By Sara Quam
The Luverne City Council will vote at its Tuesday meeting whether to use money from the hospital sale for economic development.

Selling Luverne's hospital to Sioux Valley Hospitals and Health System last year netted the city about $4.5 million. The council at that time decided to set aside $3 million in a fund from the sale proceeds.

Councilman Keith Erickson said that at the time, the sale seemed solid, but the council didn't want to be without money if Sioux Valley tried to resell the hospital or close it. It was a very conservative move, he said, because of the community's feelings of vulnerability.

The hospital fund is just sitting in the cityÕs accounts earning about $180,000 interest annually.

The fund came into discussions Monday, when the council met as the Committee of the Whole, because the Luverne Economic Development Authority wants to give a sizable loan to the company Netbriefings.

The LEDA can always come to the council for special requests, but the council discussed setting aside money for the LEDA to use for grants or loans as it sees fit.

It already researches companies on its own and in 17 years of helping businesses, only three have defaulted. City Administrator Matt Hylen said, "Over the years, theyÕve really done their homework. It's very impressive."

The issue the council wanted to address was whether the money from the hospital fund should sit or be invested back into the community.

Councilman Jim Kirchhofer, who was also on the previous council, said, "If we can essentially preserve that fund - giving the EDA a half million or so, in three years' worth of interest, you'd have the original amount back."

Barb Berghorst, financial manager, said, "If preservation of the principal $3 million is the goal, it would be mathematically simple to put the interest earnings into a revolving loan fund."

Erickson said, "How long do you sit on the money? We were trying to be conservative and patient to set it aside, but let's start turning that money over to do something for the betterment of the community."

The fund for the LEDA would involve the council giving it a set amount of money and the LEDA could loan that out is it wanted, earning interest on what was paid back.

The original $3 million in the hospital sale fund would then be regenerated through annual interest earnings on that account. City staff is putting together different options for the council to vote on.

By Sara Quam
It may be the dog days of summer, but the city of Luverne is already thinking about snow removal.

The Luverne City Council met as Committee of the Whole Monday to discuss, but not vote on, a few items, including snow removal.

Unlike many larger cities, Luverne can clear streets for travel in a matter of hours after a snowfall. Citizens donÕt have to wait days to safely drive all streets, but the process requires cooperation from the community to be efficient.

When citizens park cars on streets, efficiency is compromised.

The public works department and law enforcement personnel donÕt regularly ticket or tow vehicles that are parked during snow emergencies, but that poses problems for crews working on clearing streets.

The snow removal issue is resurfacing because the city has no way to notify residents when it intends to start plowing snow. Luverne used to interrupt television programming for announcements but can no longer do that because of Federal Communications Commission regulations. The local radio station is syndicated at night, so announcements there wonÕt get to residents either.

The council discussed what ordinances it could write that would allow the city easier snow plowing.

City Administrator Matt Hylen said to the council, "What level of laws and enforcement do you want?"
A concern to city workers is hitting parked cars with blades and having to reblade roads that have been previously cleared around parked cars.

Public Works Director Darrell Huiskes said it would be easiest if people parked off the street when they noticed snow or heard the forecast for snow.

Councilman Keith Erickson said that for people going to bed early, late-night storms would be missed. "It would be easier if we knew that during the winter, let's just not park on residential streets."

The downtown business district already has year-round parking restrictions from 1 to 6 a.m. In purely residential areas, though, it may be a more difficult regulation to enforce.

Councilman Jim Kirchhofer said that some residents donÕt have garages or off-street parking, and creating an ordinance that forbids winter street parking would cause some isolated problems.

Huiskes said that doing an adequate job blading streets saves the city money because less sand and salt is needed.

Graffiti ordinance
Rock County Sheriff Ron McClure was present to discuss graffiti issues and what role the city should play in managing it.

The City Council had a copy of Worthington's ordinance to get direction.

This spring's graffiti activity will likely result in restitution and wasn't gang-related.

Some graffiti is still around town, although most has been removed. An ordinance could require property owners to remove it instead of waiting for the graffiti perpetrator to be caught.

Erickson said community service is an appropriate punishment for the crime, although that's decided in the court system. "Too often," he said, "the parents end up paying it off."

The council leaned toward requiring property owners to erase the vandalism and then be reimbursed through restitution when someone is prosecuted.

Councilman Tom Martius said, "Could there be some type of fund where the property owner can pay for it through there? If there's a big project, a business owner could be saddled with that cost."

Fines for graffiti could go into a fund for that, but city administration and law enforcement are looking into that further.

BMX track
When the new skate park was looked at for insurance purposes, the BMX (bicycle motocross) bike track was also inspected. The bike track is near the Rock River dam by the city park.

Berkley Risk Administrators evaluated the area and said that facilities like it, in general, represent an exposure to injury and liability problems.

The company listed minimum measures the city should take on the track area. Many cities have removed their tracks or fenced them off for use only during sanctioned races because of liability concerns.

First grade Spotlight Dancers (from left) Hannah Hemme, Hailey Stulen, and Salinda Fletcher performed to the song "Boots are Made for Walkin' " at Hot Dog Night. Luverne Tae Kwon Do also performed at the event.

