Dusting off the Archives
News from Verndale's Past
75 Years Ago, February 16, 1950
• George Reko, of Cleveland, North Dakota, spent last week at the Hiram Kinney home, and while here purchased the Ed Dickinson farm near the Kinneys. George is a son-in-law of Mr. and Mrs. Kinney.
• Friday night of this week, Verndale will have something new in basketball when local boys play against Jack Moore’s trained donkey team. This game is for the benefit of the Verndale High School lettermen to help defray the cost of their State Tournament trip.
• The driver for Verndale’s new fifth bus which will be added in the near future was hired at the regular monthly meeting of the Board of Education Monday night. There were nine applicants for the job with John Callahan being hired.
40 Years Ago, February 13, 1985
• The Verndale City Council was overjoyed when they learned that a large percentage of the cost of restoring the water tower was covered by insurance. Last week when the main on the south side of town burst, Verndale’s water tank was drained. With no water running in the stem of the tower, it froze in sub-zero temperatures, also rupturing. The estimated cost of the replacement of the stem and insulated jacket was $9800, and $6-$7000 should be reimbursed by insurance.
• First place winner in the Elks Club Hoop Shoot last Saturday at Wadena was Camille Erickson who had to break three ties to gain the crown. She first tied 10 out of 25, then 3/5, 2/5 and 2/5 to place second. Also, Lori Radniecki shot 7/25 in the 10-11 age group, Roxanne Adams 14/25 and Scott Seaton 16/25, both in the 12-13 age group. Scott also had to break a tie, placing second with 3/5. Camille will go on to compete in the district competition, and the other three are on call should the first place winner be unable to attend.
• Shelia Notch, daughter of Ron and Florence Notch, and Jim Shereck, son of Jim and Diane Shereck, were crowned queen and king of Verndale High School’s Winter Festival held last week, featuring various events.
15 Years Ago, February 18, 2010
• On February 9, Borealis Bookstore in Wadena looked like a rain forest with steamed up windows from the humidity and water flooded all over the interior of the store. The morning was sunny and mild as Gillette Kempf opened the front door of the bookstore around 9 a.m. That’s when she noticed something wasn’t right. The windows were all steamed up when she opened the door, steam and humidity billowed out. “It sounded like a water fall and the air flowed warm and humid like a tropic garden,” she said. A pipe had ruptured.
• Reaction in the Staples community to a KSTP television ‘investigative reporting’ segment broadcast last week was virtually universal: it was a hatchet job. Reporter Bob McNaney’s broadcast version plus a longer segment on the KSTP episode used the Dower Lake pier replacement project as an example of unnecessary government spending and a pork barrel project that went against the rules of the DNR, which eventually paid for the project. The project replaced a century old, dilapidated Northern Pacific structure with a new handicapped accessible fishing pier.
• Emcee Nathan Dunbar, dressed in a very unique suit made with brightly colored duct tape, along with emcee Misty Uselman, asked the royal court “on the spot” questions. Pictured is fill-in, Verndale Student Trevor Enberg, for the 2009 Snow Daze King Jay Runyan.
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