Looking Back: 2002 - Luverne church completes major remodeling

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One year ago

Thirty-five soldiers of the 2168th Transportation Company returned to Sheldon, Iowa, Friday after nearly a year of service in Afghanistan.

The Nobles County Planning Commission denied a request from Tru Shine Truck Wash, Worthington, to continue to operate a waste disposal site in the northeast quarter of Section 1, Ransom Township. The permit denial came after concerns were raised by neighbors about the potential spread of disease and the close proximity of the stockpile to an encapsulated well on the property.

The Worthington Fire Department was called to a trailer fire Wednesday afternoon at the Worthington Travel Plaza. The trailer was loaded with paper products, but the fire was quickly extinguished.

The Rolf and Joan Mahlberg family was named the Nobles County Farm Family of the Year. The family operated a few hundred acres and once had a small livestock operation on the family’s farm site in Bigelow Township.

The Keepers of the Sacred Tradition of Pipemakers hosted their annual Pow Wow over the weekend in Pipestone.

Five years ago

The new University of Minnesota football coach, Tim Brewster, visited

Brewster Fun Days as a special guest.

A $30,000, 500-square-foot expansion, including a compounding lab, was completed at The Medicine Shoppe in downtown Worthington. Pharmacist Jason Turner had owned the local franchise for 3½ years.

A cooperative constructive agreement between the City of Worthington and McDonald’s USA was expected to advance the development of a new Worthington location for the fast food restaurant. The Worthington city council approved an agreement pertaining to a new street and sanitary sewer extension for a site north of the Walgreen’s store at the intersection of Oxford Street and Humiston Avenue.

Currie was the site of Murray County’s sesquicentennial events.

The summer’s heat was allowing mosquitoes to thrive, and the Minnesota Department of Health warned citizens to be on the watch for a mosquito-borne virus.

10 years ago

Tim and Cindy Berglund opened the Countryside Inn Banquet Center in Adrian. The facility had seating for up to 400 people.

David Bau was the new Minnesota Extension Service director for Murray and Nobles counties.

The Hospice Cottage Inc. board of directors unveiled its plans to construct a hospice cottage in Worthington. It would serve the tri-county region of Nobles, Cottonwood and Jackson counties.

Minnesota West Community and Technical College, Worthington, was host to the regional conference of Lao and Hmong cultures. The conference had been in Marshall for the three preceding years.

Luverne’s First Presbyterian Church completed a major remodeling of its facility, which was first constructed in 1957 and dedicated in 1958. The remodeling project’s price tag was around $1.4 million.

25 years ago

A loan from the city of Worthington to Worthington Regional Hospital was to be paid in full at the end of July. The hospital’s board of trustees voted to pay the remainder of the loan, $114,044.56, in one sum, instead of making payments through Jan. 1, 1988. The early repayment would save the hospital about $1,000 in interest.

The 39th annual Song of Hiawatha Pageant continued through Aug. 2 at Pipestone. The outdoor natural amphitheater seated 5,000, and the event was produced by the Hiawatha Club of Pipestone.

The third annual Old-Tyme Threshing Bee took place on Saturday seven miles north of Worthington. The bee was sponsored by area farmers and the Worthington Women of Today. Displays of threshing with horse-drawn and mechanical equipment was shown, and farmers were invited to display antique machinery.

About 50 people gathered at Chautauqua Park to bid farewell to Crailsheim exchange student Axel Huss, and also to Worthington’s Staci Gordon, who was to be the 1987-88 exchange student to Crailsheim.

Judy Werner announced she would be opening a new retail store, Promises, around Sept. 1. The city’s newest retail store would be located at 1024 Oxford St., Worthington.

50 years ago

The King’s Ambassadors from King’s College, Briarcliff Manor, New York, presented a diversified program of music and testimony at the East Friesland Presbyterian Church in Rushmore.

Mavis Kreun was crowned Edgerton’s 1962 Dutch Festival Queen. Her princesses were Beverlyn Schoolmeester, Maryann Mesman and Norma Jean Hendriks.

The Worthington High School Class of 1937 had its 25th reunion with a Saturday evening dinner and dance at the Worthington Country Club. Sunday, they picnicked in Chautauqua Park.

George Sievers, 813 Third Ave., Worthington, was working toward becoming the catfishing champion of Lake Okabena. Sievers caught seven catfish in less than an hour Thursday, with the fish ranging from three to five pounds. Sievers had hooked 91 catfish so far this season.

Advertised specials this week at Swanson’s grocery included two 1½ pound loaves of bread, 39 cents; a 10-pound bag of sugar, 99 cents; a dozen ears of homegrown sweet corn, 39 cents; cucumbers for 5 cents each; and center or loin pork chops for 69 cents a pound.

75 years ago

Eight ladies (all members of a local bridge club) hosted a miscellaneous shower for Mrs. Reinhardt Grein of Brewster at Chautauqua Park Friday evening. Mrs. Grein, the former Evelyn Knuth, was married June 21 at Brewster. After the picnic supper, the group attended the theatre.

Searchers probed the waters of Pepin Lake, seeking the body of Frank Lenz, 39, son of Mr. and Mrs. Henry Lenz of Wilmont and widely known throughout Nobles County. Lenz drowned the day before when, with two other men, he had put out a boat about 5:30 p.m. before being apparently seized by a sun stroke or heart attack. Lenz toppled into the water and disappeared from the surface. Immediate attempts to find the body proved useless. The deceased was survived by his wife, the former Genevieve Scholtes.

Area farmers were warned against cutting their barley crops too soon. It needed to be cut at “the right time” and properly threshed and handled to qualify for the coveted classification of “malting quality.”

Shortly before 1 p.m., firemen invaded the Casareto confectionery in response to an alarm occasioned by smouldering joints under the range in the café kitchen. What little danger there was soon ended, with the confectionery folk calling in workmen immediately to start repairing the damage, mostly due to dense smoke.

Tags: looking back, lifestyle, reminiscing, columns