Covered Bridge Project

Mayor Schmit has recently announced in his
newsletter, "Great news, I have been informed by the Lion’s club,
their Wobegon trail covered bridge project has been put on the
National Guard’s 2008 bridge construction training schedule On
behalf of the community I would like to thank the Holdingford Lions
club for moving this project forward. When completed, this will
be the longest covered bridge in Minnesota, and a great asset to the
community." This will be a nice attraction to the Wobegon
trail. It was first proposed by previous Mayor Rosie Scepaniak
a number of years ago. It looks like her idea is going to become a
reality.

Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities covered bridges

Joe Brinkman to Retire

This was in the Pioneer Press's Charley Walters column.
"Joe Brinkman, who is from Holdingford, Minn., will retire this month after 34 seasons as a major league baseball umpire. His career has included three World Series and three All-Star Game appearances. His 4,505 games ranks fifth on baseball's all-time list and is more than six of the eight major league umpires in the sport's Hall of Fame in Cooperstown, N.Y., worked."
Tags: Holdingford Minnesota Stearns County small cities

New Public Announcement Link

On the Holdingford City web site is a new link, for City, club and organization public announcements. Check it out.
Tags: HoldingfordMn Stearns County Lake Wobegon Trail

Sucessful Tree Lighting !

'The Petals to Pedals' really showed their dedication Saturday nite. IT WAS COLD! We didn't have any snow yet, and it was very windy. Never the less, quite a few people showed up for the first annual Christmas tree lighting in Holdingford. Mrs. Waletzko and a dozen members of the Holdingford High School Choir were there , doing a good job of singing carols in the fridged weather. Mayor Schmit gave a welcome, Father mark blessed the tree, the club served hot chocoate and cookies, the hot chocoate was a 'hot' item, we new it was time to go when the cookies started freezing on the trays. Hats off to the garden Club for doing so much for Holdingford this year.

Tags: Holdingford Christmas Lights Minnesota Stearns County Lake Wobegon Trail

We Have Water

It worked ! It was no surprise but it is always nice to see positive results. Now it is a matter of moving pumps and wiring. They finished the wet work just before the really cold weather set in.

Holdingford
Stearns County
Minnesota
Lake Wobegon Trail

Alumni Jill Rademacher

The University of Vermont plays The University of Minnesota tonite the game is a homecoming for Vermont sophomore Jill Rademacher. she is a native of Holdingford She led Holdingford to a record of 19-7, the best mark in 23 years as a senior in 2004-05. Rademacher was a three-time Central Minnesota All-Conference First Team selection and also earned a spot on the All-Subsection 19 First Team. She was a 1,000-point scorer (1,231 points) and is the first student-athlete from Holdingford to earn a scholarship to a Division I school. She is just the second Minnesota native to play for the Catamounts. I know she will do well but I still want Minnesota to win.
Tags: Holdingford Jill Rademacher Minnesota University of Vermont Lake Wobegon Trail

Beautiful weather

Because of the beautiful weather. The three houses on the south end of town are really coming along quickly. I was talking to one of the construction workers and he was saying because of the fall work slowdown. These houses have moved up into top priority. What with the warm weather. And not much work. The other day there there were so many workers on one house it looked like one of those, tv shows where they get a house built in a few days. Well maybe not quite that fast.
Tags: Holdingford small cities home construction Minnesota Stearns County Lake Wobegon Trail

Holdingford is getting a new well

Holdingford is getting a new well to replace one of our old wells. The new well is pumping about 650 gallons a minute. With the new well and modifications to the other well controls, Holdingford will be in good water shape for many years. Because of the super nice weather it is going in with minimal of problems.
Tags: city wells Holdingford small cities Minnesota Stearns County Lake Wobegon Trail

