THE TIME MACHINE
From past files of The Star News
10 YEARS AGO
July 22, 2010
A 50-year-long string to getting federal funds for renovations at the former Medford Public Library building has some of council wondering if it was worth the money.
The city received a $45,000 matching grant through a congressional appropriation to do repairs to the library structure. So far, the city has received $19,974 which is 50 percent of the replacement of the furnace, air conditioning, electrical upgrades, insulation and roofing.
Special condition no. 22 of the grant requires the city to place a “Preservation Covenant” on the property. This covenant, which is recorded on the deed filed at the register of deeds office, requires the city and any future owner of the property to maintain it to the standards set by the federal Secretary of the Interior through the State Historical Society.
25 YEARS AGO
July 26, 1995
Changes in the airport’s height limitation zoning ordinance will have minimal impact on area residents.
An ordinance has been in affect for some time to regulate and restrict the height of structures and natural growth in the vicinity of the Taylor County Airport. However, the ordi- nance needed some revision due to the proposed East/West runway.
About a dozen citizens attended a public hearing last week, where Zoning Administrator Larry Peterson explained that the only changes move the area covered by the ordinance from three statute miles “from the boundaries of the airport property” to three miles “from the end of the runways” — which actually brings the zone somewhat closer to the airport.
50 YEARS AGO
July 23, 1970
Taylor county has followed suit with other northern Wisconsin counties to regulate public assembly of such gathering as rock festivals. The board of supervisors at its July session Tuesday drafted an ordinance regulating the assemblage of large numbers of persons.
The ordinance, drafted by district attorney Robert Brandner at the request of county board chairman Joe Sweda, is fashioned after a sample ordinance written by attorney general Robert Warren who has warned Wisconsin counties that they are vulnerable to such fiascos as the recent Iola rock festival.
75 YEARS AGO
July 19, 1945
The Medford Oconomowoc Canning Company plant has canned 13,000 cases of early or Alaska peas since it began the canning process last Wednesday, July 11, with an afternoon and evening shift taking care of the work. This amount is as of Tuesday, July 17. The plant was unable to operate Tuesday because of unfavorable weather conditions for cutting the peas, etc.
In addition to the peas being trucked here and canned from the Medford viners located in Marathon county, six additional viners were placed in operation yesterday.
100 YEARS AGO
July 21, 1920
The strings of red tape have become unloosed, and Wisconsin has received another allotment of TNT. Those who have used it know what it is, and the uninformed we will say that TNT is a salvaged war material that the War Department has handed over for land clearing purposes. It is given us free of charge, and all we have to pay is the cost of packing and freight—in all about 10c per pound. It is used stick for stick like dynamite and as it comes three sticks to the pound, our shipment represents a considerable saving.
125 YEARS AGO
July 20, 1895
M. Fournoy, of Geneva, recently devised a novel experiment for testing the limits of human intelligence. He arranged a series of common articles of all sizes, and requested his class to put them in order of weight. The weight of all was really exactly the same, but only one students discovered this fact. The majority placed a small nedael weight first, and a large wood basis last. The ordinary mind apparently ranges the weight of object in inverse proportion to their size. Only when the eyes are shut does a true appreciation become possible, says the Cincinnati Gazette.
