THE TIME MACHINE

From past files of The Star News

10 YEARS AGO

November 19, 2009

The City of Medford is considering cracking down on fowl play in the city parks.

While aldermen came short of enacting an actual ban on feeding of waterfowl in the city limits, at the committee of the whole meeting Tuesday night, the ball was set in motion to restrict feeding in the future.

Alderman Mike Riggle thinks there is a problem with the duck population in the city. Or rather, he thinks there is a problem with duck and geese manure in the parks and his solution is to make it illegal to feed waterfowl along the Riverwalk. Riggle has no illusion about how popular a city duck feeding ban will be. “We may as well ban eating apple pie or raising the flag,” he said.

According to Riggle, the issue of the duck feeding ban was proposed through a recommendation from the Smart Growth implementation committee that met last month.

25 YEARS AGO

November 23, 1994

Reacting to a backlash of public opinion, the Medford Area School Board rescinded its previous vote to drop the Red Raider Indian logo — which, in effect, reinstated the logo. However, the status of that logo is still in limbo with a subsequent move to leave the logo “down” pending the outcome of an “Educational Forum” and further study by the Athletic Improvement Council.

In June, the school board voted to drop the use of the Indian “Brave” logo and to select a new logo that does not involve a Native American image. Their decision at that time was based on a recommendation from the school’s Athletic Improvement Council and on statements from the Great Lakes Inter-Tribal Council concerning the demeaning and degrading nature of Indian logos in state school districts.

50 YEARS AGO

November 20, 1969

The erection of a science building on the Medford branch campus of Wisconsin State University-Stevens Point at a cost of about $350,000 was discussed during the county board of supervisors session here Wednesday, Nov. 12. Airing the proposal were Paul Arndt, town of Medford, finance committee, and Dr. Russell Oliver, dean of the branch campus.

Arndt explained that the facility would house 7.500 square feet and would be adequate for anticipated enrollment when the branch becomes a two-year campus. He pointed out that university students now are being transported to Medford senior high school for classes and that facilities there are hard pressed with growing enrollment of high school students.

75 YEARS AGO

November 16, 1944

Approval was given Tuesday to the selection of the Taylor county airport site east of Stetsonville on county trunk A, by a CAA airport engineer.

At the opening of the county board session Tuesday, Ed. Lamont, chairman of the buildings and grounds committee of the board, asked permission for Carl A. Posey, St. Paul, to speak briefly before the board.

Posey is district airport engineer for the Civil Aeronautic Commission, which is under the U. S. Department of Commerce. He gave the board oral approval of the site, with assurances that written okay would be sent from St. Paul as quickly as possible.

100 YEARS AGO

November 19, 1919

If present plans mature as District Superintendent Kundert of the Superior District of the West Wisconsin Methodist Conference expects they will, the Winchester Hotel will soon be a thing of the past. About a month ago he secured an option on the property from the Methodist Centenary Board and the big structure will be torn down and much of the dimension stuff and other lumber will be shipped to places in this district where churches or parsonages are to be built.

The furnishings, bed steads, dressers, bath outfits, furnace, piping and plumbing will also be distributed among the various charges in the district as needed.

125 YEARS AGO

November 17, 1894

The climate in all Western Europe so far as the influence of the sea extends inland, is so tempered by the balmy waters of the Gulf Stream during both winter and summer that the population do not seem to be in special need of going elsewhere to escape either the heat or the cold. In England, when the summer temperature rises above eighty degrees, the heat is considered oppressive; in winter when the thermometer sinks below twenty degrees the cold is regarded as exceptional.