Holly Mulder finishes up a floral wreath for her door. Mulder enjoys tailoring her creations to match any dŽcor.

By Jolene Farley
With prom and Mother's Day around the corner, it is time for a visit to Holly Mulder's Country Flowers and Crafts.

Country Flowers and Crafts, located two miles east and one and three-quarters miles south of Hills, opened in December 1995. Mulder had just completed floral arranging courses at Southeast Technical Institute in Sioux Falls, and she said everything just fell into place.

A friend of Mulder's knew of a cooler for sale and Mulder had previously purchased a counter and air conditioner on an auction. So Mulder and her husband, Dennis, began converting a single car garage on their farm place into Country Flowers and Crafts.

Country Flowers offers real or silk floral arrangements for weddings, funerals, or any special occasion.

They also sell balloons, which according to Mulder are the most popular with the high school students, and stock candles. They experiment with items to see what works and what doesn't.

Mulder creates arrangements to match any dŽcor. Her goal is to make affordable arrangements that are nice looking. "Our area is fairly conservative," said Mulder. "So I know if I do that customers will come back."

Mother's Day and Christmas are usually the busiest for Country Flowers and Crafts. Mulder says if someone misses Valentine's Day they usually let it slide, but they are more conscientious about Mother's Day and Christmas.

The most practical flowers customers order are carnations and mums because they last the longest. But Mulder really enjoys roses. "They are so different," she said. "There are so many varieties; every flower you get is different."

The most unusual arrangement Mulder created was for a 50th wedding anniversary gift. The arrangement contained 50 coins. She said she used a hot glue gun to fasten the coins to wire before arranging them.

Mulder doesn't have set business hours. Country Flowers and Crafts used to be open certain days but someone would usually stop by or call on the days she wasn't supposed to be open. So she remains flexible and plays it by ear. She encourages customers to leave a message on her answering machine if they cannot reach her at 855-2215.

Mulder said the best part of her job is "meeting people and seeing the expression on their face when they get flowers."

Although she runs the bulk of the business alone, Mulder gets help from her husband and four children, Jerry, Randy, Becky and Kelly.

"My whole family has done some deliveries at one time or another," said Mulder. Country Flowers and Crafts will deliver to the Hills, Steen and Beaver Creek areas.

By Jolene Farley
A feather in the cap of Carl Ruud, Blue Ribbon Hatchery started on the Ruud family farm southeast of Hills.

Blue Ribbon eventually moved into Hills and expanded to Luverne, becoming one of the most successful businesses in the area and a major employer.

In the fall of 1934 Ruud moved the hatchery business from his father's farm into Hills and started a partnership with Morton Kolsrud. In 1946 when Kolsrud decided to sell out, Bud Bush decided he wanted in, according to Bush.

Bush had worked at the hatchery during high school until being drafted into the Air Force to serve overseas. He arrived back from active duty and began working at the Hatchery again.

The original hatchery building in Hills was located north of Bethlehem Lutheran Church, according to Bush.

Eggs had to be turned every three hours so a house was soon constructed close to the hatchery building. This house is still standing.

After turning them for 18 days, the eggs were moved to the top of the incubator into hatching trays. Each tray held 200 chicks. On days 20 and 21 workers would break the shells on eggs that were not yet hatched.

After the chicks hatched, they were sexed. The sexers worked for the Hatchery from about January through June and guaranteed a 98% accuracy rate for the sexing of baby chicks. Each chick was picked up and looked at individually to determine whether male or female.

The hatchery started out selling live chicks. Some were sold a day old, others kept until they were more mature. If farmers didnÕt want the chicks until warmer weather the hatchery would house them. Day-old chicks were put on rollers that held 1,000 chicks each and divided for their destinations.

Blue Ribbon Hatchery eventually housed more than 1,000 hens in a laying house on the business property. They supplied eggs for the hatchery, and soon the hatchery began to process eggs.

A 40-by-120-foot underground storage warehouse was built for egg storage. The warehouse, with the help of refrigeration, kept the eggs at the proper temperature until they could be shipped to various destinations.

"We shipped carload after carload to New York," said Bush. "The volume ... it was tremendous," said Bush. "You can't believe the thousands of eggs sold."

When the hatchery outgrew the original building, the business purchased the building next to present-day OrvÕs Station in Hills and installed new Jamesway Incubators that could each handle 100,000 eggs.
The hatcheryÕs egg business kept expanding, and soon it was shipping eggs to Luverne for processing. When a plant came up for sale in Luverne, Blue Ribbon purchased it.

