Six Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth High School football players received post season honors from the Southwest Ridge Conference. They are (left to right) Jesse Leuthold, Cody Scholten, Pat Nelson, Tyson Metzger, Zach Wysong and Chris Reid. Leuthold, Metzger, Reid and Wysong made the All-SRC Team. Nelson and Scholten drew honorable mention.
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By John Rittenhouse
Eight members of the Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth football team drew post-season honors from the Southwest Ridge Conference coaches.

H-BC-E, which won the league for the second consecutive season with a 7-0 record, had six players make the 2002 All-Southwest Ridge Conference Team. Two more Patriots drew honorable mention.

Along with the players, H-BC-E head coach Dan Ellingson and assistant coach Dan Lorang were named the league’s coaches of the year.

A total of 25 players made the all-league team, and H-BC-E’s six selections led the way.

Making the team for the Patriots are seniors Chris Reid, Jesse Leuthold, Brant Deutsch and Tyson Metzger, junior Curt Schilling and sophomore Zach Wysong.

Westbrook-Walnut Grove and Southwest Star Concept placed four players each on the All-SRC roster.

SSC seniors Tyler Leopold and Andy Daberkow, who were named the league’s Back of the Year and Co-Lineman of the Year respectively, topped the list for the Quasars. SSC senior Mitchell Leopold and sophomore Ryan Scheevel also made the squad.

W-WG seniors Chris Munson, Ryan Paplow, Kurt Faber and sophomore Tom LeBoutillier represent the Chargers.

Lincoln HI and Lakeview picked up three All-SRC selections each.

LH senior Mark Pederson was named the league’s Co-Lineman of the Year. Seniors Jared Boeck and Tom Pearson also made the team for the Rebels.

Lakeview seniors Tyler Laleman and Codi Shemon and junior Tyler Jeseritz graced the roster.

Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster seniors Corey Place and Robby Armstrong, Edgerton seniors Kyle Landin and Josh Eernisse and Lake Benton junior Garrett Peterson round out the roster.

Sixteen players drew honorable mention from the SRC coaches, including H-BC-E senior Pat Nelson and junior Cody Scholten.

SSC seniors Eric Joens and Steven Mathias and junior Brooke Mathias, Edgerton seniors Dominick Facile and Jayson Van’t Hof and sophomore Travis Hulstein, SV-RL-B senior Zach Schmitz and juniors Anthony Johnson and Mark Riley, Lakeview seniors Zach Geistfeld and Shawn Louwagie, Lake Benton senior Matt Prosch and junior Dayton Hurd and LH junior Justin Jerzak also drew honorable mention.

Have a Hoppy Halloween without the home brew

I heard a lot of "guy walks into a bar…" jokes last weekend. It's not because I was hanging around amateur comedians - I was at the Hoppy Halloween home brew convention in my home state of North Dakota.

My family decided to meet in Fargo for the convention because dad entered one of his choice stouts and because we hadn't all been together for a while.

We noticed that most entrants didn't bring their entire families to the event, but we had fun sampling some home brew and eating free cheese, meats and crackers.

As we walked into the convention center, a man in a kilt reviewed one of the beer entries from a stage. Obviously, my prediction that we'd see interesting characters was accurate, and no, he wasn't from North Dakota.

Dad didn't win anything for his entry, but he got some good door prizes, like a hat that says, "I'm 'hop' blooded" and three packages of brewing yeast.

We were there for only about an hour, because the female faction of the family had shopping to do, but my dad and husband had fun without us and got home brewing tips from another character wearing a straw hat and bibbed overalls. I think he was from Minnesota.

While I'm giving wardrobe reviews and talking Halloween - whether it's a "hoppy" one or a happy one - it's probably my least favorite holiday. No offense to all the festive people out there.

I just can't think of a fun way to celebrate the holiday as an adult.

Halloween actually wasn't that fun as a kid, either. Growing up, I didn't have elaborate costumes and didn't really enjoy making my own like some creative people do. I ended up switching between punk rocker and hobo for about 10 years.

This year, I don't have a reason to dress up, but I finally have a decent costume idea. I think that with a platinum wig and a black poodle on my arm, I'd have fun being Anna Nicole Smith for the night.

I could stop enunciating my words, move really slowly and say "Sugarpie, you stink," a lot. (Anna Nicole is the overweight, former super model who’s battling for the millions her dead husband supposedly wanted her to have. You can watch her Sunday nights on E!)

Even with that costume idea, I'm positive I'll be home tonight, greeting those who do dress up and warding off vandals. Don't worry, North Dakota natives don't hand out home brew when someone says "trick or treat."

