MAHS students and staff get a $25,000 surprise

Dec. 10, 1964 – Seven new directors were elected to the Glenwood Chamber of Commerce board at the group’s annual December meeting. The seven were William Zubke, Bud Hausken, Orval Forbord, Clayton Sandvig, John Shae, Cleon Dovel and Arnold Domke.

A Glenwood fisherman’s intimate knowledge of Lake Minnewaska was put to good use when his car went through the ice on the lake. He knew that there was a sand bar beneath the vehicle and that the water there was only about 4 feet deep.

The fisherman and his two passengers had been driving the car with the doors open as a safety precaution when the ice gave way. The three jumped out and got wet only to their knees as the car sunk.

Flames leveled the farm home of the Ralph Pingrees southeast of Glenwood. Firemen from Brooten and Glenwood fought the blaze. The Pingrees were in Glenwood at the time of the fire and had moved in with neighbors, the Bud Bruhns. Neighbors and friends were helping the Pingrees.

Dec. 12, 1974 – Waterama board members were finding that inflation was taking a toll on the annual summer celebration. In spite of record button sales, the 1974 board had to dip into the festival’s reserves for about $400, the amount the celebration cost above the income it generated. The board was continuing to look at ways to cut costs and/or generate additional income.

The request for a special use permit for a 400 kvDC power line through the county had been returned to the planning commission by the Pope County Board of Commissioners. The planning commission had already recommended that the county commission deny the permit and just what was to be achieved by returning the matter to the planning commission was unknown.

The Kensington boys’ basketball team rolled up 90 points in a victory over Eagle Bend. The game was capped by a 60-point fourth quarter in which Kensington scored 31 and Eagle Bend 29. “You had to see it to believe it,” said Kensington coach Stan Johnson.

Dec. 13, 1984 –  A rural Starbuck man was killed in a one-car accident in Blue Mounds Township. His wife was hospitalized as a result of the crash.

David and Darlene Jellum were named Conservation Farmers of the Year by the Pope County Soil and Water Conservation District. The Jellums had a 160-acre, 40-cow dairy farm in White Bear Lake Township. They were cited for their use of reduced tillage, crop rotation, contour planting and other conservation practices.

The new name of the combined Glenwood-Starbuck wrestling team was to be the Waska Warriors. The name would also be used for the combined tennis and track teams.

The big white house in Glenwood, which had been the Union Congregational Church parsonage, took a trip down the highway to Grove Lake. NSP crews and others were busy most of the day assisting with the project.

Dec. 12, 1994 –  The students at E. N Nordgaard Elementary School were becoming involved in the local community as well as the global community. Each grade, first through sixth, had adopted a youth service project to work on during the school year. The service could be playing games with an elderly person in a nursing home or adopting one acre of a rainforest in South America.

Teen Lead, a branch of the youth development program in the Minnewaska Area Schools District, was offering its services for handicapped people who attended events at Minnewaska Area High School. Teen Lead members would help handicapped individuals to and from their vehicles during extracurricular activities.

Dec. 6, 2004 – Workers were busy checking the first of the footings for the Lakeside Ballroom late in the week at the ballroom site adjacent to Lake Minnewaska. Construction was underway on the facility, which would be completed the summer of 2005. After the footings were in place work could begin on the walls and enclosing the structure.

With the anniversary of the Battle of Pearl Harbor, people across the nation were taking time to remember those soldiers who braved the onslaught of a surprise attack by Japanese forces which took the lives of over 2,000 Americans. George Bogie, a lifelong resident of Glenwood was among those who lived to tell the story.

During the Battle of Pearl Harbor, Bogie was stationed on the USS Conyngham destroyer ship, which was positioned about a mile away from the center of action near Ford Island the morning of the attacks. Bogie, then 22, had been awake for hours, he recalled in former interviews, preparing breakfast for the other crewmen, when the general alarm buzzer sounded at 7:55 a.m.

The Stroia Ballet performed The Nutcracker last weekend at the Minnewaska Area High School auditorium.

Second-graders at E.N. Nordgaard worked on holiday gifts bags for the residents of the V.A. Hospital in St. Cloud which would be filled by ENN’s foster. Grandparent, Bev Buttman, with small gifts for the holidays. 

Dec. 8, 2014 – Gulsvig Productions owners Brent and Lisa Gulsvig recently made a move from Glenwood to Starbuck with their business. They moved back to where Lisa grew up on her family farm, southwest of Starbuck on County Road 18. Gulsvig Productions officially opened for business on Sept. 1 in their new location at 36845 County Road 18 outside of Starbuck.

Minnewaska Area High School students and staff got a $25,000 surprise last Friday. While they were gathered for a winter activities pep fest, it was announced that MAHS was one of 100 schools to receive a $25,000 grant from State Farm as part of the company’s “Celebrate My Drive” campaign. The campaign is designed as a contest-schools sign up to participate, and students, staff and community members are encouraged to go online and make a safe driving pledge each day of the campaign. Minnewaska was one of 3,283 participating schools.

Capping off a $5.2 million, 14-month expansion project, Glacial Ridge Health System threw its doors wide for visitors last Tuesday evening. Community members were invited to an open house to take a first-hand look at the project’s results through staff-guided tours, and to sign up for prizes and enjoy refreshments.

David Green was officially welcomed by commissioners as Pope County’s new Land and Resource Management director at the board meeting on Dec. 2. Green started on Nov. 17.