In December 2006, Windego Park Society president, Erik Skogquist stated, "the Society has been successful as of right now without really having a project."
Hold on. . .
There is another WPS project (besides the Anoka amphitheater) that should have been known to council, staff and certainly Mr. Skogquist.
It is sitting unfinished in St. Francis, four years past the projected completion date.
The Windego Park Society has been called "an untested, under-funded, relatively unknown group which cannot prove their ability to complete the (Anoka) project."
They can, in fact, prove their inability to complete a much smaller project.
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The WPS Anoka project has had estimates from one-half to a full million dollars.
The WPS St. Francis project is a one bedroom house.
Update 2008. Five years after the posted/hoped for completion date (Fall 2003), the house is now on the market, according to Erik Skogquist. It is a 900 square foot abode, with unfinished basement, double garage, large corner lot: it sounds quite charming. . . Corriveau is the Realtor.
It was procured for Paul Pierce by Bjorn Skogquist's girlfriend Bonnie McDonald. McDonald was the unqualified, entry level spoils hire ACHS director who contributed to Skogquist's mortgage payments on his duplex for these lean years.
The St. Francis acquisition was going to be an Anoka County Historical Society project. . . until one of the board members suggested it may not be a good idea to use ACHS credibility, staff and volunteers to obtain and renovate property for wealthy board members: Paul Pierce III.
This was just one of McDonald's achievements. Another was presiding over the 2003 Columbia Heights ACHS Board election where voting bylaws were violated, non-members voted, Paul Pierce was installed as President.
Long-time members went home cussing, crying and concerned. (Skogquist's mother, Barb Thurston, was also put up against Bart Ward from the floor - enough rabble had been roused to try make a go of it).
McDonald then went on to oversee the bylaw changes and essentially made ACHS a secret society with wards. Pierce, Skogquist and Schumacher were practicing.
As far as ACHS being a reputable organization: If you can't trust the vote count in public, who's going to trust it as-it-comes-in-the-mail? And what else is going on?
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