “Ski to the Max” are the films presented during Ominifest 2010. The film festival runs through Mar. 11 at the Omintheater in the Science Muse-um of Minnesota.

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Your community news and information sourceC ity GovernmentCity Budgetfrom page 1

fire protection, amount-ing to almost $400,000.

“Historically, city bud-gets creep up in step with cost of living increases, but that has been a non-factor for the past two years,” King said. “We are not spending at levels as in the past.”

Sink or swim with LGA

For many years South St. Paul has leaned heav-ily on LGA funding, but that pool of money has been drained over the past six or seven years.

“Frankly, more of that will happen since the leg-islature is facing a $1.2 billion shortfall. So, one of their targets will like-ly be to further reduce LGA,” King said.

That move may af-fect South St. Paul more than other cities because it uses LGA funding for operating expenses. Oth-

er communities typically use it for one-time ex-penditures.

LGA has been declin-ing steadily for about sev-en years, King said, not-ing that the city does not have a strong tax base, so it’s not easy to replace those funds.

“We’ve been reeling since 2003,” he said. “My whole time here has been wrapped up in trying to find ways to cut expens-es and develop alterna-tive revenue sources to replace LGA.” This year the city is expecting ap-proximately $1.6 mil-lion, which is $635,000 less than last year.

Additionally, King said after-the-fact changes to LGA can be even tough-er to deal with. For ex-ample, in Dec. 2008, the city was expecting to receive $355,000, its sec-ond installment of LGA money.

“But the governor se-verely slashed it. We were at the end of our budget

year and we had nowhere to go to make it up,” King said. “So we entered 2009 with less funding, and we had to operate for about six months with no money coming in.”

City officials also said the economy has added to the struggle since income from traditional revenue generating items, such as fees, licenses and build-ing permits, is down.

“Two major pillars of our revenue base are wobbly and the other one (property tax) is weak to begin with,” King said.

Getting help with the budget

King and Feldman said city officials are working to make the budget and finance process less oner-ous, so they have hired Ehlers and Associates, a Roseville-based consult-ing firm, to work on de-veloping an overall finan-cial plan.

“The city does not have a long-range capital im-

provement plan so the consultant will help with that,” King said.

Feldman added that city staffers and the coun-cil are taking a long-term look at LGA and other state revenue sharing pro-grams that may no longer be around for the city.

“So the real question is: ‘How do you come to grips with that and then find a way to generate enough revenue to meet the needs of the city?’ ” he said.

Also, the city would like to attract more com-mercial development to rebuild its relatively small tax base. For example, a one percent increase in South St. Paul property taxes generates approxi-mately $70,000 while the same increase in West St. Paul brings in about $86,000, King said.

Historically, the city enjoyed high levels of public service, due main-ly to taxes paid by the meat packing plants and

the stockyards.“But over the years

we’ve had to cut back on some of the levels of ser-vice simply because we don’t have the funding to pay for it,” said Feldman. “So there needs to be an emphasis on developing the tax base by attracting new commercial develop-ment.”

Public feedbackA relatively small num-

ber of people take the

time to get acquainted with the budget, and King says that is a little frustrating. He believes the average citizen doesn’t look at the budget but rather reacts to changes in city services, such as parks not being kept up or snow not plowed.

“We really try to make it customer-friendly and have meetings, but we get very little participation,” he said.

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The South St. Paul Mayor’s Youth Task

Force is off to a great start. We had a great holi-day break and are ready to get back to work. We fig-ured it was time to go to the mail bag and answer a few of the questions that we received. We’ve got some good ones this month.

Your community news and information sourceN ews BriefsProgram on French-Canadian genealogical research

The Dakota County Genealogical Society will host a program on French-Canadian ge-nealogical research at 7 p.m., Thurs., Feb. 18, at the Dakota County Historical Society, 130 Third Ave. N., South St. Paul. The speaker is John Schade, former president of the Minnesota Genea-logical Society (MGS), current MGS library chair, and a specialist in Native American docu-mentation. His talk will focus on the early settle-ment in Quebec, the fur trade, migration to Minnesota, and identi-fying the main sources for church and civil re-cords for birth, baptism, marriage and death. The

meeting is free and open to the public. For more information, contact Dick Thill at 651-452-5926.

