In the summer of 1995, I worked a three month internship at The Warroad Pioneer, which I'm sorry to say has since ceased operation. This was the first professional newspaper that I worked for in my career, and it turned out to be a wonderful experience. I had only worked at Bemidji State University's newspaper for about a year and half before landing the internship. At The Pioneer I gained experience in sports, feature, beat and government reporting. I designed pages, took and developed photographs and was responsible for community relations. The best part is that I remain friends with the owners nearly 30 years later.
June 6, 1995
By Devlyn Brooks
For two Warroad people, eight hours of work per day just wasn't enough. So they decided to open up a business on the side.
Wanda Lievsay, a coordinator of XL final assembly at Marvin Windows and Doors, and Arlyn Melvie, who works in the color lab at Marvins, are the proud owners of the new Putt 4 Par mini-golf course.
"It's something that has been on our minds for a couple of years," Melvie said. "Warroad was starving for something to do."
The course opened Saturday, May 27. They said that they hurried to open the course memorial weekend because the weather was being so cooperative.
The weather has been a key factor in the opening of the course all along. Melvie said that they had been trying to put the course in for a month. The first plot of land that they tried to set the course up on was too saturated. So they had to move it south to its current location. Once the weather started cooperating, it took about a week to get the course laid out.
"Our first intention was to cater to the parkers and campers," Melvie said. "That is why we chose this location."
Their plans seem to have worked. Melive said that for the first few days, 90 percent of their customers were campers. Although now most of the customers have been from Warroad.
According to Melvie, the golf course is portable, and before they got it set up, they had it sitting in their front lawn.
"When we first had it sitting in the yard," Melvie said, "some seagulls were sure interested in it."
The two of them work at the golf course whenever they aren't working at Marvins. So it makes for some long days, they said. They also plan to work the weekend hours that it is open.
Putt 4 Par is open seven days a week from 10 a.m. to 10 p.m. until the weather is too cold, said Lievsay. they are planning a grand opening for the near future.
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