The primary egg market for Blue Ribbon was in New York City, but they also sent eggs to Chicago, Denver and many other destinations.

The hatchery maintained egg buying stations in West Sioux Falls, Parker, Canistota, Salem, DeSmet, Lake Preston, Bushnell, Garretson, S.D., and Jasper.

The eggs would be shipped into Hills or Luverne to be processed, then shipped to the open market, according to Bush.

When the original laying houses couldnÕt produce enough breeding stock, Blue Ribbon contracted with area farmers to raise pedigreed chickens for them. The stock had to be blood-tested and state-banded.

Blue Ribbon eventually diversified into the seed and feed business, farm chemicals, and equipment sales.

They invested in bulk fertilizer trucks and liquid fertilizer tanks to spread fertilizer in the fields. They also purchased Hiboy Spraying equipment to apply chemicals to crops throughout the year. Grinder and mixer trucks were used to grind and mix feed for area livestock.

The Blue Ribbon Hatchery bought the International Harvester building and the Sjoseth Chevrolet building in Hills to house and work on equipment. A large warehouse was also built in northern Hills.

The business also constructed an 80-foot dry storage building on Main Street in Hills for storage of feed and farm chemicals.

By 1967, Ruud wanted to retire and the hatchery business had become increasingly complicated.

Big producers in the southern United States were growing, building bigger and bigger houses, and fewer and fewer farmers in the Hills area raised chickens.

"It used to be you couldn't drive down a road that (each farm) wasn't full of chickens," said Bush. "But the price got so bad everyone discontinued chickens."

All the property, equipment and vehicles the business amassed over the years were sold at auction.

Bush has fond memories of the Hatchery where he worked, then co-owned for 28 years. "It was just my life," said Bush. "I have such great feelings."

By Sara Quam
Census 2000 tallies leave Rock County - like most others in southwest Minnesota - with fewer people than 10 years ago.

The county's final count was 9,721. That's 85 fewer than the 1990 census. The population is largely an adult one, too, with 7,163 ages 18 and older.

Hills ended up with 565 people, down from 607 in 1990; Beaver Creek was up just one person for a final count of 250.

Steen's population was one of a few bright spots in the census. Most of Rock County felt a population dip in either 2000 or 1990. Steen, however, holds the honor of being the only town to steadily increase its population since 1980: going from 153 to 176 in 1990 and to 182 in 2000.

Marlin Elbers, Steen councilman, joked that the city will have even more bragging rights if its population reaches the 200 mark.

"It's just a nice little town to live in. The last number of years there's been more families coming and going. I've lived in Steen all my life, and there are some people I don't know," Elbers said.

He guessed that some people find less-expensive housing and the strong church good reasons to move to Steen. The proximity to Sioux Falls and Luverne are also positives for the small community.

Overall, Minnesota's population rose by 12.4 percent during the decade to 4,919,479. The largest growth occurred in the suburbs around the Twin Cities, taking up almost 45 percent of the state's entire population.

Rock County is still a homogeneous corner of the state, with 97 percent of the population being white. Statewide, the number of minority citizens doubled, rising to 582,336 or 11.8 percent.

Hills Christian School students Preston VandenBosch (left), Caleb Davis and Joel Buys relished the 50-degree temperatures Monday as they practiced the mile run required for the Presidential Physical Fitness Award.

Photo by Jolene Farley

By John Rittenhouse
Luverne-Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth placed two athletes on the 2000-01 All-Southwest Conference Wrestling Team.

The 26-player team, which was announced last week, consisted of two Cardinal wrestlers who advanced to the state tournament early this month.

Luverne senior Zach Skattum and Ellsworth junior Chris Tiesler represent the Cardinal program at 171 and 125 pounds respectively on the roster.

Conference champion Jackson County Central led all teams by placing seven wrestlers on the All-SWC roster.

Huskies seniors Travis Ahrends (heavyweight), Dusty Wilking (160) and Ben Caven-Johnson (152), juniors Marc Harwood (140) and Kyle Arndt (130), freshman Jordan Burmeister (112) and seventh-grader Justin Kolander (103) made the team for JCC.

Harwood, who eventually won a state championship, was named one of two Outstanding Wrestlers of the SWC.

