The Minneota Vikings, a very athletic and quick team, defeated the Lady Panthers Friday in Ellsworth 70-60 to end their six-game winning streak and dropped the Panthers to second place in the Camden Conference with a 4-2 record and 7-4 overall. "The Vikings were the most talented, quickest and most athletic team we’ve played thus far on our schedule," said Coach Dean Schnaible. "But I’m very proud of the Panthers because they didn’t throw in the towel."Ellsworth battled the 10-2 Vikings the entire game, trailing 18-14, 39-32, 49-44, losing by 10 counters, the largest point margin in the contest. "We had difficulty defending their quickness," Schnaible said."Minneota should be a contender for the north sub-section title the way they played against us, but anything can happen in the field of sports."The Lady Panthers shot better from two-point range 44.4 percent (24-54) to the winners’ 39.6 percent (321-3), but faltered from treyland, shooting a cool 16.7 percent (1-6) to the opponents’ 44.4 percent (4-9). Ellsworth also was superior from the gift line, denting the nets for a torrid 90 percent (9-10) to Minneota’s 84.2 percent (16-19). Ellsworth also won the battle on the boards 38-26, with Laurel Drenth charting 10 caroms followed by Brittney Kramer and Rosie Lewis with six each for team leaders. The assist department was led by Drenth with eight, followed by Kramer’s four. Minneota turned the ball over only 10 times to 15 by Ellsworth, who encountered the Vikings’ full-court man-to-man press the entire game. The Lady Panthers were led in scoring by junior post Lewis with 20 points, with guard post Drenth and junior post Amy Tiesler adding 17 and 12 counters respectively. "Rosie had her best offensive output for the Panthers, besides playing an all around floor game," Schnaible said. "She is a very hard worker, always exerting 110 percent effort in every practice and game. Good things happen to good people and Lewis is an excellent example of this."Ellsworth entertained G-LR, a powerhouse in Iowa, Monday and also hosted Lincoln-HI, who leads the Camden Conference with a 5-1 record and 11-1 overall. The Panthers travel to Remsen St. Mary’s Saturday,s playing a four-game series starting at 11 a.m. with two J-V and two varsity boy-girl combos.

The Hills-Beaver Creek girls basketball team traveled to Comfrey for a rescheduled game on Tuesday, Jan. 11. Brittany Rozeboom netted 10 points and grabbed five rebounds. Kerri Fransman made 10 points, with Cassi Tilstra netting 17 points and coming up with eight rebounds. Malinda Feucht had seven rebounds and five assists. Kelly Mulder blocked five shots. With four seconds left in overtime, Cassi Tilstra had a shot under the basket on an inbound pass to Stacy Bush. She made the bucket, so the girls took the win 49 to 47. "Despite not shooting well, the girls continued to play hard from start to finish," Coach Goehle said. "Our defensive pressure late in the overtime was the key in turning a five-point deficit into a two-point win." Patriot girls demolish W-WGH-BC girls played Westbrook-Walnut Grove at W-WG on Jan. 13, and returned home with a decisive 82-35 win.Cassi Tilstra had 20 points, seven steals and 10 assists. Brittany Helgeson netted 12 points. Kelly Mulder had 10 points and grabbed eight rebounds. "The girls shot the ball very well and were able to cause a number of turnovers, which helped us get the thing rolling," Coach Goehle said.Girls take fourth in a row against the West Lyon WildcatsThe girls traveled with the boys to West Lyon on Saturday, Jan. 15, to take their fourth win in a row. The score was 52-43. The girls had a total of 30 rebounds and 17 turnovers. Cassi Tilstra netted 15 points and grabbed eight rebounds. Malinda Feucht had nine points and hit two big shots late in the fourth quarter. Kelly Mulder blocked seven shots along with Brittney Rozeboom making six points. These stories were submitted by Katie McGaffee.

