30 years ago

SOUTH WASHINGTON COUNTY BULLETIN August 27, 1992 Coming in for notice 30 years ago, snowmobilers were arguing for later weekend hours under the city’s ordinance.

Reported by staff writer Doug Rock was news that the ordinance prohibited riders from riding city streets after 10 p.m., about as popular “as a January heat wave,” it was said. Riders complained that they were “unjustly wronged,” with riders filling city hall August 19.

Down on Grey Cloud Trail, meanwhile, change was afoot, as Dr. William Doebler was planning a Scottish style golf course with name inspired by Mark Twain’s Links on the Mississippi. Cut right out of the landscape, the prospective golf course was due to take shape on what was then known as the O’Boyle property. Doebler was also interested in purchasing nearby land owned by Ashland Oil, but the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency had reportedly identified five burial sites that would need to be cleaned up first before anything could happen on that front.

The golf course to be built on sand on top of gravel, would have native grasses found on Scottish and Irish courses among its highlights. “Dr. Doebler wants to create the finest golf course in the state of Minnesota,” attorney Tom Hart said, with the abundance of mature trees among the reasons Doebler had chosen the site located just off the Mississippi. There were no plans for homes, it was reported by the Bulletin.

40 years ago THE WASHINGTON COUNTY BULLETIN July 22, 1982 Coming in from 40 years ago, a six-year-old Cottage Grove resident named Lisa was the 1982 Minnesota March of Dimes poster child, suffering from Spina Bifida but having the love of parents Alan and Barbara. Spina Bifida is a condition that occurs when the spine “fails to close properly before birth,” the Bulletin reported, while treatment had leapt forward in the past 15 years.

Also coming in from 1982, a $1.8 million golf course was planned for Colby Lake was brought before the Woodbury council, along with nearby townhomes. The site composed of 400 acres was due to see an estimated 1,712 units, while the council had appeared to encourage developer Norbert Anderson to prepare a preliminary plat, without taking official action at the meeting the previous week, staff writer Mike Halko reported.

Up in Lake Elmo, residents “fumed” over burning sites, an article by staff writer Chris Krueger said. “When you go down the list and put pluses and minuses and tally them—if you’re honest with yourself you use the results,” Lake Elmo council member Jes Mottax was reported as saying. The Lake Elmo site was located approximately one-half mile north of 694 in a “rural residential area.”

50 years ago THE WASHINGTON COUNTY BULLETIN July 13, 1972 Reported from 1972 were two Grove residents who had died in a three-car crash in northern Minnesota July 13. John A. Benson and his stepson Gregory Ross collided with a southbound vehicle driven by a Sandstone Minnesota resident, who was hospitalized along with a passenger.

Benson and Ross both appear to be buried in Newport Cemetery, with Benson having Find A Grave Memorial ID 146758208 and Ross having Memorial ID 146758455.