Truman was certainly a "hot dog" at this year's Hot Dog Night. He ate four hot dogs all by himself.

Dorothy Cronin, manager of the Rock County Developmental Achievement Center, was one of many who stepped in for their turn in the dunk tank. $1 paid for three chances to soak the victim. The proceeds went to recreational activites for the residents of the DAC.

By Katrina Vander Kooi
The first crops workshop in Rock County took place Tuesday near the new baseball diamonds, Luverne.

Weed science specialist Jeff Gonsolus and integrated pest management specialist Bruce Potter gave the audience information about current weed and insect problems in fields.

Watch out for weeds
Gonsolus encouraged rotating herbicides that are used on land. "If you use the same herbicide every year, you will select a certain type of weed," Gonsolus said. "We need to develop a more diverse weed management system."

Gonsolus used water hemp as an example. "Water hemp is a wimp," Gonsolus said. He said it is hard to grow in a lab because it is temperamental. In southwest Minnesota, however, it is thriving. "We could tell that something was up with our management strategies," Gonsolus said.

He characterized the problem, by comparing water hemp to a plant unknown to those attending the workshop, biannual wormwood.

Water hemp and biannual wormwood share a number of characteristics. First, they have a long emergence period, which means they take a long period of time to grow out of the ground. Second, they have a high seed production which helps them stay alive from year to year. Third, they have fast growth in open canopies, and fourth, they are the result of post weed management. This means that herbicides sprayed on the crops at the usual time will not kill them.

Adapted rootworms
Potter said that some populations of the northern corn rootworm have adapted to the corn-soybean rotation and now have a two-year life cycle.

This two-year life cycle is called "extended diapause" because the eggs remain dormant in the soil for almost two years before hatching.

"Spend some time looking at cornfields," Potter said. "Keep track where there are lots of beetles. That's where you're going to have problems in two years."

He suggests farmers scout weekly beginning one to two weeks after beetles first appear in the field and ending when silks are brown and dry. The best time for scouting is between 9 a.m. and 2 p.m.

According to Potter, if a plant is found to have four or more beetles per plant, there are three options for action.

"The first option is to do nothing," Potter wrote in his handout. "There is not certainty that you will have lodging and especially yield loss in 2001 or 2002. Given prospective corn prices, a low-cost strategy is simply to plant hybrids with good root scores.

"The second option is to change rotation and plant another non-host crop instead of corn, and the third option is the use of corn rootworm insecticide in rotated corn," Potter said.

For more information on material presented at the workshop, contact the Rock County Extension office at 507-283-8685, Ext.4.

Nicholas Nekali, Luverne, sits on the curb to eat his hot dog at the 39th Annual Hot Dog Night last Thursday.

Photo by Katrina Vander Kooi

By John Rittenhouse
The Hills-Beaver Creek-Steen Baseball Association staged what has become its biggest fund-raiser of the season at Hills-Beaver Creek High School Saturday.

The Association's annual 3-on-3 Basketball Tournament drew an estimated 188 players who competed with 47 teams at the event.

Teams from Minnesota, South Dakota and Iowa were represented at the tournament.

By John Rittenhouse
The Hills Thunder came up empty in two attempts to post a victory in front of their home fans Sunday.
Hills' amateur baseball team hosted Pipestone and Luverne for an afternoon set.

Pipestone blanked the Thunder 5-0 in the opener, and Luverne toppled the hosts 16-5 in the second game.

Hills had four players slap two hits in Game 1 against Pipestone, but the Thunder couldn't produce any runs against the A's.

Pipestone blanked Hills in the seven-inning tilt while scoring single runs in the first, second, third, fifth and seventh frames to win by five.

Adam Hansen pitched all seven innings and took the loss for the Thunder. Hansen fanned one batter.

Matt Carroll, Eric Harnack, Matt Funke and Wade Jellema all went two-for-three at the plate. One of Jellema's two hits was a double.

Hills' scoreless stretch reached 10 innings for the day before it produced a run in the bottom of the fourth in Game 2 against Luverne.

Unfortunately for the Thunder, Luverne had plated seven runs by then and added nine more to win by 11 runs in six innings.

The Redbirds opened a 7-0 lead by scoring once in the first and six times in the third before Hills came up with its first run of the day in the fourth.

Harnack drew a walk and scored the initial run when Funke singled to make it a 7-1 game.

Luverne ended up scoring the next nine runs (three in the fifth inning and six in the sixth) to extend its lead to 15 runs (16-1).

Hills, however, scored four runs in the bottom of the sixth to make it an 11-run difference at game's end.

Funke, the lone Thunder player to pick up two hits in the game, started the bottom of the sixth by clubbing a solo homer over the left-center field fence.

Hansen reached base on an error and moved to third when Jellema singled before scoring on Justin Van Maanen's fielder's choice.

Carroll and Jarud Lang capped the four-run rally by supplying RBI singles.

Chad Rauk worked the first three and one-third innings on the mound, taking the loss for the Thunder. Hansen tossed one and two-thirds innings, while Lang pitched one frame.

The losses left Hills with a 2-11 record for the season.

The Thunder play Windom and Heron Lake and noon and 2 p.m. respectively Sunday in Jackson.