By Shane PalmquistThe boys basketball team had three tough tasks last week. Task 1 was to avenge an earlier loss to Edgerton. Task 2 was to knock off Marshall the seventh-ranked team in Class 3A ball. Task 3 was to get the sweep on Southwest Conference rival Pipestone. Luverne didn’t quite get the sweep but they weren’t swept either.LUVERNE 75, PIPESTONE 63After dropping two in a row, the Luverne boys basketball team was looking for some redemption, and the unfortunate Pipestone Arrows were next on the Cardinal schedule. Luverne didn’t look like it had a chance after the opening tip, and it fell behind fast as Pipestone took off to a 17-0 lead to open up the game. Brad Herman came off the bench to try and stop the bleed, and he did just that, giving his teammates the spark they needed to tie the game at 25 with 3:14 to go in the first half. "We got down early, using time outs to try and slow them down, but it didn’t work as they were making everything early," said Coach Tom Rops. "Herman came in to the game, and we started to go down low, which opened everything else up for us."Luverne started matching Pipestone shot for shot to close out the first half, and the Arrows limped into the locker room looking dumb-founded with only a 37-32 lead. A more confident Cardinal team came out to open up the second half. Playing tough defense and a tight full-court press seemed to have Pipestone a bit puzzled throughout the rest of the game. Herman and Brandon Deragisch led Luverne with 19 points each, Jake Hendricks chipped in 16 points and three steals, Nick Heronimus also finished in double digits, too, with 10. Herman led the team in rebounds with 6, while Deragisch shot an impressive 12-13 from the free throw line. Dusty Antoine wasn’t a scoring threat as much as a passing threat and ended the game with five assists."The key for was balance, as we got four guys in double digits, so it wasn’t one guy; it was a whole team effort," said Rops. "This was a big win for our program, not just from a conference standpoint but for this program as a whole. Sweeping Pipestone hasn’t happened for a long time so this is good."Luverne’s key play which swung the momentum all the way to their side happened in the third period. Pipestone was trying to bring the ball up the court, senior Herman stole the ball at half court, and with no defenders in sight threw down a monstrous two-handed dunk that drove the Cardinal fans wild. Whatever wind was left in the Arrows sails fizzled after that play. Luverne kicked its game into high gear in the fourth quarter playing solid ball on both sides of the court and not letting Pipestone make any sort of comeback. Herman sealed it for Luverne with two minutes to go. Luverne forced another turnover, Herman took a pass at half-court, and with two-hands elevated above the rim, jammed it home. With that, Luverne beat Pipestone for the second time this year and improved its record to 11-4, 5-2 in conference play. Luverne got to the free-throw line 32 times, converting 24 of them. Pipestone only had one free-throw attempt before getting there five more times in the last minute and a half.MARSHALL 72, LUVERNE 42Luverne ran into a buzz saw Friday night as the visiting Marshall Tigers took it to the host Cardinals. Marshall came out with lots of fastbreak points and tough defense cleaning the glass, allowing Luverne to get only one shot for each trip down the court."We were totally outmatched, and we couldn’t really stop them on defense." said Coach Rops. "Marshall is probably the best team in the conference right now." Brad Herman’s 11 points and five rebounds were tops for Luverne. Brandon Deragisch scored eight of his own to help the host team."We have to forget about our last couple games and move ahead. Our goal now is to take care of our conference games to get a high seed come playoffs." Rops said.EDGERTON 58, LUVERNE 54Luverne played host to Edgerton public last Thursday. Luverne tried to avenge an earlier loss to Edgerton but to no avail. The Cardinals couldn’t buy a basket in the first quarter and found themselves down early as Edgerton took a commanding 22-6 to close out the first quarter.We didn’t come out with the intensity at the start like we needed," said Coach Rops.Rops wasn’t about to let his team go down without a fight, and Luverne came out hot early in the second quarter led by the lights out three-point shooting from Dusty Antoine and Brandon Deragisch to close the gap to 39-30 at halftime. The Cardinals kept reeling the visiting Dutchmen in all the way through the second half and for the first time all game took the lead away at 54-53 with less than one minute remaining. Edgerton’s Jordan Menning drained a 15 footer to retake the lead 55-54. Luverne had a couple more chances to win the game but both shots rimmed out. Two late free throws iced the game for Edgerton.Rops said, "We fought and clawed our way back, but we just couldn’t get the last shots to fall."Jake Hendricks led Luverne in scoring finishing up with 16. Brad Herman and Dusty Antoine chipped in 10 each; with Brad Herman grabbing five rebounds for Luverne.

By Lori EhdeWhat on earth are we here for?Answers to that question are at the core of a spiritual renewal campaign making its way across the country.Thousands of communities in the past year have participated in the "40 Days of Purpose" campaign, and now it’s coming to Luverne.Based on the best-selling book, "The Purpose Driven Life," the campaign studies truths about God’s purposes for people.The book, written by Pastor Rick Warren, has exceeded a record-breaking 12 million copies since its release last year.In Luverne, the 40-day campaign will kick off at 6:30 p.m. Saturday, Jan. 29, in the Palace Theatre.The American Reformed Church is leading the local 40 Days of Purpose, and Pastor Dave Sikkema said he hopes the whole community can benefit."Hopefully we can enrich people’s spiritual lives and encourage them in spiritual development and growth," Sikkema said."The hope is that people will find purpose for their lives and see God’s joy and peace in daily living."The church is arranging for roughly 30 local homes to host weekly meetings. The public can join any of these groups to participate in the campaign, which ends on March 13.To sign up or for information, call 283-3674 or 920-9270. There is no cost to participate.