Mayor seeks youth for Town Hall meeting

South St. Paul Mayor Beth Baumann and the South St. Paul Mayor’s Youth Task Force are inviting South St. Paul students in grades 5-12 to plan and present a Town Hall meeting this spring. The topic is “Go-ing Green in South St. Paul.” The meeting will be developed, planned and presented by the youth, with assistance from Mayor Baumann. Planning meetings will be held at 11 a.m. on Saturdays through March. To volunteer or for more information,

contact Deb Griffith, community affairs liai-son, at 651-554-3230, or [email protected].

Floats and Flicks at Central Square

The Central Square Community Center (CSCC), 100 7th Ave. N., South St. Paul, will offer a Floats and Flicks event, 6-8 p.m. Feb. 12 and 26, and Mar. 12 and 26. These events are for all ages and fea ture swim-ming while watching a big screen movie. Cost is $3.25, or free for CSCC members.

Garden Club meeting

Ralph Thrane will of-fer a presentation on fruits and vegetables at 7 p.m., Mon., Feb. 1, at VFW Post #295, 111

S. Concord Exchange, South St. Paul. This free program is presented by the South St. Paul Gar-den Club. Thrane, who has 30 years experience with Green Giant and Pillsbury, has served on advisory committees to the U.S. Secretary of Ag-riculture and chaired the Ramsey County Exten-sion Committee. He has been a master gardener for 16 years and is au-thor of several articles on growing fruits and vege-tables. Refreshments will be served at 6:30 p.m. For more information, call Lois Glewwe at 651-457-3403.

Library eventsFor more information

on the following South St. Paul library events, call 651-554-3240 or vis-it www.southstpaul.org/

library.Hot Reads for Cold

Nights - This adult read-ing program continues through February. Visit the library for a registra-tion packet filled with biscotti and drawing slips, and the chance to win calendars, mittens, a cookbook, gift certifi-cates, tote bags and more.

Book discussions - “The Brief Wondrous Life of Oscar Wao,” by Junot Diaz, will be dis-cussed at 1 p.m., Feb. 17, and 7 p.m., Feb. 18. Travel in the shoes of Os-car de Leon, an awkward, overweight teen who’s trying to make it in this world, but is living under a curse since his family became mixed up with Rafael Trujillo, a nasty Dominican Republic dic-tator. Information pack-

ets are available at the library or at www.south-stpaul.org/library, under Adult Book Discussions.

Free Internet and e-mail classes - A basic Internet class is offered at 1 p.m., Tues., Feb. 9. Registration is required. The library offers free In-ternet and e-mail classes throughout the year that cover topics such as us-ing search engines, home pages, URLs, free e-mail and more.

Teen Book Club - “The Hunger Games,” by Suzanne Collins, will be discussed at 4 p.m., Fri., Feb. 12. This club is for teens ages 12-18. Re-freshments will be pro-vided.

Presidents’ Day - The library will be closed Mon., Feb. 15, in obser-vance of Presidents’ Day.

Dear task force, I hear the Mayor’s

Youth Task Force is do-ing a Town Hall meeting this year. Is that true? Is there a topic and are you looking for youth to get involved? I might be interested in partici-pating.

Troy 6th grade

Dear Troy, That is correct. The

task force is hosting a Town Hall meeting on “Going Green in South St. Paul.” We are look-ing for youth in the com-munity to get involved and help research, write,

facilitate and be on cam-era for the show. We are shooting for mid March to host the show. All 5th-12th graders are invited to help make this a suc-cess. If you are interested, contact Deb Griffith at 651-554-3230 for more details.

Dear task force, My parents are going

out of town this week-end and they said that I can invite a few friends over. They have set the rules that there is to be no alcohol at the par-ty. I am afraid that the word will get out that I am having a party and

others will show up. What can I do to avoid this situation?

Melanie 10th grade

Dear Melanie, Great question! Peer

pressure can be tough, and telling some of your classmates that they need to leave can be really hard, especially if they are popular or bigger than you. Here is what we suggest: before the week-end, sit down with your parents and a neighbor and come up with a plan in case you need help. The neighbor can come over to borrow a cup of

sugar or tools, and once there, the adult neighbor can ask the uninvited or problem guests to leave, or they can call the po-lice. If this situation hap-pens and you need your neighbor’s help, excuse yourself from the room and call or text the neigh-bor that you need them. They will be there before you know it.