Christmas tree lighting

The Holdingford Garden Club “Pedals to Petals” is sponsoring a Christmas tree lighting ceremony by the Holdingford Wobegon Park shelter on December 2nd , between 5:30 & 6:00 p.m. There will be carolers, featuring the Holdingford High School Honor Choir, hot chocolate, hot apple cider and cookies. Help decorate the tree with bird friendly ornaments. Come join us for our city’s first Christmas tree lighting. Mayor Schmit will help start a new holiday tradition in Holdingford.
“Pedals to Petals” would like to give a “BIG THANK YOU” to the following people, businesses and clubs for making Pedals to Petals such a huge success.
Organizations Individuals
American Legion Auxiliary Joe Christianson
American Legion Jerome Ebnet
Commercial Club Herman Ebnet
Headley Hardware Ray Fussy
Stearns Bank Audrey Lange
Tim Berscheid Properties David Notsch
Holdingford Mill Dennis Scepaniak
Lion's Club Rosemary Scepaniak
SnoFlyers Lawrence Schmit
Two Rivers Enterprise Jerry Schueler
WmD Scepaniak Inc Tom Skudlarek
Roxanne Urbashich
Bryan Young

Tag: Holdingford, Minnesota Christmas tree lighting community events

2006 Election Results for Holdingford

Here are the results of how the citizens of Holdingford voted in the 2006 elections.

City of Holdingford total ballots 272

US Senator

rep-Mark Kennedy 135

dfl-Amy Klobuchar 130

con- Ben Powers 2

US Representative District 6

ind-John Paul Binkovski 26

rep-Michelle Backmann 146

dfl- Patty Wetterling 101

State Senator District 14

rep-Michelle Fischbach 163

dfl-Paul Stacke 103

State Representative District 14A

rep- Dan Severson 143

dfl-Barbara Beniek 125

Governor and Lieutenant Governor

ind- Peter Huctchinson\Maureen Reed 9

rep-Tim Pawlenty\Carol Molnau 156

dfl-Mike Hatch\Judi Dutcher 102

grn-Ken Pentel\Danene Provencher 1

ame-Leslie Davis\Gregory Soderberg 3

qrt-Walt E. Brown\Wesley C. Nelson 2

Secretary of State

ind-Joel Spoonheim 4

rep-Mary Kiffmeyer 135

dll-Mark Ritchie 115

fiv-Bruce Kennedy 13

State Auditor

ind-Lucy Gerold 9

rep-Patruca Anderson 119

dfl-Rebecca Otto 126

grn-Dave Berger 6

Attorney General

ind-John James 8

rep-Jeff Johnson 128

dfl-Lori Swanson 122

grn-Papa John Kolstad 6

Constitutional Amendment

yes- 183

no-81

County Commissioner District 3

Roger Nelson 79

Vince Schaefer 159

Soil &Water District #1

Jerry Bechtold 177

Kurt Franke 50

the following ran unopposed

County-Auditor-Treasurer, Sheriff, Recorder,Attorney,Soil &Water District #1

City of Holdingford

Mayor Ernie Schmit 237

Council Members

Mike Odden 212

Lloyd Rausch 212

Tags:2006 elections HoldingfordMinnesota government

Another new business in town

We have another new business in town. " A Healthy Glo" located in
the professional building on Main Street. They specialize in massage,
myofacial release, reflexology, raindrop technique and muscle
response testing. She also provides internal ideas for great skin
care with homemade bath and body products enhanced with essential
oils. Gloria Brinker the owner is a Certified Natural Health
Professional. She has worked with essential oils for 7 1/2 years.
She is available for appointments.

Crazy Driver

A speeding truck missed a slight corner and ran over a fire hydrant in town, on County 17 knocking it about 15 feet, than hit a telephone pole, causing it to break about 10 feet off the ground. This person must have been really moving. (reported to have been a red truck) This happened about 3:15 Sunday morning. The driver backed up and sped off. They were able to tract the oil leak for a short while. What amasses me is 1. the vehicle still ran and 2. The driver who must have been 'on' something was able to still drive. I was not happy as power was off to town for about 9 hours. Monday they had to go back and fix something else, it was out for another couple of hours. Not a happy community !! I hope they can catch this person.

