Mike Longaecker
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Mike Longaecker is the regional public safety reporter for RiverTown Multimedia. His coverage area spans St. Croix and Pierce counties. Longaecker served from 2011-2015 as editor of the Woodbury Bulletin. A University of Wisconsin-River Falls graduate, Longaecker previously reported for the Red Wing Republican Eagle and for the Forum Communications Minnesota Capitol Bureau. You can follow him on Twitter at @Longaecker
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The new Bielenberg Sports Center field house represents the latest iteration in a push for a Woodbury sports complex that stretches back to the 1980s. The city’s comprehensive parks and trails plan of 1986 named a major recreational complex in Woodbury as a new priority. By 1994, that effort had built enough of a groundswell that the city proposed a $7.8 million referendum to voters that included the construction of an 80-acre recreation complex at Bailey Road and Tower Drive – now Radio Drive. The referendum, which also included financing for 14 neighborhood parks, passed 2,033 to 1,
NOTE: This is a sample of recent incidents involving the Woodbury police. All subjects are presumed innocent until proven guilty. Police were called Aug. 26 to TCF Bank, 8432 Tamarack Village, for a woman verbally harassing customers. The woman, a Lake Elmo resident, had calmed down by the time police arrived. A Leyland Trail resident reported Aug. 27 that it appeared someone had walked around her yard pouring a substance that dyed the grass in a zigzag pattern. No suspects. Police conducting surveillance at 12:23 a.m.
For eight years straight until his retirement, Rick Light rode his bike to work at Woodbury High School. The 58-year-old retired from teaching in June. But as for the biking? He’s nowhere near hitting the brakes. Light and his wife Connie are training for what could be their biggest biking adventure yet.
The overcast skies never opened up Friday afternoon, but that didn't keep a whole lot of people from getting soaked in Woodbury. Woodbury Mayor Mary Giuliani Stephens joined staff at Woodbury Senior Living by participating in the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge.
NOTE: This is a sample of recent incidents involving the Woodbury police. All subjects are presumed innocent until proven guilty. -- Police responded Aug. 7 to a hunting complaint on Dale Road. The hunter was located and had been approved for shotgun hunting of ducks and geese. -- A Woodbury woman reported Aug. 7 that a wheelbarrow was on fire on Lochaven Drive. Officers arrived to find the fire had burned through the wheelbarrow and was burning unattended. The fire was extinguished with a garden hose.
Present-day Woodbury bears scarce resemblance to the bucolic community of Glenn Ickler’s youth. Growing up here in the 1940s and 50s on his family’s Military Road homestead meant a simpler life without indoor plumbing or even neighbors. Phone calls were placed on a 12-line party line and a call to St. Paul was long distance. Big boxes?
NOTE: This is a sample of recent incidents involving the Woodbury police. All subjects are presumed innocent until proven guilty. A Woodbury man reported July 25 that he bought a computer from a Miami, Fla., man through Craigslist and wired him the funds but never received the computer. A resident in the 10000 block of Waters Edge Lane reported July 25 that there was an intruder in the home.
A potent Mounds View offense hit on all cylinders early Thursday in its Week 1 game, earning a dominant 36-7 road win against Woodbury. The Mustangs built a mighty 27-point first-half lead and never looked back against a young Royals squad that head coach Andy Hill said didn’t exude the necessary confidence required to compete with Mounds View – slated to be among the top teams in the Suburban East Conference. “They came out and handed it to us,” Hill said after the game.
A suspect who took his own life during an armed robbery in June was a convicted murderer whose associates spent weeks casing a Woodbury jewelry store, according to information made public in a search warrant. The warrant lays out more details surrounding events leading up to the June 21 robbery at Johnson Jewelers, where the suspect shot himself in the back of the building after seeing a police officer just outside the store.
Woodbury police issued a statement Tuesday clarifying a July incident first investigated as sex trafficking at a local motel. Investigation revealed the incident likely was not an actual case of sex trafficking, which conflicted with an initial report given by a woman July 29 at the Red Roof Inn. According to a Woodbury police report, the investigation was launched while following up on a Backpage.com listing involving possible prostitution.