September 19 2013

Page 1

The Wright County

Monitor

Sports Pages 14 and 15 Homecoming Court Page 18

144th year Number 38

Thursday, September 19, 2013

Official newspaper of Wright County

Hwy. 3 Corridor Project wants to paint your home, clean your yard By: Clae Goater

The Highway 3 corridor project will be painting this house on Central Avenue free of charge. Earlier this year, the Highway 3 Corridor Project was awarded 15 gallons of paint through a grant from the Keep Iowa Beautiful Foundation, to be used to paint residential houses along Hwy. 3. So far, the Project hasn’t found many interested homeowners. “We had around 15 people out of 85 respond to the survey. After we followed up with them, we really only had two that were interested in accepting help,” said Shannon Walker, with the Highway 3 Corridor Project. “We are going to be using a house on Central Avenue as a model home in order to attract more people in the community to the project.” Hoping to increase the response rate, the Project has opened the offer up to anyone in town. If you have a residential building that you want painted in Clarion, the Project can help you get it done free of charge. The type and color of paint is left up to the individual homeowner. “This would be open to anyone who could not afford labor and materials or who is not physically able to accomplish certain tasks needed to maintain their property. Also, if a person had the money, but not the time, they could pay for the materials,” said Walker. “The work would be done by volunteer organizations, for example The

Mary’s and Martha’s, CGMS Peer Helpers, and any other groups looking for service projects. “ So far, the Project only has one house to paint, and they need to use all 15 gallons before the offer is revoked on December 31. If the Project can’t use all the paint by that deadline, they will likely find themselves at the bottom of the grant list if they chose to reapply for the grant. In addition to the paint grant, the Project is also looking for clean-up projects for next month’s Make a Difference Day. “We’re looking for properties where we can do minor landscaping, weeding, pick up tree limbs, things like that,” said Walker. The Project is also looking for funds and materials for these projects. “If anyone has paint rollers that they’re not using, or shovels, or pruners, we’d be glad to use them,” Walker said. If you are interested in having your property cleaned up, having your home painted, or volunteering to help out, feel free to contact any one of the following people: Barb Mussman – 532-3743, Shannon Walker - 851-8487, Peggy O’Neill - 532-3639, Duane Asbe – 532-9073.

from both the Clarion-Goldfield and Dows school districts. “It’s something that both boards and myself, we’ve been looking at this for a long time. As we were discussing plans for the future … we needed to answer the question of ‘When is small too small?’ As long as we can provide a quality education program and afford it, we’re not too small,” Olson said. “That’s where things changed. Now, small’s too small, not because we can’t provide a quality education program, but because we can’t afford it on our own. We’ve been sharing for 9 years now, and we just thought it was a natural next step. “

www.clarionnewsonline.com

Goldfield, EG fire departments receive rescue tubes By: Clae Goater The Goldfield and Eagle Grove Fire Departments recently received grain rescue tubes through the Gold-Eagle Cooperative. GoldEagle donated the tubes to fire departments in towns where they have an office. The tubes are designed to help rescue people who have been trapped in grain bins. The tubes are metal cylinders, broken into different interlocking panels. When a person is trapped in a grain bin, rescue personnel can build the tube around them to separate them from the bulk of the grain. “After you get it built around them, you give them a bucket so they can start digging the corn out. Or you can use an auger to get some of the corn out,” said Goldfield Fire Chief Jeff Slaikeu. “Once you get it up so far, there are handholds that you can actually start pulling yourself up with. “ Grain bin accidents have been a serious problem for rural communities for years. The forces involved are staggering. “At any of the elevators anymore, they have to be tethered or on a harness. But that doesn’t stop them from getting sucked in,” Slaikeu said. “I don’t know the exact figures, but if you go in (chest deep) they will pull your arms out of your sockets if they pull you out of there.” Slaikeu has been with the Goldfield Fire Department for 30 years, and he can only remember responding to two grain bin accidents. Both were fatalities. Slaikeu said that the new grain

rescue tube is a vast improvement over the equipment they were working with in the past. “The second time … we were trying to get sheets of plywood in there to basically do what (the rescue tube) does, to block the corn. They don’t lock together, so as you try to make this circle, it’s leaking in between them,” Slaikeu said. “Plywood is 4x8, and most of the access tubes to these bins are pretty small. You had to rip it down to 32inch sections.” The fire department received the equipment about two months ago. Slaikeu wasn’t sure how much the equipment cost, but he estimated it was between $2,200 and $2,400. “On these small departments, budget’s a big thing. $2,400 is a pretty good chunk of my budget. It really helped, and I just hope we never have to use it. It’s here if we need it,” Slaikeu said. “It was nice of Gold-Eagle to donate it to us and all the departments. They made a pretty substantial purchase here. “ On Sept. 1, the Goldfield Fire Department received free training on how to use the rescue tube through the state. Slaikeu says that around eight volunteer firemen were trained to use the tube. “I don’t think people realize how much time volunteer firemen put in. We gave up pretty much a whole Sunday afternoon. It was for a good cause,” Slaikeu said. “There’s more and more training required every year. It’s hard to get guys to give up that much time. So hats off to anyone on the fire department.“

Goldfield Fire Chief Jeff Slaikeu inside the department's new grain bin rescue tube

Wright County Supervisors approve $6,000 for Goldfield Dam Project By: Clae Goater The Wright County Board of Supervisors voted to give the Goldfield Dam Project $6,000 in cash to install a rock arch rapids in Goldfield’s River Park. “In the past, on projects for towns, I think we’ve supported every town in the county except Goldfield,” Watne said. “This will

be an opportunity for us to show our support and hopefully get the project funded by grants … I think this kind of matches up with what we did in the other towns. I hope we get the same type of response we got for supporting the livestock building out at the fair. I hope everybody knows this is for the whole county.”

