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

Donald D. “Don” Soehl, 68, Hills, died Tuesday, March 11, 2003, at Luverne Community Hospital of a lingering illness.

Services were Friday, March 14, at First Presbyterian Church in Luverne. Burial was in Pleasant View Cemetery, rural Beaver Creek.

Donald Soehl was born to Elmer and Bena (Klosterbuer) Soehl on Nov. 1, 1934, at the home place near Beaver Creek. He received his education in country schools and graduated from Hills High School in 1953. He entered the U.S. Army on Nov. 16, 1954, and was discharged on Nov. 15, 1956.

He married Barbara Morris on Nov. 30, 1957. He worked for John Morrell and Co. in Sioux Falls, S.D., and also farmed.

He later married Marie (Kerkhove) Van Wyhe on Oct. 17, 1981.

Mr. Soehl was a member of First Presbyterian Church in Beaver Creek where he served as an elder and on other committees. He was a member of American Legion Post 131 of Valley Springs, S.D.

Survivors include his wife, Marie Soehl, Hills; three sons, Doug Soehl, Port Townsend, Wash., Curt (Tammi) Soehl, Sioux Falls, and Brian (Darlene) Soehl, Lewiston, Maine; two daughters, Amy (Ty) Soehl, Poulso, Wash., and Jo (Denny) Erickson, Sioux Falls; 10 grandchildren, Erin, Paul, Alison, Matt, Amanda, Elizabeth, Emma, Neil, Heidi and Anne; three brothers, Elden (Karen) Soehl, Hills, Glenn (Diane) Soehl, Albany, Ore., and Howard (Linda) Soehl, Howell, Mich.; two sisters, Lorretta Soehl, Medford, Ore., Delores (John) Wiemals, Othello, Wash., and many nieces and nephews.

Mr. Soehl was preceded in death by his parents.

Roste Funeral Home, Hills, was in charge of arrangements.

Ducille Patton, 86, Rock Rapids, Iowa, formerly of Luverne, died Sunday, March 16, 2003, at Merrill Pioneer Community Hospital in Rock Rapids.

Services were Wednesday, March 19, at United Methodist Church in Rock Rapids. The Rev. Deborah Stowers officiated. Burial was in Riverview Cemetery.

Ducille Elaine Lewis was born to Ben and Ethel (Tatge) Lewis on Nov. 29, 1916, in Larchwood, Iowa. She moved with her family as a young girl to Magnolia. She grew up in Luverne and graduated from Luverne High School in 1936.

She married Kenneth Patton on June 2, 1936, at First Methodist Church parsonage in Sioux Falls, S.D. Following their marriage, they lived for short time on Robert’s Turkey Farm near Luverne before moving to Rock Rapids. While living in Rock Rapids, she worked as the cleaning person at the Rapids Theater before becoming a clerk at Red Owl grocery store. They purchased the Home Plate Café’ in the early 1950s. She began working as a clerk with the J.C. Penney Store in Rock Rapids in 1960, working there until she retired. Mr. Patton died on Feb. 3, 1992. She was a resident of Rock Rapids Health Center.

Mrs. Patton was an active member of United Methodist Church, the UMW and the quilter’s group. She was a great cook and also played the piano.

Survivors include two sons, Bob Patton, Lincoln, Neb., and Don (Nancy) Patton, Hardwick; five grandchildren, Ron Patton, Sioux Falls, Dan Patton, San Antonio, Texas, Kim (Mike) Null, O’Fallon, Mo., Bobbie Patton, Chaska, and Dustin Patton, Denver, Colo.; and eight great-grandchildren.

Mrs. Patton was preceded in death by her parents, her husband, Ken, and a great-grandson, Lawrence Null.

Roste Funeral Home, Rock Rapids, was in charge of arrangements.

Norma Meyer, 87, Luverne, died Monday, March 10 at the Minnesota Veterans Home, Luverne. Memorial mass will be Thursday, March 13 at 3:30 p.m. at St. Catherine Catholic Church, Luverne, with Fr. Andrew Beerman officiating. Burial of cremains will be in st. Catherine's Cemetery. Dingmann Funeral Home & Cremation Services, Luverne, is in charge of arrangements.