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To place an obituary, please include the information from the obituary checklist below in an email to obits@pioneerpress.com. There is no option to place them through our website at this time. Feel free to contact our obituary desk at 651-228-5263 with any questions. General Information: Your full name, Address (City, State, Zip Code), Phone number, And an alternate phone number (if any) Obituary Specification: Name of Deceased, Obituary Text, A photo in a JPEG or PDF file is preferable, TIF and other files are accepted, we will contact you if there are any issues with the photo. Ad Run dates There is a discount for running more than one day, but this must be scheduled on the first run date to apply. If a photo is used, it must be used for both days for the discount to apply, contact us for more information. Policies: Verification of Death: In order to publish obituaries a name and phone number of funeral home/cremation society is required. We must contact the funeral home/cremation society handling the arrangements during their business hours to verify the death. If the body of the deceased has been donated to the University of Minnesota Anatomy Bequest Program, or a similar program, their phone number is required for verification. Please allow enough time to contact them especially during their limited weekend hours. A death certificate is also acceptable for this purpose but only one of these two options are necessary. Guestbook and Outside Websites: We are not allowed to reference other media sources with a guestbook or an obituary placed elsewhere when placing an obituary in print and online. We may place a website for a funeral home or a family email for contact instead; contact us with any questions regarding this matter. Obituary Process: Once your submission is completed, we will fax or email a proof for review prior to publication in the newspaper. 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If the ad is under 12 lines it will be charged the minimum rate of $162. Obituaries including more than 40 lines will receive a 7.5% discount per line. On a second run date, receive a 20% discount off both the first and second placement. Place three obituaries and the third placement will be free of charge. Each photo published is $125 per day. For example: 2 photos in the paper on 2 days would be 4 photo charges at $500. Deadlines: Please follow deadline times to ensure your obituary is published on the day requested. Hours Deadline (no exceptions) Ad Photos MEMORIAM (NON-OBITUARY) REQUEST Unlike an obituary, Memoriam submissions are remembrances of a loved one who has passed. The rates for a memoriam differ from obituaries. Please call or email us for more memoriam information Please call 651-228-5280 for more information. HOURS: Monday – Friday 8:00AM – 5:00PM (CLOSED WEEKENDS and HOLIDAYS) Please submit your memoriam ad to memoriams@pioneerpress.com or call 651-228-5280. Former Lake St. Croix Beach City Clerk/Administrator Dave Engstrom said he plans to sue the city for age discrimination following his termination last month. Engstrom, 71, who had held the city’s top administrative position since October 2017, was terminated on Oct. 20 after a 3-2 vote; council members Brad Freppert and Tim Schneider were the two “no” votes. Engstrom, who left city hall immediately after the vote, was put on a performance-improvement plan in July following his first performance review during his eight-year tenure with the city. The council voted to give him 90 days to make “measured improvements” in four specific areas, officials said, including correcting absentee issues and communication issues. Engstrom opted to have the part of the meeting dealing with his 90-day performance review remain open to the public; performance reviews are generally closed. “I wanted it to be open and transparent,” Engstrom said after the meeting. “I have nothing to hide.” Council member Noah Bluesky, the council’s personnel designee, said at the beginning of the discussion that he wished the proceedings were closed. “This is a very awkward situation,” he said. “I wasn’t planning on doing this in front of….” “Well, we have to have transparency, Noah,” Engstrom said. “Unfortunately, I’ve been put in a position to go out and get information from everybody who works with you and get back with the findings,” Bluesky said. “The initial review was pretty shocking. It was pretty bad. That’s why we put this performance review in place. The evidence spoke for itself. You’ve had 90 days to meet some pretty specific guidelines, and the bottom line is you did not.” Engstrom said the findings were “mostly untrue.” One complaint addressed during Engstrom’s review, he said, was that he had not provided oversight to the city treasurer drafting meeting minutes, which has resulted in the unnecessary expense of the city attorney identifying and revising minutes to resolve the exclusion of motions from the minutes. “That happened once? I’m looking at the city attorney,” he said, addressing City Attorney Christina Benson. “I did have to correct and add motions almost every meeting,” Benson responded. “Oh, OK. So it’s a complaint from you. Thank you,” he said. When Mayor Tom McCarthy spoke up, Engstrom asked if he could continue. “You’ve got a motion on the table to fire me,” he said. “I’d like to defend myself.” “Yes. Go ahead, David,” McCarthy said. “I don’t think you care one way or the other,” Engstrom said. “I do too. You’re my friend…” McCarthy said. “You were my friend,” Engstrom said. “Yes, you still are,” McCarthy said. “Oh, sure. We’re buddies. We’re pals, right,” Engstrom said. “There were two ways you could have handled this,” Bluesky responded. “You could have handled it in a positive way and tried to improve, or you could push back and fight and make everyone your enemy. I feel like you’ve made everyone your enemy, and I don’t know why. … I really don’t want to argue about this. The evidence is overwhelming.” Retained law firm Engstrom later told the Pioneer Press that he has retained the Minneapolis-based Halunen Law Firm to handle his lawsuit. During the Oct. 20 meeting, he told the council members that everything would eventually be revealed in court. “It’ll all wind up in court, guys,” he said. “Please. Please do that,” Bluesky responded. “That would be fine because the evidence is overwhelming. You do not have a case, but go for it.” Engstrom said during the meeting that Bluesky had said in a previous city council meeting that the city needed “new blood, which means I’m old blood. That’s age discrimination, sir.” During the Oct. 20 meeting, Bluesky disputed that account. Interim clerk The council voted to appointed Deputy Clerk Mary Ashby as interim city clerk. Ashby, a resident of Lake St. Croix Beach, served on the city’s planning commission from 2012 to 2025, including a stint as chairwoman. She worked in the financial services industry before retiring in 2018, she said. “Working on the planning commission and being the chair gave me a lot of insight into city ordinances and the ins and outs of city hall,” Ashby said. “Since I’ve been the deputy clerk, there’s a lot of just basic office work, and it’s varied. I love it.” Schneider thanked Engstrom for his years of service during the Oct. 20 meeting. “We really do thank Dave for his time here, even though it didn’t end the way he wanted,” he said. “He, you know, did do a service for our city for a number of years.” Bluesky said Monday that he was sorry with the way things ended with Engstrom. “I really appreciate Dave, and I like him a lot,” he said. “It’s just really unfortunate to see things end this way.”
