Looking Back - 2002: Open house hosted for new public works facility

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One year ago

Worthington High School presented “The Greek Mythology Olympianganza” at the school’s cafeteria this week, directed by Gillian Singler.

The exhibit “Rock-n-Record Shop” opened Saturday at the Pipestone County Museum.

A $585,000 donation from the Leona M. and Harry B. Helmsley Charitable Trust was funding digital mammography at Sanford Worthington Medical Center.

A combination of snow, gusting winds and bone-rattling wind chills closed schools across southwest Minnesota and northwest Iowa for a second consecutive day Tuesday, and the forecast continued to sound ominous, with wind chills of up to 50 below still predicted.

The town of Chandler announced plans for its 125th anniversary celebration, to take place June 24-26.

Five years ago

The Southwest Initiative Foundation (SWIF) recognized Greg Raymo, Worthington, with a 20-year anniversary award. Raymo was a former SWIF loan program advisor; he chose to have the $1,000 grant given in his honor to be donated to the Worthington Area YMCA’s capital campaign (for the new building fund).

Matt and Teresa Widboom, rural Worthington, were named Minnesota’s American Soybean Association-DuPont Young Leaders award recipients. It was the third time in four years the award went to a young couple farming in Nobles County. Previous awards went to Ryan and Cindy Gravenhof in 2006 and to Bill and Dawn Gordon in 2004.

Linda and Gary Rost, Lake Park, Iowa, won $250,000 in the Iowa lottery.

Area schools were cautious in the wake of an outbreak of the skin virus herpes gladiatorum among area wrestling teams. Both the Jackson County Central and Adrian wrestling teams had competed in a Dec. 29-30 tournament in Rochester, where the infection was first noticed. Minnesota State High School League officials suspended all high school wrestling meets and contact in practice through Feb. 6 in an attempt to stop the virus’s spread, with 24 cases having been reported by 10 different teams.

Worthington High School students performed “Oklahoma” at Memorial Auditorium. The production was directed by Jon Loy.

10 years ago

The Rev. Arlen Foss received the Community Service Award at the 71st annual meeting of the Worthington Area Chamber of Commerce. Mike Woll was introduced as the Chamber’s 2002 board chairman, succeeding Lon Lien. Bill Potts received the Friend of Education award, while Integrity Aviation was named recipient of the Worthington is a Winner honor.

A new building for the Fulda Area Credit Union in Fulda was nearing completion.

Minnesota West Community and Technical College announced plans to relocate its medical lab and medical assistant programs from Pipestone to Worthington at the start of the next academic year.

Dozens of Nobles County residents got their first good look at the new, $1.8 million Public Works facility during a Saturday open house. The county highway department, environmental services and household hazardous waste department were all centered at the new and improved Diagonal Road site.

25 years ago

Worthington’s share of the cost for the redisposal of materials containing PCBs would probably be about $77,000, the water and light commission learned Tuesday.

The interest by Pipestone town officials in becoming a site for a low-level nuclear waste disposal plant had drawn the ire of some of its citizens, while others supported the idea for economic reasons. Less than a month earlier, the Pipestone City Council requested information about the above-ground concrete vaults, which stored such things as contaminated clothes and tools from nuclear power plants and items from universities and hospitals.

Basic cable rates were to increase by 22 percent starting March 1, Worthington’s city council learned Monday in a letter from J. W. Abbott, president of Zylstra Communications Corp., which owned Worthington Cable TV. The 12-channel basic service would increase from $9.40 a month to $11.50.

“Vanities,” a comedy by Jack Heifner, was performed in a dinner theater setting Thursday through Saturday at the Holiday Inn in Worthington.

50 years ago

Robert Bergland, chairman of the Minnesota Agricultural Stabilization and Conservation Committee, spoke at the Jan. 30 meeting of the Worthington Kiwanis Club about the effects of U.S. Agriculture Department programs on Nobles County’s economy.

A $195,000 fund drive was announced last week in Worthington for a swimming pool at the Worthington YMCA. The chief purpose of this pool was to be teaching students to swim. H. Marvell Tripp was chairman of the campaign effort.

Plans were approved by the congregation of the First Presbyterian Church at Round Lake to erect a $75,000 worship and education building. About $30,000 was already on hand for the project, which was expected to be constructed later in the year. The building was to replace a frame structure built in 1895.

Laymen of the Windom Evangelical Free Church took advantage of the warm weather earlier this week to install roofing on their new church building, which would contain a sanctuary and a social hall. The $80,000 church would seat 350 worshippers and was expected to be completed by this summer.

75 years ago

Two service stations were broken into at Ellsworth Wednesday night. At the Phillips station, operated by George Hocking, the thieves took four tires and one inner tube. At the Standard Oil Station, operated by Elmer Olson, the locks on the pumps were broken, but no gasoline was taken and the station proper was not broken into. It was believed the thieves were frightened away before they were able to pump gasoline.

Contrasting markedly with the lengthy sessions of a little over a year ago, when insurance and power plant enlargement considerations caused the city council to keep exceedingly late hours, last night’s session of the body may have set a new record for brevity in recent months. Called to order at 7:30 p.m., the meeting was all out and over long before the 9 p.m. curfew signal had sounded.

Gene Stower, for the past 6½ years county agent of Sherburne and Anoka counties, was chosen to be the new Nobles County agent, to assume his duties here on Feb. 15.

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