By Wes Reinke
Below are historical news excerpts from the Shakopee area from this week in years gone by:
150 Years Ago: From the Sept. 2, 1875 Shakopee Argus
The deluge of rain that fell in an hour’s time on Monday evening did some damage to our streets. Some culverts were washed out; new grading on some of the north and south streets was washed away, and the paving in the gutters washed out. A more permanent manner of building culverts and paving open gutters will in the end be more economical than the cheap ones heretofore built.
125 Years Ago: From the Aug. 30, 1900 Scott County Argus
Prof. A. L. McBee requests us to state to the pupils of the high school and those of eighth grade who expect to enter the high school this Fall, that he will meet with them at the high school building next Monday to arrange for classification for the ensuing year’s work and to distribute the state certificates awarded on the June examinations.
125 Years Ago: From the Aug. 31, 1900 Shakopee Tribune
Leonard Mayer has now formally opened his hotel for business and has already quite a number of boarders. The new building itself presents a homelike appearance and no doubt ere long Hotel Mayer will have acquired quite a fame.
100 Years Ago: From the Sept. 4, 1925 Shakopee Argus
Challenge Issued
B. A. Mertz, manager of ye “Old Timers” has challenged the Ben’s Boys for another clash and has posted his check in the amount of $100 with the Peoples National Bank, the Ben’s Boys to put up a like sum and the game to be played at Athletic Park, Sunday, Sept. 13.
100 Years Ago: From the Sept. 3, 1925 Shakopee Tribune
Shakopee School to Open Tuesday, Sept. 8
The school bell will summon the youth of Shakopee and community to their desks next Tuesday, September eighth. Detailed arrangements have been completed in both the Shakopee high school and St. Mark’s parochial school and large enrollments are anticipated.
“Thoroughly cleaned buildings will greet the teachers and pupils when the new term starts at the Shakopee high school,” stated Henry Mergens, clerk of school district No. 1. The exterior woodwork of the building was given a coat of paint during the summer vacation, and a modern up-to-date electric lighting system was installed with new electric chandeliers throughout the rooms…
75 Years Ago: From the Aug. 31, 1950 Shakopee Argus-Tribune
$50,000 Gift Assured if Locality Gives $100,000
Leaders in the campaign to raise $150,000 as the community’s share of the cost of building and equipping a new hospital here were encouraged this week by the announcement that the Rahr Foundation would contribute $50,000 to the fund if the community was successful in raising $100,000 from other contributors…
75 Years Ago: From the Aug. 31, 1950 Shakopee Valley News
Lindbergh Plane Builder In Town
T. Claude Ryan, president of the Ryan Aeronautical Co., Lindbergh Field, San Diego, Cal., stopped in Shakopee last week enroute to his home from a visit to the East. He stopped at the First National Bank to transact some personal business with F. A. Weiland, assistant cashier. Weiland reported a very friendly visit with the man who, a quarter of a century ago, gained worldwide fame as the man “who built the Spirit of St. Louis”, the plane used by Col. Charles A. Lindbergh on his epoch flight from New York to Paris in 1927.
25 Years Ago: From the Aug. 31, 2000 Shakopee Valley News
‘Your jail is terrible,’ say consultants
New facility recommended
Local officials seemed more impressed with the directness of the message than the actual words from the two men from the National Institute of Corrections (NIC) who had reviewed Scott County’s Jail and its operations. The recommendation was not a shock…
“Your jail is terrible,” said Arnette Gaston, one of the inspectors and a former warden of Rikers Island, a New York City penitentiary. “It’s overcrowded. It’s understaffed. It’s a miracle you’ve kept it alive as long as you have…”
Scott County played host to the inspectors from the NCI’s Planning and Opening of New Institutions (PONI) program last week on Monday and Tuesday. They looked at all facets of the aging jail, from its plumbing, heating, cooling and air-circulation units, to the systems the jailers use for processing and handling incoming prisoners as well as those serving sentences…
Gaston and Bob Gibson are contracted consultants for NCI and its PONI Program. Their exhaustive visit was part of the work of the county’s Jail Study Committee. They poured over reams of data and finished their visit with a public meeting on Wednesday last week. During that meeting, they presented a short version of their findings and recommendation…
Although Gaston and Gibson strongly recommended the county build a new facility on a different site than the jail, they stopped short of identifying the number of beds or the size of the investment…
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