Windom-Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin, Pipestone-Jasper and Redwood Valley landed four All-SWC selections each.

W-ML-B-O sophomores Cody Anderson (160) and Anthony Elg (119), freshman Jeff Stuckenbroker (103) and eighth-grader Nick Kulseth (112) made the All-SWC team.

Senior Brandon Manderscheid (140), juniors Mike Evans (130) and Jason Evans (135) and sophomore Justin Fruechte (119) represent P-J on the roster.

RWV senior Dusty Hennen (152), junior Matthew Johnson (145), and freshmen Tom Anderson (125) and Dusty Myers (135) grace the list.

Marshall drew three All-SWC selections in senior Zach Bruns (171), junior Justin Schuelke (145) and sophomore Colby Bruns (189).

Worthington seniors Bryan Cowdin (189) and Ross Teerink (heavyweight) round out the All-SWC roster.

Cowdin, a state champion, shared the Outstanding Wrestler of the SWC award with JCC's Harwood.

Drawing honorable mention from the SWC coaches are Worthington senior Josh Wasmund, Marshall senior Colin Stelter, JCC senior Jacob Drahota and P-J senior Brian Fruechte.

By Sara Quam
Gravel miners can now apply for permits, just in time for summer construction, because the Rock County Board of Commissioners lifted the gravel moratorium Tuesday.

The board hosted a public hearing Monday night to gauge opinion on the proposed changes to the Land Use Plan.

Essentially, the gravel extractors said the conditions of the new plan were acceptable while most homeowners didnÕt quite get the restrictions they hoped for.

The moratorium was lifted Tuesday after the board adopted the Planning and Zoning Commission's aggregate extraction supplement that was amended based on the public hearing.

Key changes are:
oThe required setback for gravel extraction is 500 feet from any residential or commercial structure.

oGravel processing must be located 1,000 feet from residential and 500 feet from commercial structures. Waivers will be granted when property owners agree to a shorter setback.

oNo gravel extraction is allowed on a site that has 15 residences within a one-mile radius.

The term "gravel processing" will be clearly defined in the supplement. It was questionable whether processing includes sorting, screening or washing. Hot mixing requires a separate permit.

Commissioner Ken Hoime, who also serves on Planning and Zoning, said, "It's frustrating because it's not black and white a lot of times."

It was also suggested that the County Board consider zoning county park areas as A-1, which would mean stricter regulations. Hoime said he feared that too many guidelines could take away the power to look at each permit on a case-by-case basis.

He's also nervous about the costs incurred if mining becomes too difficult. "It could hurt us in the long run because we buy the materials back," Hoime said.

Commissioner Ron Boyenga was the only no vote to the new requirements. He said he would prefer a longer setback for residential properties.

By Lori Ehde
According to an informal polling of township officials, it appears there's support for a road signage system in Rock County.

The subject was on the agenda of Tuesday's annual Road and Bridge hearing, and 10 of 11 townships present supported the concept establishing a road sign system.

When asked if they still supported the concept if they had to pay for it, seven townships supported it, and four did not.

On a roll-call vote, Battle Plain, Beaver Creek, Denver, Kanaranzi, Luverne, Martin, and Rose Dell townships supported rural signage whether it cost them or not.

Clinton, Mound, and Vienna townships supported the concept but didn't support having to pay for it.

Springwater Township was the only township that opposed both the concept and the cost.

Township officials were asked to gauge residents' support or opposition of rural signage during their annual township meetings last month and bring feedback to Tuesday's meeting.

"I don't know if this sends a clear message or not," said County Administrator Kyle Oldre, who polled township officials.

"I appreciate this. At least we have something to bring to the County Board."

Rural signage will be on the agenda of the next County Board meeting April 17.

Important for 911
About half the counties in Minnesota have already named rural roads, and Rock County is the only one in southwest Minnesota that hasn't done it.

The primary reason for naming rural gravel roads is for emergencies.

With Enhanced 911, computers automatically bring up the resident's name and directions to their home. But if rural residents don't alert dispatchers when they move, 911 calls don't correlate to the correct residences.

If the county goes ahead with the signing project, rural route addresses would become street addresses with house numbers, and the dispatch mapping system would correspond with those.

Emergencies aren't the only reasons for assigning names to roads. Delivery companies, service workers and people trying to find a business or residence in rural areas usually find road signs helpful.