School merger passes in landslide By: Clae Goater The public measure to consolidate the Clarion-Goldfield and Dows school districts passed 505-7 following a vote last Tuesday at the polls in Clarion-Goldfield. Timothy Nagel was elected as an atlarge board member with 484 votes. Beth Jackson and Elizabeth Severson both won District One seats, with 415 and 405 votes respectively. None of these seats were contested. A few weeks ago, superintendant Robert Olson was concerned about voter apathy. Needless to say, he was impressed with the turnout for the election. “If you look at the history of how many participate in voting in the Clarion-Goldfield district, (the turnout for this vote was) more than we’re usually seeing for a school board election,” Olson said. “We were pleased to see a larger number there. The vote is indicative of two school districts who are very supportive of education.” Ultimately, 96 percent of voters in Clarion-Goldfield voted “yes” on the measure, and 86 percent in Dows. “Those are strong, strong numbers,” Olson said. “You usually don’t see that in an election like this.” Clarion’s last reorganization with Goldfield passed with 99 percent approval in Clarion and 89 percent in Goldfield. Olson said that the Dows merger may have been a harder decision for voters than the Goldfield merger, because Goldfield was not losing an elementary school in the process. “It’s a tough decision to make, when you’re not going to see your school used any more. It’s a sad thing to see,” Olson said. “(The people I’ve talked to) see it’s inevitable, but they still hate to see it go.” Olson said the vote is a culmination of a lot of hard work

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In preparation for the consolidation in the 2014-2015 school year, a new transition school board will be put into place alongside the Dows and Clarion-Goldfield boards. “Essentially, that’s going to be the board that’s going to be doing the planning for next school year,” Olson said. The transition board is going to face a lot of decisions in the coming year. “A lot of things have been decided. We’re still the Cowboys/ Cowgirls. We’re still red and black. There are many, many other decisions to be made before we’re

ready for the new school year,” Olson said. “What scoreboards will we have to change to say ClarionGoldfield-Dows? What signage will we have to change at the schools? When do we repaint the school buses to say Clarion-Goldfield-Dows?” Overall, Olson is happy about how the vote turned out. “I feel just as happy about the reorganization election this time as I did in 93, where you have two very good school districts coming together to be one very good school district,” Olson said. “This is going to be a good thing for our students in all the communities.”

Ribbon Cutting for New Home Business

“I think a donation would be awesome for it. It sounds like it’s going to be a pretty good deal,” said Supervisor Rick Rasmussen. “I think it’s a good step to maybe get (the Boone River) named as a waterway,” said Supervisor Karl Helgevold. The City of Goldfield has a trust fund set up for the dam project. If for whatever reason the dam project is not completed, the donated monies will be used for other improvements to the park. The board agreed to donate the money, with the stipulation that the money must be used on the dam project. “I’d rather keep it and say it’s strictly for the dam,” Rasmussen said.

Clarion Chamber and Development and Member Services, formerly known as Clarion Ambassadors, helped with a ribbon cutting Monday, Sept. 16, at the Depot to welcome a new home based business co-owned by Shannon Schroeder and Lydia Schroeder to town. The mother-daughter team are the new saleswomen for mialisia, a jewelry business. They are planning to host a couple of events a month in their home and invited everyone to stop in at check out this brand new line of jewelry. To contact Shannon or Lydia visit their website at S-Lschroeder.mialisia.com. Holding the ribbon for the ceremony were (left to right): Lydia, Shannon, and Becky Elliott.

“I think we can say that if the money’s not for the actual dam, we want it back,” said Helgevold. In other county news: -Linda Klehm announced that she’ll be retiring from her position as administrator of the Wright County Health Department. Tiffany Mericle has been hired as her replacement. -The board voted to name a culde-sac off Sandy Beach Road. The cul-de-sac was built in 1977, but had never received an official name. The board approved naming the cul-desac Sandy Beach Circle. -Watne said that the county has received several complaints about Highway 17. Apparently, water has been pooling in the middle of the road. Watne said that Highway 17 is a state highway, so the county doesn’t have control over it. However, he said that he would call the DOT to let them know that Wright County residents have been complaining. -Brad Leckrone, county social services director, came before the council to ask permission to hire a new case manager. The county approved. -Rasmussen noted that almost half of the county’s substance abuse budget has been used already this year. Leckrone said that the new magistrate judge is increasing the number of substance abuse commitments the county deals with. “We used to have one or two a year. Now, we’re seeing one or two a month,” Leckrone said. “So our budget will change.” Rasmussen asked if the increased number of commitments is a beneficial change or a negative one. “It’s a matter of opinion as to whether it’s needed or not,” Leckrone said. “Substance abuse is really tough, because if they’re not asking for help, the likelihood of making them go to a treatment facility and having it do any good is pretty slim. “


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