Dear task force,Will the task force be

hosting a lot of events this year like last year? We had fun at them last year.

Tommy 5th grade

Dear Tommy, Yes, we are planning to

have another fun summer with a variety of activi-ties and events to keep youth busy in South St. Paul. Watch for upcom-ing information here in the South St. Paul Voice and on the city’s web-site at www.southstpaul.org, under South St. Paul Mayor’s Youth Task Force.

Do you have a question

for the task force? If so, send it to Dear South St. Paul Youth Task Force, c/o Deb Griffith, com-munity affairs liaison, at [email protected].

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South St. PaulVoice

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Your community news and information sourceC ommunity

By John Kemp Executive Director of

Neighbors, Inc.

Neighbors, Inc.

Jennifer L. Gale, president

We at Neighbors have known for some time that we did not have enough space in our ex-isting building to be able to serve people as well as we would like. The food shelf competes with the Christmas program for space. The Clothes Closet has to store out-of-season clothing under stairwells. A staff person has a desk stuck in a cor-ner at the end of a hall, which they call an office

because there is no oth-er place for them to sit. When the entire board of directors assembles for a meeting there is no space in the conference room for anyone else to attend unless they stand in the corner. The fact is, we

have just plain outgrown our building.

We moved into our building on 13th Avenue in 1985 and purchased the building in 1995. It was completely renovated in 1997. While we don’t have access to accurate program records for the 1995-1998 time period, the data we do have tells us that we are now serv-ing as many as four times the number of people in our major basic needs programs today as we were in 1997, when the building was renovated to its current configura-tion. The building was more than adequate in 1997; it is totally inad-equate today. The Neigh-

With growth comes opportunityBy Mike Schaeffer Schaeffer Financial Ser-vices, Inc., 2010 Chair-man, River Heights Chamber of Commerce

The River Heights Chamber of Commerce is an independent group of over 300 members, includ-ing small business, large in-dustry and individuals who believe working together for the economic good of our communities is in ev-eryone’s best interest. We work hard in collaboration with our federal, state and local government partners, as well as civic and com-munity groups and organi-zations. The River Heights Chamber continues to work with Progress Plus, our Economic Development Foundation, to attract more

business to our great com-munities. Our cities have growth potential, and with this growth come many op-portunities.

Our mission statement is “to aggressively promote the interests of the business community by providing an influential voice and vital services, thus strengthen-ing our local communities and promoting economic growth.”

State policies remain an impediment to improving our economic climate, es-pecially for small businesses – the backbone of the na-tional, state and local econ-omies. Nearly 90 percent of our members are small busi-ness, so success in this area is vital to Dakota County’s economy.

The River Heights

Chamber of Commerce will play a vital role in the future growth of this com-munity. What role will you play in the future growth of our community? Will you commit to cooperation and partnerships to make good things happen in your com-munity? I hope your an-swer is yes.

Please plan to attend our annual meeting dinner and reception at 5 p.m., Thurs., Feb. 18, at Southview Country Club. RSVP by Feb. 4 for the Early Bird discount. The River Heights Chamber and Progress Plus will be recognizing its lead-ership, the 2010 Business of the Year, and the For-est Glewwe Visions of Ex-cellence Award recipient. We hope you can join us. Chamber members recognized

In Dec., The River Heights Chamber of Com-merce honored the follow-ing volunteer leaders at our first “Cheers to Our Volun-teers” luncheon at South-view Country Club: Don Chapdelaine, SKB Envi-ronmental, Forrest Glewwe Visions of Excellence Award recipient; Kelly Garrett, Ekcetera, Rising Star Award

bors board of directors, at its January meeting reviewed and approved a new strategic plan, cov-ering the years 2010 to 2012. In that plan, the board has committed to seeking, acquiring and moving into a new build-ing that will provide space for what we are do-ing now, with expansion room for the future.

We are quite clear about how much space we need (a minimum of 20,000 square feet), where the building needs to be located to be easily accessible by those who come for assistance, and how the building needs to be configured. We would like to find an existing

building and renovate it to our needs, but we will consider acquiring land and building new if that becomes our best alterna-tive.