By Sara Quam Rock County’s 2004 Employee of the Year was described as friendly, hard working, dedicated and talented. Deb Den Herder accepted the honor by saying, "All employees of Rock County are very deserving, so thank you for this award." Den Herder works in many capacities for the University of Minnesota Extension Service in its Luverne branch office. She works with the Rock and Pipestone County Collaborative, local 4-H programming and even does the Rock County Ag Newsletter, which has received regional recognition for quality. Den Herder has worked for Rock County since 1988. One of Den Herder’s nomination letters said, "Deb is committed to her work and more importantly she is committed to serving county citizens and helping people." Worthington Regional Extension Director Holli Arp said, "She willingly takes on new responsibility and adds practical contributions to the team in order to implement projects successfully. ... Deb seeks out relevant information to provide to citizens. A variety of questions come into the Extension Office and Deb handles them with ease." Arp also pointed out that Den Herder continues her passionate support of 4-H even though her children are grown. Arp said, "I am honored to work with such a respectable and talented individual." Rock County 4-H program coordinator Nancy Sandager also nominated Den Herder for Employee of the Year. Sandager wrote, "She is the first person members of the community have contact with when they call or come in the door, and her welcoming manner is one of the best public relations assets Rock County could have." Den Herder was also nominated by four others, who called her a "stabilizing force" in the changing Extension offices, "extremely helpful," "patient and kind" and an "excellent resource." Other nominees for Employee of the Year were Sherri Kitchenmaster of the Land Records Office, Lee Hamann of the Highway Department, and Wendy DeLaRosa-Gacke of Family Services.

By Sara Quam The Rock County Board of Commissioners Tuesday approved a request to add 79.4 acres to Pheasants Forever’s public land. Leroy Lorenzen in southeast Rose Dell Township is selling the land to Pheasants Forever, which now has more than 1,000 acres in Rock County. The land is designated for preserving and developing wildlife habitat, for public hunting, trapping or for other recreational activities like bird watching. Chuck Van Wyhe represented the local Pheasants Forever chapter at the meeting. He said, "Our goal in Pheasants Forever is to have one piece of land in every township to be preserved for future generations." Commissioner Richard Bakken voted against the land acquisition because he thinks hunters and wildlife enthusiasts can cooperate with farmers and ranchers to use private land, without taking it out of production. "I would like to see a cooperative effort. But this I’m 100 percent against. ... I think there’s a problem this is just masking," Bakken said. He said he allows hunters on his land, but knows other land owners who have had bad experiences and don’t allow hunting anymore. Van Wyhe said, "This is for public access because it’s getting harder and harder to get permission. ... One bad hunter can ruin it for a hundred good ones." Non-local hunters and people who don’t know which landowners to contact in order to get permission to hunt are frequent users of public land, Van Wyhe said. "There are times you can’t locate the landowner to get permission to hunt," he said. Taxes on the Lorenzen land for 2004 were $566. The land will be turned over to the Department of Natural Resources through Pheasants Forever. The DNR will make an estimated payment in lieu of taxes of $945. Payments in lieu of taxes are given to taxing entities, such as the school district and county, in the same proportion in which property taxes would have been. Winter driving improvements Commissioners Tuesday gave County Engineer Mark Sehr approval to solicit estimates for new equipment parts that could improve driving conditions on county roads. Sehr estimated that the equipment would cost about $12,000. The new features on the trucks will use a salty brine that is applied to snow-packed or icy roads. Because it is wet, it will stick to the surface better than loose salt and sand, which often blow away or are shifted by vehicles on the road. The state has used this system for a few years. Sehr said the new method may reduce sand use in the county.

By Sara Quam Coming out of a closed meeting, the Rock County Board of Commissioners said it won’t cash a law enforcement payment check from the city of Luverne. Commissioners said they feared if they cashed the check, it would imply agreeing with the payment amount, which is $126,000 short. The county budgeted $669,000 for a law enforcement payment from the city of Luverne to fulfill the contract through 2005. The city has disagreed with how the county is charging for dispatch and law enforcement services in one lump sum, when they used to be in separate agreements. Rock County Attorney Don Klosterbuer said, "Where do they get off saying to the county what its cost of law enforcement is?" The county will give Luverne until Feb. 15 to further explain its payment. The city said its payment, approved at last week’s council meeting, included $499,447 for law enforcement and $43,500 for a "good faith" dispatch payment. Dispatch was previously a joint powers agreement, formed long before city and county merged law enforcement departments. The city terminated that joint powers agreement, but within the existing law enforcement contract, dispatching services is outlined as a part of the county’s service for payment. The contract for law enforcement is renewed annually automatically, unless terminated, which the city has done effective Dec. 31, 2005. The city said the county was wrong in "rolling over" dispatch costs to the contract for law enforcement, but the county said the two can’t operate or be funded independently. Klosterbuer said, "I don’t know how they make a ‘good faith’ payment— under what document or what authority."Commissioner Jane Wildung said she wondered if the "good faith" payment meant an implied reinstatement of the dispatch joint powers. "There’s the whole philosophical problem from the beginning," Wildung said. The county sees the city’s check as an installment payment on the full contract amount, and that is why Board members are seeking further clarification by Feb. 15. A portion of the County Board meeting was closed to discuss possible litigation against the city of Luverne. In another law enforcement matter, commissioners tabled action adopting a special Citizens’ Law Enforcement Study Committee.

