ROCKVILLE

Billy Steil remembered fondly for passion for Cold Spring, ROCORI sports

Andy Rennecke — Thu, 28 Sep 2023 17:25:51 GMT

COLD SPRING — Billy Steil didn't want any competition as the ROCORI High �� wrestling manager.

So when Jeff Illies couldn't wrestle during his senior year during the winter of 1989-90 because of a broken foot, his coach, Jon DeLozier, suggested that he still help out the team in some way.

When Steil, who was always known as Cold Spring and ROCORI's biggest athletics fan, heard this, he initially wasn't too happy with Illies.

"I wanted to be on the team, but I knew Billy was there. I will always remember him pulling me out of the wrestling room and making it clear that he was 'Manager No. 1' and he was the boss," Illies said with a laugh. "I said 'Bill, I'm fine with that.' After that, he was good. That's how I got to start knowing him."

Steil died on Friday, Sept. 22, at Assumption Home in Cold Spring.

His funeral was scheduled for Thursday, Sept. 28, at St. Boniface Catholic Church in Cold Spring.

Steil, who had Down syndrome, would routinely be seen riding his bike around town. He worked for WACOSA, the Cold Spring Bakery and as a janitor at ROCORI schools. His passion for wrestling and baseball, in particular, was well known throughout Central Minnesota.

Starting in the early 1980s, Steil managed the ROCORI wrestling teams and became bat boy for the Spartans as well as the town's Legion and amateur teams. When he was the manager under DeLozier, Steil saw the Spartans win eight section championships while the team placed third once, fourth twice and fifth once. DeLozier also coached 26 individual state-place finishers during his 32-year coaching career while Steil was at his side.

Steil was recognized in the ROCORI Hall of Fame as being the school's "super fan."

Illies, who graduated from ROCORI in 1990 and has been the school's baseball coach since 2006, called Steil "a generational person in this community." In recent years Steil had been slowed down because of health issues, and Illies noticed his presence was missed around Cold Spring.

"He loved Cold Spring and ROCORI. He always biked around town and it was hard not to see him do that anymore. They broke the mold when Bill was born," Illies said.

'One of the guys'

Illies, who is a longtime high school math teacher at ROCORI, remembers working a second job at the Side Bar & Grill and Steil always stopping to chat. Usually, Steil would bring Illies a donut or cookie from the Cold Spring Bakery.

"I really got to know him when I was an assistant coach under Pat Dolan with our Legion baseball program," Illies said. "When I played with the Springers, he always traveled with us. That's when I really got to know him. When I worked at the Side, we would share a root beer or a basket of fries. He kept me company. He was so thoughtful and cared for the people he got to know."

Dolan, who has coached the St. Cloud State baseball program since 2007, remembers messing with a young Brainerd Dispatch sports reporter after a rough loss when he was coaching the Legion program. Dolan got kicked out of the game and used Steil's name while he was being quoted after expressing his frustration over the umpiring.

"I was like 23 or 24 and didn't know any better," Dolan said. "Billy was our manager/bat boy/assistant coach. We got smoked by Brainerd like 15-1. The umps were brutal. The reporter was interviewing me and I said something like 'It was like three blind mice out there and we got screwed over.' I shouldn't have said that obviously. When he asked which coach I was I said 'Billy Steil.'

"The next day in the Brainerd paper the headline said 'Cold Spring Coach Billy Steil blames umpires for loss.' Billy's name was in there like five or six times. I think even Billy got a kick out of it more than anybody else."

Dolan said Steil always participated in Special Olympics events throughout the state. His favorite sport was wrestling. Dolan thought he would try going out for wrestling — until Steil beat him in a one-on-one match.

"He put me in a hold and I couldn't get out," Dolan said. "He had me in a cradle and wouldn't let me out. Everyone loved that, even I did. He was such a great athlete. He played softball for a long time, too. He always gave the best pregame and postgame speeches when he was around our teams.

"Billy's one-liners were the best. He could dish it out like anybody else could. He was one of the guys."

The stories

Longtime Cold Spring Rockies manager/player David Jonas called Steil "a word legend" for some of the things he would talk about in the dugout during amateur baseball and Legion games. With Steil spending so much time around Cold Spring Baseball Park, he picked up things fast and wasn't afraid to let people know how they were playing.

"The guy belonged in a Hall of Fame for his sayings in the dugout," Jonas said. "He took the ribbing and gave it right back to us. He was a lot of fun to banter with. He was as quick-witted as anybody. Everybody knew him around the area, not just in Cold Spring. His reach was much farther than just Cold Spring."

