I think I had better start treating our weatherman a little better. It is a little too difficult to blame him for our bad weather when we have had nothing but beautiful weather this past week. Even the wind has forgotten to blow! This year, that has to be a miracle. The crops are all looking very good. In fact, the corn has grown a lot. It makes me wonder if the person who said he could see the corn grow was right, although I have never seen it grow but have heard it! I can’t believe how tall the corn is. If I had to walk through the field I would think I was walking in a grove of trees! All the crops look good. Let’s hope for a late Fall so they will mature. As you know, farmers do not have a guaranteed income. They have to depend on Mother Nature. However, I have never seen a farmer who didn’t have a good attitude on life. Even if it is a bad year they always say, "It will be better next year. Larry Sandstede and his wife, Nancy, San Diego, Calif., came Friday afternoon to visit in the home of his mother, Florence Sandstede. They also came to visit his wife’s father, Richard Billilh who is a patient at Avera McKennan Hospital in Sioux Falls.Attending the Dick and Laura Aukes reunion on Saturday at the Pipestone Park from the Steen area were Laura Paulsen, Shirley Longnecker, Mt. Dora, Fla., Orrin and Bernice Aukes and son Jeff, Warren and Loretta Baker, Melvin and JoAnn Paulsen, Mary and Clair Crawford, Verla Baker and Donna Mae Paulsen. Others coming from various places were Gary and Marie Aukes, Beaver Creek. Gail Rust entertained family and friends of Edwina Rust, Luverne, at a noon luncheon in honor of her birthday on July 13 at their farm home near Adrian. I am not sure if Steen had a ballgame this week. However, next week on July 20, Hills Indees play Steen in Steen. Let’s support our team.Marlin and Linda Elbers, Jeremy and Sonya, spent last week vacationing at Branson, Mo. Steen Reformed Church had a potluck all-church picnic Sunday. Games were played in the city park following dinner. An afternoon worship service was at 2:30. There was no Sunday School and no evening service due to the picnic.Henry Esselink remains a patient at Sioux Valley Hospital in Sioux Falls for treatment. He hopes to be released sometime this week. Those attending camp at Inspiration Hills this week are Tammy Ackerman and Heather Esselink. Our deepest sympathy goes out to the Jess family on the sudden death of Karie Johnson’s father, Darald Johnson, who was killed in a motorcycle accident near Sioux Falls on Monday, July 16. Karie is the future daughter-in-law of Chuck and Ann Jess. It definitely does not seem like it’s the time of year for the county fair. The fair used to be always in August. Now the fair can sometimes be in late July, depending on how the calendar runs. Everyone said there would be nothing to exhibit from our gardens as nothing would be ready by then. I am not sure what happened but the growing season must have been shorter as there were all kinds of vegetables as well as flowers. They can change the growing season and the dates for the fair but I am still having a problem thinking it is time for the county fair. When I was growing up, the county fair was the biggest event of the year. It was more like a vacation. Mother always packed a big dinner for us and most of the other families did the same. We had potato salad, fried chicken and all the trimmings. Our dinner would sit in the car all morning with the hot sun shining on the windows. It was a wonder none of us got sick!The most fun I had at the fair happened because my dad was a ticket taker and also helped parking the cars. So, all I had to do was to say who my dad was and I didn’t have to pay to get in the gate. And I could ride any and all of the rides for free! I was too young to exhibit anything but my mother always made fancy cupcakes every year and I think she won a blue ribbon with them just about every year. I loved the entertainment at the grandstand and vowed I was going to do that when I grew up. The nearest I got was managing the 4-H food stand at the Luverne County Fair for the county 4-H clubs for 11 years. I also loved the car race and there was always a dance at night that made my day complete. Listening to what the programs are going to be this year at the county fair doesn’t sound like there has been much change in them through the years. Managing the food stand at the fair didn’t make my dream of being an entertainer at the grandstand come true. That wasn’t exactly what I had in mind as I longed to be one of the grandstand entertainers. These memories are of days gone by and we all know we just can’t have everything.I still enjoy going to the fair, not only for the exhibits, but also for the memories that come back to me.See you at the fair!

