By Sara Quam
Saturday's weather restricted shopping with furious winds and drifting snow during the last full weekend before Christmas.

Main Street Luverne was almost vacant by Saturday afternoon, and the rest of the city wasn't much better. The open prairie felt gusts of up to 50 mph and wind chill temperatures at 57 below.

Amid the depressed shopping environment, however, Sears stood out as a haven of retail profits. Owner Tim Gust said Saturday was the second-biggest day of sales ever. Those sales beat some very large Sears stores for the day.

"I was as shocked as Sears was," Gust said. "There were a lot of bigger items sold and we had a promotion for the day, but even with that, I was shocked at how busy it was."

The Furniture House closed early to allow out-of-town employees to get home safely. Sears was supposed to be closed at 6 p.m., but with a constant flow of customers, it stayed open until 7 p.m.

Pamida didn't fare as well. Manager Kary Schroeder said the store suffered a sharp decrease in sales from this time last year. The store, which would have been open until 9 p.m., closed at 5, and before that sent most employees home early.

The Rocking Horse, downtown Luverne, was open until 4 p.m., but owner Marcia Ossenfort called Saturday's conditions "an expensive snowstorm." Her store had profits at only 20 percent of what would have been normal for Saturday.

Luverne True Value kept its doors open as usual and had a steady business but not nearly as many shoppers as the past few weekends have attracted. Shoppers who did venture out to True Value were mostly looking for necessary items, not Christmas gifts.

One business that saw a "substantial increase" in sales was Palace Video. "We like bad weather," said owner Larry Boll.

G&S Auto Service was busy Sunday towing vehicles that had been left on Interstate 90 and Highway 75. Saturday's towing was put on hold because roads were closed by the Highway Patrol. The towing workers did get some work done Saturday night after winds subsided, but the bulk was done Sunday.

Anne Stegenga (right) purchases priority postage for two large boxes she sent to Alaska Monday with the hopes they'd arrive before Christmas. Clerk Dawne Heintzman (left) said the stream of customers made Monday the busiest mailing day for the Christmas season so far. The Luverne Post Office maintained a steady pace weighing packages and sifting through cards. Saturday was a different story. In-town delivery was completed, but some mail couldn't be sorted until Monday because of travel-prohibitive weather in rural routes. Employees had to hand-sort Saturday's leftover mail because of an overload needing to be machine sorted. Trucks loaded for routes early Monday because weather was expected to worsen before the usual late-afternoon loading time.

The Christmas holiday is typically busy for the Luverne Post Office, but this year, weather has played a part in speed of delivery. Once the mail leaves Luverne, Postmaster Charles Egland said other areas in the region may hold up delivery because of poor weather conditions. Priority mail usually takes two to three days to arrive at any destination, but this year, Egland said patrons could almost count on waiting a full three days before arrival. Luverne staff work extra hours, especially the part-timers, but Egland said hiring extra help isn't usually necessary. Postal rates go up a penny after Christmas - a stamp will begin costing 34¢ Jan. 7.

Photo by Sara Quam

The Hills-Beaver Creek girls fell from the basketball unbeaten ranks when they traveled to Rock Rapids, Iowa, Saturday.

Home-standing Central Lyon took advantage of a cold shooting performance by the Patriots to register a 56-33 win over H-BC.

H-BC, which made 29 percent of its field goals and free throws in the game, experienced an especially rough second half.

The Patriots were outscored 37-14 in the final 16 minutes of play, when the game was taken over by CL.

"We just went cold and turned the ball over too many times in the second half," said Patriot coach Tom Goehle. "Then we tried to play catch-up and started to foul them, and they made their free throws in the fourth quarter."

H-BC played well enough to earn a 12-10 edge in the first quarter before CL rallied to knot the score at 19 by halftime.

The Lions opened a 33-23 lead in the third quarter before outscoring the Patriots 23-10 in the fourth quarter to win by 23.

Shanna Tilstra netted a team-high eight points for the Patriots.

Becky Broesder charted five rebounds and four assists for the Patriots, while Jody Rentschler chipped in five rebounds.

The 2-1 Patriots host Southwest Christian tonight before playing in Lake Benton Tuesday.

Box score
C.Tilstra 2 0 0-0 4, Olson 0 0 1-2 1, Sandstede 0 1 0-0 3, Brandt 0 0 1-2 1, Rentschler 2 0 0-2 4, S.Tilstra 4 0 0-1 8, Broesder 1 0 0-4 2, Rozeboom 0 0 0-0 0, Boeve 2 0 0-0 4, Arp 2 0 2-3 6.

Team statistics
H-BC: 14 of 49 field goals (29 percent), four of 14 free throws (29 percent), 23 rebounds, 21 turnovers.
CL: 23 of 49 field goals (47 percent), nine of 14 free throws (64 percent), 31 rebounds, 20 turnovers.

