By Sara Quam

A Monday train accident near Manley in Rock County resulted in no serious injuries.

Nathaniel Van Gorkom, Larchwood, Iowa, parked his 1979 Datson on a railroad crossing about one half mile east of County Road 17.

Burlington Northern operator William Whear, Dakota Dunes, S.D., saw the vehicle and attempted to stop.

The train struck the car at 12:10 a.m. with Van Gorkom inside and pushed it 13,098 feet down the tracks.

Van Gorkom was released from Sioux Valley Hospital, Sioux Falls, Tuesday.

By Sara Quam

The newest member of the Hills Crescent and Star Herald staff brings a little experience and a lot of heart to the publications.

Jolene Farley, an Adrian resident, worked for two years at the Nobles County Review. Writing was something she always liked, but actually becoming a reporter was a little unpredicted.

Farley started out at the Review as a graphic designer, but her position blossomed to include most of the reporting and some bookkeeping.

Here, her duties will be split between graphics work and being the primary reporter for the Hills Crescent. Farley will also help with Star Herald duties.

A Centerville, S.D., native, she started college at the University of South Dakota in Vermillion as a mass communications major but then decided to switch to business.

"In my mind, business had more uses, but I actually enjoy communications more," Farley said. "I like the people."

Just short of her business degree, she and her husband owned a small trucking business in Alcester, S.D., until his death in 1996 of cancer.

Making the transition from Adrian to Rock County papers shouldn't be difficult for Farley, who isn't easily bored. "I prefer the human interest stories, but I like politics, too. - You get to stay curious, it's interesting and you meet lots of characters," she said.

"I saw this as an opportunity to refine my reporting skills and learn the technology - and more about the business, really," she said.

Living in Adrian while covering Rock County won't hinder Farley's work.

"I already worked one Saturday in Hills with Old Fashioned Saturday Night. - I encourage people to call me at any time with story or photo ideas or concerns," Farley said. "I'll just try to get to know everyone."

Besides working, Farley keeps busy with various volunteer activities. She is in charge of her Diocesan newsletter, serves on the Adrian Hospital Board, is the vice president of St. Adrian's women's group, is a cantor in church and is secretary of Adrian's Women of Today. This was her last week of being a Girl Scout leader, and she is a former religion teacher as well.

Farley will continue to live in Adrian with her three children, Jessica, 17, Danielle, 15, and Malia, 10.

More than 3,000 students make up the 23 bands that will participate in the 50th Annual Tri-State Band Festival on Saturday, Sept. 30, in Luverne. The bands come from Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa and will join thousands of people visiting Luverne to take part in the longest running festival of its kind in the Midwest.

The parade will begin on Main Street in Luverne at 10 a.m., followed by the field competition at 12:45 p.m. at the Luverne High School athletic field. Entrance to all field events will require the purchase of a $3 Tri-State Band Festival button, which will be available at the gate as well as on Main Street prior to the parade.

Because this is the 50th anniversary of the festival there will be special events to note this historic occasion. Parade marshals for this year's event will be 18 of the past parade marshals who will return to Luverne to be part of the festivities. The guest band for this year's event will be the 1st Marine Division Marching Band from Camp Pendleton, Calif. It will perform at both the parade and field events. In addition, the marching band from Southwest State University in Marshall will participate.

Bands participating include from Minnesota: Adrian, Lourdes (Rochester), Luverne, Murray County Central, New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva, Pipestone-Jasper, Tracy, Waseca, Worthington; Iowa: Crestwood, George-Little Rock, Sibley-Ocheyedan, Sioux Center, South O'Brien, West Lyon; South Dakota: Brandon Valley, Brookings, Garretson, Lennox, Lincoln (Sioux Falls), Parkston and Washington (Sioux Falls).

For more information contact the Luverne Area Chamber of Commerce at 283-4061.

The Estenson Co. is merging its income tax and accounting business with a new firm, and the insurance portion of Estenson will relocate to East Main Street.

David Gangestad and Mike Reker have jointly owned Estenson Co. and its building on West Main Street since 1982.

If the agreement is signed, Estenson Co. will sell its accounting and tax business to Meulebroeck, Taubert and Co., Pipestone, and Gangestad will buy Reker's remaining interest in Estenson Co., which consists of the insurance portion of the business.

Reker will stay on as an employee of the new firm, as will current Estenson employees Phyllis Vos and Krista Kroon.

"Essentially what we're doing is merging the payroll, income tax and accounting business with this firm from Pipestone," Gangestad said Monday. "The clients we've had will still be dealing with Mike in the same office."

Reker and Gangestad will still own the Estenson building and will lease it to Meulebroeck, Taubert and Co. whose name will appear on the office front.

Meanwhile, Gangestad will move the insurance portion of Estenson Co. to the former Sears Catalog store on East Main Street. He's negotiating with Eugene Cragoe on purchasing the one-story block building on the north side of the street.

