Glenwood receives Stewardship Award

Sept. 20, 1962 – Glenwood Manufacturing announced plans to open a subsidiary plant in Glenwood. The new plant, located in the Fremad Building, was a precision machining unit to manufacture ordnance parts on a subcontract basis. 

Heavy rains fell during the night, but the 75th Pope County Fair went on as scheduled during the day. Pope County businessmen paid a record $5,500 for a prize 4-H livestock at the annual 4-H auction. Nearly 50 young women participated in the dress revue with Joyce Vacek, Mary Jane Sell, Joyce Alcott, Joanne Rundgren, Gloria Jorgensen and Jane Pederson topping the winners. Gray Morrison, a member of the Villard Livewires 4-H club, had been the top lamb exhibitor for three years,  but he was 1962’s grand champion beef exhibitor. Other repeaters for state fair trips were Roger Tollefson, David Rosten, Orville Chan, Richard Knutson and Alyce Kalin. DeWayne Larson of the Cyrus Boosters won his fifth state fair trip with the grand champion barrow. 

Sept. 21, 1972 – Agreement appeared to be near in a salary dispute between Glenwood/Lowry school board and its teachers. A mediator for the state was involved in the discussions. Representing the Glenwood Education Association in the talks were Bruce Thorfinnson, Richard Sieverston and Rosemary Haines. Board Representatives were Jerry Leedahl, LeRoy Knutson and Supt. N. H. Kerfeld. 

The Rev. James Sumption resigned from his post at Immanuel, Indherred and St. Johns’s Lutheran churches. He had accepted a call at Luverne, Crookston and New Ulm before coming to Pope County. 

Homecoming festivities were underway at the high school. Queen candidates included Ingrid Pfahl, Pam Erickson, Debra Boelke, Eileen Wagner and Paula Halvorson. Attendants were Dale Wittiko, Tom Mork, Mitch Long, John Holtberg and Craig Bullock. 

Sept. 16, 1982 – The District No. 612 school board narrowly defeated a motion to participate in a basic skills program established by the state legislature. The program was to focus on writing, listening, speaking, reading and computing skills. Superintendent N. H. Kerfeld explained that he had been contacted by the state Department of Education to see what the district’s intention was since the board had turned down the program 4 years earlier when it was first proposed by the legislature. 

A draft report by the Minnesota Environmental Quality Board assessing the health risks of the powerline through the county indicated that the line presented little problem. One of the seven national scientists disagreed with the report, saying in a minority statement, that more likely than not the powerline presented a few health risks. 

The new Rainbows and Rhymes Nursery School at Starbuck was featured in the Tribune. Serving on the board were Vicki Bösl, Nancy Olson, Margaret Strand, Nancy Samuelson, Sheila Swartz, Koni Swenson, Sandy Oldenburg and Mary Kuhn. 

Sept. 21, 1992 –  A 10 percent voter turnout was predicted for primary election day in the state of Minnesota, but Pope County doubled that with 20.3 percent. The Pope County auditor’s office reported that 1,434 out of 7,049 eligible voters in the county voted at the 30 precincts. On the ballot, Mel Brekke and Elaine Bennett were the top two vote-getters in the county commissioners’ race for the Fifth District.

To start in the spring, the subject of AIDS and the HIV virus was to be taught to the fourth, fifth and sixth grade students in the elementary schools in Glenwood, Starbuck and Villard. The mandate to include AIDS/HIV virus in the curriculum had been in effect for four years, “But we’re four years behind,” said Dick Ofstedahl, curriculum director for the school districts. 

Pictured on the front page of the Tribune was Lee Sorset volunteering his time as crossing guard for the students as E. N. Nordgaard Elementary School. Lee was a Glenwood resident who was 71 at the time of the picture. 

Sept. 23, 2002 – The Glenwood City Commission put the city out of business at its latest council meeting – the jail business that is. The commission, on the advice of Police Chief David Thompson, decided that keeping the Glenwood Municipal Jail open was no longer cost efficient. The jail was due for its biennial inspection by the Minnesota Department of Corrections and Thompson believed that instead of attempting to comply with all of the rules, they should  officially close the jail. The commission agreed and unanimously decided not to proceed with the licensing process. 

The city of Glenwood was selected to receive the first annual Community Lakescaping Shoreline Stewardship Award from the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources for “taking bold and effective action to reduce the effects of soil erosion and the effects of pesticide and fertilizer runoff from the city’s Barsness park into Lake Minnewaska.” Over the past two years, Glenwood and the DNR had been involved in a cooperative effort to create a native wildflower buffer zone along the creek that flows through Barsness and into Lake Minnewaska. 

Sept. 24, 2012 – The eighth annual PCHS dog walk and first annual canine 5k raised much needed funds for the local shelter. Dogs from the shelter walked alongside area pets and their people on a route beginning and ending at Barsness Park in Glenwood. 

Minnewaska Area Schools approved a levy of $3,082,094.85 payable in 2013 for district operations an increase of $34,605.62 or 1.14 percent over the current year. 

Students from Minnewaska Area Elementary School had a chance to revisit the People’s Garden last Friday. Many of those students had first visited the community garden, located on the lawn of the USDA building off Highway 29, last June. The visits are part of the beginning stages  of what is hoped to be a long a fruitful collaboration between Minnewaska schools and the People’s Garden.