Bert Black and a team of other election officials came to Rock County Sept. 22 to conduct one of the only state ballot recounts the county has seen.

By Lori Ehde

Area law enforcement agencies are getting a handle on a two-month spree of local thefts and burglaries involving Sioux Falls and Rock County suspects.

Last week a stereo stolen in Garretson, S.D., turned up in Rock County and led officers to a ring of Sioux Falls juveniles with extensive criminal records.

Those four boys, ages 14 to 17, admitted to committing a long list of Rock County crimes, and they're likely responsible for up to 80 additional reported crimes in South Dakota and Nebraska.

"I don't think these boys have any idea how many things they stole or even where they burglarized," said Rock County Investigator Clyde Menning.

"They'd be driving down the road pitching stuff out the window. They'd have no idea where they even were and had no destination in mind. They were just on a crime spree."

As these boys were questioned, deputies learned the Sioux Falls group had help from local juveniles, who are also taking credit for several of their own illegal acts.

As of Wednesday, Menning said eight Rock County males, mostly from Luverne, are facing charges. Six are juveniles as young as 15, and two are legal adults, ages 18 and older.

In all, law enforcement has wrapped up investigations of 10 Rock County crimes committed in the past 30 days, but Menning said that tally could change.

"We seem to take care of a couple of burglaries, but then as we ask questions, the list keeps growing," he said. "It's a nightmare."

The Sioux Falls boys will be charged in connection with the following Rock County incidents:

An Aug. 1 burglary at the Rock Veterinary Clinic.

An Aug. 19 theft of Gordon Swenson's cell phone from his car parked at Casey's on South Highway 75.

An Aug. 19 theft of Evie VandenBerg's cell phone and its 12-volt adapter from her vehicle, which was parked in the garage.

An Aug. 19 burglary at Palace Video involving stolen cash and five CDs.

An Aug. 26 burglary at the laundromat involving theft of calling cards from a machine.

An Aug. 28 theft of a purse and its contents from Daniel Spreiter's van in Luverne.

An Aug. 30 theft of cash and a damaged pop machine.

The eight Rock County suspects have had varying degrees of involvement with these cases as well.

"For example, two of our young individuals may have been involved with the vet clinic break-in and the Palace Video case," Menning said.

The Sioux Falls juveniles face charges in South Dakota, and the Rock County young people will be charged in Rock County District Court.

The Rock County suspects are also implicated with several crimes reported in the past week, apparently with no involvement by the Sioux Falls youths.

Since Friday, burglaries were reported by the pawn shop and Blue Mound Inn, in addition to three residential burglaries in Luverne and rural Beaver Creek.

Menning said he's seeing increasing Sioux Falls influence in recent years. "Our communities are growing closer and closer," he said. "We'd like to say Sioux Falls is a long ways away, but we are tied closer to Sioux Falls than to any other nearby community. How they evolve we evolve."

While local deputies are still working to solve many other unsolved thefts, burglaries and vandalism, Menning said it helps to have these cleared.

"We can eliminate all of these other cases that obviously aren't connected," Menning said.

Joint law is beneficial

Rock County deputies worked jointly on the investigation with the Sioux Falls Police Department detective division and the South Dakota Division of Criminal Investigation.

"Our officers put in a lot of extra patrol time and talked to a lot of individuals compiling information on these cases," Rock County Sheriff Ron McClure said. "I want to commend these guys for their hard work."

He added that joint law enforcement, which combined the Rock County Sheriff's Department and the Luverne Police Department in January 1998, was particularly helpful for cases such as these.

"Eight to nine officers were all working together for the whole county and city on the same case," he said. "And having one investigator to compile all their information was very beneficial."

Menning, one of the early opponents of combining police and deputies, agreed the joint law system is working well. "It eliminates that duplication of the right hand and the left hand trying to do the same thing," he said.

The Sheriff's Department still encourages anyone with information on unsolved local cases to call 283-5000 or any of the individual sheriff's deputies directly.

By Lori Ehde

Funeral services were Tuesday afternoon in Luverne for Kim Kremin, mother of four, who died at age 33 in a car crash Friday night.

She was dead at the accident scene four miles south of Luverne on Highway 75 where her 1990 Pontiac Grand Am collided head-on with a 1987 Bonneville carrying four Iowa teen-agers.

The Minnesota State Patrol, along with local law enforcement and rescue crews, responded to the call at about 11:40 p.m.

