Third Quarter Honor Roll Visual Arts Team Sectional Today
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Mankato to Minneapolis Bus Service Stopping in B.P. Page 16
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ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH YEAR
BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, april 26, 2017
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NUMBER 17
B.P. School Board Trims 2017-’18 Budget Growth, Cuts Teaching Jobs Probationary Teachers, School Monitor Positions Cut From 2017-18 Budget
Nearly 20 years ago, weather and the ravages of time claimed the old ‘terminal’ at the Belle Plaine Airport, known formally today as the ARS Sport Strip in Faxon Township. With the passing of one its owners, Jim Drometer, his partner, Dianna Minar, wants to sell the air strip. She hopes to stay in the adjacent house Drometer renovated. His memory, she said, is everywhere around the house and air strip.
B.P. Airport Owner Selling Air Strip, Will Cherish the Memories Dianna Minar looks to the south over 2,500 feet of grass landing strip and sees the love of her life for nearly 40 years. Though she’s no longer interested in owning the ARS Sport Strip, Minar will cherish the memories of a man who loved flying almost as much as he loved her. Minar is selling the airstrip and surrounding 40 acres she and her life partner, Jim Drometer, enjoyed on 200th Street in Faxon Township, just north of the river in Sibley County. The airstrip is privately owned but available for public use at no cost. It is currently closed. Drometer passed away suddenly Dec. 19, 2016. He had been chopping wood and working with a log-splitter with a
friend. Jim was 71. Minar hopes to keep living in the farmhouse Drometer restored. She feels his presence in the house. His favorite ball cap sits atop the refrigerator. His ashes are in an urn. When the time arrives, her ashes will be co-mingled with his. “This place was Jim’s dream. I feel like he’s still here with me,” she said. Minar believes the owner of the airstrip should be someone with a passion for flying. As much as she enjoyed flying, it was more a reason to spend more time with the man she loved. “You either have that aviation blood in you or you don’t and he had it,” Minar said. “Jim loved airplanes, loved to fly.”
From New Market to Belle Plaine
ARS Sport Strip is loosely named after the company the couple started and operated, Aircraft Restoration Supplies. They started in New Market and continued the operation after moving to rural Belle Plaine to buy the airstrip, farmhouse and land in 1992. “It helped our business. People could fly out here,” Minar said. “With the business they had, it just made sense,” said Jason Drometer, the youngest of Jim’s four sons. He recalls flying with his brothers and their father. Jim would allow his son
With no certainty on how much the Belle Plaine School District will receive in state aid or how much the school board and the district’s unions will negotiate to spend on contracts over the next two years, the district cut the anticipated growth of the 2017-18 general budget by over $434,000. Monday evening’s (April 24) unanimous decision eliminates two full-time probationary teaching positions, reassigns two response-to-intervention (RTI) positions, eliminate two full-time preschool Community Education staff, a parttime math teacher and an afterschool building monitor at the junior-senior high school. The district is also enacting reductions in spending on mentorship positions, a part-time FFA advisor, professional-learning community advisors, and supplies. It will also adjust or not offer classes with low registration levels at the secondary level. The total reduction from the growth of next year’s budget is
$434,735. The district is assuming a bestcase scenario of 1½ percent in additional state aid in 2017-18 and 2018-19. That would bring about $146,000 of new money into the district. But it would leave the district short $64,000 to cover salary costs. The level of state aid the district receives will impact the budget adjustment. The district receives $6,067 in basic state aid per student (about $9.74 million overall) and $724 per student (about $1.16 million) in board OK’d excess levy aid. State aid is a significant part of the district’s general fund income of $14.46 million in 2016-17. About three-fourths of what the district spends from its general fund is on salaries and benefits for staff. With negotiated staffing costs expected to increase $184,000 with the beginning of the 201718 school year, the school district has less than $131,000 to add to new contracts with teachers and other staff to avoid a repeat of Monday night’s budget adjustment. Anything above that $131,000 will require additional budget revision. Still-to-be-determined is the amount of federal aid for Title 1 and Title 2 programs. The district uses Title 2 money to
fund half of a kindergarten teacher’s salary. Superintendent Ryan Laager said there is no money for Title 2 programs in the proposed federal budget and Title 1 funding is proposed for a 10 percent cut. The district receives about $490,000 in federal aid. Negotiations with the district’s two unions have yet to begin. Further complicating those talks is how the district and its unions will divvy the impact of an approved 12 percent increase in the district’s self-funded health insurance plan. Before dealing with the 201718 budget, the school board finalized the 2016-17 district budget. The revision is based on more current information than was available to the school board earlier this year when it approved a preliminary budget. The district’s initial budget for the 2016-17 had revenue of $15.977 million. The actual revenue was $16.028 million. The board OK’d a preliminary budget with $15.96 million. The revised budget’s expenses for the year are about $16.21 million. Salaries and benefits are the primary driver of the higherthan-expected expenses. The
School Board
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B.P. Airport
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Belle Plaine Mom Makes April ‘Purple Month’
681,000 children 5 years old or younger and another 567,000 children between 6 and 11 years of age as of 2014. Nagorski has seen strangers walk up to soldiers and thank them for the sacrifice associated with their service. “But people don’t say ‘thank you’ to their children for the sacrifice they make not having their dad around,” she said. “If someone said ‘thank you’ to my kids, I think it would make them proud.”
