These stories can also be heard on Sunday mornings around 10 am on WILD 102’s “Look Back in Time” program. Each week’s radio story will be posted here on our website.
Weekly radio stories are researched, compiled, and read by Sheila Winstead, RCHS Board Member.
March 10, 2024
John Reese served as mayor of Roseau for 14 years, and an article in the January 24, 1974, issue of the
Roseau Times-Region shared some of his memories in that job.
John Reese looks back on 14 years as mayor of Roseau with satisfaction. He has seen the village grow, its
facilities improve and its citizens continue to give active support to progress. “Yes, I’d do it all over again,”
he told the Times-Region. “I enjoyed it … and the tremendous cooperation from all concerned.”
The first project with which he was confronted was that of moving the airport to the new location. “The
village had voted the bond issue … and I was opposed to it because the treasury had an excess of over
$200,000 at the time,” he recalled. “When Attorney R. J. Knutson informed the council it didn’t have to
issue the bonds, we went ahead without using bonds.”
When the field was completed, Reese said, “We had to have the hangar and administration building
project. We had to have proper facilities in order to take advantage of a modern field” That project was
also completed and continues to serve the community.
“I also recall the swimming pool project … and the fact the citizens put up half of the required funds by
popular subscription. That indicated that the people wanted a supervised pool … and the village matched
the money.”
During the period he served, the Roseau Research and Development Corporation was formed to arrange
for a Small Business Administration loan to construct a new building for Polaris (which had offers of plant
facilities to go elsewhere). “Again the citizens of Roseau put up the money to secure the loan … that
helped keep Polaris here,” he said.
He also recalls with a chuckle when he and Clayton Stordahl, who was on the council then, “walked
through the dense brush and looked over the site for the new park … all those birch trees … I was
thinking what a wonderful location it would be for a park.” The park was cleared and is now in use.
When the community fire engine was obtained the fire hall had to be enlarged. This was done and a
meeting room built over the hall.
One of the largest projects under his term as mayor was the street project. “Getting the EDA grant for
commercial development was the big problem there,” he recalled.
Reese was apprehensive about the project which cost over a million dollars. “When we had the public
hearing there were many retired and older people there. I was sure it was going to be defeated. But they
voted overwhelmingly to go ahead. That to me was a further indication of citizen support for their
community,” he emphasized.
Reese also remembers the tremendous cooperation from young people during the 1966 flood when they
spent many hours fighting rising waters. Another satisfaction recorded for Roseau was the installation of
artificial ice in the Roseau Arena and the building of the second skating facility.
Lately there has been the new sewage lagoon project which is also now in use. It marks one of the most
frustrating parts of the job. The biggest headache, Reese feels, “is trying to work with government
agencies … the massive paperwork and repetitive detail … the submitting of things again and again.” He
noted, for instance that the lagoon “took a long time and costs were increasing continuously …. we had
things like 31 sheets of detail to meet one government specification.”
The change-over to Minnkota power was the most controversial thing done during his administration,
“but it worked out very well and has been successful,” he added.
What has given him the most satisfaction? “The cooperation of the village employees, the council and
the citizens of Roseau. It almost shocks me to think that in the 14 years I had only two negative votes on
projects!”
He had enjoyed meeting other mayors in the area, attending regional meetings of the Minnesota League
of Municipalities and lately being a member of the Region One commission. “There has been the feeling
of changing interests … the satisfaction of seeing Roseau progress,” he told the Times-Region.
There have been humorous, too … like the time an anonymous caller complained that a neighbor left a
garbage can just over the boundary on her lot … and asked the mayor to call and have it removed.
Reese feels the village is in good hands and that with planning and zoning it will progress. He feels that
the coordinated facilities of school, church and community give the village a good chance of a good
future. “I feel it will continue the spirit which has enabled it to build to this point,” he said.
Right now he would like to see the museum-library complex built. It is needed, he feels. He would like to
see the community spirit carry a cost-sharing drive as it has for projects in the past.
“It is certainly worth-while,” he concluded.
About 2 months later, a report from the office of Congressman Bob Bergland was announced by the
Times-Region stating that the Economic Development Agency had authorized a $326,400 grant for
Roseau to build the Roseau Museum-Library complex, with the village expected to add $81,000 for the
project. At that time it was expected that 23 jobs would be created by the project, hoping most of them
would be local people. When it was built, it was used for about 25 years before falling victim to another
flood.
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