Preliminary accident reconstructions show Kremin's northbound vehicle crossed the center line prior to impact. Blood samples were taken from both drivers, as is customary in fatal accidents, to determine if alcohol was a factor in the collision. Results were not available as of this printing.

Kremin, who was not wearing a seatbelt, was traveling alone.

Three of the four teens in the Iowa car were killed. The driver, 16-year-old Katie Hoogendoorn, Rock Valley, died at the scene, as did passenger 16-year-old Nathan Van Voorst, Inwood. Cindy Jo Post, also 16, Rock Valley, died at Luverne Community Hospital.

Aaron Van Voorst, 16, Larchwood, was taken to Sioux Valley Hospital and released Sunday.

The young people were on their way home after seeing a movie at the Verne Drive-In theater, Luverne.

Hoogendoorn was wearing her seatbelt, but Post and Nathan Van Voorst were not. It is unclear whether Aaron Van Voorst had been buckled in.

Kremin grew up in Ash Creek and attended school in Luverne. She was employed by Bullseye Cabinets in Sioux Falls.

She had four children, Mandi, Tanner, Travis and Tara. For the time being, they are under the care of their grandmother, Alberta Kremin, Steen.

Services were in First Assemblies of God Church, rural Luverne, and burial was in Maplewood Cemetery, Luverne.

Organizers plan special events for 50th anniversary
By Lori Ehde

The 50th Annual Tri-State Band Festival is slated for Saturday. More than 3,000 student musicians and likely 10,000 spectators will converge on Luverne Saturday for parade and field events.
New Cardinal Fieldbleachers and pressbox on schedule forcompletion in time forBand Fest spectators
In addition to the special 50th anniversary events planned for the day, organizers are particularly excited about christening the new bleachers and press box just constructed on Cardinal Field.

"The press box is larger, so it will allow more room for judges and videographers," said Chamber Director Dave Smith. "We won't need the Culligan truck this year because the command center will be up there, too. It will be a great improvement."

The judges and organizers aren't the only ones who will have more elbow room this year. The new bleachers on the north side of Cardinal Field will accommodate more spectators than the old ones, and seating will still be available on the south side of the field.

It's a good thing, too, because the festival had attracted some larger bands this year. "When you start multiplying all those students times parents, the numbers get up there in hurry," Smith said.

He said it's hard to predict crowds in advance, because the festival's popularity depends largely on the weather.

"I spoke with Tom Haugen (head judge) yesterday, and he told me we'll have 72-degree temperatures with 5-mile-per-hour winds," Smith said. "The forecast, though, calls for a high of 62 and a chance of showers."

The parade will begin at 10 a.m. followed by the field competition at 12:45 p.m.

Entrance to all field events will require a $3 band festival button designed this year by Luverne native Kevin Van Westen. Buttons are available on Main Street prior to the parade or at the gate.

The official band festival book, including scoring sheets, schedules, judge profiles, band previews and festival highlights, is included with this issue of the Star Herald.

The book also features information on special events planned for the 50th anniversary occasion. For example, 18 of the past parade marshals will return this year for special honors.

Also, the First Marine Division Marching Band from Camp Pendleton, Calif., will perform at both the parade and field events, in addition to a return appearance by the Southwest State University marching band from Marshall.

For more information, call the Luverne Area Chamber of Commerce at 283-4061.

To the Editor:

Enough, enough already! Today a report came out that the entertainment industry was still targeting young people with violence in movies and in video games. Of course Vice-President Al Gore was on TV saying that we must stop targeting our youth with violence. This is from the same man who at the Democratic National Convention said that he will protect the right to abortion. How much younger can we get than the growing and fully formed but yet unborn baby?

The truth is that the Democratic Party, with its support of the killing of babies, is espousing and promoting violence in our society. Al Gore's actions are speaking louder than his words, and the message is clear - violence is OK in our society.

A pastor told us some time back that sin in our society is being politicized. God is not fooled. The miracle of life was created by Him. God will allow us to go as deep into sin as we wish. We are reaping what we have sown. It is no wonder that children are shooting children in our schools. A young girl in Iowa was recently set on fire by some jealous girls. We shouldn't be surprised for we as voters with the election of pro-abortion presidents are supporting killing. The message to our young people must be clear and honest. This is something we obviously will not get from the self-proclaimed inventor of the Internet.

Al Gore is going to promise you the world, but it will be filled with violence and dishonesty because this is what we will have sown.

Robert Sandbulte

Steen

The Ellsworth volleyball squad posted a pair of wins early this week to extend its season-long winning streak to three matches.

