Katie Baustian (center) with the Rock County Food Shelf led a tour of the new facility on Maple Street in Luverne for the Rock County Commissioners Sept. 21. Baustian explains the ease in which the new facility allows food to be stored on racks for easy inventory and the 24-hour drop-off of items. The added freezer and refrigeration capabilities allows the Shelf to distribute food items volunteers were unable to distribute until the facility moved to the new location. Pictured (from left) are commissioners Gary Overgaard, Sherri Thompson, Stan Williamson, Jody Reisch, Greg Burger (hidden) and County Ddministrator Kyle Oldre.

Public health officials are warning community members that COVID-19 case numbers are on the rise in Rock County, and that masking and vaccination are recommended.
The Luverne School District’s Incident Command Team hasn’t met since the School Board opted out of the mask mandate in response to parent and community pressure.
However, Jason Kloss of Southwest Health and Human Services is urging people to take precautions.
“We are seeing increasing spread in our communities,” he said.
“This will certainly contribute to an increase in cases for schools and an increase in individuals that are close contacts and recommended to quarantine.”
He said the 14-day case rate in Rock County is about 70, which means the local test positivity rate is high as well. 
Sanford Luverne this week will offer two vaccine clinics offering the Pfizer booster shot and third dose for those who meet criteria to receive it.
The clinics will be Thursday, Oct. 7 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. and on Friday, Oct. 8, from 8 a.m.to 12:30 p.m. 
Appointments can be scheduled through Sanford Luverne Clinic, 507-283-4476.
Lewis Family Drug in Luverne is offering walk-in Pfizer shots from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Monday through Friday.
Covid testing is available at Sanford Luverne.
Patients are told to call ahead, and if symptomatic a nurse will call for more information and instructions on whether to be seen.
If asymptomatic, people are instructed to wait five to seven days after exposure prior to getting a test.
All testing is done in the ambulance garage at the Sanford Luverne campus at 10 a.m. with 2 p.m. times as necessary.
This is not a rapid test, so it takes 24 to 48 hours for results.

Hills-Beaver Creek School District will collect less money from property taxes from district residents in 2022 after local school board members adopted the maximum levy amount allowed by the state at their Sept. 27 meeting.
Overall, the H-BC levy will drop 2.61 percent or $35,726 in 2022 if board members accept the maximum levy amount in December.
Locally property owners will contribute $1.33 million to the district’s $4.8 million 2021-22 budget.
Superintendent Todd Holthaus explained the decrease in the levy is due to the district’s refinancing of debt, which saved $9,919 in 2022.
The local levy in 2022 will contribute $660,759 to the general fund, a decrease of $26,650 or 3.88 percent. The community service fund will see a $842 increase (2.56 percent) in 2022.
A public Truth in Taxation and budget hearing is scheduled for 8 p.m. Monday, Dec. 13.
 
Enrollment is down
Student enrollment is down at H-BC elementary and secondary schools for the 2021-22 school year.
Superintendent Holthaus said the decrease of 20 students from last year to 360 this school year was expected.
“We knew our numbers would be down because of the ins and outs,” he said.
The district had 33 seniors graduate in the spring of 2021 and 19 kindergarten students started this fall.
 
Teachers’ contracts signed
The Hills-Beaver Creek teachers union and the H-BC School Board recently signed a new two-year contract that increases the licensed staff salaries.
For 2021-22, teachers will receive an average increase of 3.5 percent or $1,850. They will also receive an additional $325 toward health insurance.
For the second year of the contract, 2022-2023, each teacher will receive a flat $1,500 increase and another $325 toward health insurance.
Board chairman and personnel committee members Arlyn Gehrke and Tami Rauk told board members that an additional personal day was added to the teachers’ contracts.
Personal days increased from two per school year to three. If not used, personal days can also be rolled to the following school year or cashed in for $175.
Rauk added the rollover of personal days is limited to four in one year.

