20 YEARS AGO
FEBRUARY 12, 2001
A planned reduction in the size of the school activities/athletic budget could mean cutting cheerleading, speech, cross-country skiing and drama next year. Cutting these four activities would save the district $20,648 per year. Another $2,830 could be saved by not funding the student council advisor position and by trimming miscellaneous services from the athletic director’s budget.
The State’s plans to resurface Highway 61 from Grand Marais to the Canadian border this summer may be thwarted by the high cost of transporting bituminous. A MnDOT official said the $6.2 million budget may not be enough to cover a contractor’s expense unless the contractor can figure out a way to set up a bituminous (black top) plant close to where the work is being done.
30 YEARS AGO
FEBRUARY 11, 1991
The Grand Marais Public Utilities Commission (PUC) is preparing a Remedial Action Plan for an accumulation of spilled fuel oil at the city’s power plant. The plan will be submitted to the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency for approval. PUC administrator Tom Swenson said the fuel oil appears to have accumulated from spills or leaks during the past 30 to 50 years. The oil was discovered by a crew doing soil borings about three years ago for the new water treatment plant. The crew was required by law to report the find to the MPCA and the Environmental Protection Agency. Since the facility opened in 1939, it has consumed over 10 million gallons of fuel oil.
60 YEARS AGO
FEBRUARY 9, 1961
It has been rather unusual in recent years to find good skating ice on the local harbor. The ice is very thick now and as long as there is no movement or opening of cracks there should be no danger, the Coast Guard reports. However, they suggest skating be done in the eastern end of the harbor to avoid the areas where ice cutting operations have taken place. These areas are inside and just outside the new inner rock pier on the western end of the harbor. The areas are marked.
Local game wardens closed in on four game poachers last week, nabbed them, and brought them to court. The men pleaded guilty to taking deer out of season and were fined $210 each, on two counts. The wardens also seized two cars and one rifle. They report that some of the meat had been cut up and was found in a barrel.
100 YEARS AGO
FEBRUARY, 1921
Dominick Peterson, Chippewa City weather prophet, says we will have no more winter. The bears are strolling through the woods, eating frozen mountain ash berries.
A representative of the North Shore Transportation Company has taken a survey of the 45 rural delivery boxes along the route east of Grand Marais. He reports 35 are wooden and 15 regular metal boxes. One-half of the regulation boxes are without names. Two-thirds of the wooden boxes are without covers, and one-fourth of all the boxes have no names at all to designate the owners. If you have a mail delivery box, get some paint and put your name on the box in plain letters if it is not there. Do what you can to help the mail carriers and they promise in turn to give you the best possible service at all times.
Do you have an old picture or a story from years gone by that you would like to share with the Cook County News-Herald readers? We’d love to hear your Historical Reflections Call (218) 387-9100; e-mail ccnh@boreal.org; or stop by our office at 15 First Avenue West.
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