Longtime Scandia town clerk to receive posthumous honor

Mary Divine, Pioneer Press
·2 min read

The late Scandia town clerk Dolores Peterson will be honored posthumously Tuesday night at the Scandia City Council meeting.

Peterson, who died in 2019 at age 85, has been named the recipient of the Scandia Good Neighbor Award for 2023. Peterson’s family will accept the award on her behalf; Peterson’s photo and a copy of the proclamation announcing the award will be hung in the Scandia Community Center’s Heritage Room.

The Scandia Community Center is known as the “house that Dolores built.” Peterson, who served as the New Scandia Township clerk for 32 years, picked out the wallpaper and blinds, decorated the walls with historic photos, and purchased the floral arrangements for the restrooms. She provided coffee, lemonade and cookies at town meetings.

According to the proclamation, Peterson spent months tracking down photos of past township chairmen to hang at the center, including one of F.J. Lake, “which she found in Florida, while others were found in Stillwater, Bayport and the Minnesota State Fairgrounds.”

“Dolores attended to the details of making the city a great place to live, like when she pushed for streetlights in the Village Center and toured St. Paul until she found ones she liked that she felt would enhance the character of the Village Center and was persistent in convincing the Town Board that those were the ones that should be installed,” the proclamation states. “(Her) personal connection to the township included her knowing the names (and reportedly the phone numbers) of most of Scandia’s residents.”

Peterson retired in 2010.

The Scandia Good Neighbor Award has been presented since 2017. Past recipients include: the Scandia-Marine Lions Club; the Meals on Wheels drivers at Elim Lutheran Church; Lynne Moratzka, the longtime director of Gammelgården Museum; and Ellen St. Sauver, volunteer and former longtime kindergarten teacher at Scandia Elementary School.

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