By Sara Strong
Proposed state budget cuts are all about the bottom line, getting the numbers to make sense.

Now the people behind the numbers are scrambling to defend their jobs and programs from joining the list of cuts.

Raevette Loonan, director of the Southwest Crisis Center in Luverne, is one of them — facing up to a 57 percent cut.

Loonan is stationed out of a small office on McKenzie Street. She serves in many capacities to help victims of domestic and sexual abuse — as a medical and legal advocate, general reference source, finder of safe housing and sometimes even as a taxi service.

Besides helping 61 people who were victims of some sort of abuse last year, Loonan conducts educational programs that she hopes prevent violence in the future.

She presented the programs to 978 people last year, including high school and community or church groups.

"We work to understand how to help victims," Loonan said.

She said it takes an average of seven times before a victim leaves an abusive partner for good.

Leaving for good takes courage, not just because of fear of the aggressor, Loonan said. Financial or family ties can be strong reasons to stay in a place that isn’t safe.

That’s why her referral service is necessary. People sometimes feel comfortable going to Loonan before seeking help from law enforcement. She can make them comfortable within a system that can be intimidating.

"If you don’t know that Family Services has an emergency fund or if you don’t know that you can file a protective order, it’s more difficult," Loonan said.

Law enforcement helps Loonan make initial contacts. When they’re called to domestic situations, officers give victims a card with local contacts for help. Loonan is one of them.

"Law enforcement and I can be a real complement to each other," Loonan said.

One of the ways Loonan might be able to save some of her office expenses, is to move to a vacant room in the Family Services building. Her current location costs less than $200 rent, plus utilities.

She sees her work as having long-term effects in the community: protecting victims before their aggressors end up in the court system; protecting children in homes where abuse occurs, and ensuring that victims stay productive members of society, not missing work or avoiding social connections.

In Minnesota last year, 16 people were killed as the result of domestic violence. Loonan asks that the state consider what that number could grow to if Crisis Center services were cut.

By Jolene Farley
Curt and Melissa Bly, Hills, hit the $100,000 jackpot in a Saturday, Feb. 22, Powerball lottery drawing.

Curt was unaware he held a winning ticket until he stopped to purchase a soda after work at Food n’ Fuel on Russell Street and Kiwanis Avenue in Sioux Falls, and asked the clerk to check his Powerball ticket.

"I asked them to run my ticket through and he (the clerk) said, ‘I think you won.’ It was a shocker," Bly said. "I just said, you’ve got to be kidding me…"

Curt said his wife didn’t believe him when he called and told her he would be late because officials had to verify his ticket.

"She thought I got in an accident," he said. She was relieved when she found out it was a lottery ticket, not a traffic ticket her husband was verifying.

Bly said he purchases about three Powerball tickets a month, usually at the Food n’ Fuel.

Unaware that he had a winner, Bly left his ticket in his car all weekend long and never checked the news or newspapers for the winning numbers.

The couple collected their winnings, $73,000 after taxes, on Tuesday, Feb. 25
"We’re just going to invest it," Curt said.

The Blys hope the money will grow into a nice education fund for their two children, Houston, 4, and Regan, 1.

Melissa (Bush) works as a bookkeeper at the Tuff Memorial Home, Hills, and Curt works as a sorter at UPS, Sioux Falls, S.D.

Hills-Beaver Creek Superintendent Dave Deragisch leads a public forum in Hills Monday night in which roughly 30 showed up to learn more about the proposed high school locker room project.

By Jolene Farley
About 30 people attended a public forum and open house Monday for the locker room project at Hills-Beaver Creek High School. Some stayed for the forum, others left after touring the facility.

Voters will visit the polls Tuesday, March 11, to decide on the proposed $400,000 levy needed for the project.

At the forum, Superintendent Dave Deragisch presented the information to the crowd. He started with a history of the construction project, including the results of a 2000 survey in which 87 percent of respondents said the current locker rooms are inadequate.

"One of the things that had the most glaring deficiency in our school was our locker rooms," he said.

He talked of handicap accessibility problems with the current locker rooms including the stairs to the locker room, the shower stalls and the restrooms.

