Dusting Off the Archives

News from Verndale's Past

40 Years Ago, August 20, 1986

• ICG is conducting a leak survey in the Wadena District according to Harlan Solseth, Wadena district supervisor. Solseth said Earl Deneen of Health Consultants is in the process of inspecting 5100 service lines and 91 miles of gas main, the majority of which is located throughout the Wadena district. Daneen should be in Verndale by the end of the week when he completes the survey in the city of Staples.

• Fathers, mothers, students, grandparents and teachers are all invited to attend an emergency meeting of the local chapter of the PTSA on Monday, August 25, at 8 p.m., in the school library. Your support is needed in order to keep the organization going. Some things that might not be if the PTSA is dissolved: cultural arts program of which Verndale has had many winners, annual open house of the classrooms, scholarship funds for a graduating senior, poster contests throughout the school year, and teacher appreciation.

• Grand Marshal of this year’s People Please Parade was Fred Klimek, local grocer, whose wife, Wanda, and daughter, Kassie, rode with him in the parade.

• A portion of the contestants in the FHA Joe Cool contest included Larry Hahn of First National Bank, Roger Crow of Verndale Surplus, who thought it was a dress-up contest, Reverend Roger Melquist, Assemblies of God Pastor, and Jason White, a student. Each contestant was given a chunk of ice on which they were to remain seated as long as possible. Two hours later, still seated were Phillip Colby, Phillip boys, Jason White and Bob Fisher. The contest was called a draw after two hours and about 18 minutes when none of the finalists would give in.

15 Years Ago, August 25, 2011

• This year’s England Prairie Pioneer Days will be held August 26-28. In 1980, the first Pioneer Days were held after the England Prairie Pioneer Club was founded in 1979. The club has around 150 members ranging from central Minnesota to North Dakota. Today the site of the club community is 790 acres and the land, which is near the south border of Wadena County, was first purchased in 1981. Many features and buildings have been added to the property throughout the years.

• The Verndale School Board hired new employees during the August 8 special meeting and the August 22 regular meeting. Hired were: elementary teachers Jennifer Blikenstaff and Maria Uselmann, teacher assistants Kayla Schultz, Anna Burrows and Kelly Schmitz; regular morning bus driver Char Orlando, morning and evening driver Robert Anderson and extracurricular and sub drivers Kimberly Snyder an Steve Techam. Hired on Monday were: Megan Feris as parent educator, Cami Dick and Derek Edwards as teaching assistants; and John Holman as social studies teacher.

• Senior members of the Verndale Pirates football team look forward to the upcoming season. Pictured are Travis Lollar, Kory Stave, Colton Moyer, Tyler Suhl and Jesse Eisel. A lone senior, Jordanna Schluttner, will anchor the pirates volleyball team as a veteran letter winner.

• The Bertha Blazers picked up the first state tournament win in Blazer’s history this past Sunday night at Glencoe. The Blazers defeated Fairfax 8-2 in their opening round of tournament play. Fairfax took a 1-0 lead in the top of the third inning on a solo home run by Cody Loverude and starting pitcher Alex Brochpahler, a draftee from the Nimrod Nine. That proved to be the only hit for the Cardinals as Brockphaler pitched five strong innings, yielding just one more run, before Patrick Riewer took the Cardinals down.

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