Bonnie Johannsen, 57, Luverne, died Thursday, Jan. 9 at Luverne Hospice Cottage. Visitation will be Friday, Jan. 10 from 2 to 8 p.m. with the family present from 6 to 8 p.m. at Engebretson Funeral Home, Luverne. Services will be Saturday, Jan. 11 at 10:30 a.m. at the First Presbyterian Church, Luverne, with Rev. John Pehrson and Rev. David Feltman officiating. Burial will be in Maplewood Cemetery.

Robert Baustian, 41, El Cajon, CA, formerly of Luverne, died Monday, Jan. 6 at his home. Visitation will be Friday, Jan. 10 from 4 to 8 p.m. with parish prayers at 7:30 p.m. at Dingmann Funeral Home, Luverne. Services will be Saturday, Jan. 11 at 10:30 a.m. at St. Catherine Catholic Church, Luverne, with Fr. Andrew Beerman officiating. Burial will be in the parish cemetery.

Thursday’s girls’ hockey game against Windom in the Blue Mound Ice Arena. The Cardinals scored six goals in the first two periods to set the stage for a 6-3 win over the Eagles.

By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne girls’ hockey team split a pair of home games late last week to give them a 7-10 record heading into the final two weeks of the regular season.

The Cardinals toppled Windom in a Southwest Conference tilt Thursday before falling by one goal to St. Peter-Le Sueur-Henderson Friday.

Luverne travels to Windom for a non-conference game Tuesday.

SP-L-H 3, Luverne 2
The Cardinals were unable to win back-to-back games when they played St Peter-Le Sueur-Henderson in the Blue Mound Ice Arena Friday.

SP-L-H scored one goal in every period and never trailed in the game while nipping Luverne by one goal at game’s end.

The guests opened the scoring 2:42 into the game before Luverne battled back to knot the score at one with 7:28 remaining in the first period. Stephanie Morgan scored the game-tying goal after being set up by Natalie Domagala.

SP-L-H moved in front 2-1 at 11:36 of the second period before netting a power-play goal at 11:11 of the third period to gain a two-goal lead.

Domagala produced an unassisted tally with 50 seconds remaining to cap the scoring.

SP-L-H outshot the Cards 22-16 in the game. Taylor Nelson stopped 19 shots as Luverne’s goalie.

Luverne 6, Windom 3
The Cardinals snapped a five-game losing skid when they entertained the Eagles for a Southwest Conference game Thursday in Luverne.

Domagala and Heather Kruse scored five goals for an LHS squad that scored six times in the first two periods in a game that fell into the favor of the hosts by three goals.

Domagala had a five-point night with three goals and two assists. Kruse found the net twice in the second period.

Windom led 1-0 when Samantha Harold netted a power-play goal at the 5:35 mark of the first period, but the Cardinals answered with three goals in a span of 4:08 to take a 3-1 advantage by period’s end.

Stephanie Steensma knotted the score at one after being set up by Domagala when the Cardinals were in a power-play situation at the 5:19 mark of the period.

Domagala netted a short-handed goal after being set up by Natalie Morgan at 3:09 to give the hosts their first lead, and Domagala scored a power-play goal at 1:11 with an assist going to Stephanie Morgan.

Kruse gave the Cards a three-goal cushion (4-1) when she opened the second-period scoring at 12:31 with an assist going to Stephanie Morgan, but the Eagles countered with a goal from Katie MacRae at 8:38 to make it a 4-2 game.

Luverne gained control of the contest when Kruse and Domagala scored at 6:20 and 1:34 respectively to make it a 6-2 game.

Domagala set up Kruse’s goal before completing her hat trick with an unassisted effort.

Windom’s Trista Goldie scored the lone third-period goal at 5:19.

Luverne outshot the Eagles 35-23 in the contest. Nelson made 20 saves in net for LHS.

Hills-Beaver Creek senior Clint Roozenboom drives to the basket during Friday’s boys’ basketball game against Westbrook-Walnut Grove in Hills. Roozenboom scored H-BC’s 101st point during a 101-40 victory over W-WG.

By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek boys’ basketball team secured a pair of comfortable victories over the weekend.
The Patriots rolled to a 61-point win over Westbrook-Walnut Grove in Hills Friday before besting West Lyon (near Inwood, Iowa) by 18 points Saturday.

H-BC, the winner of three straight games, hosts Adrian tonight before playing road games against Red Rock Central and Southwest Star Concept Saturday and Tuesday respectively.

H-BC 81, WL 63
The Patriots outscored the Lions in every quarter during Saturday’s border battle against West Lyon.
H-BC drained 49 percent of its field goals and took advantage of some of WL’s 32 turnovers to win the game by 18 points.

