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Wednesday, Aug. 2, 2023
Number 31 • Volume 134
Ritter
Inspired
relishes 45-year bus driving ride
by the past
ATKINSON TO TALK ABOUT SPACE MISSIONS BOOK AT MELROSE LIBRARY
Melrose researching policing options ... pg. 3 Hiltner happy to carry on legacy ... pg. 7 ‘A Team’ has first baby boy in 2017 ... pg. 16 Gymnasts scoring with the best ... pg. 10
pg. 6
PHOTOS BY HERMAN LENSING
Zack Jones adds color to the mural July 19 on the Holdingford Area Museum wall in Holdingford. The drawing was projected from an image of the painting. The tablet behind him contains an image of the mural.
COMMUNITY COVERAGE 127 YEARS PHOTO BY CAROL MOORMAN
Eileen Ritter, July 28 at the bus garage, stands inside bus 12, the last 77-passenger bus she drove for the Albany Area School District in Albany. After 45 years of driving school bus, she retired in December 2022.
400 Block update
Holdingford mural depicts city’s story
Retired Albany school staff Heritage Day grand marshal
BY HERMAN LENSING STAFF WRITER
BY CAROL MOORMAN | STAFF WRITER
J
eff Burg, of Holdingford, has been asked many times about the name of his community. As“Even the sun was starting some people whoto rise Monday, Commercial Contractors Company from Melrose were inlive here don’t know howworkers it side the Lisa’s On Main building working securing The mural outsideonthe Holdingford Area Museum was completed by July 22 when a meet and got its name,” he said July 19 greet was held for Zack Jones, the artist who painted it. The mural depicts the city’s story. the west wall. PHOTO BY CAROL MOORMAN while watching Zack Jones paint an imaginary scene from Holdingford’s past on Two Rivers. In 1868, Ran- wagon crossing a stream, at gotten,” said Burg, a history the Holdingford Area Muse- dolph Holding purchased a mill. Something about the buff. “I thought what a perum wall. “I explain that, and land at the ford and the area picture reminded Burg of fect way, show fording by became known as Holding’s Randolph Holding and in- the river. I presented it to the they say it is really neat.” The 12-foot by 30-foot Ford. Over time, the spell- spired the idea of a mural of historical board, and they jumped on it wholeheartedmural painted on the south ing changed to Holdingford. the river being forded. Burg, who owns the “About a year ago I was ly.” museum wall shows part of the answer. A poster on the Holdingford Mill, has a copy thinking how can we teach wall explains that the town is of Paul Detlefsen’s “Big that (story of the town’s Mural page 3 located at a ford of the South Moment,” a horse-drawn name) so it doesn’t get for-
Melrose City Center voting site for schools’ special election District residents have until Aug. 15 to file for open seat BY HERMAN LENSING STAFF WRITER
There will be one voting site when Melrose Area Public Schools District 740 residents vote Nov. 7 in a special election to fill a vacancy on the board – the Melrose City Center, 225 First St., NE, Melrose.
The board approved the November election on July 24 during a monthly meeting at the school in Melrose. The vacancy was created when board member Becky Klassen resigned at the end of June because she moved out of the district and is no longer eligible to serve as board member. Klassen’s term was to expire Jan. 5, 2025. The person elected to the seat will serve until that time. People can file to fill the position
from Aug. 1 to 15 at the school district office in Melrose. Individuals must be 21 at the time they assume the office and a resident of the school district at least 30 days before Nov. 7. The election to fill the vacancy is the only school district question on the ballot.
School board page 6
Passing the presidential
fair reins After 23 years, Frericks steps back, Schmitz elected BY CAROL MOORMAN | STAFF WRITER
The Stearns County Fair Board presidential reins have been passed from Vern Frericks and Tom Schmitz. After 23 years as president, Frericks, of Melrose, handed the managerial tasks over to Schmitz, of Albany, for this year’s fair, July 26-30, and future fairs. PHOTO BY CAROL MOORMAN “I feel so good about Tom taking over,” said 73-yearNew Stearns County Fair old Frericks, who figured it was time for “this 1949 modPresident Tom Schmitz (left) el” to retire from that title. “If Tom needs help, I will and outgoing President Vern gladly help him, but I just can’t do what I used to do.” Frericks gather July 29 inside That doesn’t mean the fair duo have given up their a building at the fairgrounds in Sauk Centre. After 23 years, traditional fair tasks. Frericks stepped back this year as president.
Fair page 3
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PUBLIC NOTICES Albany Area School Board Work Session ........... pg. 8 Assumed Name - Pupusa St. ............................. pg. 8 City of Avon Variance Request Public Hearing.... pg. 8 Sauk River Watershed District Budget Public Hearing................................................. pg. 10 Holding Township Clean Up Day Notice ............. pg. 8 Melrose Area School Reg. Board Meeting, June 26 pg. 8
Eileen Ritter rode the bus to school when she attended Albany Area Schools, graduating in 1963. Fourteen years later, she started driving bus for the Albany School District, retiring in December 2022, after 45 years. Her husband, LeRoy, who started driving bus the same time she did, continues, while farming south of Avon, where Eileen enjoys hobbies, like quilting and vegetable and flower gardening. “I enjoyed seeing the children every day,” she said on July 26 of her bus driving days. “At the end, I had some of their grandchildren.” The Saturday, Aug. 5, Heritage Day Parade grand marshal for the Purple Pride theme is all retired Albany school district staff. The Albany Area Chamber of Commerce chooses the grand marshal related to the theme. Any retired staff members who would like to ride on the grand marshal float are encouraged to be at the school parking lot by 6:30 p.m. “Something to do, and I suppose maybe extra income,” was Eileen’s answer when asked why she started driving bus in January 1977. Growing up on a farm, Eileen drove trucks and tractors. “But never anything as big as a bus,” she said. Eileen said her aunt, Mary Rausch, was the first female bus driver in the Albany School District. Like today, back then, the school district owned the fleet of buses. “When I started we had no radios (for communication) in the bus, and in the winter we got a 5-gallon bucket of sand and a scoop shovel. When we got stuck the procedure was you sent two reliable children to the closest place, and I had to stay with the bus,” she said. “I never had to do that, though.” Oftentimes, a neighbor or someone would drive by and help get the bus going again. Eileen has photos of the estimated six buses she drove over the years. “I had a few new buses in my lifetime,” she said. For the first 20 years, the buses were stick shifts, “before we got automatics,” she said. The addition of radios were a plus, and after the pandemic buses had cameras installed. “You have to keep your eyes on the road, and every once in a while glance at the kids through the (overhead) mirror,” Eileen said, when asked how a driver controls a big bus. Every four years bus drivers take a written test, and every two years they receive a physical. She has driven through fog, thunderstorms, snow and ice. Ice-covered roads were the most challenging, she said.
Ritter page 3 BIRTHS page 3 Morgan Rose Olson
OBITUARIES page 4 Henry Berling Edward H. Bussmann Veronica Janssen Benedict “Jim” Mergen Linda M. Paavola Donna Suchy Dorine C. Sunderman Herman H. Wielenberg
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