We know that this will require us to conduct a capital campaign to raise the funds needed to ei-ther acquire and renovate or to build a new build-ing, and we will likely launch that campaign sometime this year.

Moving from 218 13th Ave. S. when the time comes will not be an easy thing to do. This has been Neighbors’ home for 25 of its 38 years of existence. The organiza-tion is highly identified with this building; quite

a few of our volunteers and one of our staff members have been com-ing to this building ever since we moved in.

Yet anyone who has worked in this crowded environment for more than a couple of hours understands the need to find more space. And since our existing build-ing can’t be expanded, we have to look elsewhere.

This is not an easy task. We are having real diffi-culty finding something that meets our needs. We welcome input from any-one and will do our best to keep everyone who cares about Neighbors informed as to our prog-ress.

recipient; Bruce Bairaktaris, Quality Auto Care Center, Ambassador of the Year; and Jason Franke, Jersey’s Bar & Grill, Top Gun Member-ship Award recipient.

The Forrest Glewwe Vi-sions of Excellence Award is given to an individual whose contributions have made a lasting impression on our communities. The award began in 1986 to honor an individual who has applied himself/herself completely to the principles of entrepreneurship, ethics and corporate citizenship. The award acknowledges a person who has contrib-uted to the betterment of human endeavor and life through the creation of quality jobs and employee opportunity; demonstrated personal and business ethi-cal qualities, including ded-ication to family, commu-nity, environment and the private enterprise system; and displayed qualities of entrepreneurship by assum-ing the risk of organizing, developing and managing a successful business enter-prise within our local mar-ketplace. The River Heights Chamber of Commerce was proud to honor Don Chap-delaine from SKB Environ-

mental with this award. To view photos of the

event and award winners, visit: http://www.river-heights.com/gallery.cfm.

For more details on the River Heights Chamber of Commerce, call 651-451-2266, or visit www.riverheights.com.

ADDITIONSREMODELING

ROOFING CONCRETE GARAGESSIDING

651-222-8701www.nillesbuilders.com

Mn Lic# 4690

NILLESBuilders Inc.Back in Time /

from page 8

tries continue to be a vi-tal part of our economic base for decades to come, the community has fo-cused on diversifying its industrial development. We look forward to con-

tinuing success in total community development and improvement of our quality of life.”

Several creative and unique efforts, spurred on by private citizens, contributed to the ul-timate successful rede-velopment of the city in

ways that continue to attract national recogni-tion. Next month’s article will explore some of those grassroots campaigns that combined city efforts and leadership to bring South St. Paul to renewed eco-nomic strength.

Live Music in FebruaryFebruary 5 .....................................Tim Sigler (Country), $5 coverFebruary 6 ..................Brat Pack Radio "Back to the 80s dress-up contest," win prizes, $5 coverFebruary 12 ........................................................... The FugativesFebruary 13 ..................Echos of Elvis Show & Dinner, $20 ticketsFebruary 16 ............................River City Jazz Orchestra, 7-10 pmFebruary 19 ................................................ Dixie Hicks (Country)February 20 .............................. Shane Wyatt (Country), $5 coverFebruary 26 ................ Roy Dawson & the Bootleggers (Country)February 27 ..................................High Noon (Country), $5 cover

Super Bowl Party - February 7Free food, prizes and drink specials

New game room with all new gamesDart and pool leagues welcome

Food & Drink SpecialsSundays - Commanders & Color Guard Breakfast, second and fourth Sunday each month, 8 am-1 pm. Open mic and Jam session, 6-10 pmMon - Fri - Happy hour, 4-6 pmMon - Texas Hold 'em at 7 p.m. Free to play. $100 cash 1st place; Chicken wing night, 5-9 pm, 5 for $2, no take-outsTues - $1.50 Burger Night; 2nd Tuesday Turtle Lake Casino Trip, 9 am, $5, get two free drinks upon return from casinoFourth Tuesday of each month is Comedy Nite, featuring Dennis Carney & his comedy troupe, 7:30-9 p.m., FreeWed - Bar and Mega Bingo, 7 pm startWed & Thur - 7" Coney Night, 2 for $5, biggest & tastiestThurs - Karaoke, 8-close; Ladies Night, $2 drinks and beers for the ladies, 9-closeFri - open until 2 amSat - Mega Tacos $3 and meat raffle,noon-4 pm, open until 2 amSun - Build your own Bloodys @ Happy Hour prices, 10-2 pm., open until 10 p.m.Burger Kitchen - open Mon-Sat, 4-10 pm