The Patriots stormed to a 23-13 lead in the game’s first quarter before using a 23-21 scoring edge in the second period to make it a 46-34 game at the intermission.

A 15-12 scoring edge for the Patriots in the third quarter made it a 15-point (61-46) difference heading into the fourth quarter, when they outscored the Lions 20-17 to win by 18.

Kale Wiertzema recorded a rare triple-double for the winners by scoring 15 points and charting 10 steals and 10 assists.

Tyler Bush scored 20 points and passed for six assists, while Tyson Metzger added 20 points to the winning cause. Trey Van Wyhe netted 14 points and pulled down five rebounds for the winners. Jesse Leuthold added six rebounds.

Box score
Bush 4 0 12-17 20, Wysong 1 0 1-2 3, Roozenboom 0 0 0-0 0, Broesder 0 0 0-0 0, Wiertzema 2 2 5-6 15, Metzger 5 1 7-8 20, Leuthold 3 0 3-7 9, Van Wyhe 7 0 0-0 14, Spykerboer 0 0 0-0 0.

Team statistics
H-BC: 25 of 51 field goals (49 percent), 28 of 40 field goals (70 percent), 20 rebounds, 15 turnovers.
WL: 28 of 67 field goals (42 percent), four of 11 free throws (36 percent), 29 rebounds, 32 turnovers.

H-BC 101, W-WG 40
The Patriots dominated play while routing the Chargers by 61 points in Hills Friday.

H-BC canned a sizzling 63 percent of its field goals and scored 88 points in three quarters while coasting to a comfortable victory over W-WG.

It looked like the Patriots might be in for a tough game when they trailed 3-2 early in the first quarter, but H-BC went on an 11-1 run capped by a field goal by Bush at the 4:55 mark of the first period before outscoring W-WG 23-5 the rest of the stanza to open a 36-9 cushion by quarter’s end.

H-BC used a 26-5 scoring advantage in the second quarter to increase its lead to 48 points (62-13) by halftime, and the Patriots outscored the Chargers 26-16 in the third quarter to make it an 88-30 game heading into the final eight minutes of play.

Fans stuck around to see if the Patriots would reach the 100-point barrier in the fourth quarter, and their wait was rewarded when Clint Roozenboom converted a field goal with 54 seconds remaining to cap the scoring in the game.

Metzger, who had eight rebounds in the game, led the Patriots with 18 points.

Wiertzema (20 points, 12 assists and nine rebounds) and Van Wyhe (19 points and 10 rebounds) had double-doubles for the winners. Roozenboom scored 12 points to go along with seven rebounds and five steals. Leuthold recorded 14 points, Bush 14 assists and seven steals and Zach Wysong contributed six rebounds for the winning cause.

Box score
Bush 2 1 0-2 7, Wysong 0 2 0-0 6, Jackson 0 0 0-0 0, Roozenboom 6 0 0-1 12, Broesder 0 0 0-0 0, Wiertzema 7 2 0-1 20, Metzger 8 1 4-6 23, Leuthold 6 0 2-3 14, Van Wyhe 9 0 1-1 19, Spykerboer 0 0 0-2 0.

Team statistics
H-BC: 45 of 72 field goals (63 percent), seven of 15 free throws (47 percent), 43 rebounds, eight turnovers.
W-WG: 16 of 48 field goals (31 percent), three of eight free throws (38 percent), 19 rebounds, 21 turnovers.

Monday’s dusting of snow didn’t amount to significant accumulation, but if you piled it together and scooped it into a kid-sized wheelbarrow, it looked like a pretty big deal. Justin Krueger (left), Derek Krueger (in front), Spencer Riphagen and Ryan Krueger shovel the walk in front of the Riphagen home on West Main Street Tuesday afternoon. According to Delores Strassburg, the National Weather Service contact in Luverne, a half inch was on the ground by Tuesday morning.

Photo by Lori Ehde

Honorary member
Luverne High School trumpet player Dave Nelson has been selected as a member of the Minnesota Band Directors Ninth- and 10th-grade Honor Band for the 2002-03 school year. He was one of 78 students selected from 285 who auditioned last fall for a position in the group. Students participating will have the opportunity to work with some of the finest music educators in the state as their coaches. Their conductor will be Richard Hansen, band director and professor of music at St. Cloud State University, St. Cloud. Students will rehearse Feb. 14 and 15 and will perform a concert at noon Feb. 15 in the auditorium of the Minneapolis Convention Center.

