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March 4, 2016 OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF HARDIN COUNTY
E L D O R A, I O W A
641-939-5051
www.eldoranewspapers.com
V O L U M E 85
• N O. 13 • $1.00
Hubbard-Radcliffe schools eye a daycare option By Rick Patrie News Editor HUBBARD-RADCLIFFE – The rationale is often the same when small towns start looking at some kind of community commitment to daycare. Preserving the schools. Often parents of school children in the home community find themselves driving to another community for their employment. Sometimes both parents do. If daycare isn’t readily available, dependable and flexible in the hometown, every small town fears that parents will simply take the kids along to work, looking for childcare in the destination town. Then the concern is that the kids will get so established and familiar with the second community they will gravitate toward attending school there too. The home school district loses the kids, which feeds a vicious circle that beings about declines in enrollment and financial decline in the home town’s school base. At least that was uppermost in the thoughts of newly elected Hubbard Radcliffe School board member Jacob Bolson who ran last fall on a daycare issue. And he has been following up on the campaign pledge since. Bolson and another board member have been investigating the feasibility of the Hubbard Radcliffe district quasi ‘sponsoring’ a day care center. Their preliminary report went before a couple of public hearings in recent weeks. One in Radcliffe and one in Hubbard. The proposal envisions a center which is not actually school district owned, which is not school district financed but which does involve the district in terms of institutional ties and administrative support. Bolson say the whole idea is about keeping families tied to the communities, and providing time strapped parents with more family time. He says, if there is daycare in the Hubbard Radcliffe community those children growing up in that system are far more likely to be enrolled in the Hubbard Radcliffe Schools when the time comes. They are far more likely to continue to be
Newsbriefs St. Mary Catholic Church Fish Fry March 4
St. Mary Catholic Church in Eldora will be holding their Seventh Annual Fish Fry at the church, 614 Washington St. on Friday, March 4. Serving will be from 5 to 7 p.m. The meal includes fish, baked potato, coleslaw, ice cream and drink. Grilled cheese sandwiches will also be available this year. Cost is $10 for adults, $5 for children 5 to 10, and free for children under 4. Carryouts available at the north entrance. (More briefs on page 4)
enrolled if there is after hours day care, too. He says that he sees a community day care as another option and not a competitor with existing in home providers in the Hubbard Radcliffe community, and he says at least a couple of the current services have expressed support for his initiative. Bolson says that this is a good time to undertake the project because the enrollment picture has stabilized in Hubbard Radcliffe. He says that the losses to the Hamilton County schools after the decision to whole grade share with Eldora-New Providence, seems to have abated. He says this is a good time to (continued on page 2) No margin for error, timed to the fraction of a second. The crowds came for the fifth year of running the AWANA Pinewood Derby at the Steamboat Rock gym.
Start your engines! Now in a fifth year of racing from the Steamboat Rock Baptist Church
School board member Jacob Bolson
“The idea is to keep kids in the community and see them enrolled here in the home town schools.”
By Rick Patrie News Editor STEAMBOAT ROCK – This is one of those stories told in the faces of the kids in the pictures. Not since donkey basketball have they filled up the old Steamboat Rock High School gym with so much high octane enthusiasm. A couple of weeks ago it was Grand Prix night in Steamboat Rock and close to two hundred race fans showed up to watch thirty-nine youngsters, 23 girls and 16 boys vie for the various honors in the Steamboat Rock AWANA version of the Pinewood Derby. All you need to do is look at the expressions to see what kind of reviews racing gets around these parts. This marked the fifth year of the competition. It is pretty much the same show that you associate with scouting’s Pinewood derbies, small
wooden racers all built within tight specifications – but with a couple of added wrinkles. One, naturally, is the spiritual side of the evening, what with the sponsorship coming from the Steamboat Rock Baptist Church. The other is in the provision for pit stops. If a racer finds his equipment isn’t working quite up to its potential, this version of the Pinewood allows a support crew to make a few adjustments in mid competition. Otherwise, it is pretty much the same. Each youngster is given a set of parts with which he or she is to assemble a racer. There is no starting your engines, because there are no engines to start. Gravity is the only accelerant here. But that doesn’t mean there aren’t some pretty elaborate modifications in use. Bryce Roskens, now associate
pastor with the Steamboat Rock Baptist Church, was the inspiration behind bringing the Pinewood here about five years ago. He had been familiar with it based on his experience in a prior church assignment, and so was able to assemble nothing less than a state of the art racing track for the kids. He says the guidelines for racing are about like what you find with scouting, except for that spiritual emphasis and that provision for a pit crew. To the first end, there was a moment or two for testimony to faith from both himself and his daughter who was competing that night. The annual competition has become popular enough it drew kids from Grundy Center, South Hardin, AGWSR, Iowa Falls-Alden and the Timothy Christian schools this year. There are kids who attend Steamboat Rock Baptist and kids who do not.
Everyone gets the exact same model kit. And the idea is to encourage the kids to engage moms and particularly dads in helping with the construction. Youngsters from third through 5th grade compete. Everyone, moms dads, grandparents and kids got well fed and the windows in the gym rattled for the screams cheering the racers on. The church AWANA club offers children from 3-years-old to 5/6th grade fun, Scripture memory, games, and Bible lessons. Awana is divided up into three different age groups to better meet your child’s needs: Cubbies for preschoolers, Sparks for K through 2nd grade, and T&T for 3rd through 5/6th grade. If you have an interest in being a part of Awana or have questions about the ministry, please contact the church office at (641) 868-2458.
Cabaret ushers in busy music season By Rick Patrie News Editor SOUTH HARDIN – With Cabaret in the books the music department in the local schools have a busy rest of the school year ahead. This week on Thursday night the bands of the South Hardin Schools were scheduled to present their annual Band Extravaganza at the elementary school gym in Eldora. For those reading news stand editions, its set for 7 p.m. Then on Tuesday March 8 at 7 p.m. comes the kindergarten through second grade concert at the South Hardin High School auditorium. On April 9 at 7 p.m. the music students will travel to Dike New
Hartford High School for the small group regional competitions. On Monday the 18th of April the third grade through fifth grade band and vocal music students will perform at 7 p.m. In the high school auditorium here in Eldora. On April 28 at 7 p.m. the large group team of competitors will be featured at the high school auditorium and that group of competitors will appear in Ankeny on May 9, for the annual festival of state high school music students. Then on May 17, the school will host its own fine arts festival here in the South Hardin auditorium and commons in Eldora. It begins at 7 p.m. and everyone is invited.
The Cabaret team. Check next Tuesday’s paper for scenes from the production.