10 years ago THE PRESCOTT JOURNAL November 22, 2012

Prescott native Kyle Koele, a senior at Augsburg College in Minneapolis, finishes in the top 100 of 24-hour Toughest Mudder held the weekend of Nov. 18 in New Jersey, being 70th out of 1,097 competitors. To do this he was in the top five percent of the Minnesota Toughest Mudder the previous summer.
Oak Grove open new town hall By Louis Garcia Set upon a hill, and surrounded by farm-land, a new building stands prominently. The modern, large building serves two purposes: to serve as town hall and a satellite fire station for the Prescott Fire Department. The Oak Grove town board moved into the building on Oct. 19, bringing furniture from Pierce County’s surplus, and also brought over benches and other items from the former town hall, a one-room building barely large enough to fit a modest crowd—and also had an outhouse serving as the bathroom.
The presidential election and planning commission meeting ran smoothly earlier this month, and much better, compared to how they used to in the previous town hall.
“It’s just unbelievable,” Oak Grove clerk Jim Allen said. “The space we have—we didn’t have room to put all the benches out for people to sit on. Now we have more than enough seating for the amount of people that were there.
“The election ran smoothly because we were able to have it in an orderly fashion, have more room to spread out, and we had more control over it. I think people were more comfortable, plus with the inclement weather we were able to open up the fire side and we had the line wrapped around the fire bay so no one had to stand outside and get wet.
“It made it a lot nicer, and a lot safer,” Allen said, explaining how people used to form a line down the road at the old town hall be-fore voting.
There is no longer an outhouse, with spacious bathrooms inside the new building. A kitchen is available for poll workers, the fire department meetings, or any other workers.
“Right now we don’t have a stove or refrigerator; we’re looking at getting something,” Allen said, adding that it would be functional, not fancy…(full article with photos at Wisconsin Badgerlink, free with a library card).
Wristband can locate child in minutes by Louis Garcia Project Lifesaver has been active in Pierce County for two years, and it’s becoming more popular for families.
The international program is designed to help people who are at risk to wander away to be located immediately.
“Whether it’s a child with Down Syndrome, or it’s an elderly person with dementia or any other type of situation where they might be at risk to wander away,” Pierce County Sheriff Steve Albarado, who is one of the main coordinators of the program in Pierce County, said.
Pierce and St. Croix Counties both assist each other with Project Lifesaver when each are searching for people…(article continued on Badgerlink).

40 years ago PIERCE COUNTY HERALD November 18, 1982

The Ellsworth Record published its last edition as publisher John Halls was hospi-talized with cancer. Halls had returned home but was confined to his bed, according to his brother.
Started in 1891 in East Ellsworth, the pa-per’s original name was the Ellsworth Ea-gle, with E. A. Ross its first publisher. Then sold to E. A. Quinn, it became the Ellsworth Gleaner. The paper was next sold to Ro-land Eisley, who sold it to A. T. Morton and Wrightman and Taplin, going finally to John F. Shaw, who bought it on New Years Day 1899. Shaw was the County Superintendent of Schools, changing the newspaper’s name to the ‘Record.’ He sold it in turn to Oscar A. Halls, John’s father, on Sept. 14, 1911. John joined the paper in 1944, with his brother joining after service in Korea and attending college.