Gangestad will take with him Estenson employees Tim Knoll and Lisa Diekmann.

The business will no longer do payroll, accounting and income taxes, but it will continue servicing Estenson clients in personal and commercial insurance, life and health insurance and fixed annuities.

The Estenson Co. has operated under its current arrangement and location since 1982 when it merged with Reker's CPA firm.

Prior to that, Estenson Co. operated out of the Edward D. Jones building since Gangestad and Tom Serie bought the business from Wally Estenson in 1975.

The opportunity with Meulebroeck, Taubert and Co. came at a good time for both Gangestad and Reker, who look forward to simplifying their professional careers.

Gangestad's wife, Randa, plans to retire from teaching at Luverne Elementary School in two years. "When that happens, I want to be able to travel in the winter, and right now, I can't get away during tax season," he said.

Reker said he's looking forward to just working on tax returns and dealing with his clients without dividing his attentions on administrative concerns.

"In today's regulatory climate of the tax and accounting agencies, it's just a hassle for a single firm to maintain all the administration that goes with that," Reker said.

"I think the future is going to be these multi-location firms."

The opportunity to merge with Estenson came at a good time for Meulebroeck, Taubert and Co., which was looking to expand.

The business already has offices in Russell and Tyler, in addition to Pipestone, and with client growth to the south, a fourth office in Luverne seemed logical, according to Matt Taubert.

"We have three current employees who will become partners in the firm next year, so this will also help to facilitate that growth in our business," Taubert said.
Initially, the first new face to join the Luverne location will be Dave Friedrichsen, a Rock Rapids, Iowa, native who's been with the Pipestone firm since 1989.

Taubert said the office will need to hire a full-time receptionist once the new arrangement is effective - likely around Nov. 1.

By Lori Ehde

One of Luverne's longtime accounting and insurance businesses will see major changes following a verbal agreement reached last week.

By Sara Quam

The Rock County Developmental Achievement Center could finish an expansion this fall, as the county awarded it a no-interest loan Tuesday.

The Rock County Board of Commissioners agreed to help finance the expansion project with a loan of up to half the project expenses, but not to exceed $120,000. The debt will be repaid in eight years.

Commissioner Ron Boyenga, who is also a member of the DAC board, said he expects the county will loan closer to $80,000.

DAC Director Dorothy Cronin said with expansion comes improved services to the clients, and the county in general benefits. She would like to eventually expand what the DAC does with its in-house work programs to include larger assembly contracts.

"The more expediently we get this done, the more competitive we can be," Cronin said.

"I consider it economic development," Bob Jarchow, chairman of the board, said.

Commissioner Ken Hoime said, "It's a good mission for the county."

The expansion is something the DAC has needed for some time.

Code violations include: handicapped accessibility inside and out of the building, sanitary violations (including mop sinks and washer and dryer in main areas), inadequate conference room, no special medication room (medication is currently in a locked kitchen cabinet), no second legal exit and a bathroom that's too small.

The DAC had previously intended to ask for a one-time grant of $15,000, but Cronin reasoned that the county will get its money back with the loan and the DAC can get a faster start on the project, while saving money it would have paid in interest.

New meeting times

The board switched its October meeting days to Oct. 10 and Oct. 24. They will begin at the regular meeting time of 9 a.m.

It affected everything she did every day on the most basic level. Getting dressed was a chore - she learned to buy clothes without complicated zippers or buttons. Her work as a school teacher - especially writing by hand - was hindered by the shaking.

Until three years ago, the only hope for people with essential tremors was medication, and many, including Baustian, were not helped by the drugs.

Baustian had resigned herself to living with the disability, and she was considering retirement, because the shaking was interfering more and more with her work.

That was until a year and a half ago when she met Dr. Vittorio Morreale, who suggested she try a surgical procedure recently approved by the FDA.

"This surgery is reserved for people with severe tremors who have tried medications unsuccessfully," Baustian said. "They told me it had all these possible complications and side effects. - It's a drastic step to take."

Understanding the possible risks - especially that it could affect her speech - she decided not to have the surgery.

But one day in March, about a year later, Baustian was trying to turn the page of a hymnal in church and kept dropping the book.

"I decided that day I was going to have the surgery, and I have never wavered in my decision since then," she said. "I guess I started thinking if I was going to continue working, I should try the surgery. I'm 63 years old and I'm in really good health otherwise."

Dr. Morreale had told her the surgery has a better-than 80-percent success rate. "I told him, at those odds, I'd go to the casino," Baustian said.

For Baustian, the gamble paid off in a big way. She survived surgery with all the benefits and none of the side effects.

"It's really wonderful, and I feel very grateful it worked and it worked so well," she said. "There were lots of prayers for me from all over the world - by my family, my friends and by all my sisters."

