Prior to the recent pandemic uprising, which altered the way the Meeker County Board conducts its meetings, I had covered those meetings for 60 years, starting baac in 1960.
I checked the back issues of the paper the other day to find that when i joined the Independent Review in 1957, the paper did not cover county board meetings. I instituted that coverage in 1960. Back then, the county board met in a cramped meeting room at the west end of the rambling old Meeker County Courthouse.
County board members then were Rick Werner, Chester Johnson, Clarence Rice, Herb Putzier and Ed Hamm. Leland Olson was the county attorney and Bill Martinson was county auditor.
That group filled every available space around the meeting table, and when I, as a reporter for the Independent Review, began appearing on meeting dates, at least a majority of the county board members wondered what I thought I was doing. I was less than welcome.
In those 60 years, I’ve covered county board, I reported on the doings of some very effective public servants and also a few duds.
One of the best, I think, was Dave Gabrielson, who passed away recently. He served on the county board effectively for 18 years, in which he took the lead in quite a number of positive county actions.
Yes, he could be full of himself at times — that is no uncommon among people who are leaders. But he generally had an effective way in getting people from diverse backgrounds and interests to work together effectively. This stemmed, I think, from his long career in labor negotiations, balancing interests of labor and management.
He was a member of the county board when the county took the positive step of acquiring the old high school, converting it to the very efficient family services center.
His work was vital to bringing the Bobcat enterprise, a facility which for a number of years contributed much to the Meeker County economy.
He worked hard in cooperation with fellow board members to bring the upgrading of the law enforcement center, making it among the area’s best.
And then, of course, his crowning achievement, leading the effort resulting in the $27 million addition to our hospital, which has been, through the years, the most important facility in our community and will continue to be that well into the future.
Would the hospital modernization, to the extent that it was, have been possible without Dave Gabrielson’s drive and skill in getting people to work together? I think not. That addition, I think, stands as a lasting monument to his work.
