By John Rittenhouse
Edgerton High School senior Zach Hadler built some relationships with Hills-Beaver students as a member of the Luverne-H-BC-Ellsworth-Edgerton cross country program last fall.

But he didn’t make many friends at H-BC with his performance in Saturday’s quarterfinal-round game of the South Section 3A Boys’ Basketball Tournament in Worthington.

Hadler, a guard for the Flying Dutchmen, drained a 15-foot jumper with two seconds remaining in the fourth quarter to give seventh-seeded EHS a 72-70 victory over No. 2 H-BC.

Edgerton’s win, which came after two losses to H-BC during the regular season, sends it to the tournament semifinals tonight in Worthington. EHS plays No. 3 Southwest Christian, a 60-46 winner over Red Rock Central, at 7:30 p.m.

H-BC ends the year with a 19-6 record.

With Hadler leading the way by scoring 19 points, Edgerton pulled off the tournament’s biggest upset to date knocking off H-BC. The game was competitive from beginning to end, with Edgerton settling the issue with Hadler’s late blow.

Edgerton sported a 54-47 lead when it converted a three-point lead early in the fourth quarter, but it seemed to lose its grip on the game when H-BC’s Kale Wiertzema drained a pair of free throws at the 4:01 mark of the period to cap a 9-2 run that knotted the score at 56.

The game was tied at 58 when Edgerton started a 10-5 surge that gave it a 68-63 cushion with 1:11 left to play, but the Patriots battled back to tie the game at 70 when Wiertzema converted a field goal with 9.5 seconds remaining.

After an Edgerton timeout, Hadler received the in-bound pass and dribbled the ball past the half-court line before being met with pressure by H-BC. Hadler proceeded to move the ball to the right baseline, where he stopped and hit a jumper with two seconds left.

H-BC took a timeout and set up a play that ended up with the ball in the hands of senior Tyson Metzger near center court, but his desperation shot clanked off the backboard without hitting the rim.

Both teams sported three-point leads in the early stages of the first quarter before H-BC moved in front 15-11 with a field goal from Trey Van Wyhe with 1:00 mark.

Edgerton trimmed the difference to one point (17-16) by period’s end, and tied the game at 19 before going on a 7-0 run to take a 26-19 lead early in the second quarter.

The Flying Dutchmen led by nine (34-25) with 2:26 left in the first half, but the Patriots sliced the margin to six points (36-30) when Zach Wysong sank a pair of free throws in the final minute of the first half.

Edgerton scored the first three points of the third quarter before H-BC started an 8-2 run capped by a free throw from Tyler Bush at the 4:58 mark of the period to bring the Patriots within three points (41-38) of the Flying Dutchmen. Edgerton’s lead swelled to seven points later in the period, but Van Wyhe converted a field goal with six seconds left to trim Edgerton’s lead to four points (51-47) heading into the fourth quarter.

Metzger scored a game-high 24 points for H-BC. Wiertzema (17 points and 11 assists) and Van Wyhe (13 points and 10 rebounds) registered double-doubles for H-BC. Bush charted seven assists.

Box score
Bush 1 0 3-4 5, Wysong 0 0 4-4 4, Roozenboom 0 0 1-2 1, Wiertzema 1 4 3-4 17, Metzger 4 5 1-2 24, Leuthold 3 0 0-0 6, Van Wyhe 6 0 1-5 13.

Team statistics
H-BC: 24 of 48 field goals (50 percent), 13 of 21 free throws (62 percent), 21 rebounds, eight turnovers.
Edgerton: 29 of 55 field goals (53 percent), seven of 12 free throws (58 percent), 23 rebounds, nine turnovers.

By Lori Ehde
Convicted meth manufacturer Cory Kelderman, Hills, was sentenced last week in Rock County District Court to nearly six years in prison.

Kelderman, 29, was convicted in January of two counts of conspiracy to manufacture methamphetamine, one count of manufacturing methamphetamine and one count of possessing six grams or more of methamphetamine.

For the most serious offense, Kelderman was ordered to serve 104 months in prison, but one-third of that will be served on supervised release.

