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Serving Carlton and Pine Counties Since 1895

Storybook Character Day in Moose Lake School

Melissa

Kindergartners at Moose Lake School enjoyed participating in Storybook Character Day in January. They dressed as a storybook or nursery rhyme character and gave clues for their classmates to guess who they were. They also enjoyed having local author, Melissa (Manley) Vocelka, come to read the book she’d written, O Mighty Mississippi, and tell them what it’s like to be an author. It was a fun day!

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How to close a state nursery, part 2

by Dan Reed

Legislation passed this last session to dismantle 100 year old State promotion of planting trees through economical seedling production in Badoura by Akeley, MN and Willow River’s General Andrews Nursery has caught the local people by surprise but now is prompting action from many groups in the State.

At a meeting of the Minnesota Soil and Water Conservation District (SWCD) Forestry Association held at the Fireside Inn in McGregor on Thursday, January 19, Jim Nynas, a representative of the Carlton County SWCD and the association’s legislative lobbyist, guided unanimous support for a change in legislation to allow SWCD groups to buy spring seedlings from the State Nurseries. “This is just the first step,” Nynas explained. “This year is a bonding year for the Legislature and major legislative changes in laws is discouraged. This allows SWCD to purchase trees from the State Nurseries in hopes that the election in the fall and the new legislative session in a year’s time will address the aggressive moves in this last session to systematically over a few years close the State Nurseries. The fate of the Nurseries is not sealed. We accomplish what we can do now and organize and plan for the next session. Steps at first can be small but work toward the right direction and goal.”

Thom Petersen, governmental liaison for the Farmer’s Union, brought a resolution to the meeting from his group strongly supporting a strong State Nursery presence in Willow River and Akeley. “This resolution by our board,” Peterson said, “not only strongly puts Farmer’s Union behind the State Nurseries but also allows us to lobby the legislature to change legislation and renew a commitment for the State Nursery programs. They have been self-sufficient and discontinuing their operations would not save any money to cover State budget deficits.”

About 1/3 million trees are sold through the SWCD’s - most are geared into different types of conservation practices. “We buy trees from private nurseries and the State Nurseries,” Nynas continued. “52% of our tree sales this last year were bought from private nurseries and 48% were bare-root stock from the State Nurseries. We are not taking an anti-private nursery position. We work with both sources. There is room for both services.”

Several of the attendees at the meeting spoke to this reporter as we mingled during breaks in the meeting agenda. The concern was the same. Closing the State Nurseries which are now self-sufficient provide a significant amount of trees for reforestation and conservation practices. Private nurseries feel that they must compete in price with the product provided by the State Nurseries. “Why would we want to change the present tree production structure,” explained the representative from Crow Wing SWCD. “Competition is there now. I believe there will be a big increase in tree cost if the State Nurseries are forced out of business.”

The State DNR is circulating a proposal for the future of the two State nurseries presently, as directed by Legislative action this last year calling for an overview of State Nursery tree production. The Governor is involved. Both the DNR and the Governor have strongly come out this last year in retaining two vibrant State Nurseries. Information from the DNR proposal should be available for next week’s publication.

February 7 party caucuses are just around the corner. Several of the party activists have voiced alarm and will push for resolutions in support of the State Nurseries and are calling for a major petition drive and lobbying effort to keep the Nurseries open and expanding.

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Star Gazette new deadline

The deadline for submissions to the Star Gazette will be Mondays at 4:00 p.m. from this point forward.

Please consider this when organizing your articles and advertisements as we are trying to alleviate our workload that we’ve been experiencing on Tuesdays, which makes it very difficult for us to put the whole newspaper together in a timely fashion and still get home at a decent hour.

We wish to thank all those people in advance for their courteous respect for helping us move forward with better efficiency and getting their materials in by the new deadline.

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Star Gazing

Antique Appraisals

with Steve Wesely
Starts on Tuesday, February 7th at 1 p.m. at the History Center 900 Folz Blvd, Moose Lake.

Pictures of 1918 Fire

Courtesy of the Carlton County Historical Society, are on display at TJ’s Country Corner in Mahtowa.

“Booya” Stew

Nickerson Bar on Highway 23E. Saturday, January 28th 12:00 to 4:00

Celebrate Recovery

A Christ-centered recover program that meets every Tuesday from 5:45 pm to 8:30 pm at the Moose Lake Covenant Church. Includes dinner, worship time, large group lesson and small group time. Childcare is also offered. Call Linda at 218-206-4376, Gary at 485-4640 or Bill at 218-390-2210 or just come and join us!

The Moose Lake Area Senior citizens

Will not have a meeting in February. The next meeting will be Thursday March 15, 2012 in the Senior Dining room right after the meal.
There will be free Bingo with cash prizes. Call 485-4937 the day before if you wish to purchase a meal. All area Senior Citizens are welcome to attend the meeting.

AARP tax preparation

Joe Mogen, local coordinator for the AARP Tax preparation site in Moose Lake, announced that volunteers will again be providing FREE tax preparation weekly.
AARP volunteers will be available for tax preparation at the Moose Lake City Council Chambers starting on Wednesday February 8, 2012. The service will be available from 9:00 am until 3:00 pm each Wednesday thru April 11th.
Please call 218-485-8225 to make an appointment, which allows the volunteers to serve more individuals. This service is available to low and moderate income people with special emphasis on people over 60. You do not need to be a member of AARP or a Senior Citizen to participate .

January 28, 2012

Leave Tamarack at 11a and ride to Jackson’s Hole in Lawler. SNOW OR NO SNOW!
Registration is in Tamarack from 9a-11a at the Tamarack Sno-Flyer’s Club House
Coffee, Hot Chocolate and Goodies will be available
Registration is also available in Lawler after 1130a
There is no registration fee and vintage snowmobiles will not need a trail permit as they will be covered under our event permit.
Vintage sleds to be judged must arrive in Lawler by 2p.
Judging will begin at 2p and results announced after the judge’s decisions are completed.
Trophies awarded to vintage sleds only, 25 years or older.
Soup and Hot Dogs donated by Jackson’s Hole, serving from 12n-2p.
For more information you can contact the club at 218-768-SNOW
Wayne Bobendrier 218-426-3283 or Jackson’s Hole 218-768-2162.

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