How much will it cost and who will pay for it?
If it's approved, one sign would be placed at each intersection, and there are 540 intersections Rock County.

Each sign will cost roughly $130 for a total of more than $70,000, and the expense will be shared between the townships and the county (see table).

According to an informal cost plan proposed by Rock County Highway Engineer Mark Sehr, the county would fund all signs adjacent to township roads.

The cost of signs on intersections on borders of townships would be split between the two townships. The cost for intersection signs bordering four townships would be split among the four townships.

With this system, some townships would pay more for signage if they didn't share intersections with as many county roads.

Individual residence signs, estimated to cost less than $10 each, would likely be assessed to residents.

Sehr was asked if he'd looked to area counties for a good plan for implementation and funding. Sehr said in Pipestone County, townships funded the signs on their own. In Nobles County, the townships and county shared the expense.

When naming the rural streets, Sehr said Rock County would likely continue with the same street names as Pipestone's north-south streets that meet Rock County's border, and the same names as Nobles County's east-west streets that meet on the east side.

Pete Bakken of Beaver Creek Township wondered what would happen to border residents who live in Minnesota but have South Dakota addresses. "It's something somebody should consider," Bakken said.

Oldre said when the time comes, area post offices would be involved in the signage process, as would local fire and rescue departments.

If approved, other issues would also have to be resolved, such as who would pay for maintenance on the intersection signs.

Nothing rocks a small community to the core more than violence against one of its members, particularly violence against one of its children.

Adrian has had its share of tragedies recently. The lives of Adrian youngsters have been taken by accident, but the thought of a tragedy caused by a resident of Adrian toward another member of our community is difficult to bear.

The victim of this tragedy is a 9-year-old girl who was allegedly grabbed by William Joseph Kafka, Adrian. (See news story on page 1A)

Kafka has lived in Adrian only a couple of years, and many residents probably didn't know his legal name until this incident appeared in the paper. Rather, he was known as the odd fellow (nicknamed "Radar") who wore his Tingley work boots on walks, come rain or shine.

These work boots would sometimes be coupled with jogging shorts or skin-tight sweat pants. In the victim's interview, she states her attacker wore sweat pants and boots lined with white, furry fabric.

The fact that a young girl was sexually assaulted is a tragedy. The fact that the person who allegedly committed the crime was allowed out on $10,000 bail, is a travesty.

According to an area bail bondsman, a $10,000 bail means the offender typically would only have to raise $1,000. The bail bond guarantees the rest of the bail money, minus a fee.

Was $1,000 really enough for allegedly committing crimes that if convicted could put a man away for 30 years? Fines for these offenses total $40,000. Obviously, someone takes these crimes seriously.

Kafka raised his $1,000 and is currently home in Adrian. He is also back at work at Swift in Worthington. I have not talked to one member of the Adrian community who is happy about these facts.

No one thinks this is fair to the 9-year-old victim (who was threatened with death) or her family, who live in close proximity to the alleged offender.

Everyone has constitutional rights, but what about the rights of that little girl whose whole life was dramatically changed because of the incident? Should she have to see her attacker daily, should the girl and her family have to go out of their way to avoid the person who injured them?

What about everyone else in the community? The alleged offender lives only a block from the Adrian elementary school. I would venture to say more than 100 kids walk past his house (or used to) each week either on their way to or from school or to visit the downtown businesses in Adrian.

I, too, live in Adrian. Why should I have had to explain to my 10-year-old daughter the reason I want her to take an alternate route when she walks downtown for a pop?

What about the other children right in his neighborhood? There are several families with young children in Kafka's area. Would you let your child play outside near his home?

It makes me angry that he is walking around free, even temporarily, while a child is saddled with the effects of the alleged crime for life.

Yes, everyone has their rights, but shouldn't we protect our children? If we don't, no one will. A strong stand is needed to protect those least able to protect themselves.

Conditions were set on Kafka's release stating he is to have no contact with minors. Who can really guarantee that he won't become a repeat offender and forever alter the life of another child? We wouldn't know until it was too late.

Cory Tilstra keeps his eyes tightly closed while Razor the Python is wrapped around his face by the "Zoo Man" from the Prairie Winds Zoo, Adrian. On Monday Prairie Winds Zoo showed Hills-Beaver Creek Elementary students a tortoise, a parlor tumbler (bird) and a python. Students were allowed to touch the animals and learned more about their natural habitat.

Photo by Jolene Farley