Features (1071)
The Nortonna Lodge 1-638 of the Sons of Norway will meet on Monday, Jan. 18. Supper will be served at 6 for a cost of $7 and the meeting will follow at 7 p.m. at the Owatonna Elks Lodge, 126 East Vine Street.
The program will be “Share Your Heritage Night.” In preparation we would like you to think about a special story or bring a special item from your family that reflects something about your Scandinavian heritage. We will try to include everyone, so it might run into coffee time, but we can drink coffee and listen at the same time. Join us and share your story. For more information, contact Nina Zak at 507-451-5841 or Cindy Hokanson at 451-9301.
2016 cancer auction kicks off
REDNECK MOTHERS — Cheri (Sloan) Krejci, Cindy (Sloan) Owen, Pam (Cornelius) Muri and Rita (Thompson) Louks stand by the Redneck Christmas tree auctioned off during the first weekend of the 2016 Geneva Cancer Auction. The event resumes at 7 p.m. Friday and wraps up Saturday, Jan. 16 at Geneva Bar & Grill. (Star Eagle photo by Kathy Paulsen)
By KATHY PAULSEN
Staff Writer
Life is brief and very fragile. Hope, like love, transcends all time. It is a friend, a healer and a maker of dreams. When you give, you harvest an abundance of love that life offers.
Maybe all of life’s promises don't come true. We can only try.
January is a month dedicated to extraordinary attention given to the cause against cancer. Though it is an ongoing cause year-round, January 8-9 and 15-16 are special days set aside for the Geneva Cancer Auction. Friday night began with a brief introduction by Jamie Hagen, followed by his father, DuWayne, or Whitey, Hagen, as he is best known, reviewing some achievements that go back 30 to 40 years ago.
The Waseca Sleigh and Cutter medallion is hidden outdoors, on public property within the Waseca city limits.
A $1,750 prize of Chamber Dollars and store certificates will be awarded to the person who finds the medallion.
Bring the medallion to Charlie’s Hardware. Clues will be published in the Star Eagle. Clues will also be broadcast on KRUE and KOWZ Radio and will be available at Waseca Area Chamber of Commerce at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
Prize money totaling $1,750 up for grabs
Identify Frosty and win some cash!
Prize money totaling $1,750 is waiting to be won. Frosty is a Waseca County resident chosen to be an ambassador for the Waseca Sleigh & Cutter Festival. Follow the clues and guess FROSTY’S name.
Grand prize is $350. If you are at the official unmasking at 9:30 p.m., on Friday, February 12, 2016, you will win an additional $50. Unmasking is at the annual Sleigh & Cutter dinner and dance at the VFW Club 113 West Elm Avenue, Waseca, MN. First correct guess from Janesville, New Richland and Waseca win $150.00; and if you are at the unmasking you will win an additional $50. Four names will be drawn for $100 – must be present. Four names win $50 – attendance is not necessary.
The Waldorf “Friends of the Library” is having a quilt show Saturday, Jan. 16 from 8 a.m. to noon at the Waldorf Community Center.
Negotiations to begin on contract for superintendent
Written by Jim LutgensNRHEG School Board
By REED WALLER
Staff Writer
In a brief open session following the Organizational Meeting Monday, January 4, the NRHEG school board’s Staff Negotiations Committee opened negotiations with Dale Carlson on terms of a contract for permanent superintendent of schools.
A positive evaluation at last month’s meeting caused the board’s selection committee to recommend going ahead with him for the position rather than beginning the costly and time-consuming selection process again.
Carlson will be the third superintendent the district has had in the last 10 years, since the resignation of Richard Lorenz in 2006. Lorenz held the position for 21 years.
At Monday’s organizational meeting, board elections were held, producing much discussion on the nomination process but no change in the board officers, who were all re-elected.
The sweet science goes back a long way in Minnesota history
(Editor’s note: Part five of a seven-part series about local, area, and state amateur and professional boxing.)
By RODNEY HATLE
Contributing Writer
Boxing history in Minnesota has deep roots. The fight game was planted previous to 1910, when the first famous St. Paul brothers, Tommy and Mike Gibbons, were young pros. That was 40 years before Del and Glen Flanagan.
One of the nationally ranked fighters of the 1940s was Jackie Graves from nearby Austin. Publicity prone media writers called him “The Austin Atom” when at age 22 he was 128 pounds. Ranked No.2 during only his second year as a pro, he got his chance at the world featherweight title in 1946. Champion Willie Pep was a year older. Pep’s lifetime record would become 229-11-1 over 26 years.
“The fight itself shook the walls of the Minneapolis Auditorium. Graves sent Pep to the canvas twice [in the sixth]. Pep dropped Graves nine times [total], winning by TKO in the eighth round.”
The Waseca Sleigh and Cutter medallion is hidden outdoors, on public property within the Waseca city limits.
