Official Paper of Parkersburg, Aplington, New Hartford, Aplington-Parkersburg Schools, and Butler County
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clipse
NEWS - REVIEW
WEDNESDAY June 8, 2016 16 pages 144th Year • No. 23
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Moving on ... After 37 years, New Hartford teacher calls it a career
INSIDE Falcons shut down Cougars
Briefly.
New Hartford Citywide Garage Sales June 10-11
NEW HARTFORD — New Hartford will host its Citywide Garage Sales Friday and Saturday, June 10 and 11. Sale maps will be available at Casey’s beginning Thursday.
Aplington AmVets to meet
A PLI NGTON — The Aplington AmVets post will hold its monthly meeting Saturday, June 11 at 9 a.m. at the AmVets Hall.
Aplington-Parkersburg Preschool sign-up underway
Sign up new for the 2016-17 Aplington-Parkersburg Preschool classes. Please complete the basic sign-up form available on the district website: www.a-pcsd.net.
Butler County SWCD meeting set for June 16
ALLISON — The Butler County Soil and Water Conservation District Commissioners will have their regular meeting on Thursday, June 16, starting at 8 a.m. at the USDA Service Center in Allison. The agenda includes: District activities, NRCS report, CRP Plans & revisions, CSP, EQIP, and State and REAP cost share applications. The meeting is open to the public.
Sons of Legion selling raffle tickets for guns
PARKERSBURG — The Parkersburg Sons of The American Legion Squadron No. 285 are currently selling raffle tickets for a pair of long guns. SAL members will be selling raffle tickets until the drawing, which will be during the Show and Shine Car Show at the American Legion Hall Aug. 21 during Parkersburg Fun Days.
By JOHN JENSEN Eclipse News-Review NEW HARTFORD — As students left school at New Hartford Elementary last week an era ended. It was an era that included not only students attending now, but also many of their parents and even a few of their grandparents. It was an era that long-time New Hartford physical education teacher Jann Miller will remember fondly. Miller announced earlier this year that this would be the last of a 37 years spent almost entirely at New Hartford. “It’s been a great ride here, that’s for sure,” she said. Miller said she has been thinking about retirement for about three years. “I just feel like it’s time for me to turn it over to somebody else,” she said. “I still love teaching, but there are things that have changed in education that I feel remove you from time with kids in the classroom that I have struggled with for the last few years.” Miller began teaching in 1979 after graduating from college. The Grundy Center native said she expected to spend no more than five years at New Hartford before moving on. Five years led to five more … and then five more and then … “It’s home,” she said. “I go to weddings or if someone passes away, I feel like ‘this is family.’ That’s something that you just develop when you’ve had kids and then their kids and then their kids.” Miller began teaching part-time PE to kindergarten through sixth-graders. Other than teaching high school PE for a couple of periods at the high school in Dike she has been exclusively at New Hartford. She coached fall softball and six-on-six girls’ basketball early in her career before settling in as the high school’s longtime track and field coach, a position
Aplington-Parkersburg to host girls’ hoop camps
In this week’s issue
Opinion.........................page 4
Aplington News...........page 5 Church News................page 9 Classifieds........... pages 12-14 Sports.........................pages16
cal education when I started – it was game, game, game, game and I’m not a game, game person. I like to create a safe, comfortable environment for all my kids and I think if you do games all the time you have those kids that aren’t interested in that who you lose that enthusiasm that might carry them forward to be more concerned about living a long, healthy life.” Miller said she has changed her curriculum over the past four years to be much more fitness-based than it once was. “I think it’s been a positive impact with those kids – they find the value of looking beyond the gym walls or the school walls to find that staying physically fit is a life skill and I feel
that I’ve helped them maybe find that a little bit,” she said. Miller said students who might not have the best home life have really grabbed her heart. “My heart reaches out to those kids that are in need,” she said. “I had a young man in kindergarten who needed someone and I was there for him. I’ve had many kids like that who need someone just to do things away from school – to take them fishing, horseback riding – just to be a part of their lives.” “If you asked every student, I would hope that their comment back if you said, ‘What was the one thing that Miss Miller taught us in class?,’ it was to be kind to each other,” she said.
New Hartford and Aplington crowed town royalty late last week and earlier this week as part of their community festivals. Left, Aplington crowed Ellie Uhlenhopp (center) as Miss Aplington while Korrigan Hippen was named first runner-up, Erin Folken second runner-up and Atlanta Groeneveld Miss Congeniality. Pictured left to right are Hippen, Groenevld, Uhlenhopp, Folken and 2015 Miss Aplington Hanna Haugstad. The candidates were escorted to the stage by a pair of veterans, Sgt. 1st Class Adam Holm of the Denison-based 168th Infantry and Staff Sgt. Matt Lind, a member of the 348 th Military Police Company.