If any terms of the release are violated, he will serve the remaining 35 months as well. Supervised release is more stringent than probation in that it requires more frequent contact with a probation officer and more frequent random drug testing.

Kelderman was arrested last summer when officers executed a search warrant in his home July 19.

Local law enforcement worked with Minnehaha County Sheriff’s Department in South Dakota following the arrest of two individuals who purchased large amounts of cold medicine, pseudoephedrine in Sioux Falls.

When questioned on July 18, these individuals said they intended to deliver the supplies, which included screens and funnels, to Kelderman’s home in Hills.

They said that on July 14 they had delivered similar supplies to Kelderman in exchange for meth.

Based on that information, Rock County searched Kelderman’s home the following morning. They found numerous items used to manufacture meth, and in excess of six grams of a substance consistent with the drug.

By Jolene Farley
The Beaver Creek Sportsmen Club is trying to come up with a plan to clean up the Hills Rez.

"We’re just in the planning stages and trying to look at all options," club member Roger Jackson said. "We don’t want to do something, and it doesn’t do anything."

During dry years like the last few years, algae and weeds grow in the pond when water movement slows or stops. The Rez is usually fed by a creek flowing in from north of Hills.

"It was so dry the last few years, we haven’t had any flow through the Rez," he said.

The Sportsmen Club visited Hills City Council meetings last August and again in March to update the council and discuss plans to help the situation.

The group is working with the Lions Club and the City Council to come up with as many ideas as possible.
"We’re just trying to come up with a solution," said Jackson.

The group hoped treating the water with chemicals or purchasing an aerator for the pond would help. But according to Jackson, no one would guarantee an aerator would help the situation.

Jackson said a U.S. Fish and Wildlife representative came to look at the Rez this winter and spent three hours talking at a Sportsmen’s Club meeting about possible options for the Rez.

Now that snow cover is melted, the Rez will be surveyed for slope to see if settling pools could be constructed and maybe grass filtering strips added to slow down and filter the water.

The City Council and the Lions Club support efforts to clean up the Rez, according to council member Keith Elbers.

"I think it’s a valuable asset we’ve got that we’ve neglected," he said at the March meeting.

By Sara Strong
The University of Minnesota Extension Service is among the state-funded agencies anticipating cuts. But the Rock County Board of Commissioners Tuesday said that Extension, with a little restructuring, could stay active and probably not cost the county more.

Local Director Holli Arp and District Director Dave Warner talked about hiring a replacement for the post recently vacated by Educator Fraser Norton.

Now in the office, Arp splits her director duties between Rock County and Pipestone County. Nancy Sandager isn’t an Extension Educator, but works 60 percent time to manage the 4-H program.

Rock County doesn’t have an Extension Educator stationed out of its office, but Arp hopes people remember that the staff that’s there is doing the same amount of work as before, just with different titles and structure.

The local Extension Committee is meeting to discuss the position vacated by Norton and wanted an opinion from the County Board. The Board said it favored holding back on hiring to see how the state budget falls into place.

Warner said he’d prefer to fill Norton’s position, if only temporarily.

Considering that 22 educators are shared among the 14 counties in the Extension region, Commissioner Jane Wildung said an educator should be in Rock County.

Regional educators have areas of specialty and Rock County residents currently have access to all of the educators. But Wildung said, "We need a face in that office."

The University of Minnesota could get $185 million in cuts, so Extension is waiting to see what its share of that could be.

Warner said, "We’re trying to decide what the budget shortfall will mean."

Depending on theories of how the formula will shape up, Extension could lose between $2 million and $5 million.

Warner hopes that when cuts are being made, that they are mostly at the administration and campus levels, rather than county educators.

"You’re going to have to make reductions and Extension could be one of them," Warner told commissioners.

Counties are stepping up payments of their Educator salaries. By 2006, counties will pay 40 percent of the average county agent’s salary. In 2001, the county’s salary payment percentage was 25 percent.

Warner said that Extension will take direction from the state and from counties when deciding how to structure funding and resources.

"If you decide you have to go deeper, that means we have to come up with a different structure and that could be a regional office or cutting services," Warner said.

Extension and its counties are going through the process of signing a memorandum of agreement, which includes the percentage payment of Extension services.

