Residents of the city of St. Paul may soon see a new business rise on the corner of Third and Kendall streets. Monday afternoon, during the St. Paul Planning and Zoning Commission’s meeting, members of the commission who were present approved four zoning permits, including one for the construction of a unique structure that aims to have a chilling effect on the community the business serves. “This will be down on Third and Kendall streets, where his existing storage sheds are,” said St. Paul Planning and Zoning Administrator Matt Helzer when discussing a zoning permit submitted by Lowell Poland. “He is going to go ahead and extend [the storage sheds] out further, and then, on the very south end off of Kendall, he is going to put in what is called a Polar Ice Station.” According to Helzer, the ice station, which the planning and zoning administrator noted on multiple occasions will look like a drive-up ATM, will feature a circle drive off of Kendall Street and will allow customers to pull up and “get ice, water, or whatever. “He said they have them in Kearney and they are really popular,” Helzer said of the ice stations. In response to questions from the commissioners concerning how the station would work, Commissioner Tyler Solko said that there are a variety of models, and, while noting that he had no idea how the station being planned in St. Paul would work, he said he had researched the idea in the past.

Pawnee volunteers lend a hand harvesting traditional crop

The Howard County Board of Commissioners’ August 24th regular meeting opened with roads discussion and covered a number of items, with the meeting extending well into the afternoon. Currently, Howard County Roads Superintendent Janet Thomsen noted, the roads department has twelve motor graders and nine routes. With recent hires at the department, the superintendent said she was in the process of changing routes and potentially increasing the number of routes to ten.

e inability to staff and get someone in here to transition is what led me to do it now. That’s the main reason...” - Shawn Burkhardt TheofficeoftheHoward County clerk underwent a bit of a shakeup this month.

It’s back to school time at St. Paul’s Little Sprouts Preschool at 920 Jackson Street, with classes set to begin this Thursday, August 25th. The 2022–2023 academic year will mark the first full school year of operation for the preschool, which was inaugurated for a truncated 2021-2022 spring semester in March. The founding of Little Sprouts was the first largescale project undertaken by the St. Paul Early Childhood Foundation (ECF)—a nonprofit aimed at increasing the availability of preschool and daycare in St. Paul and providing childcare—and education-related financial assistance to local parents and businesses—which attained its 501(c)(3) status in February.