Randy Hanson
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Randy Hanson has reported for the Star-Observer since 1997. He came to Hudson after 11 years with the Inter-County Leader at Frederic, and eight years of teaching social studies. He’s a graduate of UW-Eau Claire.
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- Member for
- 5 years 4 months
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There are two things that Hudson mayoral candidate Vicky Erickson would like to make clear. She doesn’t want to raise the city’s property tax rate, and she doesn’t share a supporter’s views on the Hudson Area Joint Library sending money to neighboring libraries.
The assistant finance director for the city of Cottage Grove, Minn., will be the city of Hudson’s new finance officer. The City Council on March 7 agreed to hire Brenda Malinowski for the position. She will replace Neil Soltis, who left the city’s employment last November to become the city administrator for Scandia, Minn. “She’ll do a great job,” Hudson Mayor Alan Burchill said of Malinowski.
Standing in the wings of the Chanhassen Dinner Theatre stage dressed as champagne bottle, Rico Heisler sometimes has second thoughts about his career choice, he admits. “Part of me thinks, isn’t this why I went to law school?” he said. But then the show starts with its wonderfully colorful costumes, delightful song-and-dance numbers, humor, theatrics and talented performers, and Heisler knows why he’s there. “I’ve always said being able to work as an actor is the greatest job in the world. For me it is,” Heisler said in a phone interview last week.
A University of Wisconsin pep band stopped by Kozy Kitchen Pizza Pub & Bar in North Hudson early Thursday afternoon on its way to the Big 10 men's hockey tournament in St. Paul. The Badgers were scheduled to play Penn State at 4 p.m. Thursday in the opening day of the tournament at the Xcel Energy Center. It has become a tradition for Wisconsin Marching Band small groups to visit Kozy Korner on their way to sporting events in the Twin Cities. Restaurant owners Scott Nelson and sons serve them free pizza. The Nelsons and their patrons get a performance in return.
Every other Sunday night, a group of local youth spends two hours learning what it is like to be a police officer. The Hudson Police Explorers post was started by...
The news out of Flint, Mich., about lead contamination of the city’s drinking water begs the question of whether Hudson has any lead water pipes. It does, according to Hudson Utility Director Kip Peters, but they have caused none of the problems that Flint is experiencing. The Hudson Water Utility annually tests drinking water in homes for the presence of lead. The level has never come close to the amount at which action would be required to correct a problem.
A Stillwater restaurant and a Stillwater engineering firm are coming to Hudson after the City Council on Monday night approved final development plans for the building the businesses will occupy. The 7,440-square-foot building with two stories above ground, and a rooftop mezzanine and patio, will be constructed just north of the Northwestern Mutual office building on Second Street. It will be the first of three buildings planned for the Hudson Boat Works development.
The city is considering a site behind the spot where the old Hudson Hospital stood for a dog park that would be built by volunteers. Monday night, the City Council referred the proposal to its Public Safety Committee for review. It has already earned the support of the Hudson Park Board. A group of local citizens has been calling for development of an off-leash dog park since last summer, and is offering to raise the money to pay for the fencing and other amenities.
Vine Street between Fourth and Ninth streets will be closed daily from 7:30 a.m. to as late as 6 p.m. beginning Monday, March 7. The closure is to allow Xcel Energy to relocate the power line on the south side of Vine Street in preparation for the street reconstruction project that is scheduled to begin in mid-April. Traffic will be detoured onto Orange Street, which runs parallel to Vine Street two blocks to the north, while the power line crews are on the job.
There are plenty of people of Scandinavian descent in our readership area -- I’m one of them. In fact, all four of my grandparents found their way to this country from Sweden in the late 1800s. I’ve always considered myself an American and haven’t taken the time to look into my Swedish background all that much.