The new agreement also has a provision to cover mileage, meals and lodging, because the regional Extension model causes more travel time.

Hills-Beaver Creek High School students practice for the comedy dinner theater production "The Dullsville Mystery" Tuesday. The students opted for dinner theater this year rather than competing in one-act play competition. Shows are planned for Thursday, April 10, and Friday, April 11, at Drivers Restaurant and Banquet Center at the Beaver Creek golf course. Ben Davis is directing the production.

Photo by Jolene Farley

Hills-Beaver Creek fifth- and sixth-graders participate in the World’s Largest Concert Thursday. Six million kids from around the world listened to or sang the same songs at the same time, scheduled in conjunction with Music in our Schools Month. "Connect With Music" is the theme for Music in our School Month this year. "The thing that I tried to focus on the most was no matter how old you are, no matter what your job, there’s always room for music," H-BC music instructor Jodi Ackerman said. The World’s Largest Concert has been in existence for more than 30 years, but this is the first year H-BC students participated in the event.

Photo by Jolene Farley

Sometimes when I’m working on stories, I wonder if I’m asking the right questions, digging deep enough.
In most cases, I don’t have time to pour over facts and figures; I have to work with what I’m presented. It then goes out in print for readers to consider and come to their own conclusions.

The problem with the most interesting questions is that the answers are hard to come by. And the people who are asked sometimes don’t want to answer.

Here are some examples of questions that have been floating around my head:

Why are public employees so appalled that they might see wage freezes and insurance hikes when the private sector is facing the same thing?'

Why do senior citizens use the catch phrase "I’m on a fixed income" so much? I don’t know any young people who aren’t on a "fixed" income either … and they don’t get discounts.

Why do zoning issues get more attention from the public than any other part of local government?

Why are the people who talk about idyllic memories of Rock County the same ones who left to make their lives elsewhere?

Why is there a light
in the fridge
and not in the freezer?
Some other unimportant, clichéd questions are still out there, too, but I (thankfully) don’t have to address them as part of my job:

Why do toasters always have a setting that burns the toast to a blackened crisp, which no one would eat?

Why do doctors leave the room when you undress if they look under the gown anyway?

Why is it that the people who tell you to calm down are the people who got you upset in the first place?

Why do they call the crop of TV shows without actors "reality TV" when they aren’t about anything that’s real?

Why is the person who handles money called a broker?

Why is there a light in the fridge and not in the freezer?

Published March 13, 2003

Always read the fine print
behind fat pie slices and
and popular patriotic bills
I need to apologize to our Rep. Doug Magnus, who replies in a letter on this page to my March 6 column about Pledge of Allegiance legislation.

My intent wasn’t to imply that he’s not busy. On the contrary, I remember Gov. Pawlenty, during his visit to Luverne, complimenting Magnus as "one of the brightest and most ambitious freshman legislators in the House."

I was glad to hear that, and I respect the work Magnus does in the interest of southwest Minnesota.

That said, I’m sorry he missed the point of my March 6 column.

I tried to be clear that I sincerely believe in the importance of reciting the Pledge of Allegiance in classrooms. As the daughter of a Vietnam veteran, I respect the flag and the hard-earned freedoms it represents, and I want my children to grow up with the same patriotic values.

My point, if I can try to be more clear, is that our local districts already require the Pledge to be recited in their classrooms. We don’t need a law, no matter how popular and appropriate it may seem, to implement what’s already there.

As veterans’ groups and everyone else scramble to endorse the bill, they should pause to read the fine print it carries.

The law would allow districts that don’t want the Pledge policy to opt out of it by a simple majority vote on their school boards. This option already exists for all school boards and school districts.

If we’re trying to change districts not currently requiring the Pledge recital, those voters need only lobby their school board members to change the policy.

No state law is needed.

Magnus can allocate time in his demanding schedule to other more useful bills, like (I’ll say it again) protecting education funding, which he says is safe.

Check the fine print
on education funding
While the pie graph shows the state is spending more money than ever on education, the amount of money schools are receiving, in most cases, is actually decreasing.

I’d invite him to join any school board meeting in southwest Minnesota and tell them their budgets are safe.

