Cliff Buchan
News Editor

The rush to secure prime parade watching points along W. Broadway Ave. and Lake Street hit all-time highs this week and the issue will likely end at Forest Lake City Hall.

A flood of tarps and chairs hit the parade route starting as early as last Friday night, some five days in advance of the Fourth of July parade.

Chief of Police Clark Quiring said his department was fielding questions from the public and was forced to deal with pedestrian and vehicle traffic issues. Chairs were posing some pedestrian issues on city sidewalks and Monday’s wind resulted in some tarps being blown in the streets.

Police picked up a number of tarps and were moving chairs on Monday and Tuesday.

Quiring said the issue will be a topic for the city council when it meets at 7 p.m. Monday. “It will be for discussion purposes,” the chief said.

Quiring said the city may be forced to address the issue in a way that will regulate when parade watching points on the public boulevard can be claimed. The city may also want to consider if tarps should be allowed, he said.

Police stay busy

As expected, police in Forest Lake have kept hectic pace during the Fourth of July 4, the chief said.

Fireworks and noise complaints topped the list of police calls. But latter area had an odd source this year — the clock tower at The Plaza, 56 E. Broadway that plays music at the top and at the half hour.

Quiring said police had numerous complaints about the tower music and learned the clock was incorrectly set to play during the A.M. hours and not the P.M. hours.

That meant clock tower music was being played all night long on Friday, Saturday and Sunday before it was finally turned off at 8 a.m. on Monday, Quiring said.

Everything from country music to circus music, the chief said.

“Everybody thought it was the carnival, but it had nothing to do with the carnival,” Quiring said.

The chief said his officers were called to several property damage vehicle crashes with minor injuries, made several arrests for disorderly conduct, but did not experience major issues with public drinking.

Bike theft arrest

An area youth who reported that his bicycle had been stolen on Monday from outside the Forest Lake Library, 220 N. Lake St. had the bike back in record time.

The youth, 17, came to the police department window at 11:58 a.m. to report the bike had been taken within the past 20 minutes.

A short time later an officer on patrol observed a bicycle matching the description of the stolen one.

At the intersection of SW 12th St. and 7th Ave., police arrested Samuel A. McClinton, 22, of 1167 North Shore Drive, for theft of a bike, a gross misdemeanor, the police chief said.

He was taken to the Washington County Jail in Stillwater.

A second man riding a bicycle was also ticketed, but not taken to jail.

Police tagged Benjamin Palmer, 22, of 1243 SW 11th Ave. with misdemeanor offenses of possession of marijuana and drug paraphernalia.

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