Holdingford Spanish class learns Mandarin Chinese

A cool experience for the students of Dana Schindele Paulzine's Spanish class at Holdingford High School. They got a chance to learn a little Chinese. It was part of a movement in Minnesota to recognize China's importance to the global economy and expose teachers and students to the language Minnesota Department of Education efforts include starting to train people to teach Mandarin Chinese. Qualified teachers are difficult to find right now, Holdingford Superintendent John Haas said.
It was Haas, who is in his first year at Holdingford, who jumped at the chance to have the China delegation at the high school for several hours.
"We don't have a lot of different cultures in Holdingford. It would be good to expose as many students as we can to a different culture."
Heres a link to the whole article in the
St Cloud Times There is a video also.

Minnesota Trails | Lake Wobegon Trail Expands

I thought you might like to see this information from the Minnesota Bike Trails site.

Lake Wobegon Trail Expands

Tags:Lake Wobegon TrailHoldingford, Minnesota

Healthy Communities Partnership training

The City of Holdingford's  last Healthy Communities Partnership training will be  at  the Initiative Foundation, Thursday, November 2, 2006 in Little Falls and it will be a fun day of learning and celebrating what the different committees have accomplished over the last year.  Thanks to the support and much help from the Initiative Foundation. With a special thanks to our  'case workers' Dan Frank and Carrie Tripp. And our local leaders Mayor Ernie Schmit and co-chairs Craig Dewar and Roxanne Urbashich.

mural, garden club, housing addition

It looks like the murals on the box car will have to wait until
next spring. The weather cooling down a lot.
The garden club is going full steam with the garden area.
They are in process of getting electricity to the area they are going
to have a Christmas tree. They planted a small one but have a large
one coming for what is to be a annual tree lighting ceremony. Their
plans include having the school choir 'help' with the singing.
Inviting the public , Serving hot chocolate and cookies. It will be
a good community get together.
Another house has been started at the Ridgeview Addition,
the street and utilities are in. One of the things I like is they
planted grass on the whole development, It will look nice next
spring. Instead of looking like a war zone on the empty lots.

Painted Murals

One of the murals on the boxcar at the Lake Wobegon Park is being
finished by Holdingford High School Art teacher Frank Gosach. It's
really looking nice. The other panels will be done next year.

New Well

The City is drilling a new well this fall. All the preliminary work
has been done and we will abandon the oldest one. We will have two
wells servicing the community. With plenty of capacity for many
years in the future.

Dates of beginings of local cemeterys

There was a question of late about the local cemeteries. My
information tells me that
1894 Highland Cemetery started This is the Presbyterian and
Lutheran, actually it is two cemeteries in one as one side was the
'Union Evangelical Church Holding' and the other and the other
Highland Cemetery
1896 St. Mary's Cemetery started, German Roman Catholic
1947 St. Hedwig's Cemetery started, Polish Roman Catholic

Tags: Holdingford Christmas Lights
Minnesota Stearns County Lake Wobegon Trail

On October 2 there was a well attended 'meet the candidates' event sponsored by the Holdingford Lioness Club. at the Holdingford City Center. Participating candidates include Michelle Fischbach and Paul Stacke, District 14 state senator; Barb Beniek and Dan Severson, District 14A state representative; Vince Schaefer, Stearns County Board of Commissioners District 3; Ernie Schmit, Holdingford mayor, Mike Odden and Lloyd Rausch, Holdingford City Council.

public informational meeting at the Holdingford Community center

On Sunday Oct. 1, at 1PM the Comp Plan task 

force will be hosting a public informational meeting at the Holdingford

Community center.  The purpose of this meeting is to discuss the draft comp

plan and solicit input from the public.  The public is incouraged to attend to

learm more about the Plan  and provide input.

The plan can be found on the City web site.

Mike Odden

mike.council@holdingfordmn.us

Area Family Picnic

The family picnic was a great success ! A good turn out considering
the hostile weather. Many people from Holdingford and the surrounding
area. Many thanks to the hard work of the Lion's Club in organizing
this event. They had a free barbecued pork dinner with the
trimmings, there were booth's set up by local organizations show
casing their interests. Music was provided by a local old time band,
" The Gene Ostendorf Band" they have been together for years and are
really good. Fun to listen to. There were games for the young ones,
horseshoes and other events.

