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Volume 134 Number 10 © 2009 The Community Recorder ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Find out what’s happening as news happens in Boone County. You can read updates several times a day on the Boone Blog, http://news.nky. com/booneblog. Get regular updates about Boone County news on Twitter as well: • twitter.com/McKibbenNews • twitter.com/Nancy_Daly • twitter.com/crkysports
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Flu makes small dent in attendance
By Justin B. Duke jbduke@nky.com
The H1N1 epidemic appears not to be hitting Boone County school districts as badly as planned. Walton-Verona Schools attendance this year is about a quarter of a percent off of the rate for the district all of last year. “It’s not as bad as we anticipated,” said Director of Student Services Pam Sayler. District attendance is about 96 percent so far, and district staff had
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decided they wouldn’t consider any action until attendance dipped to near 80 percent, she said. Attendance has fluctuated through the district, but overall students have been coming to school, she said. There have been bad days for attendance across the district and in individual schools, Sayler said. Sayler credits the high attendance rates to making sure sick students stay home and don’t spread illness. When a student goes home sick, they must check in with the
school nurse to be checked for fever before they are allowed to return to class. In Boone County Schools, attendance for the district is down about 1.5 percent compared to this time last year. “We’re getting beyond the flu bug,” said Director of Pupil Personnel Mike Ford. At one point the district dipped to about 3 percent behind last year, but has since rebounded, Ford said. Ford credits the district’s stable attendance to being a large district.
“We saw pockets of the flu, but we never had the entire district succumb to it like a small district would,” he said. Earlier in the year when the virus was prevalent in the Union area, causing hundreds of Ryle students to miss school, the other parts of the district were able to hold up attendance rates, Ford said. The district holds an annual goal of 96 percent attendance and so far this year, the district has a 95 percent attendance rate, he said.
Park’s disc golf course revamped By Paul McKibben pmckibben@nky.com
This Thanksgiving should be spent doing just that – giving thanks. These thanks are usually given over a hearty meal with plenty of food – which inevitably leads to an abundance of leftovers. Many may forget about proper food safety during this hectic time or may be running short on ideas of what to do with the excess food. – STORY, PAGE A12
Holiday lights contest kicks off
Boone County Parks is conducting is fifth annual holiday lights contest. Judging is Dec. 9-10. Winners receive a prize. The registration deadline is Dec. 5 The entry fee is $5. Read about the categories in our story. – STORY, PAGE A9
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Fred Salaz of Crescent Springs throws a disc at the disc golf course in Boone Woods park in Burlington. Crescent Springs resident Fred Salaz and Bob Herbert of Cincinnati worked on the redesign. The county installed it. “Well, we tried to make it ... a little more challenging,” Salaz said noting they were restricted
because of the restoration. He also said Whitehouse helped with the design, making a few changes at the end that worked out fine. Salaz is a member of the Disc Golf Hall of Fame. He and Herbert
PAUL MCKIBBEN/STAFF
also designed the county’s disc golf course at England-Idlewild Park in Burlington that is the second highest rated course on www.dgcoursereview.com. The new course opened in October.
Walton girl’s doll collection online By Justin B. Duke jbduke@nky.com
A girl’s hobby is connecting her people all over the world. Walton home school student Liz Lauterwasser, 15, has collected American Girl Dolls since she was 9 years old, and that interest has gone online. Her grandmother first got her interested in the dolls, and over the years she and her sister have collected close to a dozen of them. About a year ago, Lauterwasser created a blog about American Dolls using templates through blogger.com. Her father Marc also runs a Web site, so she was able to get some ideas.
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Using a different template, Lauterwasser now runs americangirlfan.com. Since opening the site, it’s brought in visitors from all over the country and as far as Australia, Brazil and Finland. “It really makes me feel great,” Lauterwasser said. The community that’s sprung up around the site has Lauterwasser more excited about collecting and displaying her dolls, she said. “It really does make me like my dolls more,” Lauterwasser said. In general, the response to the site has been positive, but Lauterwasser has had to develop the thick skin that’s needed with the anonymity of the Internet.
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“Sometimes people are mean, but I don’t pay attention to them,” Lauterwasser said. Lauterwasser isn’t set on a career for later in life, but she’s willing to see where her Web design skills can take her. “It's amazing to me that a girl her age could create a Web site like this,” said Becky Kempf, spokesperson for the Boone County Public Library. Along with sharing her love with the world, Lauterwasser is sharing her collection with her neighbors. Her American Girl collection will be on display through the end of the month at the Walton Branch of the Boone County Public Library.
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Liz Lauterwasser, left, and her sister Hope. Liz runs a Web site about the dolls.
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What to do with leftover turkey?
Disc golf players from Boone County and beyond have a redesigned course at Boone Woods park in Burlington to enjoy. Part of a grant was used to purchase new baskets and build new concrete tee pads at the 18-hole course. The previous course was only in the back part of the park. Now there are nine holes in the front section of the creek and nine holes in back part of the creek. David Whitehouse, director of Boone County Parks, said as part of the project to renovate some of the stream banks, the old course had to be taken out because some of the holes were inside that area. The money spent was part of a grant to repair stream banks. “The new course has been ... a great success,” he said. “Everybody we’ve talked to has really been happy with the new course.” Whitehouse said other than staff time, no county dollars were spent on the project.