There was a lot of excitement at the Lakes Area Youth Service Bureau on Jan. 4 as the thermometer tallying the 2007 fund raiser was completely filled in, and then some. According to Development Manager Pam Trudeau, year-end gifts from Weekes Forest Products Inc., First State Bank of Wyoming, Patriot Bank Minnesota as well as 81 designated donors through the Greater Twin Cities United Way and two  new anonymous donors pushed the agency over it’s community fund raising goal for the first time in the agency’s history.

YSB Executive Director Jeanne Walz was all smiles as board member Bea Zaruba, right, marked the final step signifying that the Lakes Area Youth Service Bureau has reached its fund drive goal for 2007.

Photo By  Jennifer Larson 

After a relatively calm New Year's Eve holiday in Forest Lake, police here saw their activity level increase with a weekend filled with fights and drunk drivers. Chief of Police Clark Quiring said on Monday his department intervened at three bar incidents over the weekend and also arrested three motorists for driving while intoxicated.

Two of the incidents were at the Upper Deck Grill and Bar and Players Beach Club, 55 S. Lake St. At 1:04 a.m. Sunday officers were called to a fight between two women. When police arrived, they found one woman on the ground and observed a second woman kicking the victim, Quiring said. A 34-year-old Forest Lake woman was taken to jail on probable cause fifth-degree assault, a gross misdemeanor. The victim's injuries were minor, the chief said. At 12:17 a.m. on Saturday, officers were called to the bar to investigate a fight between two women. A 19-year-old Wyoming woman was ticketed for gross misdemeanor fifth-degree assault. Quiring said officers were told the woman punched an 18-year-old Circle Pines woman. The extent of her injuries were unknown.

 At 12:30 a.m. on Saturday, police were called to Stella's on 97, 7050 Scandia Trail N., where an East Bethel man, 30, reported he had been punched in the mouth by a second man. The man refused medical treatment. No arrests were made, Quiring said.

The first baby of 2008, born at 4:56 a.m. Jan. 1 at Fairview Lakes Medical Center, Wyoming, is little Claire Elizabeth Tainter of Hugo. Claire, who was not due until Jan. 28, surprised her parents, Crystal and Jeremy Tainter, by arriving four weeks early. Claire weighed a healthy 5 lb. 14 oz. and is 18-1/2 inches long. The Tainters and baby Claire received a large basket filled with gift items, gift certificates and a United States Savings Bond donated by area merchants and gathered by the Fairview Lakes Auxiliary.  Auxiliary board member Mary Ann Cooper of Forest Lake presented the gift.

(Photo Courtesy of Fairview Lakes Medical Center) 

Bruce Carlson remembers what Forest Lake was like when he moved here in 1977. The lake was clogged with weeds and many home owners were forced to use chemicals to knock down the vegetation shooting from the water each summer. A trip through the channel between First and Second lakes was possible if you followed the narrow swath that allowed boats to pass, Carlson says.

(Forest Lake Times File Photo By Cliff Buchan)

Weeds were harvested in First Lake near the channel to the bay area of the city in this file photo from 2001. A Forest Lake City Council decision last month has suspended the lake weed harvesting program for 2008. The program was eliminated to reduce expenditures in the 2008 city budget. 

(Photo By  Cliff Buchan)

When it comes to getting in a weekend run, a little snow, or even a lot of snow, doesn't stop Christine Skaret of Forest Lake. The local woman took to the snow-covered streets in the southwest area of the city Dec. 22, the first full day of winter, for a morning run as snow fell. The area has been hit with several rounds of snow. The new year was welcomed in with below zero temperatures and strong northwest winds.

It was a year of change and progress in the Forest Lake area during 2007. As a new city council took office in Forest Lake, leaders in the city of Wyoming and Wyoming continued their legal battle to merge as one Wyoming. Scandia and Columbus were functioning as cities for the first time.

(Photo By Cliff Buchan)

Library users flocked to the new Forest Lake library which opened last fall at the new county government service center here. The new library spans some 25,000 square feet.