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Thursday, July 14, 2022 $1.00 Serving Nicollet County since 1904
Look inside for a salute to Nicollet High Schol’s first-ever state championship team!
Work on highway 14 reconstruction making progress by Michael Lemmer The seemingly never-ending reconstruction of Highway 14 from Nicollet to New Ulm is making progress, to the relief of many local businesses and residents. The project includes constructing grade-separated interchanges at CR 37 in New Ulm as well as an extension of CR 24 and a realignment of CR 12 in Courtland. Crews will also construct "JTurns" and "Green-T" acceleration lanes at higher risk intersections. These include at New Ulm Quartzite Quarries, the Jeremy Drive-Kohn Drive residential neighborhood, and Minnesota Valley Lutheran School. When
completed there will be right turn lanes at all public roads and left turn lanes at all median crossings. Intersecting roadways will be squared to the newly-constructed highway also. A snow fence is being installed between Courtland and Nicollet, and the two-lane existing alignment between Highway 15 and CR 37 will be reconstructed. An employee of the Courtland Mart C-Store stated: "While it'll be weird being a "Bypass Town" when the work is finished, it will definitely be better than it has been during these two years of construction and people are ready for it to be done." The 12.5-miles of construction
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Summer 2022 - Summer 2023* Detour Map
Middle Lake
14 21 NEW ULM
Minnesota Valley Lutheran High School
571st Ln
New Ulm Quartzite Quarries
551st Ave
37
561st Ave
15
La ke
Access to and from Swan Lake WMA will be maintained. Route is subject to change based on contractor operations.
north of Hwy 14
547th Ln
COURTLAND S&S Motors
68
99
KASOTA
99
NICOLLET
169
14 24
25
CAMBRIA SEARLES
*Detour will remain in place during winter
OSHAWA
111
21
CR 12 Closed
14
Min nes ota Rive r
15
Sw an
12
Minnesota River
466th St
23
68
14
169
Min nes ota Rive r
Closed*
68
Hwy 14 detour route for
JUDSON
68 14
Courtland and Nicollet Courtland access to Hwy 14 detour Courtland access north of Hwy 14 15
68
NORTH MANKATO
Min nes ota Rive r
169
MANKATO
60
169
Blue Earth Riv er
169
with no outlet other than Hwy 14
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SKYLINE 1 mi
The remnants of old Hwy 14, just west of Courtland looking towards New Ulm, above. MN/DOT Hwy 14 Detour map Summer 2022-2023, left. Detours will remain in place throughout the winter.
is a significant project for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, which describes it as being more than just roadwork with three different bridges as well as the various realignments, including moving the highway north of Courtland. MnDOT says that more than 12% of Highway 14 traffic is made up of heavy commercial vehicles, such as farm equipment, semitrucks and buses. That’s over 50% higher than the average Minnesota highway. The road was originally constructed in 1938, but for the past 80plus years, all that has been done is patches and repairs. Efforts to fund the final expansion were championed by citizens and community leaders, including Nicollet Mayor Fred Froehlich, who
responded to several serious crashes when he served on the fire department, and made it his goal to get Nicollet involved with the Highway 14 partnership. The project was also championed by Governor Tim Walz of Mankato, who broke ground on this stretch of the construction in April, as well as former Courtland Mayor Bob Schabert. Hoffman Construction was awarded the project with a bid of $83.5 million. Detours will remain in place throughout the upcoming winter, with the project being completed next year.
Watch for more coverage of the construction in future weeks
The Lafayette Study Club: 102 years—and going strong by Ruth Klossner It was 1920—the year that women got the vote and the year that Sinclair Lewis wrote Main Street. It was also the year that the Lafayette Study Club was organized. Now—102 years later—it continues to fill its original purpose. The club was part of a wave of women’s study groups that flourished through the 1920s. They were related to the Women’s Suffrage movement, and were a commitment to women’s self-education and the education of each other. Current members planned to celebrate the club’s centennial two years ago but—like so many other planned events—had to postpose the occasion a few years because of Covid. The big day finally arrived—
Club members have been very creative in coming up with programs for their anniversary celebrations. Someone put a lot of work into creating this program cover for the 1970 celebration.