Deragisch also said the Minnesota Health and Safety Department requires air to be circulated throughout the locker rooms.

It would be difficult to meet these requirements without spending a sizable amount of money on a new HVAC system.

Another survey, sent out in December 2002, came back with 65 percent of respondents interested in the locker room project at a cost of $400,000.

Deragisch reiterated the proposed addition meets minimal Minnesota Department of Education requirements for new construction.

Minimum requirements include 1,500 square feet for each locker room with a 200-square-foot coach’s room available for each locker room and a 6-foot-wide hallway.

Location and materials
The addition would be located southeast of the high school gymnasium. The addition would be five feet from the fence line on the east side of the property and five feet from the sidewalk on the south side of the property.

The tennis court, the fencing around the tennis court, and some of the perimeter trees would have to be removed.

The building committee is leaning toward pre-cast concrete walls with sealed concrete floors. Interior walls would be constructed of cement block.

History of property taxes
Since 2001, the school portion of property taxes has been reduced. A $50,000 house in 2001 had an actual tax of $206. This same $50,000 market value home has a $112 tax for 2003.

A $600,000 market value homestead farm had an actual tax of $1,987 in 2001, while the same farm has an estimated tax of $651 for 2003.

Non-homestead land had a school property tax of $11.02 for an acre of land worth $2,000. This same parcel of land has an estimated tax of $3.65 an acre for 2003.

Deragisch also reiterated the fact that the board thinks it is wise to meet the minimum Department of Education requirements now instead of spending money in the near future to bring the locker rooms up to code when a new high school is built.

Question and
answer session
Deragisch opened up the meeting for questions from the audience.

Board member Ann Boeve told of an unofficial survey taken by Coach Tom Goehle of visiting girls’ basketball coaches. Goehle discovered only two teams in two years used the locker rooms.

"They go down and they put their sweats on and they go home," Boeve said.

The audience was curious when construction would start and end if the bond issue passed. Deragisch told them it would likely start in June and be completed six months after the start date. He said he would encourage an earlier start date if possible.

A resident asked about the length of the bond, which is 17 years. Deragisch said he wanted to keep costs under control for the district since residents are still paying on the elementary school.

Deragisch said if the project comes in under budget, the extra funds could be used for new bleachers or lighting in the high school gym.

Former Hills City Council member Wendell Bengtson asked if the school was still looking for some funding from the city for the weight room portion of the project.

Deragisch said he hopes the Hills City Council, school groups and some private businesses can contribute toward the equipment needed for the fitness center.

"I’m hoping to get it done without any use of school money," he said.

When asked if the fitness center would be open to the public, he said he hoped the school board would agree to that.

School Board Chairman Alan Harnack thanked everyone for attending the forum. "Don’t ever question … whatever we do it’s for what’s best for the kids," he said.

By Jolene Farley
Hills-Beaver Creek seventh-grader Aleesa Arends, daughter of Don and Michele Arends, Hills, has been accepted into the People to People World Leadership forum.

Arends will join a select group of students in Washington, D.C., from March 31 through April 6 to earn school credit while exploring some of the nation’s most prominent monuments and institutions.

The students will delve into American leadership during times of national challenge and prosperity.
Delegates will participate in small-group discussions and exercises to determine how successful leaders develop strategies, make decisions, build consensus and foster change.

Arends was nominated for the program based on outstanding scholastic merit, civic involvement and leadership potential.

People to People Ambassador Programs, founded in 1956 by Dwight D. Eisenhower, are intended to foster world citizenship.

Six Hills-Beaver Creek students, out of 23 who entered, received purple ribbons for their science fair projects at the Regional Science and Engineering Fair Saturday, Feb. 22, at Minnesota State University, Mankato. Alex Kirchner (left), Kilee Baker, Stacy Bush, Kerri Fransman, Jessica Penning and (not pictured) Justin Hinks advance to the State Science Fair in Duluth April 11-13.

Photo by Jolene Farley

There are times to laugh, and then there are
times to laugh demonically

It’s interesting how people react differently when emotions rise. Some people cry at weddings and some star-struck fans faint during concerts.