She said the prayers, combined with her doctor's bedside manner, put her at ease during the procedure.

"The day I went into surgery I was totally at peace with my decision - partly because of all the prayers, but partly because I was comfortable with Dr. Morreale," she said.

"He actually shaved my head himself. He didn't have someone else do it. I guess it was his way of bonding with the patient."

On April 26 Dr. Morreale bored a dime-sized hole in the top of Baustian's skull to implant a "Deep Brain Stimulator" behind her forehead.

The implant, connected to a computer chip in her chest, sends stimuli to her brain interfering with the signals to shake.

Except for boring the hole in her skull, Baustian was conscious for much of the surgery so she could help Dr. Morreale with his direction.

"He'd say, -Raise your arm,' and I'd raise my arm. And then he'd say, -Let me try something else here.' And he'd do something on his computer," Baustian said.

Suddenly, after one of the electrical voltage adjustments, Baustian's right hand stopped shaking.

"It was really great," she said. "That's why it's such a dramatic surgery, because it has instant results right there in the operating room."

In church two weeks later, she enjoyed a long-denied luxury of bringing a communion chalice to her lips.

Baustian won't say she's a different person since the surgery, but the absence of the constant tremors and the stress they caused her has made a noticeable difference in her demeanor and her approach to life.

"It used to be such a vicious cycle. Stress made my shaking worse, and shaking caused me stress," she said. "If I was really stressed, my legs would shake, my head would shake. - The surgery was supposed to correct the tremors in my right hand, but I don't shake anywhere else anymore because I'm so much more relaxed."

Baustian still has some tremors in her left hand, but she said her life has drastically improved since the surgery.

"I can drink a cup of coffee with one hand," she smiled. "Before I was drinking everything with a straw."

Better yet, she's able to continue her work helping at-risk inner-city youth.

Baustian is a teacher at Covenant House, which provides temporary housing for 16- to 22-year-old high school dropouts. She prepares them for their GED, and in many cases, helps illiterate young people to read.

Her work also centers around a community garden she started several years ago with the Covenant House and area neighbors.

"God's little acre," as she calls it, has become an oasis in the poverty-stricken neighborhood where children use milk cartons for basketball hoops and drug dealing is commonplace.

For her sake and the sake of the families she's helping, Baustian said she has no regrets about the surgery.

"I felt it was important to do this, so I could continue to do my work and to do it better," she said.

Baustian said the tremor control therapy is similar to a heart pacemaker. "A pacemaker sends wires to the heart; this one has wires to my brain," she said.

The pacemaker-like generator implanted near the collarbone supplies electrical current through a wire connected to an electrode implanted deep in the brain.

The current interferes with overactive nerve cells that cause tremors.

According to the International Tremor Foundation, an estimated 4 to 6 million people suffer from essential tremor in the United States.

The condition is often confused with Parkinson's disease. The difference is that essential tremor does not affect limbs at rest - they shake only when they're used. Parkinson's is a progressive neurological disorder caused by loss of nerve cells and causes impaired movement and often dementia, in addition to shaking.

Prior to three years ago, some patients have found relief by thalomotomy - destroying the part of the brain that causes the shaking.

Both essential tremor and Parkinson's patients have been helped by the deep-brain stimulation procedure, and it's becoming the preferred treatment because it's reversible and adjustable.

According to Medtronic, the Minnesota-based company that makes the Activa Tremor Control Therapy devices, about 4,000 have been implanted since the procedure was FDA-approved three years ago.

In June, Baustian allowed a reporter and photographer from the Detroit News to follow her before and during the surgery. The result was a detailed, front-page spread illustrating the benefits of the procedure.

"There are a lot of people in need of tremor surgery and don't even know it's available," Baustian said. "Yet they go through a tremendous amount of stress because of their inability to do things. We wanted people to know about this."

Baustian's surgeon trained under
Rock County Hall of Fame's David Piepgras

By Lori Ehde

Sister Joan Baustian grew up on a farm near Luverne and graduated from Luverne High School in 1953.

She is the daughter of the late Walter and Frances Baustian, who were longtime farmers in the Luverne area.

She is the sister of Neva Clausen, Luverne, who spent time with her in Detroit after the surgery. Other siblings include Lester, Norbert and Walter Baustian Jr., all of Luverne; Virgil Baustian, Jasper, and Elaine Slaughter, Harlingen, Tex.

Another Luverne twist on the story is that Baustian's surgeon, Dr. Vittorio Morreale, trained under recent Rock County Hall of Fame inductee David Piepgras.

Dr. Piepgras, 1958 LHS graduate, is Chair of Neurologic Surgery at Mayo Medical School. He said Morreale was a resident in the surgical training program in Rochester.

Piepgras said he has encouraged the implant surgery for qualified patients. "It's very useful for treatment of patients with disabling tremors," he told the Star Herald Friday.