Month: February 2021

A look back at what happened in Shakopee history. You may also find this column in the Shakopee Valley News.

125 Years Ago: From the Feb. 20, 1896 Scott County Argus

Kopp & Kopp, scientific horseshoers, have just added a power horse-clipping machine, and are now prepared to do horseclipping in short order.

100 Years Ago: From the Feb. 24, 1921 Shakopee Tribune

Miss Anna Mergens has taken a position as local editor of the Tribune and began work Monday. Miss Mergens has a wide acquaintance in Shakopee and is well fitted for the task of gathering news for the paper and we trust she may have the co-operation of our readers so we can get all the news items available each week. Just use the phone when you know an item.

75 Years Ago: From the Feb. 21, 1946 Shakopee Argus-Tribune

New School To Be Topic of Civic Club

Supt. Wurst Will Address Commercial Group at March 6 Meeting

One of the city’s most vital questions will be presented to members of the Shakopee Commercial club when Supt. Al N. Wurst discusses the matter of a new school building at the club’s March 6 meeting, officers announced Tuesday.

For many months a topic of discussion by school board members and Shakopee citizens the issue is expected to become more generally understood as a result of the scheduled talk by Mr. Wurst…

50 Years Ago: From the Feb. 24, 1971 Shakopee Valley News

Metro Council Planner Advocates Shakopee-Eagle Creek Merger

Also Recommends Part of Eagle Creek to Prior Lake or Savage…

Eagle Creek Township would be ideally served by splitting it between Shakopee and Prior Lake or between Shakopee and Savage, according to a planner associated with the Metropolitan Council.

The Minnesota Municipal Commission (M.M.C.) heard a full day of hearings last Wednesday, Feb. 17, on the incorporation of Eagle Creek Township and consolidation of Eagle Creek with the City of Shakopee. The Village of Prior Lake is also actively involved, having filed an intervention. Hearings were continued to Monday, March 15.

Ian Ball, a Metro Council planner, was called as a witness for the M.M.C…

25 Years Ago: From the Feb. 22, 1996 Shakopee Valley News

Four sites for second fire hall are proposed

Cost, response time are among primary factors

The field has been narrowed to four potential sites for a second fire hall in Shakopee, but choosing one could prove more difficult than the initial winnowing process…

A task force composed of city firefighters found four sites in the target area. At a meeting of the Council Committee of the Whole last week, Assistant City Administrator Barry Stock presented information on the four sites, as well as the task force’s recommendation.

The recommended site is about 15 acres located just south of the intersection of Vierling Drive and County Road 16, adjoining both roads.

An alternative site is directly west of the recommended site and is near Calvary United Methodist Church. However, this 8-acre parcel has a large Minnegasco pipeline running across it, which could cost $50,000 to $200,000 to move, Stock said.

Another site, located just south of the intersection of county roads 83 and 16, was eliminated for consideration quickly by the task force because it was deemed too far away from development as compared to the others, Stock said. But it was a … north of County Road 16, near the southwest corner of the Canterbury Park racetrack, that attracted the attention of some councilors…

A look back at what happened in Shakopee history. You may also find this column in the Shakopee Valley News.

125 Years Ago: From the Feb. 13, 1896 Scott County Argus

Shakopee’s bonded indebtedness has been reduced from $60,000 to $27,000. In another two years it will be time to talk up electric lights.

100 Years Ago: From the Feb. 17, 1921 Shakopee Tribune

Women’s Reformatory Presented With Flag

The State Reformatory For Women was presented with a very beautiful silk flag on Lincoln’s birthday, last Saturday by the Minnesota Department of the Ladies of the G. A. R. A delegation of the G. A. R. Ladies from the cities came out for the function and the presentation was made by Mrs. Mary S. Lawler, department patriotic instructor.

75 Years Ago: From the Feb. 14, 1946 Shakopee Argus-Tribune

School Burglarized Early Wednesday

At least $70 was stolen from the rifled safe in the superintendent’s office in the high school early Wednesday, Al N. Wurst, superintendent, disclosed.

Receipts from Tuesday night’s basketball games were included in the theft. The money was placed in the safe about 10 p.m. Tuesday and the last persons to leave the building are believed to have left after midnight. The burglary was discovered by Mr. Wurst when he entered his office at 8 a.m. Wednesday.

State crime bureau operatives, the Scott county sheriff’s office and the Shakopee police department are working on the case.

50 Years Ago: From the Feb. 17, 1971 Shakopee Valley News

Decision nears on Architect Choice

For County Office Building…

Members of the county building committee have been screening architectural firms for the past month and will be ready to recommend two of the firms to the County Board of Commissioners next week.