The Panthers topped Lake Benton during a four-game road match Monday before returning home Tuesday to sweep a three-game contest from Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster Tuesday.

Ellsworth, 3-7 overall, will try to continue its winning ways when it hosts Southwest Christian Tuesday.

Ellsworth 3, SV-RL-B 0

The Panthers extended their current roll by racking up a three-game home win over the Raiders Tuesday.

SV-RL-B pressured the Panthers during the first two games of the match without gaining a win.

Ellsworth controlled Game 3 by playing solid team volleyball, which has been crucial to the team's recent success.

"The kids are really coming together as one and are playing well as a team. It's paying off for us, too," said Panther coach Ryan Nielsen.

The Panthers took Game 1 by a 15-10 count before pulling out a 16-14 victory in the second test. EHS saved its best for last, coasting to a 15-7 victory.

Julie Pommer led the Panthers in serving during the match with seven aces and 11 points. Connie Lewis had seven kills and four blocks at the net.

Ellsworth 3, LB 1

The Panther girls produced their first road win of the 2000 campaign when they bested the Bobcats in Lake Benton Monday.

The teams split games to start the match before Ellsworth took control of the contest and nailed down a pair of wins in Games 3 and 4.

"They all were neck-and-neck games, and some were closer than they should have been," said Nielsen. "We played bad at times and good at other times. It was like a roller coaster ride. It was a good match for us because we had to fight hard to win."

Ellsworth took an early lead by pulling out a 15-13 victory in the opener before the Bobcats evened the match at one game each with a 15-9 win in Game 2.

The Panthers nailed down their second consecutive win by posting a pair of 15-12 victories in Games 3 and 4.

"Just knowing that we could do it and having the determination to win was the key for our girls. They took it upon themselves to get a win, and they did a good job of doing it," Nielsen said.

Jamie Leuthold served six aces and eight points to lead the Panthers at the line.

Connie Lewis and Julie Pommer set the tone at the net by recording eight blocks and six kills respectively.

The Luverne Cardinal volleyball team put up a good fight before falling to defending Southwest Conference champion Jackson County Central in Jackson Thursday.

Luverne staged a rally to post a two-point win in the opening game of the match, but the Huskies went on to outscore LHS 45-23 the rest of the night while recording a 3-1 victory.

The loss left the Cards with a 0-2 Southwest Conference record and a 6-5-1 mark overall.

Although LHS came up on the short end on the floor, it wasn't due to a lack of effort.

"We dug up a lot of balls and played hard in between points," said Cardinal coach Mary Jo Graphenteen. "We just didn't score enough points. We really are working hard. We just do not get any easy points or easy wins."

Luverne's determination led to a late run in Game 1 that gave the Cards a 16-14 victory.

The Cards led 8-5 in Game 2 before the Huskies went on a 10-0 run that gave them a 15-8 win.

JCC prevailed 15-8 in Game 3 before using a 6-0 run in Game 4 to pull away and gain a 15-7 win.

"If we can hang in there, cut down the number of unforced errors and improve on finding the open holes on the court, we'll do great. We'll just have to go back to the drawing board and keep working at it," Graphenteen added.

Fifteen missed serves hurt the Cards in the match, but Amy Nunez had a good night at the line by completing 11 of 13 attempts and registering three aces.

Susan Remme and Nicole Aaker led the Cards at the net with 13 and four kills respectively.

Luverne hosts Windom tonight and Lincoln HI Tuesday.

Members of the Luverne, Adrian-Edgerton and Hills-Beaver Creek-Ellsworth cross country teams had an early engagement Saturday.

All three programs from the Star Herald coverage area converged in Worthington to run in the annual Worthington Turkey Trot in the morning.

Runners from all three programs made impacts in the different races.

The Adrian-Edgerton boys ran their way to a third-place finish in the team competition, and the Luverne boys placed eighth out of nine teams.

A-E's girls capped a seven-team field in varsity competition. Luverne didn't field a complete team, but the Cards did have two fine performances from varsity girls.

H-BC-E competed in the junior high and junior varsity races, producing two individual championships and one team title.

Meet officials award trophies for the top 10 finishers in varsity competition, and two Luverne girls picked up some hardware.

Hannah and Sadie Dietrich finished fifth and ninth with respective 16:15 and 16:36 times.

Krissi Thier led the Harrier girls during the varsity race by placing 21st with a time of 17:25.