Hills-Beaver Creek School Board members recently signed an agreement with a construction management company to guide them through possible improvements to the district’s facilities.
The pre-plan process from Preston Euerle of R.A. Morton & Associates of St. Cloud will be at no charge to the district.
“The fees for providing pre-referendum facility planning are ‘at risk/no charge’ until the referendum is successful or the board decides not to go to a referendum,” Euerle wrote in the proposal.
“Upon a successful bond referendum, we would apply the base fee toward the project budget and invoice for the (pre-) referendum service.”
Cost is $10,000.
Any potential bond referendum vote would take place in 2022.
Meanwhile, Euerle will review the recently completed facility assessments of the elementary and high school buildings and the Hugo Goehle gymnasium.
He will develop a plan/budget to present to board members this fall.
 
$7.5 million in facility upgrades identified
Late last year, H-BC school officials reviewed a list of recommended facility upgrades, completed by ICS Builds of Sioux Falls.
Nearly $7.5 million worth of improvements are recommended over the next 10 years.
The firm assessed various components inside and outside of the elementary school in Beaver Creek, the secondary school in Hills, the bus garages, the Hugo
Goehle gymnasium and the former high school no longer in use.
School officials have identified the Top 10 projects that could be completed from 2022 to 2032.
Euerle will assist in identifying projects, costs and how the improvements can be funded. The district levies roughly $150,000 annually for facility maintenance and upgrades.
The elementary school needs the most attention, according to the ICS Builds report.
The boiler system is inefficient and contributes to the district’s high energy costs. At 24 years old, the boiler system is several years beyond the recommended median life of 15 years.
Improvements to the Goehle gymnasium were estimated at $1 million.
 
Euerle: Community input a must
Community input is part of the district’s plan, as discussed with Euerle at a recent meeting with the district’s buildings and grounds committee.
“We want to study it first, then get the proposal out there and everyone will have their say,” said board member Ethan Rozeboom.
A community building committee will be organized this fall to consider Euerle’s recommendations and bring forward a possible bond referendum to the board next year.

This week is National Newspaper Week and it’s a good time to consider why the Star Herald is worth the price of a subscription.
•We are the only news outlet that covers your school boards, city councils and Rock County Board of Commissioners.
These elected officials, dear readers, are the ones who spend your tax dollars and take action on building projects, commercial development and other matters that could affect you. Protesting a project after the cement is poured is too late. Follow your local news to stay informed along the way.
•We are the only news outlet that publishes school honor rolls, weekly high school sports contests and student artistic and academic accomplishments.
We carry news about you that you can’t find anywhere else. Why? Because it’s our job.
Occasional social media posts about local happenings are entertaining and informative, but they can’t be relied on for accuracy and consistency that professional local journalists are committed to providing.
Choose to get free “news” elsewhere? Good luck finding something substantial about something in your community.
We are your newspaper. We are your newspeople. Rock County news is what we do. It’s our job; the Star Herald isn’t a side gig that we swing on a laptop between other work.
We record the news and capture the flavor and personality of your community in a way no other news or social media outlet does.
Just ask researchers at the Rock County History Center how important the local newspaper has been in recording the history of our local towns.
In honor of National Newspaper Week, we encourage our readers to become more mindful about their “information diet,” which includes their local paper and legitimate state and national news outlets.
According to the Minnesota Newspaper Association, a lot of us are living on nutrition-free “news” that might satisfy our biases but it’s not the balanced diet we need in order to be informed citizens to participate in democracies.
Here are some ways MNA suggests we can recognize real news sites online:
•Do they sometimes make you a bit uncomfortable by raising doubts about what you thought to be true?
•Do they make it easy for you to reach a real human being if you have a question or a complaint?
•Do they correct mistakes?
•Do they ask you to subscribe? Gathering facts costs money.
For Newspaper Week this week, we at the Star Herald are grateful for your readership, and we encourage you to enrich your information diet with other trusted news sources.
An investment in a free press supports our American democracy and is therefore worth the cost of a subscription.
Call 507-283-2333 or email editor@star-herald.com to subscribe. Or, our website makes it easy to click and subscribe. See www.star-herald.com.

