Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s High School Class of 1979 held their 45-year class reunion on August 3, 2024, at the Dawg Haus Bar and Grill in Sleepy Eye. Pictured in the front row (left): Daune Hoffmann, Kasota; LaMonte Heiderscheidt, Sleepy Eye; Dan Seidl, Sleepy Eye; Loren Ludewig, Sleepy Eye; Brad Hoffmann, Sleepy Eye; Dennis Guldan, New Ulm; and Dan Bauer, New Ulm. Back row: Eileen Sellner, Redwood Falls; Bob Bertrand, Redwood Falls; Monica (Sellner) Lax, Sleepy Eye; Mike Gangelhoff, St. Paul; Randy Zinniel, Sleepy Eye; Lisa (Peichel) Pelzel, Sleepy Eye; Maurice Seidl, New Ulm; Darold Krzmarzick, Sleepy Eye; Nellie (Sellner) Richter, Comfrey; Joyce (Berdan) Krenz, Sleepy Eye; Lois (Ludewig) Fromm, New Ulm; Deb (Mages) Fischer, Sleepy Eye; and Kathy (Schroepfer) Mathahs, Ventura, IA.
Sleepy Eye St. Mary’s High School Class of 1966 held their 58-year class reunion on August 2, 2024, at Gerald Braulick’s residence in Sleepy Eye. Pictured in the front row (left): Connie (Lee) Tretter, Brainerd; Janet (Sellner) Braun, Annandale; Alice (Hoffmann) Tanley, New Ulm; and Beverly (Forster) Cleary, Brandon. Second row: Leon Spaeth, Maple Valley, WA; DeeAnn (Pietig) Gieseke, Sleepy Eye; Jeanne (Miller) Hume, Eagle Lake; Brenda (Frederickson) Walden, Sleepy Eye; Ken Krzmarzick, Stewart; Martin Hoffmann, Sleepy Eye and Kathy (Suess) Goetze, Duluth. Back row: Dennis Krzmarzick, Sleepy Eye; Jim Fischer, Sleepy Eye; Gerald Braulick, Sleepy Eye; Richard Sellner, Sleepy Eye; Gary Krzmarzick, New Ulm; James Braun, Annandale; Lynn Bertrand, Annandale; Richard Filzen, New Ulm; and Barb (Hillesheim) Filzen, New Ulm.
The Sleepy Eye Police issued “tickets” for children caught wearing a helmet while biking in Sleepy Eye this past summer. Everyone’s name was then entered in a raffle for two bikes to be given away. The 2024 Bike Raffle winners are Spencer Fix and Mathew Olson.
Officer Shawn Bohnen presents Matthew Olson with a bike certificiate.
Spencer Fix accepts his raffle winning ticket from Officer Elliott Waterbury.
Several businesses and a community fire department agreed to pay civil penalties to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for water quality, air quality, waste, stormwater and wastewater violations in the first half of 2024.
More than 100 penalties were handed out.
Penalties are calculated using several factors, including harm done or potential for harm to the environment, the economic benefit the company gained by failing to comply with environmental laws, or how responsive and cooperative a regulated party was in correcting problems.
Local penalties were:
• The Henderson Fire Department will pay $10,813 for failing to obtain a burning permit and remove prohibited materials, including asbestos, prior to conducting a training burn project in 2022.
• Heartland Corn Products in Winthrop will pay $11,200 after tests showed the ethanol facility emitted both volatile organic compounds and particulate matter above what is allowed by its permit.
A carbon dioxide scrubber failed an emission stack test for emitting volatile organic compounds at a rate of 37% above the permitted limit. The investigation confirmed that due to a misinterpretation of pretest numbers, operating levels for the scrubber had been set too low. Another stack test on this scrubber, two months later, demonstrated compliance.
