By John Rittenhouse

Cards end home schedule by winning thriller
By John Rittenhouse
The Luverne volleyball team turned in a pair of solid outings early this week after coming off a rough weekend tournament.
Luverne went 0-3 during the Hull (Iowa) Western Christian Tournament as its season-long losing streak reached five matches.

By John Rittenhouse
A Luverne High School doubles team has advanced to the semifinal round of the Section 3A Individual Tennis Championships.
Seniors Allana and Ashley Gacke, who were seeded No. 12 out of 18 teams for section doubles competition, pulled off a pair of upsets during the first two rounds of tournament play in Redwood Falls Tuesday.
The Gackes handed MACCRAY’s Grussing and Gustafson, the tournament’s No. 5 seed, a 6-4, 3-6, 7-6 setback to open the event.
Lac qui Parle Valley’s Schoffman and Malecek were waiting for the Gackes in the quarterfinals, and the Cardinal players saddled the fourth-seeded team with a pair of 6-4 setbacks.
The Gackes will need to play another strong match when they face Yellow Medicine East’s Rasmusson and Baldry, the tournament’s No. 1-seeded doubles team, in Friday’s semifinals. The match will be played at 11 a.m. in St. Cloud.
Another Luverne doubles team and a pair of singles players ended their campaigns in Redwood Falls Tuesday.
Gabe Van Dyk and Patricia Willers, the No. 15 seed in doubles competition, handed Springfield’s Sara Grobner and Sonja Nelson 6-3 and 6-1 setbacks in a preliminary-round match before falling to MACCRAY’s Dammann and Minter by 6-4 and 6-2 scores in the next round.
Amanda Aning, seeded No. 4 in the singles tournament, posted a pair of 6-1 wins over Redwood Valley’s Linda Gano before falling by 6-3 and 6-1 scores to No. 5-seeded Kim Gardner of Montevideo.
Cardinal Becky Antoine, seeded No. 7, advanced to the quarterfinals with a 6-0, 6-2 victory over Montevideo’s Haley Strand. Pipestone-Jasper’s Cassandra Van Vliet, the No. 2 seed, topped Antoine by 6-0 and 6-3 tallies in the quarterfinals.

By Lori Ehde

Millions of Americans suffer from the embarrassing effects of urinary incontinence, and therapists at Luverne Community Hospital want to get the message out that the condition can be treated.

By Jeanne Johnson
Extension educator

More than 400 Rock County 4-H members and volunteer leaders will celebrate 4-H Week Oct. 1-7.

4-H in Rock County has a long history of positive experiences for youth that build leadership, teamwork and responsibility while developing friendships and fun.

4-H is the cooperative extension system's non-formal educational program for young people. 4-H programs reach more than 6.5 million youth across the United States.

The program combines the cooperative efforts of youth, volunteer leaders, County Extension staff, state land-grant universities, federal, state and local governments along with the United States Department of Agriculture.

The mission of 4-H is to assist youth in acquiring knowledge, developing life skills and forming attitudes that will enable boys and girls to become self-directing, productive and contributing members of society. Adult and youth leaders do this through 4-H clubs and projects with hands-on activities.

The 4-H roots are deeply planted. The first 4-H emblem design was a 3-leaf clover, introduced sometime between 1907 and 1908.

From the beginning, the 3-H's signified Head, Heart and Hands. In 1911, at a meeting of club leaders in Washington, D.C., the present 4-H design was adopted by approving the fourth H, Health.

Otis Hall, state leader of Kansas, was responsible for the original working of the 4-H pledge. At the first National 4-H Club Camp in 1937, the state 4-H leaders officially adopted the 4-H pledge. The pledge read:

"I pledge my head to clearer thinking

My heart to greater loyalty

My hands to larger service and

My health to better living

For My club, My community, My country."

The addition of the words "My world" to the last line was done in 1973. In Minnesota the 4-H pledge added "My family" to start the last line in the -80s.

Rock County 4-H clubs were started in the following years:

1926 - Blue Ribbon

1927 - Willing Workers

1929 - Livewires

1932 - Denver Go-Getters

1933 -Blue Mound Climbers

1945 - Magnolia Juniors

1947 - Springdell

The only other 4-H club that is still thriving today is the County K-9s, which is the youngest club in Rock County.

There have been a number of other clubs, which have come and gone throughout the years including the Luverne Riverside, Springwater Hustlers and North Stars 4-H clubs.

Many of the original projects are still available today, including foods and nutrition, gardening and crops and livestock projects.

However, these projects have changed with the times. In 1939, 14 girls exhibited articles made from flour sacks and feed bags for the "Thrift Project."

Today "sewing" (now titled Textile Science) project members still learn basic sewing techniques so that they can make articles of clothing but also how to make good consumer decisions when purchasing clothes. In July nine 4-H members modeled clothes that were either purchased or constructed at the 2000 4-H Fashion Revue.

The positive aspects of 4-H from 50 years ago are still true today. Ask current 4-H leaders what they value about 4-H and they'll tell you that through 4-H kids learn responsibility, teamwork and leadership skills.