10 years ago (1994)"Fifteen years ago, Art Hoogeveen decided to get involved. And in order to ‘get involved’ he decided to give city government a whirl.Now, 15 years later, Hoogeveen is bidding farewell to the tiny community of Steen and his mayoral responsibilities. He and his wife, Carol, recently moved to Luverne." 25 years ago (1979)"Gasahol and the energy crisis, assistance for the family farm, food as weapon for peace and the future of nuclear energy were prime questions with the approximately 50 scholar-delegates at opening sessions of the third rural Youth Conference at Southwest State University in Marshall, this week."50 years ago (1954)"The Sioux Falls Municipal Band did its usual fine job of getting a very large crowd in town Tuesday evening to attend their annual concert here. Parking space in Hills was at a premium, as it has been in the past, proving that Hills folks still like to hear an excellent concert by this fine band."75 years ago (1929)"A large number of our residents are getting in the habit of going to the Palace Theatre at Luverne, and all are loud in their praise of the Vitaphone, which is the best of its kind in these parts. It’s only 14 miles to Luverne now since the new road has been built and this means considerable saving in gas alone, as one patron put it."100 years ago (1904)"Garretson is making an effort to secure a flour mill. A similar effort has been made here in the past, but there seems to be a question in the minds of some as to whether such an enterprise would pay out. Luverne has one of the best flour mills in the west and the Luverne flour is without an equal anywhere, yet any amount of flour is shipped into Luverne and put into direct competition with the local product, and the same is the case all over."

Nelson Automotive to close August 1After more than 40 years in the auto repair business, Lyle Nelson has decided to try something else.Nelson’s first experience in the auto repair business was working for Eli Walgrave right out of high school.After working for Walgrave from 1960-62 he left to go to school at Dunwoody Institute in Minneapolis for auto mechanics.His first job after graduation was working for John DeBoer Chevrolet in Edgerton, where he stayed from 1964-66.From there, he moved to a position in Luverne with Herman Motors, where he worked for 20 years before opening his own operation.In 1986, he bought the auto repair business of Jarv Boysen on the west end of Luverne’s downtown, where he has been ever since.Effective Aug. 1, Al Stroh, who recently purchased the Bush’s 66 building at 321 E. Main, will buy Nelson’s equipment and relocate it to the former Bush location.The building that Nelson Automotive has been operating out of is for sale. As for Lyle, a new job is in his future, but what that might be, he doesn’t know yet.Lyle said his wife Gloria plans to continue working at Continental Western, so he is hoping to find new employment in the area.Chamber sets dates for WinterfestThe Luverne Area Chamber of Commerce set December 3 through 5 as Winterfest dates.This year’s theme of the festival will be "Traditions of Christmas."Anyone with an idea for a float is encouraged to participate.This will be the 8th annual Winterfest celebration.Last year the event attracted 23 floats or entries from individuals, businesses, organizations, churches and neighborhoods.The lighted Christmas Lane contest will again be part of the weekend.The craft show will be in the Cardinal Gym from 9 a.m. to 3 p.m., Saturday, Dec. 4. If you have any questions, contact the Luverne Area Chamber of Commerce at 283-4075.Gutknecht is having problems sending you mailFirst District Congressman, Gil Gutknecht (your congressman) is having trouble sending you mail.According to Gutknecht, mail sent to Washington. D.C., is experiencing delays from 14 days to several weeks before reaching members’ offices.Gutknecht also noted that because of recent computer viruses on Capitol Hill, e-mail correspondence is being held in cyberspace for up to three months.If you have any correspondence you would like to get through in a timely manner, the best route is to send it to Gutknecht’s Rochester office.His Rochester office address is:Congressman Gil Gutknecht1530 Greenview Drive SW, Suite 108Rochester, MN 55901What tree is that?The National Arbor Day Foundation is making a tree guide available to help you identify 135 different trees found in eastern and central United States.The 72-page guide includes oaks, maples, spruces and pines.Other varieties included are horse chestnut, mockernut hickory, sassafras, shadbush, persimmon, pawpaw, pagodatree and pecan.The book includes dozens of illustrations showing leaves or needles and their acorns, berries, seedpods, cones and other identifying features.If you would like a copy of the book, send $3 to "What Tree is That?" The National Arbor Day Foundation, Nebraska City, NE 68410.You can also go online at arborday.org.Publisher Roger Tollefson can be reached by e-mail at tolly@star-herald.com

By Sara StrongThe Rock County Auditor Treasurer’s Office has a new service that will make public information easier to access.A link on the county Web site, www.co.rock.mn.us, allows people to see valuation, tax and assessments on local properties. At the bottom of the home page, click on the "Rock County Tax Parcel Information" to access the information.The link allows users to enter names, locations or exact addresses to get the information. Auditor Treasurer Gloria Rolfs said, "This will cut down on phone calls to the office, especially from people who need the information frequently."Bankers, real estate agents and appraisers will be the biggest users of the new system.Real estate agent Gene Cragoe has used the link a few times. He said, "It’s going to be very helpful to me. It’s going to be a tremendous tool."Not only will the link save him time in trips to the courthouse, which can be every day. The link will save him time in taking notes off the courthouse information. He said, "I spent two hours copying information the other morning."Now, users can just print pages from their computer screens, no matter what time of day they need the information.The system gets nightly updates, so what users see online is up to date.Rolfs said, "It’s as current on the Web site as we have it in the office."Of course, people can still access public information the old fashioned way — in the county courthouse.Rolfs said, "If people need help they can stop in the office or call and we’ll get the information they need."