The Hills-Beaver Creek girls opened Tri-County Conference basketball play by turning in a dominating performance in Bigelow Thursday.

The Patriots controlled play on both ends of the court during a convincing 86-28 victory over the Faith Christian Falcons.

With everything clicking for the 2-0 Patriots, H-BC coach Tom Goehle was able to substitute freely while getting great efforts from all of his players.

"It was a good chance for everyone to play, and they all played hard," he said.
The Patriots made a sizzling 58 percent of their field goals and 68 percent of their free throws in the 58-point win.

H-BC controlled the boards by a 32-14 margin, and forced the Falcons to turn the ball over 40 times in the game.

The Patriots got off to a great start by taking a 20-6 lead in the first quarter and turning it into a 28-point halftime advantage (44-16) by outscoring the Falcons 24-10 in the second quarter.

Erin Boeve, who passed for four assists led the charge by netting 16 of her team high 20 points in the first half.

The Patriots increased their lead to 41 points (64-23) by the end of the third quarter before outscoring FC 22-5 in the final eight minutes of play.

Jody Rentschler set the pace in the second half by netting nine of her 15 counters.

Becky Broesder had a big game that featured a double-double with 11 rebounds and 17 points to go along with five steals and five assists.

Shanna Tilstra added 10 points, seven steals and four assists to the cause, while Sarah Rozeboom chipped in 12 points.

Box score
C.Tilstra 1 0 0-0 2, Olson 3 0 0-0 6, Sandstede 0 0 0-2 0, Brandt 0 0 0-0 0, Rentschler 6 0 3-3 15, S.Tilstra 4 0 2-2 10, Broesder 8 0 1-1 17, Rozeboom 6 0 0-0 12, Boeve 8 0 4-7 20.

Team statistics
H-BC: 38 of 66 field goals (58 percent), 10 of 15 free throws (67 percent), 32 rebounds, 23 turnovers.
FC: 11 of 27 field goals (41 percent), six of 14 free throws (43 percent), 14 rebounds, 40 turnovers.

By John Rittenhouse
Hills-Beaver Creek recorded its second consecutive boys' basketball win by upending Minneota 69-58 in Hills Tuesday.

The home-standing Patriots opened a big lead in the first eight minutes of play and made it stand up while posting an 11-point victory.

H-BC now has won two straight games after starting the campaign with a 0-3 mark.

The Patriots will try to extend their winning streak when they host Southwest Christian and Central Lyon tomorrow and Monday respectively.

A solid first quarter proved to be the difference for H-BC against the Vikings.

The Patriots raced to a 22-9 cushion in the first eight minutes of play. Minneota played the hosts evenly the rest of the game but never did overcome H-BC's solid start.

"We got off to a great start," said Patriot coach Steve Wiertzema. "We were up 22-9, and we were really playing well. We played evenly the rest of the way."

Minneota trimmed H-BC's lead to 11 points (41-30) by halftime, but the difference remained at 11 points when the third (56-47) and fourth quarters (69-58) were complete.

Matt Buck, who led the Patriots with nine rebounds and 24 points, tossed in 17 points in the first half.

Lance Crawford, who added five rebounds, netted seven of his nine points to lead H-BC in scoring during the second half.

Chris Fransman added 13 points and three steals to the winning cause.

Lyle DeBoer contributed five rebounds, four assists and four steals, while Brad Haak chipped in six assists and five steals.

Box score
D.DeBoer 0 0 0-1 0, Van Batavia 1 0 0-0 2, Van Maanen 1 0 0-0 2, Fransman 5 1 0-0 13, Haak 2 0 3-7 7, L.DeBoer 2 0 0-0 4, Van Wyhe 1 0 0-0 2, Top 2 0 2-2 6, Crawford 4 0 1-1 9, Buck 9 1 3-7 24.

Team statistics
H-BC: 29 of 57 field goals (51 percent), nine of 18 free throws (50 percent), 31 rebounds, 30 turnovers.
Minneota: 24 of 62 (39 percent), 10 of 16 free throws (63 percent), 22 rebounds, 27 turnovers.

Miranda Jurczewsky (left) and Brent VandenBussche enjoy playing outside during a break from harsh winter weather Thursday, Dec. 7. It was sunny that day, and temperatures were tolerable. Both children are cared for at the Lois Shaffer day care in Beaver Creek.

Township road signs are an increasingly important issue in rural Rock County with all surrounding counties having similar signage in place.

The only factor that has so far prevented the county from completing the signs is cost - about $70,000 for the project.

The issue was addressed at a joint townships and county board meeting Friday, Dec. 8, with an informal tally resulting in an almost even split among those in favor of, against or undecided about signs.

