There is no doubt that 2016 was a landmark year in the Heart of the Lakes, both in positive and negative terms.
On the positive side, ground was broken on the Annandale Recreation Park after more than a decade of effort toward that end. Residents and businesses breathed a sigh of relief as Midco completed construction on a broadband network that brings competition to the telecommunications landscape. And reconstruction of one of the area’s most dangerous intersections marked a significant safety improvement for motorists.
On the other hand, Annandale had an unwanted but undeniable connection to the devastating conclusion in the Jacob Wetterling case. Confessed killer Danny Heinrich had lived quietly near downtown from 2008 through his 2015 arrest on child pornography charges.
Thanks to the intervention of a developer from Woodbury, the home was demolished just before Christmas while Patty Wetterling and Jared Scheierl – whom Heinrich abducted and assaulted a few months before Wetterling in 1989 – watched.
Another unwelcome development during the year was the continued encroachment of aquatic invasive species in area lakes, with Lake Sylvia joining Clearwater Lake and Lake John as a zebra mussel host. More dangerously, starry stonewort was discovered in Lake Sylvia near the end of the year. Aggressive treatment was pursued, but no starry stonewort infestation has been eradicated to date.
Additional items of note included leadership changes at the Annandale schools, the shifting pharmacy situation in town, competing proposals to re-purpose the former Community Ed building, and the demolition of the South Haven Municipal Liquor Store.
Here is a brief look at 10 of the top stories in Annandale during 2016. A more complete review of the year is included in a special section with this week’s Advocate.
1. Heinrich developments
The October 2015 arrest of Heinrich and his identification as a "person of interest" in the Wetterling case was a shock to Annandale.
After maintaining his innocence for a year while in prison facing 25 federal child pornography charges, Heinrich, 53, eventually agreed to a deal where he confessed and led authorities to Wetterling’s body near Paynesville in exchange for the dismissal of all but one pornography charge carrying a 20-year prison sentence and the understanding that he would not be prosecuted in the Wetterling case.
Heinrich’s confession in open court on Tuesday, Sept. 6, was national news. After that, the city of Annandale made a series of unsuccessful attempts to purchase Heinrich’s home, which had been foreclosed on, to make sure something positive was done with the property.
The city evidently could not offer enough money, however, and the fate of Heinrich’s home remained in limbo until Woodbury developer Tim Thone purchased the property on Friday, Dec. 16, then worked with his connections in the industry to demolish the house on Friday, Dec. 23.
"It’s like clearing the air of poisons, of the toxins from this place," Patty Wetterling said.
2. Recreation park
After a $4-million referendum was approved in 2015, the Annandale Recreation Park experienced both setbacks and milestone steps this year.
Over the winter months soil borings revealed that poor soil on the western side of the 80-acre site was not suitable for construction, forcing a redesign of the park that moved the tennis courts to the current JV baseball field behind the high school and the shuffling of some of the park’s other features. A longer two-year construction timetable was also adopted, with completion set for the fall of 2017.
On the other hand, bids for the first phase of 2016 work came in significantly below engineer estimates. Phase I work, with a price of over $1.1 million, included overall site grading, the access road, parking lot, storm sewer and other utilities. An official groundbreaking was held on June 6.
"We’ve been working on this project since before you were born," Superintendent Steve Niklaus told group of youth ballplayers at the ceremony, adding that discussions about the park began 13 years ago.
Bids for the second phase will be sought early this year.
3. Broadband solution
Looking back on the few peaks of hope and the deep, dark valleys that comprised Annandale’s winding journey toward a solution to its broadband struggles, it would be difficult to overstate the significance of Midco’s entrance to the Annandale market.
"Today ends a five-year quest to adequately connect the city of Annandale to the rest of the world," Mayor Dwight "Dewey" Gunnarson told a large assembly of contractors, politicians, city and Midco representatives and more during a groundbreaking ceremony on Thursday, May 19.
Actual construction began in April and was completed around Sept. 20, over a month ahead of schedule. Midco reported a significant number of customers were switching from their Windstream service, but Windstream said it was committed to competing in Annandale and highlighted improvements made to its own network in recent months.
"That’s the perfect scenario for Annandale, where now there is an environment of competition rather than a monopoly," said Gunnarson.
4. Solar
After more than two years of discussion about what eventually became a 70-acre, 6-megawatt solar facility near Annandale, the city dropped its resistance to the project in January. The issue had gone to the Minnesota Court of Appeals, but a new vegetative screening plan mitigated some of the city’s concerns about negative visual impact.
A settlement agreement with Enel Green Power North America included a community donation of $25,000, and another $450,000 for the use of a small portion of city land for infrastructure. That money has been put toward projects like the Annandale Recreation Park and improvements to Municipal Park, and has enabled the city council to seek help from consultants in developing a new downtown streetscape vision.
Actual construction of the solar array began on May 5, and was all but complete by the turn of the year.
According to Enel, the $290-million, 100-megawatt, 16-site project is the largest utility-scale distributed solar plant in Minnesota, and it is Enel’s largest solar project in North America. Three of the 16 total sites are located in Wright County, with one array near Annandale and additional sites near Buffalo and Montrose.