STOUT — The Stout Gospel Hall will be the setting for the Kids’ Bible Hour July 11 to July 14 from 7 to 8 p.m. in Stout. The event will feature songs, Bible stories, verses and treats.
More Briefs on Page 3
she gave up five years ago when she began a running ministry in Cedar Falls. Over those years Miller said a lot has changed in PE teaching. “The importance of staying current and innovative I think really benefits a program,” she said. “It obviously benefits your students because you’re not doing the ‘roll out the ball’ and you have a strong curriculum that provides opportunities for students to be successful in many ways if they’re not an athlete. “There’s a lot of different aspects that you can include in physical education for the mental part, the physical part, the emotional part where they can just see that whole mindbody connection and I don’t think that was such an influence in physi-
Aplington, New Hartford crown royalty
Kids’ Bible Hour planned for Stout
PARKERSBURG — AplingtonParkersburg High School girls’ basketball coach Jason Berkey has announced that the 2016 Falcon Girls’ Basketball Camp will be held June 27-29. Camp is open to girls entering third through eighth grades. Girls entering grades 3-6 will meet from 11:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. June 27 and from 9-11 a.m. June 28-29. Girls entering grades 7-8 will meet from 1:30 to 3:30 p.m. June 27 and from 1-3 p.m. June 28-29. Instruction will be provided by A-P coaches and high school players. Camp forms may be obtained from Coach Berkey or are available at The Eclipse News-Review office.
New Hartford Elementary teacher Jann Miller wrapped up a 37-year career last week as classes met for the final time in the 2015-16 school year. She is pictured with a class of kindergartners last Tuesday.
New Hartford royalty, right, included Mr. New Hartford Seth Wuebben, Miss New Hartford Kylie Kyhl and First Runner-up Biz Cuvelier. Dayton Hanson (not pictured) was selected Prince in the Friday evening ceremony while Hailey Bunger was selected as princess, Danika Petersen as Little Miss and Kayden Hayes as Little Mister. New Hartford Days also included a parade, movies, activities and entertainment. (John Jensen/Eclipse News-Review photos)
Miller added that she has also learned a lot from her students. “I’ve learned patience and I’ve learned the value of letting them sometimes lead,” she said. “I’ve also learned the value of working hard to develop relationships within students that might now have a relationship with each other so that they value differences in each other. “When I think of my growth I think of how big my heart has gotten from the gifts and the blessings that I’ve gotten from my students. Miller said, in addition to her coaching career, the cross country meet that she runs each spring with the entire school has been a big highlight, as has working with a great staff. She said one of the most challenging aspects came in the early days of the consolidation between New Hartford and Dike. “It was a tough transition,” she said. “For kids to come up to our facility, because we had a three-story structure at that time, they weren’t real accepting coming up here.” The kids always got along, however, and she said that’s what has led Dike-New Hartford to become the school district that it is today. “We’ve built a dynasty here with our fine arts and our athletics and our academics – it’s an amazing school district to know that I’ve had the pleasure to be here for 37 years,” she said. Miller said she plans to travel and visit many out-of-state friends during her retirement. She plans to spend more time on a few hobbies, including staying physically fit. She added that she might even be open to coming back to the school as a substitute teacher this winter. “It’s a new chapter in my life and I’m just kind of anxious and going into it with my eyes wide open to see where God might lead me and use me after I leave here,”
Supervisors sign off on proposed local subdivision
By MIRA SCHMITT-CASH Mid-America Publishing The Butler County Board of Supervisors approved signing off on a subdivision request by Russ Miller to go near New Hartford at its May 24 meeting. Miller had asked to subdivide approximately 25 acres on Butler Avenue, New Hartford to allow for the sale of residential lots. One comment was made at the public hearing specifying what sort of home value the person, a neighbor, would like to see in the subdivision covenant. “When it comes to a covenant for a subdivision, we (the county) have absolutely nothing we can enforce,” Zoning Administrator Mitch Nordmeyer said. The county’s job is to enforce its zoning ordinance, and a covenant falls outside of that purview. No one was present to discuss the addition of a planned unit development ordinance. With the ordinance approved, “even so, this doesn’t open the door for any specific project to start,” Nordmeyer said. To proceed, a developer would still have to present plans to Planning and Zoning Commission, and there would still be public hearings with Planning and Zoning and the Board of Supervisors. Something the PUD ordinance changes is, “Until we had this ordinance, you couldn’t build a condo in a rural area,” Nordmeyer said. Many towns are running out of room in city limits, he said. As zoning administrator, he sees many people interested in property in Butler County. “That’s nice to see,” Nordmeyer said. “You never know.”