10 years ago (2009)
•One approach to cleaning the Rock River focuses on livestock manure, and now there’s grant money for greener manure management.
The Rock County Land Management Office has been approved for a grant through the EPA Section 310 from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency.
The 319 Grant, as it’s called, will provide nearly $150,000 for the “Rock River Watershed Management Project.” …
A 2007 environmental assessment found the Rock River to be impaired for both fecal coliform and turbidity.
Common sources of fecal coliform include failing septic systems, manure runoff, urban storm water runoff and wildlife.
Turbidity (cloudy dirty water) is commonly caused by field erosion, stream bank erosion and urban storm water runoff, among other things. …
While there are many contributing factors to dirty water, livestock manure can be a major source.
25 years ago (1994)
•Joining the statewide trend of smaller schools cooperating and combining with larger neighboring schools, Magnolia Elementary graduated its last sixth-grade class and closed its doors for good.
Taking advantage of state incentives to combine smaller schools with larger ones, the district painfully exchanged the heart and soul of its community for a ticket out of what would have been a huge financial burden for its taxpayers.
Magnolia high school students have been attending class in Luverne since the fall of 1982.
50 years ago (1969)
•Most everyone has some type of escape to “get-away-from-it-all.” Four Luverne men, Phil Anderson, Arland Johnson, Otto Ermler and Dr. William Bollinger, have their own “thing,” being model trains.
All four men have individual model train layouts in their homes. Almost everything is built from scratch including tracks, cars, locomotives, buildings, bridges, etc.
“Anything to do with railroads can be bought including turn-tables, round-houses, depots, hundreds of signs and hundreds of small pieces of furniture to go inside the cars or inside the depot,” Arland Johnson said.
It’ll take a good 10 hours to assemble a locomotive and a good 4-6 hours to assemble a freight or passenger car. Most trains will run on 12-volt direct current.
Besides the four Luverne men, about 100,000 individuals in the United States spend hundreds of hours a year on the model train hobby.
75 years ago (1944)
•The Christmas tree trade has progressed from the stage when the householder cut his own tree to a well-organized million-dollar industry.
The most popular species of tree for Christmas use is the Balsam fir, which ordinarily accounts for about 60 percent of the total Yuletide demand; spruce accounts for about 25 per cent and Douglas fir 10 per cent.
New England and New York State shippers market their trees in New York City, Boston, Philadelphia, Washington and other important eastern cities. Trees cut in Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota are sold in Chicago, Detroit, St. Louis and other large cities of the Middle and other large cities of the Middle West. Oregon, Washington and California ship their trees (Douglas fir) to points on the Pacific coast and as far south as Tucson, Ariz., and Austin, Texas. In recent years an appreciable number of Douglas fir trees have been sold in Chicago and even in eastern markets.
100 years ago (1919)
•Contract for the remodeling of the Luverne opera house, which is to be occupied after March 1 by the Luverne postoffice, has been awarded to Elmer Cummings, and work thereon will be started immediately after January 1st.
The plans call for installation of brick and plate glass front, designed for the division of the building into two business places. The other walls of the building will be covered with stucco and new windows of suitable design will be put in. The interior will be divided lengthwise, so as to give the postoffice a room approximately 22x110 feet on the south side. This will leave another room or approximately the same size, which will be rented for a store or other business. A basement of suitable size will also be put in, and heat from the municipal plant installed.
The building was purchased some months ago by fifteen business men and leased to the government for a postoffice for a period of ten years, beginning on the 6th day of next March.
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