Volume 40 - Number 43 E-mail: starandtjeditor@butler-bremer.com Telephone: 319-267-2731 Website: www.butlercountytribune.com
Thursday, October 24, 2013
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Hummel wins this week’s Football Contest There were 4 entries missing 2 games on this week’s football contest. Those missing two were Patty Hummel and Deb Blockhus of Allison, Dianne Norton and Georgia Freerks of Clarksville. Determined by the tie-breaker, Patty was the 1st place winner and will receive $35 in football bucks while Deb placed 2nd and will receive $15 in football bucks. Football bucks can be spent like cash at any of the locations listed on the football contest pages. Football bucks may be picked up at either newspaper office. Check inside for this week’s featured games and submit your picks for a chance to win!
Elm Springs to host senior breakfast in November Allison Senior Breakfast will be held at Elm Springs in November. In December and January, it will be held at the Allison AMVETS Hall. The breakfasts are held every Wednesday at 8 a.m.
Christmas Cantata Rehearsals to begin The Greene Community Chorus will begin rehearsal for this year’s Christmas Cantata on Sunday, Oct. 27 at 7:00 p.m. All rehearsals will be Sunday evenings at 7:00 to 8:15 p.m. at St. Peters Lutheran Church in Greene. The performance will be Sunday, Dec. 8 at 2:00 p.m. Please bring your music from last year. They welcome new members. Marcia Larson will be directing and Sandra Schuknecht will accompany on piano. Any questions call Carol Barth at 641-8165919.
New Medicare scam reported A Medicare scam about a change in the policy during the first of the year has recently been reported in Butler County. The caller targeted senior citizens, asking the person if they were between the ages of 60-75. Reported as a man with an Indian accent, the caller worked with another person claiming to be his supervisor to get the caller’s bank information and routing number. Please remember not to give out your banking information, and if you do, contact the police as soon as possible.
Fall Craft Expo Saturday The 10th Annual Fall Craft Expo is set for Saturday, October 26, at the Clarksville High School. The event is again filled with nearly 70 exhibitors from across Northeast Iowa selling a wide variety of handmade craft items in the gym complex. Shoppers will also find home based business dealers with booths in the lunchroom, and also a few set-up outdoors. Scratch Cupcakery is returning again this year, as well as local organizations with bake sales and a food stand. The show will be held from 9:00 a.m. until 3:00 p.m. with free admission. Some of the downtown businesses are also holding open houses as part of the event.
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School district dealt another blow to budget Superintendent Kenealy to present letter of resignation to board
By Pat Racette After dealing with a downward spiral in unspent budget authority dollars all of last year, North Butler School District thought the worst was over. However, an auditor’s report on Sept. 13 for the 2012-2013 fiscal year revealed a downward adjustment (discrepancy from previous fiscal year) of $403,068.06, leaving the district unspent authority balance in the red at -$43,616. At the Board of Education meeting Monday in Greene, superintendent Terry Kenealy said the anticipated USB authority was $477,745 for FY ’12-13 and $526,811 for ’13-14. But right now, the estimation has changed to -$43,350 for ’13-14, though it’s still in flux and can change. “The auditor we currently work with completed fiscal year 2011-12 and then ’12-13, [and] did downward adjustments of $475,579 to accounts receivable line,” Kenealy said. “In her records, it should have only been $113,550, not $589.129. The $475,579 [difference there] is the big monkey in the room that caused this to go down. We talked with the Iowa Dept. of Education and auditor about that, but the auditor cannot explain or doesn’t understand where these numbers, the $589,129.83, came from.” Kenealy said the previous auditor said that if the line of credit would go in the same account it was taken out of, it wouldn’t count against them. He believes that’s where the budget got off base. “If that’s in there, and we’re pretty certain it is, that’s probably the rea-
son why it happened the way it did. This is not supposed to impact your bottom line,” he said. Yet now the school district must plan a Corrective Action Plan to present in front of the School Board of Review Committee on Dec. 19. Kenealy is getting Iowa School Finance Services consultant Larry Sigel to help them prepare for the presentation.
5-Year Unspent Balance Projection *2012-13 – (-)$43,616 2013-14 – (-)$43,350 2014-15 – $182, 420 2015-16 – $292,583 2016-17 – $416,498 * – fixed number “He [Sigel] indicated it’s really important to go there in person, and that the board president be there with the superintendent…so that they see it’s a serious approach is being taken by the district to deal with this,” he said. With the projections of the unspent balance estimated to stay in the red for this fiscal year, the district would be subject to the SBRC closing them down. The silver lining, though, is that enrollment (one of the key financial indicators) looks to be going up by as many as 24 students in FY 2014-15, which would boost the USB authority to a projected $182,420. Speculating enrollment growth of five students in the following two fiscal years, the USB would be back up to $416,498.
