5 years ago

Frazee-Vergas Forum

September 8, 2020

In the lakes area, The Cactus is a wildly popular go-to for fun, great food and memory making. Years of hard work went into building the business and Blake Minge knew Lucas Johnson would carry the torch the burns in support of community, customers and the employees. When Johnson was offered the opportunity to buy The Cactus, he was honored and quickly accepted. Johnson, a resident of Perham, first entered into the world of business ownership with a pest control company.

The Hairy Man 5K fun run got the green light and then the red. The Vergas Long Lake Trail Committee revved up its plans for the annual fun run, agreeing on a location, food vendor and other activities. But after plans were made, the group learned the North Dakota State University Bison football team had its only home football game scheduled for the same day, Oct. 3. Because of the wildly popular attendance at the games the committee decided to call the event officially cancelled. The fun run was to be the last hurrah of the trail committee, which agreed to officially disband following the run. Now the trail committee will have one last meeting on Oct. 7.

Twisted Yoga now has a downtown studio. Owner Kari Hardmeyer opened her business near the corner of Lake Street and Main Avenue last week, and began offering classes. Hardmeyer started giving yoga class in her rural Frazee home. As the classes grew in popularity she was given the opportunity to offer yoga at Northern Lights Dance Academy. Hardmeyer emphasized the opportunity given by business owner Kendal Ware was immensely appreciated.

25 years ago

Frazee Forum

September 7, 2000

“Wipe your feet,” says the sign on the door of Seip Drug on East Main Avenue just off Lake Street, downtown Frazee. People tracking in dirt and mud is, for the most part, a comparatively minor concern of East Main and Lake Street business people in connection with the road construction work which has been going on most of the summer. A more major concern for many of them is loss of business due to difficult access for customers.

Riewer’s Service Station, which was scheduled to close at the end of August, now is to remain open under present ownership until Sept. 28. New ownership will continue operations into the future. Dick and Pete Riewer, partners in the downtown Frazee location, said a purchase agreement has been signed with a buyer. The station, which dates back to 1921, was purchased by the Riewer brothers’ father, Ted, in 1954. Later that year, Pete joined the business. Dick purchased his father’s interest in 1958.

Once Altona. Then Vergas. Again Altona? The Vergas City Council took no action on the issue at its Tuesday meeting, but its members listened with interest as two rural Vergas residents proposed changing of Vergas’ name back to its one-time name of Altona. The community once had three names for practical purposes, Buktenica pointed out. It’s official name was Altona, its railroad depot had the name Vergas and its post office was called Candor until 1905, when the name of the then-village was changed to Vergas, because the name “Altona” was being confused with “Miltona,” he noted.

50 years ago

Frazee Forum

September 11, 1975

The new Elementary Principal of the Frazee-Vergas Schools is Mr. Maynard Johnson, who came here from the Elbow Lake-Wendell Schools. Mr. Johnson replaced Mrs. Sigrid Puetz when she retired after serving the Frazee Schools for the past twenty years. Maynard Johnson, better known by the name Jerry, is 35 years old and was born at International Falls, Minn. He was a 1957 graduate of Bemidji High School, in 1961 graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from Bemidji State and in 1969 received his Masters Degree in Elementary Administration from Moorhead State.

Ronald Glen Perrine, Jr., age 6 weeks of Frazee, passed away suddenly Wednesday, September 3, 1975, of an apparent crib death while his parents were enroute through North Dakota. Funeral services were held Saturday at 2:30 p.m. at the Church of the Wildwood of Detroit Lakes. Rev. James Erb officiated. Interment was held in the Church cemetery.