By Lori Ehde
Sometimes the best way to start a new year is to reflect on the previous 12 months.
Last year in Rock County won’t be remembered for press-stopping news events, but the 2002 editions of the Star Herald clearly identify several ongoing issues that combine to make it a standout year in local history.
Growing meth problem
The growing meth problem tops the list of Rock County’s most important stories of 2002.
The pages of the Star Herald last year were peppered with stories of meth lab seizures and meth possession and use arrests, and finally the Thanksgiving week arrest of several meth dealers.
It’s at the top of the list because of its far-reaching effects on not only the addicts but on their families, schools, community and law enforcement.
Frustrated and fearful for their children’s lives, a group of parents and concerned community members started meeting to offer each other support, to educate the public and to improve communication with law enforcement and schools.
Parents: The Anti-Drug and Violence Task Force formed in September and continues to play an active role in combating and preventing meth use.
Community policing
In light of Rock County’s growing meth problem, 2002 presented the perfect timing for a new approach to law enforcement.
Community Policing emphasizes problem solving and partnerships with the community — its public and private organizations and its residents.
An assessment of the Rock County Sheriff’s Department by the Upper Midwest Policing Institute identified strengths and weaknesses in the department that its members are already working to address.
Election 2002 eventful
Just in time for new community policing ideals, the Sheriff’s Department has a new leader following the 2002 elections.
After 12 years at the helm, Rock County Sheriff Ron McClure will relinquish his duties to Sergeant Mike Winkels, who easily won the county’s sheriff election, 2,663-1,800.
Winkels said the campaign was a good way for the two candidates to mingle with the public. "I told Ron, the one good thing about this campaign is that you’re out talking to people, and I’m out talking to people, and that’s what community policing is all about."
Another local race that received a lot of attention was the auditor-treasurer’s race.
Margaret Cook, who’s worked in the Auditor-Treasurer’s Office since 1978, announced she’d retire at the end of the year prompting a flurry of interested candidates for the job.
The September primaries resulted in current Auditor-Treasurer employees Gloria Rolfs and Lisa Ahrendt-DeBoer on the ballot.
They beat out Nic o’Lena Bosch, Candace Reese, Ona Reker and Johnna Bowron- Ahrendt for a run at the general election.
Rolfs earned the honor by a narrow margin in November with 53.91 percent of the votes, compared with DeBoer’s 46.03 percent.
Hospital plans to build
Increasingly finding that its current facilities aren’t adequate to deliver modern medical services, Luverne Community Hospital and Sioux Valley Hospitals and Health System spent much of 2002 looking for solutions.
An architect’s study showed it would be more cost-effective to build new than to remodel, so hospital administration announced in early November its plans to build a new facility somewhere else in Luverne.
Those plans, however, are contingent on finding a suitable buyer for the current hospital and medical center structures.
The county, with its potential need for new law enforcement space, seemed an obvious buyer, but just last month, the County Board announced it would not buy the hospital buildings.
That decision was based on a recommendation by its architects, that remodeling the structures to make them suitable for county use would be too costly for it to be a viable project.
The hospital continues to seek a suitable occupant for its current facilities so the new building project can move forward.
Tri-State to stay
Another exciting announcement was that Tri-State Insurance, a company that’s been in Luverne for nearly 100 years, is staying in Luverne after all.
Now known as Continental Western Group Tri-State Region, it was about to move to Sioux Falls following reorganization of its parent company, W.R. Berkley Corp., Greenwich, Conn.
The city of Luverne had been unsuccessful in its efforts to keep Continental Western Group in Luverne, but when Berkley Corporation announced last fall that Berkley Information Services would also leave Luverne, efforts resumed to keep those jobs in town.
Berkley signed a deal with Luverne Economic Development Authority in which Berkley signed another 10-year lease on the BTS building and LEDA contributed $750,000 to add 8,500 square feet to the existing BTS structure.
CWG employees, about 100 of them, will move into the BTS building later this month, vacating the $1 million Tri-State Building, which was given to LEDA as part of the agreement with Berkley.
LEDA is now working to recruit a suitable business for the Tri-State building.