50 Years Ago
Letter to Santa: Dear Santa: I think I have been a good boy. Once I ran away from my mommy and hid underneath the bed. I did not even do it. So if you think I’ve been good you can give me a talking Ken doll, a Marvle the Mustang and a give a show projector. There will be cookies and milk waiting on the table for you. I am a boy so I can not love you but you are great. Dave Sogge, Waubun. PS. My chimney is small so after my mommy goes to bed I’ll unlock the back door for you.
DL-Vergas Phone Delay Is Announced: Toll-free telephone calling between Detroit Lakes and Vergas has been delayed from Sunday, Dec. 14 to Monday, Dec. 22, according to John Walker, Northwestern Bell Telephone Co. manager in Detroit Lakes. Late arrival of specialized equipment was cited as the reason for the delay… After Dec. 22, customers in Detroit Lakes and Vergas will be able to call each other with no long distance charge.
Detroit Lakes School Vote Set Tuesday; Six Questions On Ballot For Election: Residents of Independent School District No. 22 of Detroit Lakes will go to the polls Tuesday, Dec. 16, to ballot on perhaps the most controversial school bond issue in the district’s history. Detroit Lakes has never defeated a school building issue, but a great deal of sentiment appears to be against the proposal offered in Tuesday’s election (to construct a new junior high school building and convert the old junior high into an elementary school, among other changes and additions).
Excerpts from the Monday, December 15, 1969, Detroit Lakes Tribune
25 Years Ago
Cabin owners speak out at county hearing: Seasonal cabin owners told county officials Tuesday they are unjustly taking the fall for Minnesota’s higher taxes. But it is the state Legislature, not Becker County, that establishes tax rates for each property classification. In Minnesota, seasonal cabin owners pay two times more than a residential homeowner does for a house equal or less in value than $72,000. In Becker County, there are 3,891 seasonal cabin owners compared with 8,187 residential homeowners.
Failed bond issue puts building improvements into DL school levy: Only the most urgent school building improvements remain on the table for 1995 following the failure of an $11.7 million bond issue in Detroit Lakes School District. The issue — defeated 1,826 to 1,351 in a referendum Friday — would have paid for major remodeling and additions to the Detroit Lakes High School and modest improvements to other buildings, as well.
Gingrich brings meanness; Good leadership built on honesty, integrity (opinion): If there is virtue in meanness and megalomania, the new Republican majority should rule Congress for the next hundred years. To say the Nov. 8 general election has emboldened this new crew of congressional leaders is at best an understatement. Rarely have so many become so full of themselves so quickly over so few accomplishments… Newt Gingrich, the Georgia Republican who has distinguished himself in Congress as a do-nothing obstructionist, will be the new “visionary” speaker of the House of Representatives? This man, who served his first wife with divorce papers while she was hospitalized, gravely ill with cancer, is now the protector of decency and family values? It is incredible what politics brings us. Gingrich says the new Republican majority in Congress “can dramatically improve the quality of life, economic opportunity, and the safety of every American. But his is a proposition that clearly ignores the poor and vulnerable.
Excerpts from the Thursday, December 15, 1994, Detroit Lakes Tribune
