Observations on roadwork, carp festival and gun range

As you can see by all of the earth moving equipment around town, construction is a full go. The deluge of rains obviously have not helped the construction any, but the bright side is it helped the lakes. We could take an idea from Trollhaugen and host the first ever Lindstrom Mud Run on First Street. Think of it, we could dine locally, venture over to the mud run and then drop by the muni for a drink.

Pipe dream I know. A few people have asked me how long they are going to have to read about the construction and local businesses in my column. The answer is until it is done. Until we are sure that each and every business has been given the opportunity to make it through construction with minimal financial damage. One of my biggest fears is that my column will be seen as a weekly whine-fest. If it comes off that way, I whole-heartedly apologize. Parking seems to be the hot-button issue with construction. There is a lot more parking available than people realize. Along with the municipal lots in Lindstrom, you can also park on Linden and Newell Avenues. Mary Ann Jindra is also allowing people to park behind Gustaf’s in their lot.

Please do not let the fear of not finding a spot deter you from venturing into town. One more item on the construction. A bunch of people have been asking why there was so many trees taken down on both ends of Lindstrom. I asked the same thing and I finally got an answer. On the Arby’s end, where they are building the bridge, the trees were taken down to build a pond. Why build a pond by the lake? It will be a filtering pond that will clean the run off water before discharging it into the lake. So think of it as a clarifier pond. as far as the giant pines taken down at the Middle School, those were taken down to make room for the new bike path that will span across the length of the Middle School’s property. Once I heard the explanation for the removal of trees, it made me feel a little better, I hope it does you as well. Make sure to register for the 2012 Carp Festival.

There is only two weeks before the festival. Steve Levey has told me that participant numbers are way up this year. If we can get Mother Nature to cooperate, we will have the biggest festival yet. If you are not a fisherman, please stop by the festival anyway. There is a ton of stuff happening all day long including a 5k race/walk. For more information or to register, please call Steve at 651-462-7900 or 257-2966. You can also reach Steve at [email protected]. I will be fishing in the tournament this year, so rest assured, there will be plenty of Carp left for you to catch.

Many people have been asking when the Antiques Roadshow that features Vince and Christy Marrier will run. The show that was filmed in Minneapolis is broken into three segments and the first of them aired on Monday. Fortunately, the Marriers were not featured on that one. So we have two more Mondays to hopefully catch the Chisago couple with their one-of-a-kind hand carved table. I believe the show runs Mondays at 7 p.m. on Channel 2 or PBS. We are planning on having a Roadshow party, much like an Emmy party at our house. So we were in Iowa recently, visiting relatives. Let’s be honest, what other reason could there possibly be for visiting Iowa? Anyway, we decided to take a little ride around my Grandmother’s town. We like to visit parks with the kids and we stumbled upon a park that I had never been to. It was a city park that was more like a state park.

Huge, with a camping facility, a landing, a swimming beach, hiking trails and tons of playground equipment. As we meandered our way through the park, we passed a playground, then we cam upon a large berm. As we rounded the corner I could not believe my eyes. There was a shooting range. Not a archery range, but a full blown gun range. There was no supervision, just a couple of young men shooting guns off as we drove by. Here we passed by the shooters no more than 15 yards as they stared at us with loaded guns. I was speechless. The range wasn’t more than 50 yards from a playgound. My granmother joked that Iowa parks serve the needs of everyone.

“Hey kids, go play on the swings, Daddy is going to shoot his 44 magnum.” Yikes. Saturday is Stamp Out Hunger day in Chisago County. Mail carriers are asking you to please leave a non-perishable food item in your mailbox. The food items will be collected and donated to the local food shelves. If you are leaving more than one item, please put them in a bag. Thank you for giving.