Jonas and his high school teammate, Zach Reif, both remembered a story that happened during their senior years of baseball with the Spartans in the spring of 2003.

Reif was pitching and the other team's batter fouled a pitch off into the ROCORI dugout. Steil had his back turned to the play and the ball clipped him on the arm. Both Reif and Jonas said that it could have been much worse and that Steil got lucky he wasn't hit any worse.

Since Steil had his back turned to the play, he blamed Reif for throwing the ball at him. Both Reif and Jonas said it took a while to calm Steil down, who eventually forgave Reif after about 24 hours.

"The ball skimmed Bill's shirt and you would have thought he got shot in the arm," Reif said with a chuckle. "He came out holding his arm and was being very strong with his emotions. Whatever emotion Bill had at the time, he gave you it all. He told me that I threw the ball at him on purpose from the mound during the game. I didn't know what to say other than 'That didn't happen, Bill.' We talked him off the ledge with that one."

Added Jonas: "Bill was quick to forgive Zach and ended up giving a speech at his wedding. It's hard not to look back at it and laugh a little. Zach, of course, never would do anything like that."

Reif, 38, now lives in Plymouth with his wife and two kids. As a computer software salesman, he travels a lot and doesn't get back to his hometown of Rockville or Cold Spring much anymore. However, he was making the trip to Steil's funeral on Thursday because of how much he meant to him.

"I didn't get to see Bill a lot after I moved to the Twin Cities. I'm regretting the opportunity I had to maybe see him in the nursing home more these past few years and to spend more time with him," Reif said. "You just don't realize the impact people have on you until they're gone. He touched so many lives in Cold Spring and the entire area.

"My parents always said how lucky Bill was to have a caring community like Cold Spring looking over him. Well, I look at it completely opposite. I think Cold Spring was lucky to have a guy like Bill."

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Man identified in fatal rollover into central Minn. river

Forum News Service — Wed, 16 May 2018 17:28:01 GMT

ROCKVILLE, Minn. - A man was killed when his vehicle left the road and overturned into the Sauk River early Tuesday morning, May 15.

The Stearns County Sheriff’s Office identified the man Wednesday as Catalino De Leon Alvardo, 40, of Rockville. He was also known in the area as Jose Vasquez, the sheriff’s department said.

Authorities say a passerby saw a road sign down and tracks leading to the river by the intersection of Sauk River Road and and County Road 139 in Rockville.

Deputies responded and found a 2000 Honda CR-V in the river. Rockville Fire and Rescue arrived on scene and extricated an adult male from the vehicle, the sheriff’s office said. Gold Cross ambulance was on scene to assist with life-saving efforts. Alvardo died at the scene.

Evidence at the scene leads investigators to believe that Alvardo applied the brakes late while approaching the intersection. Alvardo traveled through the intersection striking the yellow "T" warning sign. He continued into the ditch, striking a tree which caused the car to flip on its roof and into the river.

Authorities also spoke to the owner of the car who had lent it to the driver on Monday afternoon.

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Renovated central Minn. lake home saved after judge overturns ruling

Clairissa Baker / St. Cloud Times — Thu, 22 Feb 2018 20:34:34 GMT

ROCKVILLE, Minn. - The house will stand.

A September order to remove a Rockville lake home for zoning violations was reversed in a court ruling issued Tuesday, Feb. 20.

Thomas and Holly Ruether sued neighbor Kathleen Mimbach and her grandson, Matt Mimbach, after the Mimbachs renovated their Grand Lake home.

According to the Ruethers, the Mimbachs misrepresented the expansion project on permit applications and violated city regulations.

A judge ordered the removal of the Mimbachs' home in September for violating the city ordinance. The Mimbachs filed motions to amend the judge's order.

On Tuesday, Judge Shan C. Wang found that a new ordinance enacted by the city of Rockville applies retroactively and allows the expansion of the lakeshore home.

The new ordinance clarifies the previous zoning regulations and "manifestly expressed" the ordinance that the court based its original judgment on was "interpreted in a way that was not originally intended by the City," according to the ruling.

In his decision, Wang acknowledged the Ruethers suffered "great and irreparable harm." Because of the new ordinance, however, they are unable to show they suffered harm due to an unlawful expansion.

The new Rockville ordinance was issued Dec. 13, according to court records.

