Author: Daniel Vance

Hot Startz!
Daniel Vance

Oak Terrace, Blimpie Subs and Salads, St. Peter Martial Arts

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.

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Cover Story
Daniel Vance

Cindy Rae Pautzke

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.

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Feature Story
Daniel Vance

Camas Inc.

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.

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Feature Story
Daniel Vance

Lakeshore Inn

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.

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Cover Story
Daniel Vance

Bryan Paulsen

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.

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Hot Startz!
Daniel Vance

Edelweiss, Antique Store, HR Advisors

New Ulm: Edelweiss – What used to be Edelweiss Flower Haus, is now Edelweiss, Inc., and has a new owner, location, expanded sales floor, and scads of energy.

Vernon Center: Minnesota’s Highway 169 Antiques And Collectibles – For 23 years, Sandy Oppegard was executive director of the South Central Workforce Council, administering employment and training programs in a nine-county area. She retired last August.

Fairmont: HR Advisors – Since beginning HR Advisors in March 2007, Wes Pruett has developed accounts in Minneapolis, Mankato, Fergus Falls, Rochester, Fairmont, Slayton, and other cities.

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Feature Story
Daniel Vance

Clint Brown – Runner-Up – 2008 Business Person Of The Year

Fresh from verdant Hawaii, blue crab Baltimore, oil-rich Oklahoma City, and with the possibility of visiting other potential construction projects in Denmark, 34-year-old Clint Brown of Industrial Construction Services (ICS) of St. James barely has time to change his socks before leaving home for yet another construction job elsewhere on the planet. He has become quite the frequent flyer the last thirteen years. Though able to spend only 100 days a year at home and having to work literally every Thanksgiving, Christmas, Easter, July Fourth, Labor Day and Memorial Day ad infinitum, Brown nonetheless enjoys his frenetic life and lifestyle.

In just the last few years, the pace has quickened considerably, in great measure because of anthrax and avian flu fears.

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