The reason for the expanding education slice on the state pie is that lawmakers in the Ventura era shifted school funding from property taxes to state sales and income tax. This shows up as more spending on the state side, because the state assumed the burden our local property tax levy used to.

Because the state now has to pay for that decision, it doesn’t mean schools are seeing more money.

Magnus can go ahead and carry his Pledge bill with no harm (or anything for that matter) done.
The common lesson in this friendly little banter is probably two-fold:

Things are rarely as they appear, and, for that reason
Always read the fine print.
A fat slice on the state budget pie chart doesn’t ensure adequate school funding, and a popular bill requiring the Pledge of Allegiance doesn’t ensure school patriotism.

Published March 20, 2003.

Rock County to have its first wild turkey hunt
This year for the first time, the permit areas open to turkey hunting in Minnesota will include Rock, Murray, Nobles and Pipestone counties.

Although turkeys have been present in southwest Minnesota for many years, the numbers have been small.

Rock County is listed by the DNR as one of the counties in Minnesota having a population of turkeys back in the early 1900s.

The first efforts to restock Minnesota with wild turkeys started in 1973, when a Minnesota biologist traded some ruffed grouse to Missouri in exchange for wild-captured juvenile and adult turkeys.

Houston County, in southeast Minnesota, now bills itself as the ‘Turkey Capital of Minnesota.’

In recent years, the state has been trapping birds in Houston County and transplanting them in locations across the state, that are deemed to have acceptable habitat, which is a mix of agricultural land and forest, for sustaining wild turkeys. Two of those location efforts are Murray and Rock counties.

In the winter of 1999, 21 birds were released on the Rock River WMA, as well as 21 in Murray County.

According to Dick Kimmel, DNR Turkey Biologist, the turkey populations have been growing slowly, but steadily.

Since this is the first season in Rock County, success rates may be generally high, as the birds will not be conditioned to hearing calls, seeing decoys and basically being hunted.

There is only one registration station per county. In Rock County, that station is Harvey’s Trading Post.

Any birds from the original release in 1999 will have a metal band on their leg or a tag on their wing.

If one of these birds are shot, hunters should contact the DNR because valuable information collected can help researchers learn more about wild turkeys in Minnesota.

‘Sale of the decade’
At a sale the state bills as the ‘sale of the decade,’ the State of Minnesota will be selling unclaimed property.

Once every 10 years, the Minnesota Commerce Department is required by law to sell the contents of safe deposit boxes that have been remitted to the state’s unclaimed property program.

From 1992 to 2000, approximately 5,500 safe deposit boxes were declared abandoned and turned over to the state.

There will be a total of 919 items sold at the auction, with jewelry alone valued at approximately $98,000.

Some of the unique items to be sold include:
Baseball from a 1931 Japan Exhibition Tour autographed by 14 major leaguers.
Rare U.S. coins, including a 1795 1/2 dime.
1866 discharge papers signed by President Andrew Johnson.

The auction will be Saturday, March 22, at the Lumber Baron Hotel in Stillwater. The sale will begin at 8:30 a.m.

If you are unable to attend, a new online option will also be available this year.

Online bids are now being accepted for all the auction items. In addition, bidders will also have the opportunity to bid against bidders located on the auction house floor.

The exact bidding activity will be posted on a web site following the auctioneer’s bid and call.

If you would like to view all the items and register for the online portion of the auction, follow the link on the Department of Commerce Web site: www.commerce.state.mn.us.

Internet bidders must register at least two days in advance of the auction.

Spring weight restrictions, now in effect
As of midnight, last Saturday, March 15, weight restrictions were put into effect by the Minnesota Department of Transportation.

The maximum duration for spring weight restrictions will not exceed eight weeks unless extraordinary conditions exist that require additional time or route specific signage is posted, according to MnDOT.

Because the soils and aggregate materials are weak while the frost leaves the ground, spring is a critical period for roads.

Through a pavement research facility, the state was able to predict when weakening will occur using air temperatures currently recorded and forecasted for most of Minnesota.

The procedure uses a thawing index and a three-day forecast.

More information is available on their Web site: www.mrr.dot.state.mn.us

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