Bits and Pieces for May 23 May 23, 2009 The calendar gods really have us goofed up this year.
Memorial Day is Monday, and it is simply a week early.
And to top it all off, the parade is running the wrong way — starting at Eastview Medical and Rehabilitation Center and ending on the courthouse campus, where a stunning new memorial to veterans has been put in place — perfect for Memorial Day.
While the parade is a week early and going the wrong way, the naval observance will be held again at the Hudson Street bridge — even without a lot of water in Antigo Lake. And we have noted in the Journal this week the schedules for a number of observances throughout the area from White Lake to Elcho to Mattoon, Phlox and more.
In my tenure I’ve been to these doings with the guys from World War I, and they’ve faded.
We had a heck of a stock of World War II veterans, and they are starting to get a little thinner, too
Time does march right along, but I certainly hope readers of the Antigo Daily Journal take some time Monday to attend a parade, a service, like the LeRoyer Walkway event at 1 p.m. or perhaps the dedication of that memorial in front of the Langlade County Courthouse as the parade’s finale.
There are a good number of things that should be and are important to all of us, and the men and women who served and died for this great nation certainly must be a priority this weekend. It has been and will be a hot button item for those of us at the Antigo Daily Journal.
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That new memorial at the courthouse and a number of other projects are being funded by unlikely philanthropists. Ed and Martha Stasek worked their entire lives — in fact — Martha did some wallpapering for me at a rental property I owned decades ago.
They both did the deciding. Martha is deceased and it seems Ed started looking for meaningful ways to use the funds the couple worked for and saved during their lives. His efforts are a tribute to a quiet life of hard work, frugality and then, a willingness to share.
The memorial to the war veterans in front of the courthouse is one of the exceptional examples, another is the events sign at the fairgrounds and the Stasek projects are just getting rolling.
Ed, in memory of Martha, is creating a legacy that as I see it, will last just about forever.
It really does not get much better than that for the Staseks and our community.
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One of Langlade County’s homegrown industries has quietly closed, and it had nothing to do with recession or slow business — just a change in ownership.
Clover Industries, located at Neva Corners at Highway 45 and B, was a machining and hydraulics firm that grew slowly and closed slowly — but it is closed.
Clover Hydraulics and Engineering was sold in August, 2005 to Mike Priebe, a licensed CPA with a MBA in finance. Quite a combination for a fellow in the machining and hydraulics industry.
In a recent article in The Business News, Priebe explained that he had been looking for a business to acquire for a number of years, and found it with Clover.
He told Amanda Lauer from The Business News that he moved the business from its Neva site to Wausau to tap into a larger employment base where he could recruit machinists and professional level employees. He said that the property in the Langlade County building “was very small and we needed to expand.”
He purchased an idled scissors plant on the west side of Wausau and at Neva, the Clover site is very quiet these days.
Our news editor interviewed Priebe when he bought Clover in ’05 and she recalls his delight with the facilities here and the people working in that Neva plant. But as we know, things do have a way of changing.
I certainly don’t want to be critical of the shift of the Clover operations, because I suspect that some day that Neva plant will be up and running again.
But I certainly do wonder about the statement to Business News that the firm had to move to Wausau to find “professional” personnel.
Frankly, I think our track record looks pretty good. Take a peek at the robotics and packaging equipment at Volm Companies, the tools rolling out of the Sweeney plant, gears and more from Merit, bearings from Waukesha Bearings and the list certainly can go on.
One of the most successful credit unions is sitting right in downtown Antigo with a true world-class staff.
But Mike Priebe certainly had the right to move to Wausau — he owns the show.
And we certainly wish hin and his firm the best and I would be the first to welcome him and his Clover Industries back to expand in Neva. But I still don’t think you have to leave Antigo and Langlade County to find quality and qualified employees.
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I’m going to close this Bits on a fairly serious note.
I honestly think as Americans, we are losing our freedoms, and losing them quickly.
A number of news articles earlier this week suggests that the Obama administration is going to demand that automobile firms put us in cars that average 35 miles per gallon.
I’ve never owned a car that gets 35 miles per gallon.
There are already massive taxes on cigarettes and bureaucrats are already looking at other “sins,” like alcohol and soda for sources of revenue and reform.
These crazy times worry me.
Light and tiny cars that get 35 miles per gallon won’t work when you must drive to work on a snowy morning. They simply won’t...and I don’t believe that Al Gore or Barack Obama have the right to order me out of my Jeep and into a roller skate with a lawnmower engine and a case of batteries.
As I recall history, it seems when the Mayflower floated toward Plymouth Rock, the issue was freedom.
I suggest we pause for a few moments and think about the real American dream.
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