I realized this weekend that my trademark reaction is laughter, because it was probably inappropriate to cackle after driving over my husband’s luggage. Twice.

I should have known that I’d be "a laugher" under certain conditions. After all, I’m almost famous for being the hysterical acolyte who laughed through a church service when the pastor read the word "circumcise" from a Bible verse.

But, back to Friday’s incident: We were carrying our bags out to the car for a weekend trip. My husband set his suitcase (filled with about a dozen CDs, a couple books and his toiletries) on the back of the car to later put in the trunk.

He then went back in the house to make a last minute phone call. I thought I’d be considerate and turn the car around for a faster getaway out of the driveway, so I got behind the wheel and put the car in reverse.

I felt a little bump as I rolled the wheels backward. I thought I might have hit a piece of ice or snow that fell from the wheel well or something innocent like that.

So, I drove forward again and then gave my Dodge Stratus all it had in reverse. As I got to the other end of the driveway, I looked up at a suitcase, a stocking cap and a music stand that were a lot flatter and scuffed looking than they should have been.

I instinctively glanced around the neighborhood to check for crime witnesses. For a split second, I thought I should keep driving to avoid admitting that I drove over everything my husband needed for the weekend — necessary things like aftershave and eye glasses.

I ran to the bag and looked inside to see complete destruction. The bag had even ripped in a few places because I turned the wheel as I drove it over the luggage.

The "maybe he won’t notice" idea came to mind, and I walked back to the car. I wondered how I could manage to pretend nothing happened … and then I started to giggle.

I saw the humor in the whole moment about the time he walked outside toward the car. When I saw the mixture of horror and confusion on his face, I laughed even harder.

He came closer to the car and my laughter rose to a demonic pitch as I clutched my sides and slapped the steering wheel.

He saw me laughing and assumed I was enjoying myself, which I really wasn’t, despite the laughter. He rifled through the bag still on the driveway, mumbling something about Clara Harris (the woman who was just convicted of murder after running over her husband three times).

His glasses were split in half. He glared at me across the driveway — him in a pile of despair and me, laughing behind the wheel — and held up one lens from his glasses as a signal of the damage I caused.

It all reminded me of the scene from "A Christmas Story" when the leggy lamp that was a "major award" gets broken.

All my husband could do was join me in the car and say, "You emulsified my CDs."

The rest of the weekend was lovely, and I kept the laughter to myself as much as possible when he brushed his teeth with a little stump of a toothbrush and opened a U-shaped hard-cover book to read.

Another pointless
Pledge bill?
Gimme a break

I see our House Republicans are busy making themselves busy again.

In the true spirit of reinventing the wheel, our Rep. Doug Magnus has authored a bill that would require all students to recite the Pledge of Allegiance in the classroom at least once a week.

Reciting the Pledge in the classroom is a time-honored tradition that teaches students patriotism to their country. I feel it’s an important ritual that should be continued for centuries to come.

Children need to understand the importance of honoring the flag and the freedoms it represents — freedom that was fought for by men and women who paid for it with their lives.

But it shouldn’t have to be mandated by law.

There are countless classroom traditions I feel strongly about, but I wouldn’t introduce legislation requiring schools to offer kindergarten naps or milk breaks. There are some things we should simply trust our local school boards and teachers to implement out of common sense.

I realize there are some Minnesota schools (obviously lacking this common sense) that have banned the Pledge of Allegiance due to its reference to God.

But this law wouldn’t change the rules in these districts anyway.

The proposed legislation permits schools to opt out of the pledge requirement with a simple majority vote of the local school board. It would also allow any student who objects to participating in the Pledge to be excused without penalty.

On the flip side, families in districts where the Pledge is banned need only lobby their school board members to get the rule changed.

These options at the local level already exist.

Our representatives in St. Paul don’t need to waste their time micromanaging classroom activities.

Rerun of a rerun
If this column sounds like a rerun, that’s because it is.

But so is the bill. And it doesn’t make any more sense now than it did when it was introduced last year at this time.