Ask the 4-H'ers themselves and they will often repeat what the adults have said but put friendships and fun first. The friends they make in their club, in the county and from across the state make 4-H fun.

The times have changed during the long history of 4-H but the fun and friendships will keep 4-H in Rock County strong into the future.

For more information about 4-H, call the Rock County Extension Office at 283-8685, extension #4.

Ron was hospitalized in the fall of 1997 for what doctors thought was a bleeding ulcer. He was again hospitalized in May 1998 for the same symptoms, but subsequent tests revealed liver problems.
The doctors at Sioux Valley Hospital referred Ron to Mayo Clinic in Rochester, and in July 1998 Ron’s final diagnosis was non-alcoholic cirrhosis of the liver.
This diagnosis is used when the doctors have difficulty classifying a liver illness. Doctors are not positive what caused Ron’s liver to fail.
Ron and his wife, Marlys, traveled to Rochester every four to six months for more testing. On June 10, 1999, Ron’s health had deteriorated so dramatically he was put on the transplant list.
Some of Ron’s symptoms included loss of memory, confusion, lethargy and sleeplessness. The liver cleans the toxins out of the body, and when it is not working properly, the toxins attack the brain.
Ron regularly had more than 20 pounds of fluid drained out of his abdomen in procedures at Mayo Clinic, because his body was not properly disposing of waste.
Ron’s blood type, O positive, is common, so while more organs matched his type, the number of people needing an organ with this blood type was also greater.
Because the liver rejuvenates itself, a large person can be transplanted with a small liver, but a small person can only receive a small liver. As a large person, Ron had more chances for a transplant.
Marlys received the call this summer at 1 p.m. on Aug. 28 that Mayo Clinic was sending a team to retrieve a liver from a donor. Transplant recipients have four hours to reach the hospital after they are called. Marlys said it takes exactly three hours and 10 minutes to drive from their door in Beaver Creek to the hospital in Rochester.
When Ron arrived at the hospital doctors performed more tests before the transplant. He was wheeled into surgery at midnight on Aug. 29, and the transplant was complete by 5:30 a.m.
Ron was taken back into the operating room at 2 p.m. so surgeons could repair a stitch that had given way.
Ron was hospitalized for 10 days, then transferred to The Gift Of Life House, where transplant recipients stay after their operations. This allows them to remain in close proximity of the hospital and to bond with others in similar situations. No medical care is administered at Gift of Life, so Marlys was Ron’s caregiver. They remained at the house for another 14 days.
"It was amazing, some of the people. They were from all over," Ron said Monday night at his home in Beaver Creek. "They were there for so many different things. It made me feel like getting a liver transplant was not such a big deal."
"The transplant house is a wonderful facility," Marlys said. "We could be around people who understood what we were going through. It is a healing process."
Friends and family gave Ron and Marlys a hearty welcome when they arrived home.
Their children Linnea, 19, Ryan, 22, and his family were waiting for them, not to mention many friends.
"We so appreciated all the prayers, cards, food and money from people," Marlys said. "When the time came all this goodness happened that they did not have to do. Living in a community like this is wonderful."
Doctors predict it will take Ron about a year to recover fully from his transplant. He has regularly scheduled checkups at Mayo Clinic, and results from blood tests at Luverne Medical Center are sent to his doctors at Mayo.
Ron’s sister-in-law, Phyllis Tschudy, Beresford, S.D., wrote a letter to the Hills Crescent soon after his transplant.
"It was truly a miracle watching his color start to come back, cheeks fill out and hands get warm, all within one-half day following the surgery," she said in her letter, published Sept. 14.
Ron currently takes three different anti-rejection drugs, and he hopes to taper off to just one prescription in the future.
"It has been a challenge," Marlys said, "but I do not have to look very far to find people with a lot more problems than us. I know Ron will get better."

By Sara Quam
Courting businesses is something the Luverne Economic Development Authority is getting used to. This time, though, Director Tony Chladek holds out more hope than usual.
If located in Luverne, this Burnsville company expects to employ up to 71 workers within three years.
ReiTech Corporation is a manufacturer and marketer of a safety device called Easy Off Power Control. It is installed on heavy equipment used in educational, industrial, food and home workshop settings. The shut-off mechanism is designed to reduce machine accidents.
Jack Reiter, president and CEO, presented to the Luverne Economic Development Authority Thursday. He told the story of how the product was dreamed up.
"My dad was a school teacher during the day and ran a furniture shop at night. He was cutting wood on a table saw one time. … He was holding the piece and feeling around trying to find the push-button and kept missing it so he took his eyes off his work to look at it and when he did, the piece kicked back and cut his thumb off — that’s how the product was born."
Reiter started designing the product that is retrofitted to equipment like table saws. The fitting puts a large stop button at knee level which allows the operator to push the button with his knee while keeping hands free for work. It’s called "simple, convenient, instinctive."
ReiTech contracts:Ethan Allen Co.AristokraftNorthwest AirlinesMobil OilSylvaniaThe Boeing CompanyUnion Pacific RailroadLucent TechnologySteinway and SonsHarley DavidsonMiller BrewingNational Park ServiceUSDA Forest ServiceFord Motor Co.Texas A&M UniversityU.S. Postal ServiceAshley FurnitureReiTech is negotiating with others such as Los Angeles County Schools, San Bernadino (Calif.) Schools, Hexcell Corp. and New York Public Schools.
LEDA’s involvement
LEDA members felt strong enough about ReiTech’s potential that they sent the company a proposal. The city said in a letter to the company that "We feel we can offer the following:"
o$550,000 Signal Bank loan to be used for both old and new debt.
o$250,000 LEDA interest only/low interest loan for new debt contingent upon city approval and Signal Bank loan.
o$150,000 of regional low interest loan financing for new debt contingent upon Signal Bank loan approval, city loan approval, available collateral position and board approval.
oA renovated 11,000-square-foot building (the former Jubilee) that Luverne would pay rent on for a year — a $60,000 value.
oA new building for the company constructed (while ReiTech is in the above building) with competitive lease arrangements.
oCustomized training for employees to be held in-house through Minnesota West Technical College.
oWorkforce recruiting through a headhunter that has an estimated value of $10,000.
Not all items listed in the proposal would be provided directly by the city, but the city would assist ReiTech in accessing those sources.