Terri Ebert, Rock County Sheriff Department dispatcher, said that in her opinion, it's a necessary expenditure.

Ebert said one cause for the need is that without rural addresses, US West doesn't give the sheriff's office updates on its new customers' locations.

Just Tuesday, that situation came into play when a woman called 911 and the only information dispatchers received on their computer system was her telephone number. They received no location and no name, which would have helped dispatchers get help to her. In this case, the woman could tell the dispatcher where she was, but not all people who call 911 are able to do that.

"We have the computers and the capability; we just need the addresses," Ebert said. "We try to have directions ready, but the old system that went by those directions is obsolete."

If the county goes ahead with the signing project, rural route addresses would become street addresses with house numbers, and the dispatch mapping system would correspond with those.

Emergency crews responding to the dispatches now follow directions by a plat map with information on township, section numbers and other directions to the location. But in cases of newly located residents or children who can't say where they are, that system may not work.

"We don't want to be playing games when it's people's lives," Ebert said.

Dispatchers aren't the only personnel looking forward to an organized numbering system to roads. Delivery companies, service workers and people trying to find a business or residence in rural areas usually find road signs more helpful than not.

A matter of cost
Township board members who said they weren't interested in the project indicated they either thought it was unnecessary or too costly.

For those who thought it was a matter of cost, they learned most other counties have split the cost with townships. With almost 540 signs needed within the county, the cost to townships would be almost $5,000 each, which the county would likely pay for initially and then get reimbursed for.

County Engineer Mark Sehr has mapped a tentative numbering system that will match Pipestone and Nobles counties. He said he chose to use numbers instead of named roads because they are easier to follow as a driver and because signs with names are more likely to be vandalized or stolen.

The dollar amount townships may be asked to pay is the estimate if the signs are done this year. That could increase with each year the project is postponed.

The county would pay all the costs for the computer mapping system, but it is uncertain who would be responsible for maintenance.

The meeting with the townships was for information only, and no decisions were made. The county wants input from the townships, although their approval is not needed to go forward with signing the roads.

Hills-Beaver Creek students in grades K-6 perform the song "Sing of Christmas Time" Thursday for their Christmas program, "A Rainbow Christmas." Jodi Ackerman is the vocal director.

The Hills-Beaver Creek bus drivers are a dedicated group. They transport area students to and from school in all kinds of weather.

Recently, winter weather has added stress to their jobs. "The cold weather is worse," said bus driver John Tilstra. There were plenty of places the plows hadn't been over yet when he started his afternoon bus route Tuesday, according to Tilstra.

He was quick to say other drivers on the road were usually cautious. He said it has been several years since he has had to report a driver.

The Hills-Beaver Creek School provided the following rules for bus safety.
School Bus Safety
Getting children to and from school safely each day is serious business. Every year, thousands of children are injured in school busÐrelated accidents. Many of these accidents can be prevented if children know and follow these rules for bus safety:

-"Rushing" roulette. When children are late for the bus, they concentrate more on getting aboard than on safety. Too often, accidents result. Set your morning routine so that your child arrives at the bus stop at least five minutes before the bus is due.

-Stay in the "safe zone." Bus drivers have blind spots because of bus design, and many children have been injured because the bus driver simply didn't see them. Tell your children to always stay in the "safe zone" - at least 10 feet in front of the bus.

-Save the horseplay. Bus stops are not playgrounds. Goofing around while waiting for the bus, especially if the play extends into the street, can be deadly. Make sure your children understand the danger.

-One at a time. Every child wants to get a "good" seat, but it's important for children to take their time entering the bus, lining up in single file and not trying to push their way through a swarm.

-No distractions. Children may think that bus rules - no shouting, no throwing things, no horseplay - are just to keep them in line, but there are serious safety issues involved. They should understand the importance of never distracting the bus driver.

-Stay put. Children are so eager to leave the bus that they often start for the front before the bus has stopped. Let them know that they should wait until the bus comes to a complete stop before leaving their seats.

-Cut the ties. Clothing with drawstrings can be a real danger because loose strings can get caught on bus handrails. To be safe, remove drawstrings from your children's jackets and look for backpacks that don't have drawstrings.

-Heads up. A dropped book can turn into a serious accident if the bus driver doesn't see it. Tell your children to let the bus driver know immediately if they drop something while getting on or off the bus.

-The inside story. As tempting as it might be to wave through an open window on a sunny day, children need to understand the importance of keeping their hands, arms and heads inside the bus.

-Getting there. Figure out the safest route to and from the bus stop and walk it with your children a few times. Make sure they cross streets only at crosswalks or corners, never darting out between parked cars, and that they always look both ways before crossing.

It takes only a few minutes to review these bus safety tips with your children. Please, make the time.