Patrick Larkin

Come spring, Prom Management Group may be running the East Side’s majestic Phalen Golf Course, along with the Como Golf Course.
Phalen Golf Course, an 18-hole recreational course located in Phalen Regional Park, has been an East Side destination since it was built in 1917.
The decision to find a private partner came in November 2013, after the St. Paul Parks and Rec Department reported that collectively, the city’s four golf courses had lost $5 million since 2008.

With new ownership and plans for a new digital projector, the Plaza Maplewood is back up and running, under the hands of a church.
Following investment and fundraising from the new management, Woodland Hills Church, the place has new carpet, new walls, new ceiling tiles, new seats, and new staff.
The arcade machines are gone and things look fresh, new, and almost pristine.

Jan. 3 marked the first homicide of the year on the East Side.
Devonte Rashawn Coppage, 22, of Brooklyn Park is dead after meeting at a gas station at the intersection of Maryland and White Bear avenues to buy marijuana, according to a criminal complaint from the Ramsey County attorney’s office.

While this winter hasn’t exactly lacked cold or snow, Battle Creek Regional Park’s gotten an extra bump of snow this year.
Ramsey County Parks and Recreation has been doing a trial run of snowmaking along the county’s premier cross country ski area, in advance of a larger project to bolster the area as a winter activities destination.

As part of an effort to curb the spread of the emerald ash borers, invasive Asian beetles that destroy ash trees, the St. Paul Forestry Department will cut down an estimated 196 ash trees along public right-of-ways and parkways on the East Side, according to Brad Meyer, spokesperson for St. Paul Parks and Recreation.

With a go-ahead from the city, developers of a senior housing complex and a food co-op are well on their way to fruition.
St. Paul gave Dominium and Mississippi Market “temporary developer” status in December, giving them sole rights to the large city-owned lot along East Seventh Street for a year.

At the St. Paul Police Department’s Eastern District, filling the shoes old FORCE Cmdr. Kevin Casper can be a bit of a tough act to follow.
But John Lozoya, who’s taking his place, is up to the challenge.
“He seems really dedicated,” said Karin DuPaul, longtime community coordinator for the Dayton’s Bluff District Council.

For Dayton’s Bluff Neighborhood Housing Services, putting up new homes on the 700 block of Wells St. has been a decade in the making.
The organization first started working with the city well before the recession to put in properties on the short street, just off of the intersection of Payne Ave. and Phalen Blvd.

Long in the works, the “Village on Rivoli” development will break ground this spring, says Jim Ercuhl, director of Dayton’s Bluff Neighborhood Housing.
The project’s origins date back to 2006, but plans got waylaid by the Great Recession.

Hot Wheels, Play-Doh, basketballs, baseball gloves, footballs, Target gift cards -- the gifts poured in for East Siders in need.
Merrick Community Services was able to help 1,000 families have presents to give to their kids this holiday season, via a toy drive culminating in a toy distribution event.
The annual toy drive has been going strong for decades.