It’s time to organize my Star Herald plans for 2022.
I know this because our month-at-a-glance, 14-month spiral-bound 2022 calendar planners were distributed this week at the office.
Did I prefer a teal- or raspberry-colored plastic cover? I didn’t care. My planner is propped open on my desk so the cover is never visible.
“Pick one.”
I chose raspberry, but it looked more like cranberry. Not that I cared.
I’m caring less about annual planners as Siri is doing a better job of organizing my life.
“Siri, remind me of my City Council meeting at 5 p.m. Tuesday.” She replies, “Okay. I’ll remind you.”
She doesn’t need to look up a phone number in a Rolodex, which is collecting dust next to my landline telephone.
“Siri, call the mayor.” She calls him. “Siri, text Mavis.” “What would like to say in your text?” I tell her. She reads it back. “Would you like me to send this?” I tell her to “send.”
But Siri is only as good as her human, who sometimes doesn’t specify a.m. or p.m. and sometimes doesn’t enunciate well. “Call Matt S” often sounds like “Matus” (as in Todd Matus).
And I still supplement my digital planner with the paper and pencil one, if for no other reason than nostalgia.
In the front is a section, “This is the personal property of …” with blanks to fill in a name, address, home phone and business phone (no cell phone).
The good student in me feels compelled to fill in these blanks to get credit for the assignment.
The cranberry planner has plain sheets of lined paper for “notes,” and several pages to record contacts … names, addresses, email addresses, websites and, of course, fax numbers.
There’s a section to fill in my emergency contact and medical information, including my blood type. Because you never know when you’ll have to present your cranberry planner in an emergency.
Of course, Siri has this all in my iPhone filed under ICE (in case of emergency).
The 2022 cranberry-colored planner also has metric conversions for distance, capacity, weight, area, volume and temperature.
Did you know that one liquid barrel is equal to 158.980 liters?
I didn’t, but if I needed to know, I would ask Siri.
In defense of my cranberry planner, Siri doesn’t smell like fresh ink and paper. And she doesn’t require a No. 2 pencil sharpened with a 1950s wall-mounted sharpener and an eraser (because plans can change).
Old habits die hard.
If only my paper cranberry planner would generate an alarm when it’s time to go to an appointment or meet a special deadline.
Happy planning, dear readers. 2022 is just around the corner.

You may not have noticed it, but last week hell froze over, a cow jumped over the moon, and Mary and I won a golf tournament.
The chances of hell freezing over and a cow jumping over the moon are more probable than Mary and I taking home the championship trophy in a couples’ golf tournament.
The tournament field is comprised of just four couples, and I believe this is the ninth year the four couples have gotten together for a mixed doubles scramble.
The group ages are about the same, ranging from 62 to 68. Our golfing skills range is a little farther apart. Some in the group are fair golfers, and others are … let’s just say, non-contenders. Mary and I are the latter.
We have never really come close to winning the traveling trophy. That is, until this year. For whatever the reasons, the golf gods shined their ever-loving light on us the day of the tournament.
The only way to explain Mary’s 20-foot birdie putt on Hole 7 was divine intervention. Keep in mind it was Hole 7, and she still was asking me which club is the putter.
To say Mary dislikes golf would be an understatement. So, for her to join me on the golf cart tells you just how much she loves me.
I’ll spare you the hole-by-hole account of our glorious triumphant victory, but I will tell you we won by four strokes. Mary and I carded a 38 on the nine-hole course.
All kidding aside, we may have won our little four couples golf outing, but the real victory is that we gathered for the outing at all.
We’re four couples who have been friends for years and now live hours apart, but we don’t let that stop us from finding a weekend we can all get together for a little golf, catching up with each other’s lives.
And this year, Mary and I get to put our names on the traveling trophy.