Ashley Diller (32nd in 18:22), Kelly Banck (33rd in 18:34), Lacey Heitkamp (35th in 18:40) and Sarah Kruger (39th in 18:48) made contributions to A-E's team effort. Ashley Henning placed 46th in 19:37 without influencing the team tally.

Jason Eickhoff picked up a trophy and led the A-E boys to their third-place performance in the varsity standings by finishing eighth with a time of 18:28.

Paul Honermann (12th in 18:44), Wade Ulmer (22nd in 19:25), Jake Salter (28th in 19:42) and Derek Vastenhout (29th in 19:44) round out A-E's point total. Josh Markl and Todd Alberty placed 45th and 58th in 20:21 and 23:00 without contributing to the team cause.

Nick Otten led the Luverne boys in varsity competition by placing 13th in 18:50.

Jesse Kuhlman (30th in 19:45), Tony Kopp (40th in 20:04), Jeff Luethje (52nd in 21:17) and Kyle Bitterman (55th in 21:34) helped the Cards place eighth as a team.

Brad Haak and Tyler Bush made meet history for H-BC-E.

Haak won the boys' junior varsity race and set a meet record that has stood since 1994 with his time of 11:09. Bush won the boys' junior high race and set a meet record that was established in 1996 with a time of 5:45.

The H-BC-E boys won the team competition at the junior high level.

Luverne, H-BC-E and A-E run at meets in Jackson today and Slayton Tuesday. H-BC-E and A-E go to Princeton Saturday.

Here's a look at the varsity team standings and the rest of the individual results from the Worthington Turkey Trot.

Boys' standings: Murray County Central 57, New ulm 64, A-E 99, Windom 109, Mountain Lake-Butterfield-Odin 119, Worthington 124, Southwest Christian 139, Luverne 190, Southwest Star Concept-Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster 228.

Girls' standings: SSC-SV-RL-B 67, MCC 80, Tracy-Milroy 93, NU 124, Windom 141, Worthington 155, A-E 160.

Girls' junior varsity

Luverne: Nicole Cronquist, 10th, 15:27; Suzanne Gluf, 16th, 16:00.

A-E: Jamie Koehne, 27th, 19:16.

H-BC-E: Shanna Tilstra, third, 14:13; Bev Wurpts, fifth, 14:34; Connie Lewis, seventh, 14:55.

Boys' junior varsity

Luverne: Kevin Klay, 33rd, 15:28.

A-E: Jonathon Beukelman, 21st, 13:36; Kelly Seeman, 32nd, 14:12; Paul Poppen, 34th, 14:36.

H-BC-E, Haak, first, 11:09; Nathan Fick, fourth, 12:07; Matt Buck, sixth, 12:18; Lee Jackson, seventh, 12:30.

Girls' junior high

Luverne: Victoria Arends, sixth, 7:15; Amanda Saum, eighth, 7:23; Breanna Studer, 18th, 7:42; Jessica Willers, 23rd, 8:00; Michelle Riddle, 33rd, 9:00.

A-E: Samantha Ferguson, 14th, 7:32; Abbey Henning, 16th, 7:38; Sidney Miner, 29th, 8:22; Jenny Weiss, 33rd, 8:39.

H-BC-E: Cassi Tilstra, third, 6:48; Amanda Tilstra, 30th, 8:26.

Boys' junior high

Luverne: Ruston Aaker, fourth, 6:23; Michael Nelson, 26th, 7:23; Travis Halffman, 27th, 7:30.

A-E: Brandon Bullerman, sixth, 6:25; Joey Bullerman, 20th, 6:59; Marcus Uithoven, 37th, 9:20; Aldon Vaselaar, 41st, 10:59.

H-BC-E: Bush, first, 5:45; Kale Wiertzema, 12th, 6:46; Travis Broesder, 16th, 6:50; Derek Haak, 23rd, 7:01; Justin Hinks, 38th, 9:40.

The teams combined efforts to score 86 points and compile 667 yards during a wild Southwest Ridge Conference tilt that served as Ellsworth's 2000 Homecoming game.

When the game was complete, H-BC-E celebrated a 56-30 win that lifted its record to 3-0 for the campaign.

Considering H-BC-E was limited to five touchdowns and 30 points during the first two games of the season, Friday's offensive eruption was a welcome but unexpected treat for the Patriots.

H-BC-E erupted for 35 points in the first half and iced the win with a 21-point fourth quarter.

"I don't know where all of that scoring came from," said Patriot coach Dan Ellingson. "I just hope we didn't use all of it up in one night."

