Researched by Michael J. Caylor, Jr.
7-15-71
Darrell Hulke has been tapped to lead the Merrill Board of Education. Hulke was re-elected to the position of President this last week at the Board’s reorganizational meeting. Vice President will be Lester Voigt, while Mrs. Clayton English was re-elected as Secretary. Two new Board members were seated –Mrs. Arlene Meyer and Elmer Kahre. They were elected in April to replace Dr. Ole Ravn, Jr., and Dieter Nickel, both of whom chose not to run for re-election.
In a speedy resolution, the man charged last week with shooting a rifle into homes on Foster Street has been sentenced. The man stood in front of Judge Donald E. Schnabel and pled guilty to the charge. Judge Schnabel sentenced the man to a year’s probation, $100 fine, restitution to the home owners, and he was told to stop drinking.
All those pennies are adding up, or they were. The City of Merrill Common Council tapped the City’s parking meter fund to pay for several items at last night’s Council meeting. Based on a recommendation from Chief of Police Plautz, the City will purchase a Cushman scooter to replace the three wheeled motorcycle that has been used for traffic and parking enforcement. The Cushman, whose enclosed body will allow more comfort for the officer in the winter, will come at a cost of $2,026. The revenue will also pay for half of a study the City is planning to undertake to look at traffic operations in the city. Barton-Aschman Associates of Chicago will conduct the study, which will look at capacity and safety of city streets. The study is required in order to qualify for state aid for local street improvements. Another $8,500 will come from the fund to cover shortages in the Police and Fire Department budgets. Both of those budgets are seeing red due to the granting of paid holiday and sick benefits negotiated to members of both departments, according to City Clerk Bob Klug.
7-15-81
Things need to be on the rise soon at the High School or MAPS may find itself in financial peril. School Superintendent Dr. Thomas Strick warned the Board this past week they need to install an elevator or prepare to lose state and federal aid. Past proposals to install an elevator have stalled when the $100,000 price tag was shown. Presently, no students in the school use a wheelchair, but current enrolled students with wheelchairs will arrive in the building by 1983. An architect from Rhinelander presented a plan to install a lift on the east side of the school with direct access to the Polk Street parking area. For now, the matter is on hold as Frank Roskos from MAPS will report back on possible federal aid for the installation.
Police Chief Charles Johnson will deploy his men to direct traffic over the next three weeks at the intersection of 1st and Mill Street to see if stop-and-go lights might be needed there. The effort will be done at half hour intervals anywhere from 6:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. to see if the officers ease pedestrian crossing and traffic tie ups on the Mill Street hill. Another plan is to turn the stop-and-go lights at Main and Center to flashing yellow for Center and red for Main St. Chief Johnson and the Traffic Committee think the stoplights can be removed there and be replaced permanently by stop signs.
If you at first you don’t succeed, just keep bringing it back. After twice voting to not to fill the vacant position of Park and Recreation Director the City Council voted last night to make the position full time once again. When Dennis Donoghue resigned in May, the Council voted 6-3 to change the position to part time, supplemented by two full-time line workers. Based on a recommendation from the Park and Recreation Committee, the measure came back before the Council in June to make the job full time, but it was again voted down, this time by a 5-4 margin. At the July meeting, Alderman Gilbert Sabatke brought the item back on the table, and this time the Council voted 5-4 to make the director position full time and cut one of the line workers to part time. Alderman Patrick Nugent expressed how he was upset the recommendations from the June meeting were never followed.
7-17-91
The “stay of execution” is in place as now a developer has firm deadlines to make good on his promises to restore Merrill’s former City Hall and save it from the wrecking ball. Randall Alexander of the Alexander Company presented a time table of plan approval, groundbreaking, and then completion, which will all come in stages starting this September. Besides following those deadlines, Alexander must have the building insured up to $1 million dollar and in compliance with the building inspector by August 1. Plans are for to 16 to 22 residential units in the building, which has stood empty since 1977.