Mike Schoemer, Patch Staff

ABOUT MIKE SCHOEMER

Email: mike.schoemer@patch.com

Phone: 763-218-0827

Hometown: Sioux Falls, S.D.

Current residence: Albertville, Minn.

Birthday: Jan. 5, 1974

Mike Schoemer is a 13-year veteran of community journalism, having worked in cities including West Fargo, N.D., Edina and most recently, Monticello, where he was managing editor of the Monticello Times. He has won multiple awards for his writing, including a first place award from the Suburban Newspapers of America for a team-edited piece on homelessness in the Twin Cities suburbs.

Schoemer and his wife, Jenn (a St. Michael native) live in Albertville with their three children, who are all under the age of 5.

An avid golfer, Schoemer has recently taken up fishing with his family on Knife Lake near Mora, Minn. He also enjoys basketball and skating in the winter months.

My Beliefs

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A self-proclaimed political mind, Schoemer is a registered Democrat, but has tended to lean more conservative now in his "old age."

As a child in Sioux Falls, Schoemer was part of the first kindergaren class at St. Mary's Catholic Elementary School, and graduated from Sioux Falls O'Gorman Catholic High School. He is still a practicing Catholic, and his family attends St. Michael Catholic Church.

Schoemer feels some of the key issues confronting St. Michael and Albertville are sustaining commercial growth while waiting for the housing market to recover from the collapse of 2008; maintaining and increasing the quality of School District 885, which is one of the "newest" in terms of facilities in the state; the aging population of Wright County; and, of course, traffic issues in downtown St. Michael and Albertville near Interstate 94.