Somerset has a colorful history of corruption and bootlegging. I think most of the bootlegging has stopped…. The village can surely do a better job with its reputation and the way it treats its own community. There seems to be a strong disconnect between the board, its employees, and our community. Board members are not involved in activities, most employees live outside of the village and do not frequent local businesses and the bullet proof glass at village hall is not inviting for our small community. Getting out proper bills, meeting agendas, paperwork, and holding consistent hours of operation seems to be a difficult task for some. We can do better by holding people accountable for their job duties and hopefully care about this community instead of just collecting a paycheck without any real oversight.

Somerset was named by General Samuel Harriman after his father's home of Somerset, England. Somerset has a lengthy and colorful history. Before the turn of the century Somerset was bordered on the south by cranberry bogs. The terrain naturally lent itself to the production of cranberries as a result of the hilliness of the area, which is dotted with ponds, sloughs, swamps and bogs. These wet areas became of greater interest to the local population during Prohibition. These same low spots where water collected became ideal for collecting water for the production of moonshine (homemade alcoholic beverages). Indeed, Somerset already had a history of being a rough logging town, and it was only a natural progression to become the supplier of bootlegged alcohol to the twin cities of Saint Paul and Minneapolis. After Prohibition ended, the citizens of Somerset returned to the more humble activities of logging and farming.