Goodbye 2018.

 

Hello 2019.

 

It’s time again to look back over 2018 at the events that shaped the year.

 

Here we’ve chosen stories that had the most impact -- or received the most attention.

 

 

Ex-Bulldog   student/athlete Kayla (Gudmundson) Floyd (27) took on the Ironman challenge in Hawaii last year. Kayla, a former track and cross country star at Becker and Winona State, participated in the triathalon consisting of a 2.4-mile swim, a 112-mile bicycle ride and a 26.22-mile marathon run — without a  break.

 

Kayla finished 40th out of 50 in her age group.

 

 

Four-year-old Ivan Bender, who is battling kidney cancer and has a passion for big trucks and vehicles — spent a little over an hour visiting the Becker Fire Dept., in February where he received his own turnout gear andexamined the big rigs and sprayed the hoses.

 

Bender also visited the public works building in Becker, viewed some squad cars, played with the county’s K-9 dog (Riggs) and took a ride in a snowplow. Ivan was honored at a benefit in April and is the son of Adam and Ariel Bender.

 

 

Johnny Crocker, a 2017 BHS graduate, was selected into the U.S. Army’s Warrant Officer Program last March, a high school to flight school program to become a helicopter pilot.

 

Crocker hopes to have a career in aviation and 20 or so years from now, he hopes to be getting ready to retire from the Army at the rank of WO4(Warrant Officer 4).

 

 

Early last year, Charlie’s Sports Bar & Grill opened their doors to a new family restaurant in the building that once housed Nix and several other establishments.

 

Charlie’s is owned by Ray and Tracie Hogrefe of Clearwater and they employ 24 workers.

 

 

Joe Prom, Becker Public Schools director of business services for the last eight years, issued his resignation in April to attain a position at a school district closer to his home town of St. Cloud.

 

Kevin Januszewski — former executive director of business services in St. Cloud — was hired to replace him.

 

 

In mid-April, a late night fire destroyed much of the Russell Erickson farm in Becker Twp. due to possibly a lightning strike. Forty-five  firefighters from six different area fire departments (Becker/Santiago, Clear Lake, Foley, Big Lake, Elk River and Zimmerman) helped battle the blaze, however the fire consumed over half of the Erickson farm’s machinery including their grinder/mixer, a combine, four tractors, an antique tractor and hay (three thousand bales) — all pivotal items necessary to running a productive dairy farm. 

 

 

June Hubbard, a secretary with the Becker Police Dept., retired in June with a plethora of experience and memories she can look back on in retirement. 

 

Hubbard began her career at BPD in 1987 working 20 hours a week at a pay rate of $4.50/hr. She had been through three fulltime and two interim police chiefs during her tenure.

 

 

Dan Mondloch, a St. Cloud landscape artist,  completed a mural in June  along the walls above the pool area at the community center.

 

Mondloch began meeting with BCC staff in August of 2017 while staff worked to garner a grant to help support the costs. Planning for the artwork took months and various wildlife, plant culture and seasonal  characteristics were conceptualized. 

 

 

As part of LDI/LPI’s 100 year anniversary, Ann Miller — the daughter of Chairman Mike Fiterman — spearheaded the organization’s 100th Anniversary Initiative in July called “The Great Gratitude Tour”.

 

Miller and her entourage mounted a bus across America to begin a three-week tour of “life, liberty and the pursuit of gratitude.” They made stops in Georgia, Tennessee, Texas and visited their Mexicali and Tijuana plants. Then on to San Diego, Phoenix, Rock Island, IL, Omaha and in July, Minnesota.

 

 

Maddie Janssen, 17, of Becker — along with a group of 10 teenagers from a Becker small group — returned home in August after experiencing a week-long Adventure Camp at the Be There Ranch in Wyoming.

 

The kids took no electronics on the trip. That meant no phones, no tablets, no laptops and no watches. The idea was to disconnect from the modern world and establish social interaction within themselves and get in touch with God. 

 

 

Jason Jerome Rothmeyer, 38 of Clear Lake led police on a high speed chase in early August which resulted in the death of an 18-year-old boy from Dassel.

Rothmeyer was observed to be leaving Pebble Creek’s restaurant in an altered state and when police tried to pull him over, he sped up and tried to evade capture.

 

After a lenghty chase, Rothmeyer’s vehicle hit Kyle Scott Foley’s vehicle that was towing a trailer. Foley’s truck contained three individuals — one was ejected from the vehicle and transported by air helicopter to North Memorial Hospital with life-threatening injuries while the other went to St. Cloud Hospital. 

 

 

Dr. Bruce Kuhlmann  was honored in September for his more than 20 years of health service at CentraCare in Becker.

 

Dr. Kuhlmann was instrumental in opening the Becker CentraCare Clinic 20+ years ago after practicing medicine for 17 years in the state of Washington, before moving to Minnesota. He was married to Sharon Kuhlmann, a registered nurse and licensed marriage and family therapist in Becker. They divorced a few years ago.

 

 

Aimee Schulz, senior in genetics at the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences in Iowa and 2015 BHS graduate, won a Conviron Scholar Award presented by the American Society of Plant Biology in October.

 

Schulz is part of a cohort of 25 awardees selected from an applicant pool of 200 graduate and undergraduate students.  As part of this award, Aimee will receive extensive mentoring and guidance from the society and is currently applying for PhD programs in plant biology.

 

 

A St. Cloud man was charged in connection to a fatal wrong-way crash in Waite Park in July that killed two men — one from Clearwater, MN and one from Wisconsin. Barnett entered a Norgaard plea in court in October, acknowledging there is enough evidence for a jury to convict him, but he is unable to recall facts due to intoxication or amnesia.

 

Barnett, 28, was identified as the driver of a car that witnesses say was speeding before crossing the median and striking another vehicle that was owned by Nelson and being test driven by Tomlinson.

 

Officers say they found an aerosol bottle of dusting cleaner inside of Barnett's vehicle. Officers later learned that Barnett had a history of huffing dusting cleaner to get high. Barnett was seen "huffing dusting cleaner and falling over" a week earlier.