The county board would not shrink, 47 years ago

At the end of 1971, La Crosse County board members were fighting over redistricting, with much of the battle over how many seats the board would have, and where they would represent.  The board turned down a plan to cut 2 seats, leaving the body at 35 members.  The city of La Crosse would get 21 supervisors, with 14 spread out through the rest of the county.  But supervisor Don Harman wanted the state Supreme Court to review the map, claiming that there would be too many seats for the outcounty area and North La Crosse.  The current La Crosse County board has 29 members.  

The former Knights of Columbus Hall, across 5th Avenue from the Community Theatre, was going to be torn down.  The lot would be used to provide more parking near the post office and the Hotel Stoddard. 

New York City Mayor John Lindsay stopped in La Crosse just before New Year’s, to campaign for president.  Lindsay was running as a Democrat to unseat Republican President Richard Nixon.  The mayor said Washington has grown more distant from New York, and La Crosse.    

The Burlington Liars Club in Wisconsin chose the best tall tales of 1971.  According to one joke, women’s lib had made it to the farmyard, where the chickens were making roosters lay eggs.  Another “lie” claimed that the weather in New Mexico was so hot, a bowl of potato salad would turn to hash browns before you could put it in the fridge.  Believe it or not, in 1971, yesterday in La Crosse.