"This Court does not lightly rescind a judgment previously entered on the merits of the case," Wang wrote, "particularly where a separate judicial officer took the testimony of the witnesses and independently weighed their credibility."

The problem is further complicated, said Wang, by the reality that even if the Mimbachs were forced to remove the home, they could rebuild it in the same way, but without the lakeshore setback violation, and remain in compliance with city regulations.

The Mimbachs' misrepresentation of the project and their failure to listen to warnings of potential violations, Wang said, "do not constitute so great an injustice so as to bar applicability of recent legislation."

Wang said the removal of the entire building, which was originally ordered, was disproportionate to the "minimal level of severity" of the violation. It is unequitable, he said, to sustain the original judgment.

The Mimbach home remains in violation of lakeshore setback rules. The deck extends less than two feet into the lakeshore setback, and the judge ordered that to be corrected.

Thomas Jovanovich, the Mimbachs' lawyer, said a timeline was not set to fix the deck, but the Mimbachs will comply with the order. "Katie was ecstatic," Jovanovich said, noting that she has lived on Grand Lake her entire life.

The attorney for the Ruethers could not be reached for comment.

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Central Minnesota lake neighbor fight turns more ugly as judge orders removal of cabin

Matt Perkins / St. Cloud Times — Wed, 20 Sep 2017 22:24:05 GMT

ROCKVILLE, Minn. - A legal dispute between neighbors on Grand Lake in the central Minnesota town of Rockville reached new heights when a Stearns County judge ruled in favor of plaintiffs and ordered the removal of a lake home.

But attorneys for the owner of the home about 13 miles southwest of St. Cloud said Wednesday they expect to appeal.

In April 2015, Kathleen Mimbach, along with her grandson Matt Mimbach, applied for four building permits with the city of Rockville to renovate her cabin. They were granted those permits in May of 2015, and began construction later that fall.

A lawsuit filed in April 2016 by neighbors Thomas and Holly Ruether argued the project violated city ordinances related to setback requirements from their property line to the north. They also argued the Mimbachs misrepresented facts in applications with the city, including the size and scope of the project as well as setback measurements.

In her ruling last week, Stearns County District Court Judge Vicki Landwehr stated, "Plaintiffs' loss of privacy and diminished use and enjoyment of their property are great and irreperable injuries which cannot be adequately redressed by legal remedy."

Harry Burns, whose firm Burns Law Office represented the Ruethers in the case, said his clients reached out numerous times to city officials to try to address violations without going to court.

"Obviously, we are pleased with the judge's decision," Burns said. "Filing a lawsuit was the last resort for my clients."

In May of 2016, the Ruethers filed a motion seeking temporary injunctive relief to halt the home's construction, but that motion was denied by Landwehr.

However, the ruling on that motion included a warning to the Mimbachs that, "because the plaintiffs may prevail at trial, any additional expenses they incur to complete the construction project may only serve to increase the amount of their economic loss if the home is ultimately ordered removed after trial."

The Mimbachs continued with construction, the cost of which increased after warping discovered in basement-level walls led to a decision to replace the entire foundation. The original footings remained in the same location.

Kathleen Mimbach, who is in her 90s and whose family has owned property on the lake since the 1930s, said through her attorneys Wednesday she plans to appeal the ruling. They say the Mimbachs complied with all city requirements and made no illegal expansion of the property's footprint.

"We disagree with the judge's ruling, and we plan to file some post-trial motions," said attorney Thomas Jovanovich of Jovanovich, Kadlec and Athmann, P.A. "There likely will be an appeal."

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Walker man, suspected in death, shot by police in St. Cloud

Forum News Service — Thu, 25 Oct 2012 19:25:26 GMT

ST. CLOUD - A Walker man suspected in the death of a Rockville man was critically wounded by police gunfire following a standoff Sunday night in Stearns County.

Marcus M. Barshaw, 28, is in Hennepin County Medical Center, where his condition was not released.

The officer that shot him has been placed on standard paid leave.

According to the St. Cloud Times, officers were called to a residential area to investigate a man with an assault rifle. They found Jeffery Schutz, 30, dead of multiple gunshot wounds behind his home.

Barshaw was apprehended nearby following the standoff, taken to the St. Cloud hospital, then transferred to HCMC, where he is under armed guard, the hospital said. Police said he was shot af-ter exiting an apartment laundry room fully armed and would not surrender his rifle.

There was no answer at the Stearns County Attorney’s office Thursday noon. No charges have been filed.

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