5 Years Ago HASTINGS STAR-GAZETTE January 7, 2016 Million dollar lottery ticket purchased in Miesville Winner has not yet come forward (story by staff writer Katrina Styx) Volunteer of the Year Rita Kriha has dedicated retirement and more to Regina gift shop Chamber award winner says volunteering is her way of ‘paying back the Lord’ for her talents (story also written by staff writer Katrina Styx) 20 Years Ago HASTINGS STAR-GAZETTE February 8, 2001 ‘Save the Lady’ leader, McKane dies at 79 John McKane, Hastings native and former editor of the Hastings Gazette, led a 10-year effort to save Lake Rebecca.

(story by Jane Lightbourn, Star-Gazette staff writer

40 Years Ago HASTINGS STAR-GAZETTE February 12, 1981 Hazardous waste Citizens concerned about groundwater by SCOTT PENGELLY, editor A hazardous waste land disposal facility should not be located over major groundwater reservoirs, and it should be placed only in highly impermeable soil.

That was the general consensus of citizens who attended a meeting conducted by the Minnesota Waste Management Board (WMB) in the Hastings senior high school auditorium Monday night (story continues on).

Hydroelectric power?

Hastings dam could be power source by AL SHAFFER, staff writer Mississippi River water flowing through Lock and Dam 2 in Hastings could be a future electrical power source, according to Carl Stephan, St. Paul district project engineer for the National Hydro-power Study done by the Army Corps of Engineers.

The power study was actually a preliminary review and screening ordered by the United States Department of Energy and contracted through the Corps. The study has come up with a list of possible hydroelectrical power sources throughout the country including Lock and Dam 2 in Hastings (story continues on).

Almost 56 Years Ago HASTINGS GAZETTE September 24, 1964 Hastings site Heads ‘Save The St. Croix’ Campaign For Funds L. J. McNulty, Rt. 4, Hastings, has been named chairman of the Save the St. Croix fund drive.

McNulty is president of the L. J. McNulty Co. general contractors, Inver Grove.

He is a member of the executive board of the Save the St. Croix Committee, Inc., organized to oppose the proposed Northern States Power Co., generating plant at Oak Park Heights near Bayport.

The committee is seeking to raise $10,000 to implement the findings of its technical committee, which is studying water and air pollution and barge traffic as pertains to the proposed plant.

McNulty, 49, is a graduate of South St. Paul high school, and attended the University of Minnesota. He is past commander of the South St. Paul VFW Post 295, and is a former South St. Paul city engineer.

In 1942 he entered the U.S. Army as a private and was discharged in 1946 with the rank of captain after having served four years in the South Pacific and Japan.

He moved to the Hastings area from South St. Paul four years ago.

44-LB. WATERMELON IN PATCH AT EMPIRE Mr. and Mrs. Adolph Reinardy of Empire haven’t heard of anyone producing a heavier watermelon than one that ripened in their patch recently.

The melon weighed 44 pounds.

BUILDING PERMITS ISSUED IN ’64 SET RECORD— NOT IN NUMBER, BUT VALUE Growing by leaps and bounds, the city of Hastings will spend more money on construction this year than at any other time in the city’s long history.

Although the number of homes built this year will probably fall short of the record number built in 1957, and is trailing last year’s number, the total “calculated valuation” for construction of all kinds within the city limits will exceed any previous year according to city clerk Wallace H. Erickson.

Building projects with a calculated valuation of $3,808,395 have received permits this year, topping last year’s previous high by about $300,000.

The record for new homes in one year is 100, set in the city’s 100th year, 1957. Total valuation of the new homes that year was $1,183,200, with the overall valuation for construction of all types $2,051,600 (story continues).

Five Months of Stalemate Leads Union To Strike At Pine Bend Fertilizer Plant Picketing has been peaceful, authorities report, at the entrance to the Northwest Co-op Mills fertilizer plant at Pine Bend, but production is nearly halted as the result of a 2 a.m. Saturday walkout by 73 employees, members of Oil, Chemical and Atomic Workers local (unclear number).

