BURNETT COUNTY
WEDNESDAY, JANUARY 4, 2017 VOL. 55 NO. 16 www.burnettcountysentinel.com $1.00
OATH OF OFFICE: Four Burnett County officials sworn-in for new term. P7
A new banking option in Danbury? BY TODD BECKMANN SENTINEL
LORI CALLAHAN | SENTINEL
Happy New Year Why wait until midnight when you can “Countdown to Noon Years,” an annual event at the Grantsburg Public Library. More photos on Page 2.
A career of bringing order out of chaos BY STEVE BRIGGS SENTINEL
Rhonda Reynolds
SIREN—As she prepares to retire, two important pieces of advice Rhonda Reynolds will pass on from a career in emergency management are: 1) After a disaster, expect chaos, and 2) no two disasters are the same. “My job in Burnett County has involved developing plans in preparation for disasters. We look at the items and plans we need in place to be able to respond effectively. But, the primary job of the emergency planning director is to prepare for and manage the recovery,” Reynolds
said. “For example, you may have a large tornado. Fire, law enforcement and EMS responders will work for maybe 12-24 hours, and then their disaster response work is done. They have insured life safety. They found the injured and transported them. They secured the scene and have done all the things that are required during the emergency phase. “The longterm work starts when emergency responders leave,” she commented. “In a big disaster, recovery involves months and months of SEE REYNOLDS, PAGE 8
Top 10 stories of 2016 GRANTSBURG—Every year in late December the Sentinel’s editorial staff combs through 52 issues looking for the top news stories of the year. The most difficult part of the task is placing the stories in order of importance and, while the reader is free to disagree, the impact of the story,
the number of people affected by the event and any long-range implications are all considered in determining what makes a top story. Several stories are of the on-going type — the event may have begun in 2015 or even earlier and came to a conclusion in 2016, the
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event may have begun in 2016 and will be concluded in 2017 or may even spill into 2018. Still, others were “moment-in-time” situations. Here then, are our top news stories of 2016. Interspersed are
DANBURY—Will Community Bank be opening a branch on Main Street in Danbury in the coming months? “We are pursuing it,” Ted Gerber, president of Community Bank, clarified. “But we do have to receive formal approval from the FDIC.” It all started when Bremer Bank announced last month it was closing its Danbury branch in early March. “Within a day, we had a half dozen calls from existing Bremer customers telling us they wanted to have a bank,” Gerber explained. He said the bank did its own research on the idea but then he got a call from George Costello, a superGeorge Costello visor from the Town of Swiss. “On behalf of the town board, George said they wanted Community Bank to think about opening a branch in Danbury,” Gerber recalled. Costello said it was his way of thinking outside the box. “Everyone knew Bremer was pulling stakes and leaving Danbury and there Ted Gerber were lots of people working to keep them in town,” he said. “I went the opposite way and contacted several banks to see if one of them would consider opening a branch here in Danbury.” He said Community Bank is the first one who called him back and that call set everything in motion. “The town board voted to lease the former bank Jaime Morales building (7511 Main St.) across from the post office to Community Bank, rent-free, for a period of three years —all they need to do is pay the utilities,” Costello reported. The town owns the building and, except for a year, it has been sitting empty since the previous tenant moved out. “We see it as a win-win for all of us,” Costello said.
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