By Lori EhdeThe Hinkly House kitchen, furnished with original turn-of-the century appliances, takes visitors back to a time before electricity, let alone Pillsbury cake mixes and Hamburger Helper.The public will have an opportunity to absorb local history by means of live, costumed tours from 2 to 4 p.m. Sunday, July 18, in all rooms of the Hinkly House museum.In the Hinkly kitchen, for example, Sister Mariella Hinkly, granddaughter of R.B. Hinkly who built the house in 1892, tells how the cookstove was used.It was fueled primarily by corncobs, which also served as a heat source for the room, vented through the stove pipe to the outside.She said some women calculated baking times and temperatures based on how many corncobs to use. For example, a perfect loaf of bread requires exactly 11 cobs if they were allowed to burn out."These ladies were pros," Hinkly said. "They made angel food cakes on these cookstoves."Also featured on the Hinkly stove are cast iron cookware, a toaster (the slices were propped on the sides of the pyramid-shaped utensil) and a prized copper kettle.The 135-year copper coffee pot was handmade in Norway and given to the Hinkly House by the wife of Knute Stein, the Norwegian stonecutter who carved the lions in the front of the house.The kitchen lends plenty of other evidence of practical turn-of-the century life.A dumb waiter serves all floors from basement to attic, and a pie-saver cabinet shows how pies were preserved in vented, custom-made slots.A spice rack, with compartments instead of bottles and jars, serves as a reminder of a day when women cooked in terms of "pinches" of pepper, ginger, cloves, etc.The kitchen features an ice box, and Hinkly said homemakers used to place cards in their windows so the ice man would know how many pounds of ice to bring in.When he chipped away at the blocks, she said children used to pick up chips that fell to the ground and lick them for thirst and heat relief on hot summer days.Hand-carved butter molds allowed families to press personal designs into butter pats, and the telephone on the wall of the Hinkly kitchen is known to be the first hooked up in Luverne.Hinkly said electricity hadn’t made it to Luverne when her grandfather built the house, but he had it wired for electricity so he’d be ready.Two years later, Luverne connected to power and the Hinkly house lit up. "Thank goodness he had the foresight to do that," Hinkly said.These are just a few details from one room in the Hinkly House. The Victorian Period home is filled with priceless historic artifacts, most of them belonging to the Hinkly family. Details in the master bedroom, for example, include a marble-top dresser containing R.B. Hinkly’s autograph book from his teenage years, hat pins long enough to secure hats and hairdos on windy days and a beaded purse.Located on North Freeman Avenue, the house served as the residence of pioneer Luverne businessman and early day mayor R.B. Hinkly.It was built in 1892 of Sioux quartzite from the Blue Mounds quarry hauled in on horse-drawn stone boats.The public is encouraged to learn more during Sunday’s tour.Local County K-Nine 4-H Club members will dress in period attire and recite details about rooms and furnishings as part of their Community Pride project.The Hinkly House and Rock County Museum summer hours are from 2 to 4 p.m. Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday afternoons, or by appointment. Or, call Sister Mariella Hinkly, 283-9849, to book a group tour.

By Sara StrongThe Luverne Economic Development Authority is fine-tuning the job description of the director or coordinator, left this week by Dan Statema.LEDA member Nate Golla said he hopes the job description will outline that the LEDA has some control over the position and whoever works in it.Administrator Greg LaFond will be the direct, day-to-day supervisor, but the LEDA is going to be more involved in program direction.The LEDA will also likely have influence in hiring and performance reviews of the new director or coordinator.New business possibilitiesoEsurance is looking to hire a few people in Luverne. Whether the LEDA will be involved is still undecided since not many jobs will be created, though.Esurance is a company that employs 411 people, 158 of which are soon to be employed in Sioux Falls.It sells and services car insurance through the Internet and competes with companies such as Geico and Progressive.oAnother new business possibility is a "dark redundancy" company that would employ one or two people. The company would back up computer systems.