Photo by Lori Ehde

By John Rittenhouse
The Adrian boys’ basketball team received its first defeat since Dec. 7 when they lost a 66-45 game in Fulda Friday.

Cold shooting from the floor (23 percent) plagued the Dragons in game in which they were outscored every quarter.

"We couldn’t hit anything," said Dragon coach Rozell, referring to Adrian’s shooting woes. "Fulda played a good game, and we were flat. We couldn’t get anything going, and we couldn’t stop them."

The Raiders raced to an 11-point lead (18-7) in the first quarter before settling for a 12-point (34-22) halftime advantage. Fulda outscored the Dragons 19-11 in the third quarter to open a 53-33 lead before winning by 21 in the end.

Pete Hohn led Adrian, which had a nine-game winning streak snapped, with 12 points and eight rebounds in the contest.

Box score
Hohn 3 1 3-4 12, Wolf 0 0 3-4 3, Henning 3 0 3-5 9, Klingenberg 0 1 0-0 3, Spieker 0 0 1-2 1, Block 0 0 1-2 1, Lynn 1 0 1-2 3, Knips 1 0 3-4 5, Brake 4 0 0-1 8.

Team statistics
Adrian: 14 of 61 field goals (23 percent), 15 of 24 free throws (63 percent), 36 rebounds, 20 turnovers.
Fulda: 25 of 62 field goals (40 percent), 11 of 15 free throws (73 percent), 38 rebounds, 22 turnovers.

By Sara Strong
Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty will make Luverne one of his out-state stops on a tour talking about "Tax Free Zone" legislation.

He’ll be in Luverne from 9:30 to 11:30 a.m. Monday at the Blue Mound Banquet and Meeting Center.

Pawlenty and House legislators are proposing the initiative to stimulate development and create jobs in economically distressed areas of greater Minnesota.

Businesses operating within the zones would not pay property taxes or state income taxes.

Modeled after similar programs adopted in Michigan and Pennsylvania, the legislation would allow up to 10 tax-free zones with a maximum size of 5,000 acres (roughly 7.8 square miles) each to be established in greater Minnesota.

Two years after Pennsylvania designated 12 tax-free zones in February of 1999, the move was attributed to creating 5,700 jobs and retaining another 3,100.

The initiative shouldn’t be confused with existing border city legislation, which allows sales tax breaks for qualifying new business construction. Border city legislation is in place in Luverne and other Minnesota communities, like Breckenridge and East Grand Forks.

Tax-free zones can apply to any economically distressed rural area, regardless of proximity to a border. But border communities are particularly vulnerable to losing businesses across the border.

By Lori Ehde
In the search for a new hospital and clinic location, residents on the north edge of Luverne have been approached about the possibility of a medical campus in their back yards.

Sioux Valley and Luverne Community Hospital mailed about 60 letters to residents owning property within 350 feet of the proposed site.

They were encouraged to attend a meeting Tuesday night in the Veterans Home to hear about the proposed building to voice any questions or concerns about how it might affect them.

Land under consideration abuts residential neighborhoods to its south, Highway 75 on the west, Blue Mound Avenue on the east and the gravel township road on the north.

There are 63 acres of farm land available, but discussions are only preliminary about how much, if any land, is suitable for a hospital and clinic.

Current architect plans call for the hospital and clinic buildings to occupy roughly 20 acres. Additional ground would be necessary for parking, and negotiations could include ground for future expansion, possibly medical services buildings.

Hospital officials called residents to the meeting to test the waters of neighborhood response to the proposed plan.

At the meeting, architects reviewed topography and building plans to date, and Sioux Valley executives and Luverne Community Hospital Administrator Gerald Carl were on hand to answer questions.

"We’re trying to head off any controversy that may arise," Carl said prior to the meeting.

"We’re using them as a sounding board. If we don’t get any negative feedback from them, then we’ll take that as a green light for us to do some more planning."

More than 30 residents attended Tuesday’s meeting, and concerns varied from noise and privacy barriers to watershed and traffic flow.

According to Carl, the tone of the meeting was positive and residents seemed generally receptive to the idea of a hospital in their neighborhood.

To date, plans call for a $17.5 million project, but details hinge on financing.

Hospital officials have been planning for a new facility for the past year due to space shortages in the current facilities, which are also becoming outdated for current needs.

When remodeling was ruled out, the search began for a new hospital location. Properties both north and south of the city were immediately identified, and both sites remain possible options.

The City of Luverne and, to a lesser extent, Rock County are negotiating with Sioux Valley on the possible purchase of the current hospital and clinic.

Details of the new hospital campus, if it happens at all, depend on the outcome of that arrangement.