Cupcakes for All
Jennifer Nagorski wants to make sure children of military families are remembered and honored as much as soldiers themselves. Friday (April 21), she passed out purple-iced cupcakes to children of soldiers in Belle Plaine. The children she cares for, like Connor Wagner, enjoyed the cupcakes, too.
Former Soldier’s Wife Wants the Children Remembered When soldiers are deployed, there’s plenty of attention and fanfare for their commitment to their country, the willingness to serve in a time of need. A Belle Plaine mom wants to make sure the children of soldiers and the sacrifices they make are also recognized. Jennifer Nagorski knows firsthand what it’s like to have children missing their father. Their dad, Jeremy, served three tours of duty in Iraq (2003-04 and 2007-08) and Kuwait (201516) before he retired from the
U.S. Army National Guard after 24½ years. So while many people around her saw purple as a way of honoring Prince, the late music icon, Jennifer Nagorski donned purple Friday (April 21) to honor the sacrifices of the military child, the son or daughter whose dad or mom is away from home serving their country’s interests. She and her children loaded up the family mini van and made sure every military child in Belle Plaine she knew of received a cupcake topped with purple icing. The U.S. Department of Defense estimates there were 1.82 million children of active duty and reserve component branches of the services in 2014. The DOD estimates they have over
Through social media, Nagorski put together the most accurate, the most complete list she could of military families living in Belle Plaine. She ordered cupcakes for 10 families – 20 children in all – and delivered them. Nagorski ordered a few extra for her own children and the children she cares for during the day. By the end of Friday, there were a few youngsters with smudged purple smiles in Nagorski’s house. Most were too young to appreciate the effort she made to honor the sacrifices of the children of soldiers. “I think they just like the icing,” Nagorski said. But Jennifer and Jeremy Nagorski know better. Jeremy asks his eldest son what he missed the most when his father was gone during his 2015-16 de-
‘Purple Month’ (continued on page 4)
One Last Go-round After several years running the Belle Plaine spring city-wide garage sales, Diane Skelley has decided to step aside from managing publicity and organizing the popular city-wide event. Last Saturday (April 22) was her final day overseeing the city-wide garage sales. Her work included taking in all the information from people holding garage sales in the event and publishing a listing of the sales. Skelley plans to continue attending garage sales, especially for the social aspect of the events.
City-Wide Recycle and Cleanup Day This Saturday Spring fever is running rampant and will spill into the Belle Plaine Police Department parking lot this Saturday morning. The City of Belle Plaine and the local Lions Club will conduct the community’s annual Recycle and Cleanup Day from 8 a.m. to noon. The police department is located at 420 Main Street E. The event is an opportunity to clear your garage and home of unwanted clutter and other items. Residents from the city of Belle Plaine and the townships of Belle Plaine, Blakeley and St. Lawrence can drop off their unwanted recyclable and refuse items. Items accepted at no charge include glass, newspapers, scrap metal, aluminum, cardboard and plastic. Donations of clothing, shoes, games, toys, lamps, curtains,
linens and tools will benefit the Epilepsy Foundation. There will be fees charged for refuse items. Large appliances are $10 per item. These include air conditioner, computer desktop/laptop, computer monitor, dryer, microwave, refrigerator, vacuum cleaner, washer, water heater and water softener. For televisions, the price is $10 for up to 20 pounds and $20 for up to 50 pounds. For larger TVs, the price will be determined at arrival. Small appliances, which can be disposed of for $2 apiece, include printer/copier/fax machine, radio, receiver and VCR/ DVD player. Automotive items and their costs to drop off include battery ($2), car tire ($3), truck tire ($8) and tractor tire ($15). Larger household items accepted and their costs include sofa ($25), mattress ($20) and
stuffed chair/recliner ($15). The minimum cost for a carload of miscellaneous waste is $30 and $50 and up for a pickup/trailer load. No hazardous waste will be accepted, including fluorescent bulbs, paint, motor oils/filters and chemicals. Yard waste will not be accepted. That should be taken to the city compost site on West State Street (County Road 6). Document shredding will also be available for $5 on the contents of a file cabinet drawer, an average household bin or 20 pounds of documents. This is an opportunity to dispose of old cancelled checks, bank statements, tax returns and other obsolete personal documents utilizing an on-site secure, professional commercial-grade shredder. For more information, call Belle Plaine City Hall at 8735553.