By John Rittenhouse
Members of the Luverne High School cross country team received awards during a recent banquet for their season-long efforts.

Jake Studer and Jesse Kuhlman were honored for being the captains of the boys' team, while Sadie Dietrich, Victoria Arends and Amanda Saum served as the captains of the girls' squad.

Studer was named the Most Valuable Runner for the boys. Dietrich and Lexi Heitkamp shared the same honor for the girls.

Dusty Antoine and Kuhlman were tabbed the boys' Most Improved Runners. Amanda Saum drew the honor for the girls.

Nick Otten was named the Hardest Worker for the LHS boys.
Kesley Dooyema and Arends shared the award for the Cardinal girls.

Rookie of the Year Awards went to Eric Kraetsch and Heitkamp.

By Jolene Farley
Representatives from the Rock County Board and Hills-Beaver Creek School Board met for a Liaison meeting Thursday.

The two entities meet periodically to discuss topics of mutual interest to the county and school district.

Adding a resource officer in the school was the main topic of this meeting. The position could be shared with the Luverne school district. An officer would need six to eight weeks of training.

The group Parents: The Anti Drug and Violence Task Force, approached the County Board and the Luverne and Hills-Beaver Creek School District on the subject at past meetings.

The Hills-Beaver Creek School Board would support a school resource officer, according to Superintendent Dave Deragisch.

“It's kind of a proof to the public we are willing to put our reputation on the line, to prove that we are drug-free,” said Deragisch.

“It's a positive,” he said. “It's another resource for students.”

Rock County Administrator Kyle Oldre informed the school board of a three-year $125,000 COPS grant the county could apply for to partially fund the position.

But, since there is no grant money currently available until the 2003 budget is approved, and there is a list of applicants, Oldre is uncertain an application from Rock County would be approved.

After the grant, an additional $25,000 would be needed over the three years to cover the cost of an officer.

Deragisch stressed that the Hills-Beaver Creek district would be unable to contribute to the salary of an officer. It could, however, contribute office space and office supplies.

“My board members … they know what kind of budget we are dealing with this year,” he said.

‘The county is not unlike the school districts,” said Oldre about budget issues.

An alternative, the onset of community policing may free up enough hours in the Rock County Sheriff's Office to staff a resource officer in the school districts, according to Oldre.

The County Board is reviewing the department to determine the most effective use of current man-hours.

Community policing is a whole new method of law enforcement, changing the way things have been done for years.

“It's a dramatic, major fundamental change in how we deliver law enforcement,” said Rock County Attorney Don Klosterbuer.

Patrolling will be evaluated to see if it is the most effective use of an officer's time.

County Commissioner Jane Wildung cautioned that Rock County communities would need to understand that patrol time could be cut down under the program.

“Are they going to buy into it if we give up the patrol time?” said Wildung.

Wildung said the majority of the complaint calls she receives on law enforcement deal with visibility issues.

All agreed establishing a community watch program could help fill the gap.

The Worthington district has a full-time officer in the school with cost shared 60 percent by the county and 40 percent by the school. Deragisch planned to contact the Worthington district to find out how the program is funded.

By Jolene Farley
Political races in Hills, Beaver Creek and Steen ended Tuesday when the polls closed.

In Hills, four candidates vied for two open seats on the city council.

Keith Elbers, with 216 or 41.5 percent of the vote, and Linus Svoboda with 153 or 29.4 percent of the vote, will fill the seats.

Wendell Bengtson received 98 votes for 18.8 percent, while David McGuire received 46 or 8.8 percent of the vote.

In Beaver Creek, two candidates vied for a vacated council seat.

Carolyn DeBoer will fill the seat with 76 votes or 59.4 percent of the vote. Daryl Fuerstenberg received 51 votes or 39.8 percent.

In Steen, three candidates vied for two open seats on the city council.

Robert Sandbulte, with 63 or 45.7 percent of the votes, and Brad Bosch, with 61 or 44.2 percent of the votes, will fill the seats.

Leonard Otkin received 13 votes for 9.4 percent of the total.

Kim Gehrke, Beaver Creek, casts her vote for her favorite candidates at Beaver Creek City Hall Tuesday. At the time of the photo, 48 out of 157 eligible voters in the community had visited the polls, according to the poll judges.

Photo by Jolene Farley

Six Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth High School football players received post season honors from the Southwest Ridge Conference. They are (left to right) Jesse Leuthold, Cody Scholten, Pat Nelson, Tyson Metzger, Zach Wysong and Chris Reid. Leuthold, Metzger, Reid and Wysong made the All-SRC Team. Nelson and Scholten drew honorable mention.

