One of Sleepy Eye’s biggest advocates, Jim Broich, died Sunday (3/11).
Broich served as mayor for the community from 1992 to 2016. He was a city councilman prior to holding that position.
He served the city of Sleepy Eye in so many other ways during his lifetime including volunteering as an EMT for nine years and as Fireman for 34 years.
He also served on the board of Minnesota River Area on Aging and a term as Chair & Vice Chair, MNDOT District 7, ATP, as vice chair, South Central EMS board and Region 9 Revolving Loan Committee. Jim was active in the Lions Club, Legion, Disabled Veterans and the Sleepy Eye Collectors Club.
Anyone who new Jim also knew of his passions which included fishing, hunting, gardening, wine making, bee keeping and craft shows.
The Sleepy Eye Municipal Liquor Store officially closed it’s doors June 15th. Less than a week later, the Sleepy Eye Liquor Store opened theirs next to Schutz Family Foods.
Sleepy Eye once again has a hotel. AmericInn started hosting customers in May.
Schroepfer, Inc., a refrigerated trucking company and truck and trailer repair shop, built a new facility south of Sleepy Eye. Their doors opened for business this spring.
William and Chloe Breczinski opened the door of Faber Metalli Tuesday, May 2. Faber Metalli is a jewelry store. The store offers jewelry made by William, additional fine jewelry, and precious and semi-precious gemstones. The also clean and polish and do jewelry and stone repair.
NAPA has redone it’s parking lot.
The ditch in front of Divine Providence which was torn up when the city ran water to the campgrounds is now being re-seeded.
The Sleepy Eye Medical Center Bike Share project at Sportsman’s Park officially was kicked off June 26th.
The City of Sleepy Eye Event Center is progressing, including the corridor connection to the new AmericInn.
What’s that buzz around town….actually the noise residents have been hearing for the past few days is the maintenance work being done on Sleepy Eye’s water tower. The Sleepy Eye landmark is getting a much needed facelift….including a new paint job.
From left: Molly Schwartz, Maddy Helget and Jessica Schmitz
Sleepy Eye crowned a new Miss Sleepy Eye Saturday night….drum roll, please…..Madalyn (Maddy) Helget daughter of Tammy and Terry will wear the crown for the next year. Attendants included Molly Schwartz, daughter of Judy and Joe and Jessica Schmitz daughter of Lisa and Tony.
Helget takes over duties from this past year’s queen Courtney Schneider.
Also in attendance was former Miss Sleepy Eye and Aquatennial Princess Anna Surprenant.
Mary Woitas was awarded the Commodore Award for her volunteer efforts with photography during the Miss Sleepy Eye events.
Randy Krzmarzick, organizer of the recent 90th anniversary celebration of the day Babe Ruth visited Sleepy Eye (http://sleepyeyeonline.com/corral/) received an interesting phone call. Brent Stevens, the great grandson of Ruth, gave Randy a call after he heard about the local event. Stevens went on to write a blog on his website www.baberuthcentral.com about Ruth’s visit to Slepey Eye.
Randy’s conversation with Ruth also included talk of Brent visiting the community for the 100th Anniversary celebration.
The Homerun story at the end of the blog has a different twist to it on the local front. Randy remembers talking with Bud Kolbe and his version had Ruth hitting the long ball.
Anna Ibberson, Courtney Schneider, Ellen Mathiowetz
Courtney Schneider daughter of Amy Wendinger and Kevin Schneider was crowned the 2012 Miss Sleepy Eye. Ellen Mathiowetz (Judy Mathiowetz and Dean Mathiowetz) and Anna Ibberson (Lisa and Jeff Ibberson) were attendants.
The Sleepy Eye Water Department employees are used to getting calls at all hours of the night for water main breaks but when the alarm company awakened them this morning they were in for quite a shock.
Thursday (2/2) morning at approximately 5 a.m. the call came regarding an alarm sounding in their own facility, the Power Plant.
The sight was something to behold as a main water line burst in the basement of the Power Plant causing quite a mess.
The 10″ line broke underneath the Jaycees meeting room, causing the floor to buckle upward several inches. That was only the beginning of the damage.
Pressure from the water caused freezers and a refrigerator in the adjacent Food Shelf to be knocked over. Tables and chairs were turned upside down. Food was floating throughout the room. Thirty-eight inches of water filled the hallway outside the Food Shelf.
Park and Rec. equipment located in a room across the hallway was heaved about. Down the hallway, over 100 feet away, the electric department felt perhaps the greatest loss. Meters were soaked and equipment was knocked off the shelves. Several street light reflectors were broken. Farther to the west, an estimated 150′ away, transformers soaked up 13″ of water.
City workers spent the day disposing of the damaged food items from the Food Shelf. Items that were able to be salvaged were taken to the Masonic Building for storage. The Food Shelf will be closed until a temporary location can be found.
Heiderscheidt Digging dug a hole in front of the Ambulance Garage door accessing the water line leading into the building to secure the damaged pipe. Businesses from Hwy 4 to 1st Ave were without water for several hours while the maintenance work was being done. Water remains turned off in the Power Plant building. The Public Restrooms will be out of service for several days.
The City’s insurance company will be assessing the damage as soon as possible.
Former Sleepy Eye Police Chief David Seivert was found dead in his home Saturday Nov. 5. Cause of death was not available.
Seivert worked for the SE Police Department from February 2000 until September 2007. He served as Chief of Police from 2005 until 2007 at which time he was dismissed from his position after personal issues interefered with his ability to do his job. Legal action were later brought against the City of Sleepy Eye by Seivert. The case was resolved with an undisclosed cash settlement in 2009.
