The Free Press, Mankato, MN

Local News

September 21, 2009

Fishing pier to honor fallen soldier

North Mankato officials discuss Spring Lake Park project

By Mark Fischenich

NORTH MANKATO — A large fishing pier to be constructed in North Mankato’s Spring Lake Park next year will be named after Jacob Thompson, a North Mankato native who died while serving with the U.S. Army in Iraq.

“He grew up in the Spring Lake neighborhood, fishing here,” said City Administrator Wendell Sande, showing the site to civic leaders during the annual Mayor’s Tour (See related map and article here). “So the Council thought it would be appropriate to name the pier for him.”

Mayor Gary Zellmer said Thompson’s parents, Charlie and Barb Thompson, reviewed the plans for the pier before leaving for their winter home in Florida.

“They loved it,” Zellmer said. “They are actually planning — when it’s done — to have a fishing tournament for young kids, teaching them how to fish.”

The pier, which is estimated to cost close to $100,000, will stretch more than 100 feet from the normal shoreline of the lake. Designs includes a 30-foot-diameter circular deck at the end of an 80-foot walkway and a small plaza area at the foot of the walkway.

Bids for construction of the pier on the northwest side of the lake are being sought, with completion expected by June 30. The cost will be covered with a half-percent local sales tax dedicated to park improvements and other projects in the city.

Spring Lake is a marshy body of water but was excavated in recent years to create depths of up to 9 feet. The water beneath the fishing deck at the end of the pier is expected to be about 6 feet.

But even before the excavation and the stocking of sunfish and crappies, the pond was a popular spot for generations of neighborhood kids — including Thompson — to make their first attempts at fishing, said Councilwoman Diane Norland, chair of the city’s parks commission.

Fishing was Jacob Thompson’s favorite hobby, according to members of his family. He was introduced to angling at age 5, spent hours at Spring Lake fishing for sunnies and had a large collection of rods, reels and lures.

An Army Staff Sergeant, the 26-year-old Thompson was on his second tour of duty in Iraq when he and two other soldiers died on Aug. 6, 2007, while doing house-to-house searches in Baqubah.

The leader of about six men in a Stryker brigade, Thompson loved his job — particularly getting to know the Iraqi children, his parents said shortly after his death. He enjoyed showing videos of himself playing soccer and riding bikes with the kids, and handed out stuffed animals to the children he met during his missions.

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