By John Rittenhouse
Eight members of the Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth football team drew post-season honors from the Southwest Ridge Conference coaches.

H-BC-E, which won the league for the second consecutive season with a 7-0 record, had six players make the 2002 All-Southwest Ridge Conference Team. Two more Patriots drew honorable mention.

Along with the players, H-BC-E head coach Dan Ellingson and assistant coach Dan Lorang were named the league’s coaches of the year.

A total of 25 players made the all-league team, and H-BC-E's six selections led the way.

Making the team for the Patriots are seniors Chris Reid, Jesse Leuthold, Brant Deutsch and Tyson Metzger, junior Curt Schilling and sophomore Zach Wysong.

Westbrook-Walnut Grove and Southwest Star Concept placed four players each on the All-SRC roster.

SSC seniors Tyler Leopold and Andy Daberkow, who were named the league's Back of the Year and Co-Lineman of the Year respectively, topped the list for the Quasars. SSC senior Mitchell Leopold and sophomore Ryan Scheevel also made the squad.

W-WG seniors Chris Munson, Ryan Paplow, Kurt Faber and sophomore Tom LeBoutillier represent the Chargers.

Lincoln HI and Lakeview picked up three All-SRC selections each.

LH senior Mark Pederson was named the league’s Co-Lineman of the Year. Seniors Jared Boeck and Tom Pearson also made the team for the Rebels.

Lakeview seniors Tyler Laleman and Codi Shemon and junior Tyler Jeseritz graced the roster.

Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster seniors Corey Place and Robby Armstrong, Edgerton seniors Kyle Landin and Josh Eernisse and Lake Benton junior Garrett Peterson round out the roster.

Sixteen players drew honorable mention from the SRC coaches, including H-BC-E senior Pat Nelson and junior Cody Scholten.

SSC seniors Eric Joens and Steven Mathias and junior Brooke Mathias, Edgerton seniors Dominick Facile and Jayson Van't Hof and sophomore Travis Hulstein, SV-RL-B senior Zach Schmitz and juniors Anthony Johnson and Mark Riley, Lakeview seniors Zach Geistfeld and Shawn Louwagie, Lake Benton senior Matt Prosch and junior Dayton Hurd and LH junior Justin Jerzak also drew honorable mention.

By Lori Ehde
According to the Minnesota Department of Health, more than 800 Minnesotans were treated in hospitals last year for injuries caused by domestic assaults.

In Rock County District Court, three assault cases recently concluded. Two of them involved assault of women by their boyfriends and one involved siblings.

The most recent case involved a Luverne man who was stabbed in the back in July by his sister, whom he lived with.

According to the complaint, Deputy Ken Baker was dispatched to 410 S. Freeman Ave. at 6 a.m. July 9. He was met at the door by 34-year-old Amy Christine Lee.

She had blood on her white tee shirt and blood was splattered on the wall and carpet, according to the report.

She began crying and said she and her brother, Anthony Holybear, had been in an argument. She said they’d been drinking and she had trouble remembering details, but she said she picked up a knife, "approximately as long as a pen."

Baker noticed Holybear, who said he didn’t want to press charges, had trouble walking and that blood was oozing from a puncture wound in his upper back.

Lee was charged July 10 with three counts of assault, and pled guilty to third-degree assault.

In a sentence hearing Oct. 28, she was ordered to serve 30 days in jail starting Nov. 1. She was further sentenced to five years of probation, an $838 fine, out-patient chemical dependency treatment, domestic abuse counseling, restitution, and to submit a DNA sample.

In another case, Billy McLaughlin, 18, Luverne, was sentenced to 30 days in jail for beating up his girlfriend earlier this year.

According to the complaint filed Feb. 25, Deputy Jason Aanenson came to 501 W. Hatting at 9 a.m. Feb. 23 in reference to a possible assault.

McLaughlin’s girlfriend met him at the door with a cut below her right eye and a mark on her forehead.

She told Aanenson that McLaughlin, her "live-in boyfriend" had come home at 6 a.m. and appeared to be "under the influence of something."

She said he had been using marijuana and meth and had been stealing money from her to buy drugs. When she confronted him that day about his drug use, she told Aanenson he slapped her three times.

According to reports, he grabbed her by the arm, pushed her to the floor, and proceeded to punch her three times in the face with his fist and again in the stomach. She said he also kicked her in the stomach.

When McLaughlin was found hiding behind a door in the apartment, he was arrested and transported to the Nobles County Jail, Worthington.

