Did you hear?

Great Planes Travel moving to new locationGreat Planes Travel will be relocating to Main Street on Jan 31.According to owner Sue Hoffman, the travel agency will move from its current location on S. Highway 75 to its future home at 119 E. Main next to Grapevines.Great Planes was founded by Hoffman in 1999, following her nine years of work for Roundwind Travel.Roundwind Travel recently relocated to Sioux Falls.Phone numbers and e-mail address for Great Planes Travel will remain the same.Historical Society to hold tri-annual meeting on SaturdayIf you would like to get involved with the Rock County Historical Society, you should think about attending their tri-annual meeting this Saturday, Jan. 22.The meeting will be held at 1:30 p.m. at the Hinkly House. Three members of the board will be up for reelection, and nominees will be accepted from the floor.Sister Mariella Hinkly will talk about her personal family history as well as the history of the Hinkly House.Plans for the 2005 annual banquet scheduled for September will also be discussed.Some fund-raising events scheduled include a steak fry at the Eagles, a barn dance in June and an ice cream social on the Hinkly House lawn in August.Have your beef cook-off recipe ready?If you have a really good family beef recipe, it could be worth $500.For 26 years the Minnesota Beef Council has been holding it’s annual beef cook-off If you’re wondering if your favorite recipe would qualify, here are some of the requirements:
Preparation time of 45 minutes or less, including marinating time.
Use of no more than eight ingredients, excluding salt, pepper and water.
Be an original, unpublished recipe.
Fall into one of three categories: Beef and Dairy, Appetizers, and Quick & Easy Beef.Entries must be postmarked or e-mailed no later than January 25.For more information, log on to www.beefcookoff.orgDo you have some unclaimed money?It’s easy to check.Even though Jesse Ventura was instrumental in making Minnesota residents aware of the unclaimed cash and property the state might have, this year even his name came up on the list.According to an article in the Minneapolis Tribune, the state collects and tries to find the owners of millions of dollars in unclaimed property collected from various banks and businesses.The Department of Commerce collects assets from accounts when they have become inactive and the bank or other institution is unable to track down the owner.Much of the money or property is in the name of someone who has died, in which case the money can be claimed by relatives.The state collected a record $50 million in 2003, which was owed to about 40,000 residents.In total, the state has $225 million in unclaimed funds, and there are more than one million people in the data base of unclaimed property owners.This year’s total includes the contents from 559 safety deposit boxes and 15,000 stock holdings.In 2003, $14 million was claimed.$143 million has been claimed since 1969.I went to the Department of Commerce Web site to see if I had any unclaimed cash sitting around in the government account, but I did not. There were 17 other Tollefsons listed, but none were from Luverne.I did notice several David Tofteland listings from Luverne.If you would like to see if your name is listed, go to www.commerce.state.mn.us.Publisher Roger Tollefson can be reached by e-mail at tolly@star-herald.com