The strike followed nearly five months of fruitless negotiations between union and company representatives.

A union spokesman told the Gazette that the main issue is the wage rate. Presently, the hourly base rate for laborers, is $2.15, he said, which is “about 60 cents below the Pine Bend area scale.”

Other issues include better working conditions, “especially better control of fumes and acid dust.”

The union members are “prepared to hold out six months if we have to—maybe 10,” their spokesman said. He said the company is not expected to be able to hold out so long., because the loss of maintenance crews, especially, is crucial at this time, with the approach of cold weather. Ordinarily, the maintenance crew numbers 21.

The plant has been staffed this week by “management and a couple of others” totaling 16 or 17, according to the union spokesman. Company officials would not disclose any figure.

A railroad dining car was brought in Saturday and located on siding next to the plant, where meals are prepared and served to the employees now manning the plant (story continues).

114 Years Ago CANNON FALLS BEACON February 2, 1906 Spoiled the Effect A struggling actor, anxious to secure some applause, secured places in the gallery for his seven children and instructed them carefully as to the moment when they should clap their hands and shout “Bravo!”

The moment arrived at last. The telling speech was made, and, to his amazement, a chorus of seven called out: “Bravo, father!

Bravo!”

157 Years Ago THE HASTINGS CONSERVER February 9, 1864

PUBLIC NOTICE IS HEREBY GIVEN that at the sitting of the district court of the first judicial district in and for the county of Dakota on Tuesday, the 22d day of March, 1864, in the city of Hastings, at 10 o’ clock A. M., the undersigned proprietary of the north half of southeast quarter and south half of north-east quarter of section 23, township 114, range 19, in said Dakota County, which was surveyed and laid out in the year 1856 as West Empire City, will apply for the entire vacation of the survey of the same.

G. O. Robertson Mary Robertson Hastings, Feb. 9, 1864. 44-1m* (A check of the given coordinates shows that “West Empire City” was platted to the west of present Blaine Avenue north of 200th Street E in Empire Township. Per the GIS web map it is now composed of presumptively private-owned farm field and/or woods, located at or near the bridge crossing the Vermillion River at said coordinates. Empire City proper as visible in old plat maps is still evident in platting records just off Highway 52 to the west on 200th Street E, with the old rail right-ofway discernible in the grid pattern).

February 2, 1864

MARRIED.

In Eureka township, Dakota County, on the 25th ult., by G. B. Newell, esq., E. H. Wood of Eureka township, to Miss S. A. Dilley, of Webster township, Rice County, Minn.

163 Years Ago THE EMIGRANT AID AND JOURNAL OF MINNESOTA City of Nininger, Dakota County, Minnesota Territory January 27, 1858 The Love Knot.

Tying her bonnet under her chin, She tied her raven ringlets in, But not alone in the silken snare, Did she catch her lovely floating hair, For tying her bonnet under her chin, She tied a young man’s heart within” (Poem continues, attributed to ‘National Era’) “A Bee Line.”

Editor Emigrant Aid Journal: SIR—Believing that the citizens of Nininger will find that one of the greatest natural advantages possessed by their town, is its position as the best point for the people of the valleys of the Cannon and Vermillion Rivers to cross the Mississippi when they wish to take the shortest route to St. Paul or Stillwater, I would suggest the propriety of immediately using the necessary means to profit by this fortunate circumstance next spring. When it becomes generally known that the distance from Nininger to St. Paul (ferrying at Nininger) is barely seventeen miles, there will be a rapidly increasing amount of travel by this route, so soon as the Ferry is in operation and properly advertised. The proposed Telegraph line will in all probability cross the river at Nininger. The farmers of the Cottage Grove district will subscribe at least $500 towards the Ferry project. The bridge from the island to the main land should be built this winter, and a small wooden pier would be erected at Basset’s Landing from the first of April. The steamboats will land passengers there at all times. This pier and a small ‘waiting house’ will be absolutely necessary while the main Levee improvements are going on.

PROGRESS Nininger, Jan. 23d, 1858.