By Lori EhdeArea crops took a beating and residents reported property damage and power outages from a midnight storm that dropped hail and two inches of rain amid 60 mph wind.According to Cattnach Insurance Agent Barb Anderson, the phones rang steadily following the storm Tuesday morning.She said her clients reported pea- to golf-ball-size hail with heavy winds causing damage ranging from minimal to near total losses."‘Toast’ was one word we heard," Anderson said. "It’s fairly widespread, and some places are pretty bad."As of Tuesday morning, Anderson said it was too early to say which areas of the county were hardest hit.She said adjusters typically wait about a week to assess damages in order to see how plants will recover from the beating.Both rural and city residents woke up to property damage.For example, the home of Magnolia farmer Glenn Overgaard had windows broken out. According to Mabel Overgaard, it was hailstones, likely driven by strong winds, that broke the panes.Two large evergreens tipped over on the Tom Foster property at the corner of Highway 75 and Fairview Drive in Luverne.City Public Works employees spent a good share of Tuesday cleaning up downed trees and branches.It took about 16 man hours and a half-dozen truck loads to the tree dump to clean up city boulevards. Residents are responsible for cleaning up damage on private property.The National Weather Service office in Sioux Falls measured wind speeds in Luverne at 63 miles per hours, and that office also received a public report of a damaged residential utility shed in Luverne.In addition to wind and hail damage, power outages plagued city residents.A 12:15 a.m. outage was caused by galloping lines that affected Luverne’s power provider, L&O Power Cooperative, Rock Rapids, Iowa.Electricity was quickly restored through an alternative route, but L&O reportedly had trouble routing the city back to the repaired line, and there was another outage at 3:30 a.m.All of Rock County was part of a tornado watch before and during the storm, but there were no official reports of twister touchdowns.

By Lori EhdeLuverne’s Hot Dog Night attracted 34 wiener dog race entries and a half-dozen hot dog eating contestants Thursday, July 8, for the 42nd year of the annual event.Hundreds of spectators packed the City Hall area of Main Street for the wiener dog races, which easily topped the list of attractions for the night.Organizer Dan Statema shook his head in disbelief, when he surveyed the crowds from inside the 20-yard race strip."I had no idea it’d be this popular," he said Tuesday between heats. "I was hoping for five to 10 dogs, but it was worth a shot, because it didn’t really cost us anything. … Hopefully, it’s one of those events that builds on itself in the future."With 34 entries, the event unfolded with seven heats of four dogs per heat. One team dropped out, so five dogs ran in the final heat.There were two semi-final heats, with four dogs per semi-final, and the first and second places of the two semis raced in the championship round.Baxter, the 3-year-old Dachshund of Cory and LeAnne Bouma, Brandon, S.D., emerged the champion.Cory, a 1990 Luverne High School graduate, said Baxter’s had some experience in wiener dog racing."He’s raced before in Detroit Lakes, and we did work with him," Cory said.The Bouma strategy that proved successful was to lure Baxter with his favorite treat, a Scooby Snack."We let him sniff it and give it a little lick, and then we walked away with it to the finish line," Cory said.He said Baxter faced stiff competition in the finals. "He won literally by a nose," Cory said. "The second place dog would have won if he hadn’t stopped before stepping over the finish line."Cory, son of Luverne’s Henry and Betty Bouma, said he won’t let Baxter’s success affect his pet’s lifestyle too much."We’ll have to bring him back next year to defend his title, but I don’t see us traveling with him."Chamber Board member Greg Leuthold organized the event with Statema and said he was pleased with the outcome of the first-time effort."I think everybody enjoyed it," he said."I had people tell me that was the biggest crowd they’d seen in quite awhile for Hot Dog Night."Bleachers were set up to accommodate roughly 50 spectators, but hundreds crowded the race strip, which was partitioned off by plastic orange snow fence."We’ll have to improve it somehow next time so more people can see," Leuthold said.The hot dog eating contest was another novelty of this year’s Hot Dog Night in Luverne.Papik Motors sponsored the event, which drew six somewhat reluctant contestants.Gretchen (Papik) Jepperson’s husband, Ryan Jepperson, was easily the first-place winner after consuming six hot dogs in five minutes.Other contestants included Jordan Papik, Janine Papik, Gregg Fuerstenberg, Jon Schomacker and Laura Clark.First-place prize was a Papik Motors Hot Dog Eating Champ t-shirt, and all contestants received a free oil change and hats.Other Main Street activity included a Spotlight Dancers performance, Tae Kwon Do demonstration, mini train rides and music by Audience of One.The local group, Country Grass, formerly known as Heartland Prairie Band, played on the lawn of at the Carnegie, and 4-H members performed their annual Fashion Revue on the front steps of the Hinkly House.Merchants typically grill more than 10,000 hot dogs and serve 300 gallons of drink during Hot Dog Night as an expression of appreciation to the community for doing business with them.

By Jolene FarleyThe Hills City Council accepted the resignation of City Councilman Arlen Leenderts at a Tuesday meeting. Leenderts handed city clerk Connie Wiertzema a handwritten letter stating his intentions to resign after June’s council meeting. "As of June 30 I resign from city council and EDA (Economic Development Authority)," Leenderts wrote. "Because of vacation and ballgames this fall I won’t be able to make hardly any more meetings. So, for the good of the city, they need somebody that will be there all the time." A notice will be published asking for volunteers to fill Leenderts’ seat until the election in November, according to city clerk Connie Wiertzema. "We can appoint someone for his position until the election," she said. The person appointed by the council would fill Leenderts seat until his term expires at the end of the year. Council member Dana Dahlquist’s and Mayor Jim Jellema’s terms also end this year.