NRHEG Star Eagle

137 Years Serving the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva Area
Newspaper of Record for NRHEG School District
Newspaper of Record for Waseca County, MN
PO Box 248 • New Richland, MN 56072

507-463-8112
email: steagle@hickorytech.net
Published every Thursday
Yearly Subscription: Waseca, Steele, and Freeborn counties: $52
Minnesota $57 • Out of state $64

Feature Stories from the Star Eagle pages.

NR youth wrestling tournament named after Harlan Schlaak 

THE CREW — Members of the Schlaak family gathered for a photo during last month’s Harlan Schlaak Wrestling Tournament in New Richland. All last names are Schlaak unless otherwise noted. Front from left: Nathan, Carol, David and Nolan. Row two: Dustin, Loren, Aiden, Paul, Jack VanHal, Owen, Dakota, Ryan, Steve, Memphis, Brandon, Tony, Kelli, Justin and Gaven. Back: Keith, Chad and Gary. Not pictured: Eugene, Neil, Colton, Anna and Kordell. (Star Eagle photo by Chris Schlaak)

By JIM LUTGENS
Publisher

If there’s one thing you can say about the New Richland area, it’s that there are a lot of Schlaaks.

The Schlaak (rhymes with lake) family has brought numerous sports accolades to NRHEG, but its biggest contribution has been in wrestling.

Now, the wrestling community has given something back, with the New Richland Area Wrestling Club naming its annual mid-winter tournament after Harlan Schlaak.

Harlan, who died last April, and his wife Carol were founders of the NRAWC in 1967. Harlan and Carol had five children — Gary, Neil, Keith, Donna and Linda, producing 15 grandchildren and 16 great-grandchildren, with another on the way.

As they said at the conlusion of a recent wrestling presentation in New Richland, that’s a lot of Schlaaks. The area has been referred to as the land of 10,000 Schlaaks.

Jacob, Karenna wear crowns

NRHEG Snow Week royalty was crowned Friday, Feb. 15 in the high school gymnasium. From left: Devin Buendorf, Andre Hill, Spencer Tufte, Aaron Fleming, Jack Hogstad, King Jacob Schuller, Queen Karenna Strom, Sydney Schlinger, Darian Pearson, Caty Nelson, Caitlin Goette, Hannah Budach. See the Feb. 21 edition of the Star Eagle for coverage of the Snow Week talent show and coronation and a Snow Week photo page. ( Star Eagle photo by Jim Lutgens)

Snow Week coronation rescheduled

Snow Week at NRHEG will be held Feb. 11-15. Coronation will be held on Tuesday, Feb. 12 at 2:35 p.m. in the high school gym. The Snow Court will be introduced, the Snow Queen and Snow King will be crowned and winter sports coaches will speak about the teams. Royalty candidates are, front from left: Hannah Budach, Caitlin Goette, Darian Pearson, Sydney Schlinger, Caty Nelson, and Karenna Strom. Back: Aaron Fleming, Jack Hogstad, Devin Buendorf, Jacob Schuller, and Andre Hill. Missing from photo: Spencer Tufte. Due to school closing on Tuesday, Feb. 12, the Snow Week Coronation program has been rescheduled for 2:25pm on Friday, Feb. 15, in the high school gym.  Coronation will immediately follow the talent show, which will run from 1:10 p.m. to approximately 2:20 p.m. (Submitted photo)

Public performances set for Feb. 15, 16

NRHEG finished second in sub-section One Act Play competion at Wells, advancing to section at St. Peter. Front from left: Michiah VanSyckel, Aubrey Johnson, Sierra Johnson. Row two: Hope VanWilgen, Micaela Vaale, Elizabeth Karl, Alexandra Combs, Mia Williams, Maggie Maloney, Madie DenHerder, Amanda Inouye. Back: Kendall Habana, Kayliegh Wilkie, Minna Lim, Nataly Gaona, Jordan Horejsi, Autumn Combs, Cora Harpel, Riley Chicos, Gavin Anderson. NRHEG One Act Play performances for the public are Friday, Feb. 15 at 7 p.m. at the Waseca ALC and Saturday Feb 16 at 2 p.m. at the Waseca ALC, 14 2nd Ave NE, Waseca. (Submitted photo)

Old ag facility turned into event center

OLD MILL - Joe Hoehn is pictured above. He purchased the old feed mill, repurposed it and renamed it the Mill Event Center. Following his wife's suggestion, Hoehn used the mill as a place for a wedding reception and decided it would be great place for more events. )Star Eagle photo by Melanie Piltingsrud)

 

By MELANIE PILTINGSRUD
Contributing Writer

When Joe Hoehn bought the old feed mill on SW 2nd Street in Waseca, he planned to lease it to other companies that needed warehouse space. Then one of his nieces had a wedding that changed all that.

The wedding and reception were supposed to take place at the family farm, but when Hoehn’s wife, Deb, saw the warehouse, she thought it would be a great location for the dance and reception. Making use of his talents as a general contractor in construction, Hoehn quickly built a stage and a bar, and his niece’s dance and reception were accordingly held at the old feed mill. “The next week we had four phone calls from different couples that were here,” says Hoehn.

Since then, The Mill Event Center has become a popular wedding venue with couples coming from as far away as La Crosse and Sioux Falls. But The Mill hosts other types of events as well. Johnny Holmes played there on Oct. 26, and there was an estate sale there on Nov. 2 and 3. This weekend, Radioactive will be performing there, and on the night before Thanksgiving, IV Play is scheduled to play. “We can seat up to 670 people in here,” says Hoehn.

That’s an amazing change from the original purpose of the feed mill. “A year and a half ago this place was stacked to the rafters with animal feed,” says Hoehn. The feed company, United Feeds, which is headquartered in Sheridan, Ind., decided to close their northernmost plant in Waseca. and Hoehn negotiated for two months to buy the location. “I did not tell anyone,” says Hoehn. “I didn’t tell my wife even.” Hoehn finally let the secret out when a price was agreed upon.