Premier Partners
Apparently, wealthy banker Williams Watkins Smith of Sleepy Eye had an unquenchable thirst for beveled leaded glass, meticulous red oak woodwork, exquisite stained glass, and serpentine wrap-around porches. He must have, because he swaddled himself in the Queen Anne-style finery.
Gaylord: Oak Terrace Healthcare Center – Partners Dennis Hood and Mick Montag purchased 56-bed Gaylord Lakeview Home and 11-bed Heritage House (a memory loss facility) from the City of Gaylord in December 2007.
Gaylord: Blimpie Subs and Salads – On or around May 20, Blimpie Subs and Salads opens where State Highways 22, 5, and 19 meet in downtown Gaylord. Owner Jerry Hahn also owns Jerry’s Home Quality Foods in Gaylord and Arlington.
St. Peter: St. Peter Martial Arts – Bill Hough opened St. Peter Martial Arts last December on the second floor of 101 West Broadway. Trained in hand-to-hand combat as a U.S. Army infantry soldier, Hough, as a sergeant, eventually became a local Army recruiter.
They finish each other’s sentences. They answer personal questions the same way, even when one hasn’t heard the other’s answers. They’ve been making music together since they were 11 and 13—for 46 years now. They farm together and operate a tour business together. They’re Peter and Paul Wendinger, founders of the Wendinger Band and Wendinger Travel.
Question: Which city in the Connect Business Magazine reading area has five colleges for students to attend? The answer—and surprisingly, especially given recent history—is Fairmont.
She’s the same “you-go-girl” that sold squash in 1971 alongside U.S. 169 in Vernon Center. Cindy Rae was only nine then. Her marketing metamorphosis in time would become her family’s Pumpkinland, an agriculture-entertainment theme park that included the bizarre spectacle of goats walking on boards high in the sky, a soothing tractor ride, skits and desserts, and a 90-foot catapult launching pumpkins 500 feet into the Blue Earth River.
Along with the welcome chirps of returning robins, spring brings an unpleasant sucking sound I hear every April 15. That’s when the government extends a vacuum hose from the treasury to my savings account to siphon off more of the nuts I’ve squirreled away. The pattern is so predictable, I give it little more than a passing thought. I simply frown and bear it.
Listening to CEO Brad Mitteness explain what Le Center-based Camas Inc. produces can be a little like reading the mathematical equations underpinning Einstein’s theory of relativity. Tired eyes gloss over as with shellac; confused, the mind shifts from neutral to park.
The company also mirrors Einstein’s theory of relativity in a more energizing, robust fashion: the possibilities seem almost endless.
A long-shot gamble paid off, and nursing home Lake Shore Inn of Waseca remained a viable enterprise because of it.
In 1987, recent Minnesota State University MBA graduate Pete Madel III gambled when accepting a position at the nonprofit Cystic Fibrosis Foundation—Minnesota chapter. Starting at the Foundation just didn’t have the panache of being a junior executive for, say, Cargill, General Mills or 3M.
There once was a little boy named Bryan, who lived with his family on a hilltop overlooking ordinary Deep Valley. Bryan enjoyed art best and boldly dreamed of drawing pictures to turn beloved Deep Valley beautiful.
Bryan got older. Bryan’s dad, a mechanic, could fix anything Bryan brought home, even a dented Radio Flyer wagon. Bryan’s mother worked at the Big Factory. His brother traveled across the ocean to a scary place called Vietnam.
In high school, Bryan’s teacher said he could be somebody and a spunky girl said it, too. After Bryan finished college, he came home to Deep Valley and married the spunky girl. Later, he started a company that drew pictures and turned beloved Deep Valley beautiful.