A filtering baghouse also failed a stack test for emitting particulate matter or PM, small particulate matter or PM10, and very small particulate matter or PM2.5 at a rate of 120% above permitted limits. Additional investigation showed that one of the bags in the baghouse was not properly installed, leading to a decrease in the control efficiency of the baghouse. The company corrected the problem and a stack test the following month demonstrated compliance.
Heartland Corn Products has completed all required corrective actions.
• Agropur Inc., doing business as Le Sueur Cheese Co., applied too much industrial byproduct to the land, resulting in rates of nitrogen and phosphorus that exceeded the allowed limits by more than 10%. The violations occurred in 2022 near its cheese production facility in Le Sueur.
MPCA staff said the company also filed false or inaccurate information on annual reports, failed to issue reports in a timely manner to the MPCA, failed to keep adequate records and to collect and analyze soil samples every three years.
The company is paying a $11,823 civil penalty and has completed a series of corrective actions.
• Stickney Hill Dairy will pay a nearly $15,000 fine and take corrective steps for improperly discharging industrial waste into a city curb and gutter stormwater system in Nicollet.
An MPCA investigation found that the dairy discharged an undetermined amount of raw goat milk product on April 11, 2023, and May 19, 2023.
• Alliance Building Corp. had construction stormwater violations at Sleepy Eye Apartments after failure to prevent liquid washout of waste and failure to identify corrective actions.
An MPCA staff inspection in summer 2023 confirmed other violations including, failing to document the estimated quantities of soil erosion prevention and sediment control best management practices for the project.
The Sauk Rapids company will pay a $14,475 civil penalty and has completed a series of corrective actions.
Starting Aug. 1, the Minnesota Child Passenger Safety Law goes into effect, bringing new guidance on child seats, booster seats and seat belts for kiddos.
The new child restraint laws will require:
- A child younger than age 2 is to be properly restrained in a rear-facing child passenger restraint system with an internal harness until the child reaches the weight or height limit of the child passenger restraint system.
- A child who is at least age 2 and exceeds the rear-facing weight or height limit of the child passenger restraint system is to be properly restrained in a forward-facing child passenger restraint system with an internal harness until the child reaches the weight or height limit of the child passenger restraint system.
- A child who is at least age 4 and exceeds the weight or height limit of the forward-facing child passenger restraint system is to be properly restrained in a booster seat and secured with a safety belt.
- A child who is at least age 9 or exceeds the weight or height limit of the child passenger restraint system or the booster seat is to be secured with a safety belt adjusted and fastened around the child’s body to fit correctly.
- If a child falls into more than one category, then the child must be placed in a safer restraint for them. For example, a child who is 2.5 years old and weighs 35 pounds but has a car seat with a rear-facing limit of 40 pounds must stay rear-facing even though they are over 2 years old.
Additionally, the new guidelines said children under 13 years old must sit in the back seat if possible.
The Aug. 1 changes also state that every driver who has children under the age of 18 in a vehicle must have them in a child safety seat or restrained by a seat belt.
The Brown County Sheriff’s Office “NO WAKE ZONE” on Lake Hanska will remain in effect up to and include 07-22-2024.
As of 07-23-2024, the Brown County Sheriff’s Office “NO WAKE ZONE” on Lake Hanska will be lifted.
The Brown County Sheriff’s Office would also like to remind those who are enjoying spending time on the lakes and rivers to always wear your life jackets.
State Patrol
• Responded to a two-vehicle crash on TH 60 at 650th Ave., Butterfield township, Watonwan County at 2:48 p.m. Monday. A 2025 Peterbilt semi driven by Todd Michael Hammerschmidt, 51, Sleepy Eye, was southbound on 650th Ave. when it collided with a 2024 International semi driven westbound on TH 60 by Summer Lynn Miller, 29, Tony, Wi. Miller was transported to St. James Hospital with non-life threatening injuries. Hammerschmidt was not injured. Both drivers wore seat belts. Alcohol was not involved. The Watonwan County Sheriff’s Office, Butterfield Fire Dept. and Mountain Lake Ambulance