A $1,750 prize of Chamber Dollars and store certificates will be awarded to the person who finds the medallion.
Bring the medallion to Charlie’s Hardware. Clues will be published each week in the Waseca County News and NRHEG Star Eagle. Clues will also be broadcast on KRUE and KOWZ Radio and will be available online at Waseca Area Chamber of Commerce at This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..
The University of Minnesota, Southern Research and Outreach Center (SROC) will hold their annual Winter Crops Day meetings at five locations.
Beginning Wednesday, January 13 the program will be held at the Community Center in St. Charles. On Thursday, January 14, programs will be held at the Community Center in Arlington and a new location, Lakes Sports Bar & Grill in Lake Crystal. On Friday, January 15 the program will be held at EVENTS in Kasson and the Southern Research and Outreach Center in Waseca. The program will be similar at all locations.
For specific topics and times, details can be found at the SROC web site at: www.sroc.cfans.umn.edu or contact your local or regional Extension office of the SROC at (507) 835-3620.
New Richland represented well in 1948 district finals
(Editor’s note: Part four of a seven-part series about local, area, and state amateur and professional boxing.)
By RODNEY HATLE
Contributing Writer
A review of the process shows how boxers of Gene Mobley’s New Richland training group faired in the Golden Gloves District 17 boxing tournament of 1948.
The fight card of eight bouts for the Wednesday, Jan. 28, finals lists four individuals as compared with six from Bethlehem Academy in Faribault, and three each from Owatonna and Northfield.
The finals began with New Richland’s Lester Root, flyweight at 105 pounds, and Earl Parriott, bantamweight at 118.
In the fourth bout was 133-pound lightweight Rodney Zwiener, who had advanced Saturday night with a second round TKO when the referee halted it because of the opponent’s increasingly swollen eye, the result of a round-one punch. But Zwiener was himself knocked out in round two of the finals by Jack Kennedy of Faribault. He “went down after a smashing right to the face and failed to get up by the count of ten,” was the Owatonna newspaper report.
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Geneva Cancer Auction starts January 8
By KATHY PAULSEN
Staff Writer
A new year is upon us. It is time to look ahead with the prospect of a whole year to look forward to. Can we, or should we look back at the year just ending?
Like looking in a rear-view mirror, it is important to look twice before backing up to be sure there is nothing in the way. You can look back, but there is nothing to be done about mistakes made except to learn from them. It is time to look at all good things that 2015 gave us.
We all have much to offer, much to give, and deserve to receive in return. We’ve heard it many times: “Live each day as if it were your last,” but did you ever consider living each day of life for someone you love? Count your blessings; name them, one by one.
SMART Transit will come to NR Wednesday and for scheduled rides
By JIM LUTGENS
Editor/Publisher
History will be made Saturday, Jan. 2 as Waseca County introduces public transportion.
Southern Minnesota Area Rural Transit announced earlier this year it would expand services — currently provided in Steele, Freeborn and Mower County — to Waseca County as part of a Minnesota Department of Transportation initiative that aims to improve access and service in greater Minnesota.
The Waseca County Demand Response Bus/Van will operate from 7 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday, with local service in New Richland on Wednesdays from 10:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. and in Janesville on Mondays from 10:30-12:30. Demand Response is a county-wide service where people can schedule rides. Cost is $2.50 for county-wide trips and $2 for in-town service. To schedule your ride, call 1-855-762-7821.
NRHEG Community Education is sponsoring a bus trip to the Old Log Theater on Wednesday, Jan. 27 to see “The Wedding Singer.” This play is based on the 1998 film of the same name. Bus will leave Ellendale (Gopher Stop) at 10:10 am. Cost is $70 if registered by Jan. 11. Lunch is included and your choices are: beef short rib, tilapia, vegetarian pasta or boneless chicken breast.
More information is available on the NRHEG Web site or by calling 507-417-2667.
Students shine in annual concert
CHRISTMAS CONCERT — NRHEG High School music instructor Jacob Bender conducts the band during the annual Christmas Concert Monday, Dec. 14. (Star Eagle photo by Nikki Erickson)
By NIKKI ERICKSON
Contributing Writer
The Christmas season began at NRHEG High School with the combined choir and band Christmas Concert Monday, Dec. 14.
The choir started the evening with a joyful piece called, “A Festival Holiday,” by Jerry Estes. This rhythmic holiday tune was filled with solos by Nicole Edon on the xylophone, Emma Tollefson on tambourine and Mircedes Mattson on the bongos.
“Tänd ett ljus,” a traditional Swedish piece, was played in celebration of NRHEG exchange student Linnea Strom-Olsen, who sang the lyrics in her native language. “Tänd eft ljus” translates to “light a candle” in hope for a better world.
“White Christmas,” by Irving Berlin and arranged by Joyce Eilers Bacak, was sung with all the longing for a beautiful season of snow during the Christmas season.