The company
ReiTech markets its product as unique because the "stop" area is 100 times larger than the push-button controls. It can be retrofitted to almost any machine.
The future for the company has been painted as a bright one. It has been asked to start surveying for the first of 19 plants for Chrysler Corporation. It is working on a contract that would mean an automatic 3,200 distributors in the United States.
The city looks into the total financial package of companies when trying to get them to Luverne. ReiTech provided balance sheets, revenue sources and expenses, projections and income tax returns.
One aspect of the company that could ensure its market is its hiring in school and government agencies. ReiTech offers inspection, installation and assessment services along with its sales of the product.
With safety as its selling point, the Minnesota OSHA office and Minnesota Department of Health have asked the company for services already.
In the presentation, Reiter built up the company as already established, saying it has 10,000 units of equipment already and is in the commercial stage. In other words, it’s not in product development stages.
He said, "Seven years ago I quit everything I was doing and put the product into marketable form that meets all regulations."
The city is hopeful the proposal will meet with favorable reaction from ReiTech, but many other cities are trying to strike a deal at the same time.
Generally, the LEDA is looking forward to a future with ReiTech because of the number of jobs in different positions it could offer the community.

That old house
Built as the home of A.D. LaDue in the 1890s, the grand structure features stained glass windows, curved windows, a spacious porch and elaborate woodwork.
LaDue was president of First National Bank, president of the Luverne Automobile Co., treasurer of the Luverne Pressed Brick Co., treasurer of the Maplewood Cemetery ComAssociation, treasurer of the Manitou Hotel Co. and treasurer of the Luverne School District.
Later owners converted the 8,000-square-foot house (not including the attic) into 11 apartments in the 1940s. The lofty front porch with pillars, spindles and latticework was replaced by small entries with cement steps and wrought iron support posts.
Mike bought the home in 1989 after renting an apartment there for five years. The suites have evolved over about four years to the state they are now. He’s rebuilt the front porch and returned the exterior to a two-color scheme like the original.
He started the work in 1996 after looking at old photos. Tom Nergaard Construction, Luverne, did most of the work based on those photos. Costs and building codes have interfered with returning the building to its full authenticity.
The community responded positively to the changes he made to restore some of the splendor to one of Luverne’s historic homes. Jarchow said hearing that praise was personally rewarding, and it has made the planning and hard work worth his while.

Mike and Wanda Jarchow decided not to make it a full-service bed and breakfast when they learned what the title entails.
"It’s not worth the kind of money it would take, so we’ll just do most of what we wanted," Mike said. "We put a lot of thought into it, and it was a little bit of a letdown."
The large staircase in the historic 515 N. Estey home provides one of its main attractions. Ironically, the staircase that winds through four floors poses a problem in the eyes of the fire marshal.
That doesn’t mean the home is unsafe, fire-prone or that it won’t be available for overnight stays.
"After the second floor, you get into a different category," Mike said. "The marshal said we could just as well have an 18-floor hotel with the regulations we’d have to meet."
According to inspectors, the stairs could provide a path for fire to draft upwards in the event of a fire.
In order to earn the bed and breakfast designation, the Jarchows would have to put heavy doors at each floor or install a sprinkler system, both of which would compromise the historical integrity of the home.
"It’s an accumulation of things," Mike said. "The issue is the quantity of rooms and the number of floors. … The health codes for actually cooking food in a building like this change."
The Jarchows will continue to serve a continental breakfast, and occupants can cook in the kitchens within their suites as well.
The number of rental units in the home (the Jarchow residence, five apartments and three suites) could slip the home into a commercial designation and would put heavier requirements on operations.
The Jarchows still look forward to operating the business together. Marketing will have to be altered to make up for not being listed in bed and breakfast publications.
Ranging from $65 to $85 a night, the fully-furnished suites are described in the brochure as "Perfect for romantic weekends and honeymoons. A great gift idea for anniversaries and special occasions. A special treat for family and friends passing through."