By Lori EhdeSince the walls went up at the new Sioux Valley hospital and clinic campus last fall, passing motorists haven’t seen much construction activity on the site.But inside the walls, the building has been humming with construction activity.Steve Nothdurft is superintendent for general contractor Henry Carlson Company, Sioux Falls.He’s been leading tours for groups of hospital employees in the past week as the interior rooms are taking shape.For example:oAdministrative offices are all carpeted and the clinic carpeting is nearly complete.oKitchen equipment is installed.oCeiling grid is installed in the south half of the hospital and ceiling tiles are going in.oSheetrock is up in most of the building.oCabinets are installed in about 60 percent of the building — in business offices, clinic, surgery, rehab and administration.oPainting will start soon, starting in the OB and nursery areas of the hospital.oPermanent heat and air handling system will be activated in half the building next week."We’re cruising right along," Nothdurft said.He said he’ll be ready to turn over the building to Sioux Valley on June 8, but that won’t officially happen until July 8, because of water and street access issues.He said the new water tower is scheduled to be painted and filled by June 1, and that will allow the building’s sprinkler system to be operable.Another issue that may affect the move-in date is road work on the intersection of Highway 75 and 131st Street on the north side of the hospital.Nothdurft said the hospital needs to have two entrances accessible in order to be open. That roadwork is scheduled for completion by July 15.Meanwhile, hospital physicians and staff are eager to move in.Lois Hamilton, director of nursing, said touring the facility makes it hard to wait for move-in day."We are so cramped where we are now," she said last week. "It’ll be so nice for the patients and employees to be in the new facility."Registered Nurse Mary O’Toole Hemme is director of surgery for the hospital, and she especially enjoyed touring what will be the new operating rooms."I was impressed," she said. "There will be so much more room, more space. We’re so cramped where we are now."She said patients have received good care in the current facility, but technology has played a role in the need for more space."We have new equipment now, too, and that takes up space," she said. "It will be a lot more efficient flow for patients and staff."At groundbreaking, the hospital work was estimated to last until late 2005, but with a mild winter and very few glitches, that date was moved to summer 2005. The $17.8 million complex going up north of the Veterans Addition will have more than 93,000 square feet of space, more than doubling the space of the current landlocked hospital and clinic.

10 years ago (1995)
To comply with gender equity in sports offerings, the Luverne High School announced plans to add fast-pitch softball as an option.
Robert De Yong, Luverne, discovered a bit of history when he remodeled his house at 304 South Donaldson. There was an 1885 issue of the St. Paul Pioneer Press that had an article about Frank James, the "notorious bandit." The newspaper had been placed inside the home’s walls as insulation. 25 years ago (1980)
Stan Soutar was the new chairman of the County Board of Commissioners.
Seven girls competed for the County Pork Queen title: Darcy Burmeister, Janelle Severtson, Terri Birkeland, Nila Hanson, LaDonna Cleveringa, Barbara Willers and Shelly Seeman.50 years ago (1955)
149 Rock County individuals and business firms would pay more than $200 each in personal property taxes
Magnolia and Beaver Creek planned March of Dimes benefits to raise money for polio research.
Robin Hood flour was $3.98 for 50 pounds; country sausage was 39¢ per pound, and dog food was $2.69 for 25 pounds at Kenny’s Super Value.75 years ago (1930)
Luverne Telephone Exchange was one of a few under investigation for excessive earnings, and was ordered to show cause why rates couldn’t be reduced.
"H.O. Bakken, of Beaver Creek township, owns a cow that should be entitled to the record for prolificacy, for she has given birth to six calves within two years, and all but one are living."100 years ago (1905)
"Farmers near the Mounds report that on several occasions a pack of wolves has been seen running about the fields. As many as seven have been counted in one drove, which is the largest that has been seen in this section for many years."
The Luverne Automobile company plans to have 10 machines completed by April 1.