Coming up Sept 10th will be a area family picnic at the Holdingford Legion Park. It is being sponsored by the local lions club (the main organizers) and area businesses. They are providing free food , refershments, music. from 12:30 to 5:00 p.m. All people in the area are invited. The idea is provide opportunity for residents of Holdingford, St. Wendel, Opole, St. Anna to get together for family fun. This is the first time something like this has been done. It should be a good time.

Things are changing in Holdingford. This is one of the gardens started by the new garden club called "Pedals to Petals" as it's right next to the Lake Wobegon trail. In beautiful downtown Holdingford

Pictures of Holdingford Daze Parade

Thanks to Jim Czech 1978 graduate of Holdingford, who was visiting the
old stomping grounds. Here is a link to some beautiful
photos
of the parade. Jim is a excellent photographer, thanks Jim

map of Ridgeview Addition

Here's a link to a map of the new addition south of town. Nice sized
lots. It also has a link to a slide show of progress. I understand
they want to start building by August sometime.
CLICK HERE

City Festival

It's coming quick 'Holdingford Daze' this weekend July 7th and 8th.
The theme this year is 'Aloha to paradise' For a full itinerary go to
the Events
page

City Cleanup Day

Saturday June 24-2006 is the City sponsored cleanup day for residents
of the City of Holdingford. Dumpsters , maned by staff will be open 8
am to 12 by the old maintenance shed. Details are on the City web site

NEW HOUSING DEVELOPMENT

If you notice a lot of activity on the south end of town, next to
County road 9, this summer. You will see much dirt being moved, as a
new housing development is in the works. I have confidence this one
will move forward quite quickly ! Phase one of the project will
include about 20 houses on nice sized lots.

take care and stay sharp
Mike

New Business in Town

John Kulla has opened 9-17 Auto Repair on the corner of County Road 9
&17, John also sells cars there and it's one of those really rare gas
stations today, a full service gas station, can you remember when
someone pumps the gas for you? The topper is he doesn't charge extra
for that full service. Welcome John !

New School Superintendent

Holdingford Schools has
a new superintendent. John Haas will replace Roger Carlson, who is
retiring after 11 years, Haas, is in his 4th year as elementary
principal at Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City schools.He has a master's degree and principal and superintendent licenses
from St. Cloud State University. He and his wife, Jane, have two
children. Welcome Mr. Haas and family.

Initiative Foundation Award

To kick-off its 20th anniversary, the
Initiative Foundation announced the six winners of its annual/Awards
for Outstanding Community Initiative, which recognizes outstanding
volunteerism and community service in central Minnesota. The awards
presentation will occur April 7th at the Holiday Inn, St. Cloud,Mn.

Holdingford is proud to learn that one of the recipents is Two Rivers
Enterprises of Holdingford as

2006 Outstanding Enterprise of the year for Central Minnesota.
Two Rivers Enterprises, a manufacturer of stainless
steel restaurant equipment, opened its doors in 2001 with three
employees, including owners Dan and Bob Warzecha. By 2005, it had
grown its workforce to 45 and had become a cornerstone employer paying
living wages and benefits in the community of Holdingford. The
Initiative Foundation helped finance the company’s start-up and a
10,000 square-foot expansion in 2005.

Being on the tourism committee, how about a quick statement.

--VISIT HOLDINGFORD--

do ya think we need to do some more work on this ?

Holdingford applied for and was accepted in the Initiative Foundation's, Healthy Communities Partnership program along with a $10,000 grant to help implement our visions in 2005. There has been a core group of citizens who went to training sessions last summer . We had a well-attended public Visioning session in the fall, which helped focus the city and township on goals for the future. The committee has set up task forces to began to implement these dreams, with focus groups on economic development, comprehensive plan, social and tourism.