County Commissioner Vern Lang, who acts as the board’s liaison to the building committee, told other commissioners Tuesday morning that the final two firms would be screened by the committee Wednesday evening, Feb. 17…

The proposed building if approved by voters would be constructed on land purchased by the commissioners along the southern border of Shakopee and east of County Road 17.

It is likely, in line with current thinking that such a building would not house the courts and related activities, which would stay at the present site…

25 Years Ago: From the Feb. 15, 1996 Shakopee Valley News

EDA gets face lift; CDC dissolved

The Shakopee Economic Development Authority (EDA) will soon be “weaned” from the City Council and Tuesday night meetings.

By unanimous vote, the City Council last week moved to restructure the seven-member EDA, a body which has tax-levy power and primarily oversees the city’s tax-increment financing districts. The EDA is also in charge of redevelopment of Blocks 3 and 4 in downtown Shakopee.

Major development and redevelopment plans and issuance of bonds by the EDA must be approved by the City Council.

The current EDA is comprised of the four city councilors, the mayor and two members from the five-member Community Development Commission (CDC). There was consensus among councilors that a broader community representation in the EDA was desirable.

The council action leaves only two council members on the EDA, with the other five members coming from the current CDC. In a separate motion, the council eliminated the CDC. Members of the EDA, who are appointed by the mayor, will serve six-year terms…

A look back at what happened in Shakopee history. You may also find this column in the Shakopee Valley News.

125 Years Ago: From the Feb. 6, 1896 Scott County Argus

The event of the season was the Calcio Ball given by the thriving Degree of Honor Lodge last Friday evening. Perfect weather, excellent music and prompting, a dance floor in prime condition, and a thoroughly congenial crowd of dancers made the hours from nine until four slip by all too rapidly. The affair was a grand social success, and reflects much credit upon the various committees in charge.

100 Years Ago: From the Feb. 10, 1921 Shakopee Tribune

We learn with regret that the Shakopee Laundry will close down after this week as the patronage has not been sufficient to make the venture a success. It is too bad that a home institution of this kind is not supported on a scale to make it successful. The laundry has been doing good work and the families who have been getting their work done thee have been well satisfied.

75 Years Ago: From the Feb. 7, 1946 Shakopee Argus-Tribune

Nine Communities To Join In Scout Ceremony Here

As a part of the nation wide observance of Boy Scout week Feb. 8 to 14 and this year marking the 36^th anniversary of the movement in America, nine troops of the Lake District of the Minneapolis Area council will join in starting a public court of honor and memorial service in the high school auditorium here at 3 o’clock Sunday afternoon…

50 Years Ago: From the Feb. 10, 1971 Shakopee Valley News

School Board Approves Staff for Another Elementary School

Shakopee Superintendent of Schools Dr. Robert Mayer was authorized by the board of education to hire six elementary classroom teachers, a physical education teacher, a music teacher, three para professionals, a principal and a secretary Monday night.

The approval on the part of the board amounts to the establishment of a third elementary school in Shakopee, but there is still a question about where it will be located. The cost estimate of hiring the additional personnel was given at $87,000 per year. Six of the 13 classrooms needed will be located in the Junior High School building, as at the present, but where the remaining seven will be is still undetermined. Shakopee Senior High School has been used to house some elementary classes in the past, a situation which has caused complaints on the part of some of the senior high school students…

25 Years Ago: From the Feb. 8, 1996 Shakopee Valley News

County government is about to enter another dimension

…County commissioners last week gave staff an informal go-ahead to bring the county on-line.

Cyberspace – as the quasi-dimension of computer interaction has come to be called – is a subject rile with jargon. In a presentation designed to chop through the backwoods, commissioners were given an explanation and demonstration of on-line capabilities by Keith Hegg, the county’s director of computer systems.

Hegg proposed building a county “homepage,” which would link certain components of the county’s computer network to the Internet. The homepage would serve as a directory of county offerings and information for Internet users…

A homepage for Scott County would allow the public to electronically peruse such county items as meeting agendas, code and permit information, personnel directories and job postings. Eventually, applications for county services might become available via electronic mail, often called e-mail…

On-line implementation will be done in three phases – design, installation and maintenance, Hegg said. He estimated the usual, one-time cost to be $12,500. The bulk of that is from two expenditures: $5,000 for the initial design of the system, which will likely be done by Barr Engineering. Another $4,800 is slated for software that would protect the county’s private and confidential files from computer hackers. Security software can cost up to $14,000, Hegg said…