Time to think about a new courthouse, 28 years ago

In March of 1991, the La Crosse County courthouse and jail were getting crowded.  The building had been open only 26 years.  It replaced a 60-year-old courthouse which was torn down to make way for a Montgomery Ward store, which had been vacant for years by ’91.  A county committee was looking into the need for a new law enforcement center, which might have to be at least 20-thousand square feet larger than the existing courthouse.  La Crosse County had four judges at the time, and predicted they might need six courtrooms within 10 years.  When the current courthouse opened in 1997, it was built with spaces for six courtrooms.

Viroqua astronaut Mark Lee and his wife, Jan Davis, had been chosen as the first married couple to fly in space.  They would fly together aboard the Endeavor space shuttle in 1992.  Before that flight, NASA had an unwritten policy against letting married astronauts serve on the same mission…and apparently, the Lee-Davis flight has been the only exception to that rule.  

In March Madness that year, the Lady Popes of Milwaukee Pius High School won the WISAA girls’ basketball tournament for the 10th year in a row…and they were building up a 92-game winning streak in 1991…Yesterday in La Crosse.