It’s the sort of happy, feel-good legislation that lawmakers fall all over themselves to sign on to. I just hope our new governor sees through the popularity contest that our former governor saw when he vetoed it last time around.

Our representatives need to get the message that we want them working on practical legislation that will actually help us, not on re-introducing failed bills that serve only to improve their political reputations.

If patriotism is truly the goal, I would call on our lawmakers to work instead on protecting education funding so that students can continue receiving adequate instruction on, say, the history of our great nation.

Glen sets March 17 as opening day
March 17th, St. Patrick’s Day, will mark the opening of the new Glen’s Food Center.

According to owner, Glen Gust, the move to the former Jubilee store will take place after his current location closes on Sunday, March 16, and will reopen the next morning at the new facility.

Although the former Jubilee store is only a couple of years old, a lot of work still had to be done.

The biggest project was remodeling the deli and adding a bakery to the location.

When the facility was a Jubilee, most of the baked products were baked off-site and brought in. All bakery items will now be baked on site when the remodeling is completed.

One other physical change will be the addition of a new entrance directly into the deli.

According to Gust, the additional entrance will add convenience for the deli customers as well as freeing up parking space for grocery customers near the main entrance.

Other changes made over issues included restocking the store so items will be on the same shelves as they were in the former Glen’s location, adding all signage and repainting the store to the Affiliated colors.

Along with expanding from approximately 20,000 to 30,000 square feet, Glen’s shoppers will also appreciate the larger and more convenient parking lot the new store will have.

Will there be a 21st St. Patty’s Day Parade?
That depends on you.

Twenty years ago, Don Cashin decided Luverne needed a celebration to get spring off to a good start, and what better way to celebrate his Irish heritage, than to have a St. Patrick’s Day Parade.

Since then, floats and cars with dignitaries have paraded down Main Street on March 17, usually taking a second loop, just for good measure.

Of course, the celebrating didn’t end there. The local dining and drinking establishments would see to that.

Last year may truly have been the last year. First Farmer’s and Merchants Bank sponsored the event up until last year, when the Chamber took the reins.

This year, unless some volunteers step forward, the 20-year tradition will come to an end.

If any individual, or possibly a corporate sponsor, would like to try their hand at it, now is the time to step forward.

Volunteers should contact the Luverne Chamber Commerce.

Esselink profiled in Star Tribune
Hills native and standout basketball player, Steve Esselink, was featured in Saturday edition of the Minneapolis Star Tribune.

Esselink, who transferred to the University of Minnesota from Augustana, was originally described as a one-trick pony, that of a gunner, or three point shooter.

Recently, however, what was considered to be his weak spot, his defensive skills, have seen some noticeable improvement.

The 6-6 junior is grabbing rebounds and coming up with loose balls, according to his coaches.

Along with his improved defensive skills, his playing time is also increasing.

In a recent game against Michigan State, he played a career high of 25 minutes. He also scored 11 points and grabbed six rebounds in the game.

On the negative side of this season, Esselink was sidelined for two games when he broke his left pinky on Jan. 15 at Wisconsin.

ARC holds annual rose sale
ARC is holding their annual rose sale during the month of March, in recognition of National Mental Retardation and Related Disabilities Month.

According to ARC, tables will be set up at Pizza Ranch, Glen’s and Pamida, or by calling 283-8769.

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

Lee Brickson, 81, Luverne, died Monday, March 3, 2003, at the Hospice Cottage in Luverne.

A memorial service was Wednesday, March 5, at Dingmann Funeral Home in Luverne.

Lee Miniard was born to James and Maggie (Sturgill) Miniard on Dec. 15, 1921, in Harlan, Ky.

She married William Brickson and lived in Adrian. After the couple divorced, she moved to Luverne. She worked at Luverne Style Shop for many years.

Survivors include one son, James Brickson; one daughter, Meg Amundson; six grandchildren and 13 great-grandchildren.

Mrs. Brickson was preceded in death by three daughters, Cynthia, Karen and Beth.

A tree will be planted in memory of Lee Brickson by Hospice of Luverne Community Hospital.

Dingmann Funeral Home was in charge of arrangements.