5. Aquatic invasives
Despite the location of a boat and trailer decontamination station in Annandale in May, zebra mussels were discovered in Lake Sylvia in June. No treatment options were deemed feasible at the time.
The far more dangerous starry stonewort, an algae that resembles dense mats of weeds and prevents swimming, fishing and boating, was discovered at the public access in the fall.
Intensive treatment began in late October, which involved closing the public access, cordoning off the area, performing the first Diver Assisted Suction Harvest in Minnesota, and following that up with two chemical treatments.
It remains to be seen if the efforts succeeded in eradicating the threat, which has never been done elsewhere. Greater Lake Sylvia Association personnel made extensive efforts to educate the community about the potentially disastrous impacts on the local economy if starry stonewort becomes well established in the Heart of the Lakes.
6. School leadership
Annandale Elementary welcomed a new principal this fall, former student Jonathan Klippenes, whose mother Peggy taught at Bendix Elementary from 1988 to 2001.
Klippenes replaced Allyson Kuehn, who served as principal for three years and left to become the Director of Special Education for the Sherburne Northern Wright Special Education Cooperative.
Another landmark change came with 64-year-old Superintendent Steve Niklaus’ late-November announcement that he will retire at the end of the 2016-17 school year after 25 years as superintendent and 31 total years with the Annandale district. Before becoming superintendent he was the principal of Annandale High School.
District staff said they were grateful for the opportunity to serve under a "once in a lifetime" leader.
7. Pharmacies
A fast-developing shift in Annandale’s pharmacy landscape began in July when Thrifty White earned city approval to build a new store on Highway 55 in July.
By the store’s late-October opening Thrifty White announced that it had bought out Keaveny Drug, and the next month Thrifty White announced that it would buy out Arenson Annandale Pharmacy in December.
During the transition, owner Mark Arenson said his store was the last independent pharmacy in Wright County. Craig Bechtold, the pharmacist at Arenson’s for 43 years, said he would work limited hours at Thrifty White.
The Arenson store had been a staple of Annandale’s Main Street since its 1971 opening. While the store, without the pharmacy, remained open until the turn of the year, Arenson said he would accept offers on the property in 2017.
8. Intersection redesign
After a series of crashes that included a fatality late in 2014 and into 2015, a concerted effort by law enforcement, legislators, highway engineers and businesses secured funding for traffic lights and turn signals at the intersection of Highway 55 and County Road 3 near Malco.
The redesign work began in mid-August, and three months later the traffic lights were activated on Tuesday, Nov. 15.
"Hopefully this will provide a good safety benefit there for people trying to turn onto 55," said Minnesota Department of Transportation engineer Tom Dumont. "We should have some more storage for left turning traffic so they don’t have to pull off onto the shoulder when a train is passing. So overall, hopefully we’ll see a reduction in crashes here. It should help with the right-angle crashes."
9. Community Ed building
After the former Community Education building at the corner of Chestnut Street and Cherry Avenue sat vacant for nearly three years with little to no interest from buyers, there was a sudden flurry of activity in the first week of April.
On Monday, April 4, Vicki Morgan came before the city council with a request on behalf of the Annandale Area Community Team that the city consider working with the school district to acquire the building and convert it to a senior citizen-based community center with potential uses for all ages.
The next day the district said it had received an offer to purchase the building from a local, private party. Sarah Wiles, who made the offer, hoped to use the building as a daycare center to address a shortage of child care in the Annandale area.
The school board met in a special session on Monday, April 18, and quickly agreed to sell the building to Wiles rather than paying to have the city take it.
Numerous people spoke on social media about a shortage of child care in the community during the process, and Little Learners Child Care opened on Monday, Aug. 22, with 55 children enrolled and plans for incremental expansion going forward.
10. Muni demolished
After heavy rains flooded the South Haven Municipal Liquor Store in July of 2015, damaging it beyond a reasonable cost of repair, the city was left in limbo for the next year. There were hopes the building could be sold to someone who would reopen a business, but that possibility never materialized.
In May the council awarded a bid for demolition, and the work was completed on Nov. 16. Until the project was finished the council was unable to determine what the tax impact of the project would be on residents, since a privately owned building was attached. As a result, the city’s preliminary tax levy was approved with an 18-percent rise, but after a successful demolition that number was lowered to 7 percent and the 16-month headache was over.
Honorable mention
■ While the 2016 general election was a surprise to many nationally, it was a fairly tame season at the local level. No city or school board incumbents were voted out, and little campaigning was done.
Annandale Mayor Dwight "Dewey" Gunnarson ran unopposed and will begin a second term in January, while Matthew Wuollet joined the council and Jullie Hastings retained her seat in a three-way race for two seats.
School board incumbents Katie Jones, Jon Scheer and Paul Zabinski won re-election against challenges from two opponents.
In South Haven, Misty Bayerl will join a council headed by incumbent councilor David Kothe, who will take over the mayor’s chair in 2017. Jessica Jarvis and Dustin Nicka, both incumbents, were also elected.