Actually, Ellingson knew exactly why H-BC-E was able to score 56 points against the Quasars. The Patriots were able to move the ball through the air and on the ground against SSC, racking up 393 yards worth of total offense.

"This was the first game we were able to pass and run the ball well, and that opened things up for us. You can do a lot more things (to a defense) when you can pass and run. That's what happened Friday," he said.

The stage was set for a high-scoring contest in the first quarter when the teams scored a combined 28 points.

H-BC-E received the kick to open the game. On the first play from scrimmage, Lyle DeBoer ran for a 43-yard gain to the SSC three-yard line. He covered the final three yards during the next play, and the first of six extra points by Eric Joens gave the Patriots a 7-0 cushion 30 seconds into the game.

After the Patriot defense forced a punt during its first appearance on the field, DeBoer came up big again when he returned a punt 61 yards for a touchdown at the 9:22 mark of the opening period to make the difference 14-0.

The rest of the first quarter belonged to SSC.

Quasar quarterback Tyler Leopold tossed a 46-yard touchdown pass to Isaiah Rogers with 9:06 left to play in the stanza, and Josh Henkels ran for an 11-yard score at the 3:07 mark. A Leopold-to-Rogers conversion passed knotted the score at 14 after Henkels' touchdown.

The momentum switched back to H-BC-E's favor in the second quarter, when the Patriots scored 21 points to gain a 35-14 halftime cushion.

Patriot quarterback David Top, who completed 10 of 14 passes for 224 yards in the game, tossed a screen pass to Chris Reid that turned into a 63-yard touchdown at the 8:50 mark of the period.

Top and Kevin Van Batavia connected for a four-yard touchdown pass at 6:02, and DeBoer scored on a three-yard run 56 seconds later to cap the 21-point uprising.

SSC responded to H-BC-E's big second quarter by scoring 16 points in the third period to make the difference 35-30.

Leopold hit Rogers for a six-yard touchdown pass with 6:19 left to play in the quarter, and the same combination clicked for a successful conversion pass.

Leopold then scored on a one-yard run before Henkels carried in a two-point conversion to make it a five-point difference (35-30) with 2:53 remaining in the stanza.

H-BC-E put the game away in the fourth quarter by using a key play on special teams to set up one touchdown and using a pair of SSC turnovers to score two others.

The Patriot offense was on the move late in the third quarter before the SSC defense forced a fourth-down situation. H-BC-E lined up in punting formation on fourth down, but DeBoer ran with the ball once he caught the snap and picked up 17 yards for a first down. On the first play of the fourth quarter, Chris Willers scored on a 12-yard jaunt before running in the two-point conversion to make it a 43-30 game.

H-BC-E defender Pat Nelson set up another score when he recovered an SSC fumble moments later.

A 20-yard touchdown pass from Top to Willers followed the fumble recovery with 8:43 left to play, but a missed extra point kept the score at 49-30.

Willers then recovered a fumble on the SSC 12, from where Reid found the end zone on first down. When Joens added the extra point, the scoring was complete with 6:41 remaining.

The downside of H-BC-E's win was the fact that the team yielded a season-high 30 points to the Quasars. Ellingson, however, seemed unconcerned with that fact.

"They had a couple of big plays against us, but this was one of those games where you expected that to happen. We knew going into the game that SSC was a team that could score points. We just had to score more than they did," he concluded.

H-BC-E plays Sioux Valley-Round Lake-Brewster in Brewster tomorrow. The Raiders are 1-2 overall and 0-2 in the conference.

Team statistics

H-BC-E: 169 rushing yards, 224 passing yards, 393 total yards, 16 first downs, six penalties for 45 yards, one turnover.

SSC: 134 rushing yards, 140 passing yards, 274 total yards, 12 first downs, 11 penalties for 38 yards, four turnovers.

Individual statistics

Rushing: DeBoer 11-101, Reid 18-56, Willers 2-25, Top 4-minus 5, Curt Schilling 2-minus eight.

Passing: Top 10-14 for 224 yards.

Receiving: Crawford 3-94, Willers 2-41, Darin DeBoer 2-14, Reid 1-63, L.DeBoer 1-8, Van Batavia 1-4.

Defense: Crawford 11 tackles, one fumble recovery, one interception; L.DeBoer nine tackles, Willers nine tackles, Brant Deutsch three tackles and one fumble recovery, Nelson two tackles and one fumble recovery, Lee Walraven five tackles and one sack.