Hall rental & special packages available for fundraisers.

www.vfwpost295.org

V.F.W. POST 295South St. Paul • 651-455-1505


Your community news and information sourceB ack in Time

The Wrecking Ball SwingsDowntown South St. Paul disappears

Lois GlewweContributor

One year after the approval of a mas-

sive urban renewal plan for South St. Paul, Swift and Company closed its doors forever on Nov. 29, 1969. According to former Mayor Bruce Baumann, writing for the South St. Paul Cen-tennial History in 1987, “South St. Paul was des-ignated an economically distressed community, which qualified it for federal Economic Devel-opment Authority (EDA) funds after the city es-tablished a local EDA. With that group prompt-ly organized, volunteer commissioners were ap-pointed to represent all segments of the commu-nity. Under their leader-ship the community was successful in acquiring and using millions of federal dollars for major

infrastructure projects to make land more desirable for development.”

The early and most vis-ible evidence of urban re-development was massive destruction. By 1974, over 100 buildings on Grand Avenue and along Concord Street between Wentworth and Armour Avenue had been demol-ished. The only structures from the old city that re-mained at the end of this period were the Exchange Building and the Post Office. Concord Street was renamed Concord Exchange and the new Concord became a four-lane expressway, buzzing traffic right through the former downtown area. The railroad tracks were moved to the riverfront and Grand Avenue east of Concord was renamed John Carroll Boulevard after a St. Paul develop-er who brought several companies to South St.

Paul in the 1970s. In August 1970, a pri-

vate development and lending corporation owned by local share-holders was founded by a group of local business owners and residents. Known as South St. Paul Futures, it sold shares of stock to provide funds for potential developers through loan programs and worked closely with the city, the EDA and the Housing and Redevelop-ment Authority (HRA), which was established in 1964.

As plans proceeded for replacing the demolished businesses with new facil-ities, the city was hit with another massive econom-ic blow when Armour and Company, still the city’s largest employer, closed its doors forever in 1979.

One of the redevelop-ment challenges facing the city had always been

This photo of the southeast corner of Grand and Concord in the early 1970s shows the concentration of businesses along the length of Con-cord prior to redevelopment. Visible are Hank’s Liquors, Hub Bargain Cabinets, Packer Recreation, Hank’s Restaurant, Sweeney’s and the Hook-Em Cow. Today, the Subway Sandwich Shop and parking lot oc-cupy this corner of South St. Paul. Over 100 structures along Concord and Grand Avenue in South St. Paul were demolished between 1968 and 1974.

abandoned properties. Swift and Company’s buildings had nearly all been removed but now the huge Armour plant, covering 40 acres, domi-nated the riverfront area. Another negative impact on the city in 1979 was the closing of the Ex-change Building as the Stockyards Company moved its operations to a new facility that had been built on former Swift and Company property on the east side of Concord Street. The Exchange, always a landmark for downtown South St. Paul, now stood empty and silent on the main corner of the redevelop-ment district.

The other significant

challenge facing rede-velopment was that al-though a few properties had been relocated to new facilities, the nation-al and regional economy was suffering as the 1970s came to a close. Funding simply wasn’t available to assist every former busi-ness owner by providing new construction money. As the years passed, sev-eral blocks along the new Concord Exchange re-mained empty and hopes for successful revitaliza-tion of the downtown area dimmed with the passage of time.

A number of industrial and manufacturing oper-ations were convinced to locate in the area along the riverfront in the

1970s and early 1980s but many closed after only a few years of op-eration. The stockyards were moving toward en-closed pens and efforts were made to enhance the area, but it remained a challenge to convince businesses to relocate to the district next to the stockyards and the aban-doned Armour’s plant. The struggle to restore vitality to the Concord Street area remained a difficult battle.

In his 1987 story in the South St. Paul Cen-tennial history, Baumann said: “While we hope that the livestock and meat processing indus-

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Documents

city budget page

paul city council

city budget teetering

city officials

city expenditures

city reserves

city services

paul city administrator