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Paynesville Press - June 11, 2003

Longtime township supervisor passes on

By Michael Jacobson

Harvey Voss, who served as a township supervisor for 37 years in Paynesville Township, died last week at the age of 90.

Voss was born in Eden Lake Township but moved to Paynesville Township, where he farmed for 48 years. The Voss farm is located just east of Paynesville on Highway 23.

Voss was elected to the township board as a supervisor in 1955 and served for 37 years on the board. When he started, he told the Press in 1992, when he retired from the township board, supervisors got $1 per hour for work and $8 per meeting. At that time, you could picnic practically anywhere you wanted around Lake Koronis, and the township roads were not much more than "mud paths and trails."

When he retired from township government, Paynesville Township had 36 miles of road and all but five miles was paved.

During the 1960s, Voss was on the township board when the township replaced the so-called rumble bridge on the west end of Lake Koronis with a metal culvert. The rumble bridge gots it name, Voss explained to the Press in 1992, because it had a plank bed and when the boards were loose it could be heard for miles.

Voss also served for 25 years as a fire warden, for 24 years on the Town Officers Association of Stearns County, for six years on the resolution committee for the Minnesota Association of Townships, and for three years on the board of the senior citizen board.

Voss's funeral will be held on Wednesday, June 11, at 11 a.m. at Grace United Methodist Church.

Voss is survived by his son, Art, and two grandsons. Full obituary



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