Dispatch report
Sept. 24
•Complainant wished to report suspicious activity.
•Property was found at location on 161st Street, Luverne.
•Bike was found at location on N. Kniss Avenue.
•A driving complaint was filed northbound on Highway 75, near Sanford.
•A burglary was reported on E. Lincoln Street.
Sept. 25
•Complainant on Fassett Drive reported suspicious activity.
•A parking issue was reported at location on N. Kniss Avenue.
•A parking issue was reported on E. Main Street.
•Complainant in Savannah, Georgia, reported a missing person was found.
•Debris was in the roadway at location on S. Kniss Avenue.
•Complainant on N. Freeman Avenue reported strange lights.
Sept. 26
•Complainant on W. Mead Court reported a stolen vehicle.
•Property was found in Luverne.
•Complainant south of Interstate 90, east of County Road 3, reported a subject threatened him and tried to fistfight him.
•Complainant on W. Warren Street and Sunshine Avenue reported an abandoned vehicle.
•Lyon County reported a trespasser or possible burglary near the Iowa State line on 11th Street.
•Complainant on S. Walnut Avenue, Luverne, reported a suspicious noise.
Sept. 27
•Complainant on 90th Avenue, Steen, requested VIN verification for sale of vehicle.
•Complainant on 100th Avenue, Luverne, reported subject with a warrant.
•Complainant on S. Water Avenue, Hills, requested to speak to a deputy about neighborhood dispute/property damage.
Sept. 28
•A power outage was reported.
•Complainant on U.S. Highway 75 and County Road 7, Hardwick, reported tractors pulling equipment with no flashers on.
•A citizen’s complaint was filed on Barck Avenue and Cedar Street.
•Complainant on Walnut Avenue reported suspicious activity.
•Complainant on S. Kniss Avenue had questions about trespassing.
•Complainant on 170th Avenue, Ellsworth, reported a fire at location.
•Complainant on Highway 75, mile marker 13, Luverne, reported debris on the road.
•Complainant on S. Church Avenue, Hills, reported theft.
Sept. 29
•Trespassing issue was reported on N. Kniss Avenue.
•Complainant on E. Veterans Drive reported an abandoned vehicle.
•Complainant on W. Mead Court reported a scam call.
•Assistance from another department was conducted on Highway 75, south of Luverne.
Sept. 30
•Complainant on County Road 4, westbound from Magnolia, reported vehicle for driving conduct.
•Assistance from another department was conducted on W. Main Street.
•Complainant on S. Third Street, Beaver Creek, reported a death.
•Complainant eastbound on Interstate 90, mile marker 19, Luverne, reported a hazard.
•Complainant in an unknown location reported theft.
•Complainant on S. Church Avenue, Hills, reported a suspicious item on property.
•Complainant on N. Kniss Avenue reported suspicious activity.
Oct. 1
•Complainant on corner of Main Street and S. West Park Street reported suspicious activity.
•Complainant on S. Donaldson Street reported a possible missing person.
•Complainant reported a harassing communication.
•Complainant on Edgehill Street reported dumped trash at location.
•Complainant on S. Kniss Avenue reported subject will not delete picture of her.
In addition, officers responded to 4 motor vehicle accidents, 1 escort, 15 ambulance runs, 2 paper services, 6 animal complaints, 1 fingerprint request, 6 burn permits, 2 vehicle impounds, 2 background checks, 4 alarms, 5 purchase and carry permits, 5 traffic stops, 8 abandoned 911 calls, 2 tests, 1 welfare check and 1 follow-up.

Card Shower
Robert and Sharon Zinnel are celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary Friday, Oct. 8. Greetings may be sent to them at 1608 Blue Ridge Drive, Luverne, MN 56156.