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• Hudson -- drunken teen pulled from river
• Hudson floodwall project remains at a standstill
• Man falls from roof in North Hudson

By Meg Heaton

mheaton@rivertowns.net

Two Woodbury, Minn., girls are alive today, thanks to the actions of strangers and Hudson police Monday afternoon.

Samantha R. Bartelmy, 17, and Andrea D. Nagle, 19, instead left Hudson with hangovers and citations for underage consumption of alcohol.

Authorities received a 911 call from a citizen who said there were two extremely intoxicated young women near them at the beach on the end of the dike road. One of the women, Nagle, was passed out but Bartelmy was reportedly attempting to swim west across the St. Croix River channel to the Minnesota shore, and the caller wasn't sure she would make it.

Hudson Police officers Ed Rankin and Jon Grass responded to the call. There were no rescue boats on the river at the time and because they had no immediate access to a rescue boat themselves, the officers enlisted the help of a private boater who agreed to retrieve the swimming girl from the channel. Based on the girl's suspected level of intoxication, the officers believed the woman would have drowned if she had not been pulled from the river by the boater.

Once Bartelmy was pulled from the water by the unidentified boater and returned to shore, she initially resisted the officers' assistance. She was eventually taken into custody, and a subsequent breath test showed her blood alcohol content to be 0.26, more than three times the 0.08 legal limit for a person 21 or older.

Nagle was taken from the beach area by EMS and transported to Hudson Hospital for evaluation and treatment. Her blood alcohol at the hospital registered 0.39, almost five times the legal limit.

According to police, the blood alcohol levels of the two women, coupled with Bartelmy's attempt to swim the river channel, put both their lives at risk.

By Randy Hanson

rhanson@rivertowns.net

The snow fence erected around the partially completed floodwall in Lakefront Park appears to be the only new development with the project.

"Nothing's really changed," City Administrator Devin Willi said Monday when contacted about the status of the project.

He said that, as far as he knew, City Attorney Catherine Munkittrick is involved in negotiations with WW Grading Inc. to get the wall completed.

The City Council is scheduled to go into closed session to talk about the negotiations next Monday night.

For more information see the July 12 edition of the Star-Observer.

A man was flown by helicopter from the parking lot of MaMa Maria's Restaurant in North Hudson to a Twin Cities hospital Tuesday morning after he fell from the roof of a house in the Starr Wood residential development on the north side of the village.

According to North Hudson Police Chief Mark Richert, the man suffered extreme trauma to his legs, including lack of movement and numbness.

Richert said personnel from St. Croix Emergency Medical Services didn't want to move him any farther than necessary and called for a LifeLink III helicopter out of St. Paul to transport him.

The absence of power lines and debris made the MaMa Maria's parking lot the best nearby landing site for the air ambulance, Richert said.

People living nearby the restaurant reported hearing sirens, and then the helicopter landing at around 9 a.m. Tuesday.