In addition to 30 days in jail, McLaughlin was sentenced in August to one year of probation, a $538 fine, a domestic abuse assessment and restitution.

A third domestic assault charge filed March 6, Beaver Creek’s Christopher Mark Ault, 25, was sentenced to two days in jail and fined $538.

According to the complaint, Deputy Greg Lingen responded to a call at 5:43 p.m. March 5 at 201 S. 4th St. in Beaver Creek.

Ault came to the door and told Lingen he and his girlfriend had been arguing, but that everything was okay.

Reports stated that Lingen found her at a nearby residence, upset and crying. She told him Ault had grabbed her by the arm and pushed her to the ground in front of her 3-year-old child and her friend.

At that point, she told her friend to take the child away and call law enforcement.

In an Aug. 26 hearing, Ault was ordered, in addition to the jail and fine, to a year of probation and a domestic abuse assessment.

According to the Southwest Crisis Center, Luverne, domestic violence continues to plague Rock County homes.

In October, which was Domestic Violence Awareness Month, the Crisis Center sponsored a display on the courthouse lawn that showed names of 51 people who died in domestic disputes in Minnesota in 2001.

The phone number for the Southwest Crisis Center is 283-9917. Victims can call the center for help in escaping violent situations and to connect with other local resources for families.

Thermal oxidizer to fire up today
The thermal oxidizer, the hopeful solution to smell and air quality from the ethanol plant, is scheduled to be turned on today.

The $1.5 million oxidizer was origonally ordered in January and arrived for installation in July.

Unfortunately the installation kept getting set backs, first because state inspectors required some pipe replacement.

When the original date for installation had to be delayed getting the company reps back to install it caused another delay.

The first part of this week the installation crew installed additional airlocks the oxidizer requires and on Wednesday had to fine tune the burners.

Plant manager, Rick Serie, expected the burner turned on between 2 and 3:00 p.m. today.

The oxidizer will eliminate emissions coming out of the stack, but in the winter, when the temperature is below 68 degrees, steam will still be visible.

GEP presents Sanders Family Christmas
The Green Earth Players open their production of "Sanders Family Christmas" this Friday.

The play is a sequel to an earlier Green Earth production, "Smoke on the Mountain", performed by the group several years ago.

The musical comedy follows the Sanders family around the south in the ‘30s and ‘40s as they go from church to church singing a mix of familiar tunes as well as some unfamiliar holiday tunes.

Paula Gerrig, Slayton, is the first time director for the play, and Sue Sandbulte is the musical director.

Members of the cast include Shane Amborn, Bruce Baartman, Fran Bohlke, Traci Carlson, Terri Ebert, James Harsma, Cheryl Nath, Phil Voigt and Louella Voigt.

Chamber teams up with Wrestling Club for fund-raiser
The Luverne Chamber of Commerce, along with the Blue Mound Wrestling Club are co-sponsoring the sale of a Luverne Coupon book.

With many of the coupon books sold by local groups, a big chunk of the money goes to a for-profit business that puts the books together and gets a local group to sell them.

However, with this book the Chamber and Wrestling Club are doing the entire project, so all the money will stay local.

The book will contain $850 worth of coupons and will cost $20.

The book sales will be conducted by members of the wrestling club as well as some local businesses.

The sales campaign will run from Monday, Nov. 18 through Thursday, Dec. 14.

The late Katherine Graham comments on our Russell Wiggins
Below is part of an e-mail I received from Rick Jauert.

Jauert is currently reading a recently released book from the late Katherine Graham. A comment she made about Rock County Hall of Famer, Russell Wiggins, former editor of the Washington Post, where she was publisher is included.

I wanted to share with you an excerpt from Katherine Graham's new book, "Katherine Graham's Washington ('A huge, rich gathering of articles, memoirs, humor, and history, chosen by Mrs. Graham, that brings to life her beloved city'). It is a wonderful book. I'm 300 pages into it with another 600 to go. I thought this item might make a good little anecdote for your column since it highlights still another claim to fame for Luverne's Russ Wiggins. "Washington was still a segregated city, though with pockets of integration (notably the streetcars), and racism was an ugly aspect of the city. It was under Russ Wiggin's editorship, in the
late 1940s, that the (Washington) Post published the first picture of a black bride. Russ had especially selected two people
with Ph.D.s from Howard (the Black University in DC) to break that particular barrier, hoping to keep the protests to a minimum, and he personally took all the protest calls that came through the switchboard."

Publisher Roger Tollefson can be contacted by e-mail at tolly@star-herald.com