Saturday, June 25—with the overdue centennial celebration held at the Lafayette Community Center. The event featured mystery/ thriller author Christine Husom of Buffalo, Minnesota. Husom has experience in law enforcement and is currently a county commissioner in Wright County. Her works include the Winnebago County Mysteries and the Snow Globe Shop Mysteries.
A look back at the Lafayette Study Club’s history The Lafayette Study Club is unique for a town the size of Lafayette. The club was organized with 13 charter members sometime in 1920. Women's rights and the WCTU (Women's Christian Temperance Union) were hot topics at the time. Longtime club members Annie Lou Eckberg, Marie Malmberg, and Florence Albright were interviewed for a Ledger article in 1986. At that time, Albright had been a member for 56 years, Eckberg 52, and Malmberg 45. Albright stated, "Most of the charter members were involved in the WCTU...that was a very active society here, even if sometimes they were ridiculed or laughed at for their efforts." Of the charter members, Eckberg commented, "They were women with strong character, bent on improving the community as well as themselves." From the beginning, most women’s clubs differed from men’s clubs—men’s clubs almost always had outside experts come in to speak while women’s clubs almost never had outside speakers. Instead, most women’s study clubs required all
Lafayette Nicollet Ledger P.O. Box 212, Lafayette MN 56054
Past and present members paused for a group photo during their anniversary celebration June 25. From left: Denise Harting, Dianne Kuester, Kathy Eckstrand, Sandy Burger, Jill Wise, Sandy Hartley, Marilyn DeBoer, guest
speaker Christine Husom, Laurie Larson, Ann Gieseke, Mary Martens, Deb Grant, Leona Isenberg, and Karen Arlandson.
members to participate in learning and presenting what they learned. Early club members did assigned readings from books such as American Government, Parliamentary Law, or Famous Early Americans, then came to the meetings ready to discuss what they had read. “Now that was pretty heady stuff,” Eckberg commented in the news article. "We don't do that anymore.” To which Malmberg added, “We'd scare people away.” Eckberg probably had the easiest time giving a book report. In the spring of 1986 she reported on her own book, The Half and Half Stories. The club had some strict rules early on—including requiring members to wear hats to meetings and to call each other by their proper names (Mrs. Eckberg, for example). Meetings were held twice a month. At some later time, this mention was made in the club minutes, “To
Janet Malmberg did it by video when she couldn’t be there and another zoomed a book report. Each meeting also includes a magazine article report. Every member is expected to give a book report and a magazine article once a year. Although the club no longer does formal roll calls, they were an important part of the meetings in earlier years. They included cookie and plant exchanges, sharing an antique, discussing a current question, giving predictions for elections or football games, Easter hats, and even contests and spelldowns. The club held banquets for most of its major anniversaries. For the 30th anniversary, members travelled to Walnut Grove to the home of Mrs. Morgan, a former member. In 1960, the 40th anniversary was celebrated at Gaylord with the theme Please Don't Eat the Daisies,” a popular book at that time.
119th Year • Number 22 ©2022 Lafayette Nicollet Ledger
help members get better acquainted, all members are to call each other by their given names.” Between the start and close of the meeting, there was also a lot of knitting, sewing, needlework, and darning while the women listened. Untold numbers of afghans, tablecloths, wall hangings, and mended articles took shape while book reports were given. Meetings are now held monthly and feature an original book report—on a book of the member's choice, rather than assigned books. “I enjoy it that we hear about other books,” current member Dianne Kuester said. To that, Marilyn DeBoer added, “Sometimes I read the book afterwards, if it sounds interesting. We’ve had a lot of good book reports over the years.” If members can’t be present at a meeting, some have found unique ways to give their book reports.
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The 50th anniversary—held May 2, 1970 at St. George Catholic Church—was a big event as all of the club's former members were invited back. Three charter members—Esther Isenberg, Marie Swanson, and Beda Olin—were among those attending. Isenberg was the last surviving original member; she was active in the club until her death in 1978 at the age of 88. A hat parade was the highlight of the 60th anniversary, celebrated at the Lafayette Legion Rooms May 14, 1980. Members made and decorated their own hats, based on the words of popular tunes such as “May The Bird Of Paradise Fly Up Your Nose” and “Turkey In The Straw.” The club celebrated its 75th anniversary by inviting former members to an English Tea, program, and reminiscing at First See Study Club, Page 3
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