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Clayton Thomas, Greene historian and former resident, sits by Sylvia Hawker of the Greene Recorder while explaining to Butler County Historical Society members what he found out about the historical log cabin in September. (Pat Racette Photo) Story on page 2
Greene Historian Digs into BC Log Cabin By Pat Racette On Butler County fairgrounds sits the Historical Log Cabin, made of walnut and oak logs. The one-room cabin was built from the logs that remained after Goheen Place was torn down in 1956, which was located southwest of Greene in Coldwater Township. The Wegands then donated the remnants of the building to Butler County Historical Society. Goheen Place was originally used to house 11 people, along with becoming a stagecoach stop. Greene historian and former resident Clayton Thomas, however, began questioning some information that was different from what he was seeing in documents. “I didn’t think the information
was quite correct,” he said. “I would go online…and it said the Goheen House was the first hotel in Greene, and I’m saying, ‘No, I don’t think so.’ “So I started digging deeper, and the result is what I’ve written. I’ve written it twice, one just for the [Greene] Recorder a couple weeks ago [Aug. 28], the way Sylvia would write it.” Thomas found out that the women played a bigger role than he had thought, with the property purchased by Margaret Hardman, signing with an X. John H. Miller began building the house in the 1850s, but died of injuries in construction of it. Having three children, Hardman then married next door neighbor Ed Goheen,
due to proximity. Goheen’s mother and children came along with him, putting 11 people under one roof. “When people say that was the first hotel in Greene, they better be talking about the 11 people, or else it would have been a little bit crowded,” Thomas said. Hardman Miller Goheen, who was considered an aunt in Goheen geneaology, passed on later and gave the property to Mary Wegand, considered the niece, before the house was vacated around 1901 when Clyde Wegand was born. “There was really only two women who owned the property,” Thomas said, “and beyond that, no one lived in it and it got dilapidated in 1956, but they had enough walnut and oak to save [and make a little cabin].”
Schools may look to ALICE training in Future
Intense practice in case of intruders takes proactive approach
By Pat Racette School officials in Butler County now have an alternative to lockdown in preparation for school intruders. Last May, both North Butler and Clarksville superintendents attended a Response Options A.L.I.C.E Instructor course at Waverly Civic Center.
ALICE, Alert-Lockdown-InformCounter-Evacuate, is another way of for school districts to handle invaders. “It informs faculty, students and parents on alternative measures rather than to just sit and wait,” said Mitch Nordmeyer, BC Emergency Management Coordinator. The training was made available to all school districts in Butler, as Nordmeyer said it was eye-opening. “Many mind-sets, views were changed after completing the course,” he said.
In an eight-hour training session, the course is meant to put a person in the place of a student or teacher when an infiltrator is in the area. The class teaches information on safety measures and precautions to their local audience; explores active shooter profile myths; reviews and evaluates past active shooter events; and presents the system advantages of Alert-Lockdown-Inform-CounterEvacuate. “I think a number of districts are looking into it [ALICE] at this time,” Nordmeyer said. “It is entirely their
decision, and I have suggested that they work with their local law enforcement on school intruder safety. It should be a collaborative effort between those entities.” Clarksvillle Superintendent Eric Wood said ALICE is something he wants to start in the district at some point in the future. “It is a different mind-set from
lockdown,” Wood said. “Lockdown is OK in some situations. ALICE training is designed to do things proactively during a live shooter incident.”
Dumont farmers learn more about auto steering HTS Ag hosts Customer Appreciation Day at Hawkeye Farm Lab
By Pat Racette Dumont farmer Gary Franken bought an automatic steering system last spring for his combine. Franken and farmhand, Jason Rieken, used the GPS navigating feature automatically steer for them in the field. As they gained more interest in precision technology, the two farmers attended an HTS Ag Customer Appreciation Day in September to find out more about auto steering. “We just basically got into this and wanted to try it out and get our feet wet with it,” Franken said. “We’ll see the advantage from it, and go from there I guess.” According to HTS Ag sales Terry
Johnston, over half of farmers are now using auto steering to plant and harvest. “There is not near as much fatigue and uneasiness with stuff [due to automatic steering],” Rieken said. “You can watch for rocks on the ground and other things instead of worrying about where you’re going, at least for a little bit anyway.” The farmers were also interest in a precision product sold by Reichhardt Electronic Innovations called Tactile Row Guidance. The device controls the tractor mechanically, allowing it to follow rows in any situation. “Row sensors is what we were looking for,” Franken said. “It’s pretty good for down corn, and gets down deep underneath for rowing corn. We don’t have sensors now… But the sensors would be on the combine and hook up to the moni-
tor.” HTS Ag held the all-purpose event at Hawkeye Community College Farm Lab to personally show their appreciation to agriculture producers, as well as interacting and taking the time to present information in a slower environment in front of a screen. “We go through each scenario that may be encountered throughout the season, and give quick reminders of what to check for if any problem areas exist,” Johnston said. HTS Ag is headquartered in Harlan and Ames, and holds customer day classes twice a year in western, central and eastern Iowa areas. Last year the group held a meeting at Kirkwood Community College, before teaming up with the Hawkeye agriculture department this year. “We had about 13 or so [Hawkeye
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students] show up on their day off because of Cattle Congress,” Johnston said. “They got up early and sat there for six hours. It was impres-
sive, and should play in well with their education.”
More pictures on page 18
Pictured is a look at machinery outside the Hawkeye Farm Lab in Waterloo. (Pat Racette Photo)
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