2010 Year in Review: July

July 1: Honor Flight Southwest Minnesota will host a fundraiser Friday at Centennial Park, with a beer garden scheduled to open at 4 and a food stand at 5 p.m. The locally based band Sideline is slated to perform from 6 to 10 p.m.; beer and food will be available until 11 p.m.

July 2: The Minnesota Department of Education on Thursday released the results of this spring’s Minnesota Comprehensive Assessments (MCA-IIs), which test students’ grasp of grade-level skills in math and reading.

School districts in southwest Minnesota again fell below the state average on key math and reading tests, but students in several area districts showed marked improvement in their performance.

July 3: Fewer than 30 minutes after the Nobles County Sheriff ’s Office received a report of an armed bank robbery at First State Bank Southwest in Rushmore Friday morning, officers had apprehended two suspects at a farm site on Fox Farm Road in Worthington. At least one other person was removed from the home.

July 7:Nobles County commissioners on Tuesday authorized Sheriff Kent Wilkening to replace a night sergeant position vacated more than a month ago by a retirement, but the move didn’t come without considerable discussion and a few attempted political maneuvers by the sheriff.

To emphasize the need for the sergeant, Wilkening handed out copies of Saturday’s Daily Globe, in which the top news story was about a bank robbery in Rushmore.

July 8: Representatives from Rock, Nobles and Murray Counties gathered Wednesday morning to hammer out some decisions regarding a regional dispatch center, agreeing on a site and a method of governance for a regional Public Safety Answering Point (PSAP).

Two sites discussed were the old elementary school in Lake Wilson and the dispatch center currently in use at the Prairie Justice Center in Worthington. At the end of the discussion, the Worthington site won out over the Lake Wilson building.

July 8: They are brown, they are ugly, they have pinchers for tails, and they seem to be everywhere you look.

The earwig population has exploded in the region, though University of Minnesota Extension Entomologist Jeff Hahn isn’t sure what is contributing to their populous presence.

July 9: The Bioscience Testing and Training Center was awarded the Southwest Regional Development Commission’s Regional Project of the Year award at the organization’s annual meeting on Thursday.

July 10: Starting in October, the cost of street lighting would be shifted off the tax rolls and onto Worthington Public Utilities bills — a change city officials say will make for a more equitable distribution of fees — under a proposal to be considered by city councilmen in the maintaining the street lighting infrastructure.

The switch is expected to save the city $50,000.

July 13: When you want to teach teachers the best way to get their students to see and experience nature through the eyes of a camera lens, who better to lead the workshop than southwest Minnesota’s native son — famed wildlife photographer Jim Brandenburg.

The Luverne High School graduate and former Daily Globe photographer led a group of more than 60 third through ninth-grade teachers from across Minnesota Saturday through the first of what is hoped to be 80 statewide workshops in the next two years.

July 14: County commissioners must decide by mid-September whether to combine Nobles-Rock Community Health Services with Lincoln, Lyon, Murray, Pipestone Public Health.

County administrators, commissioners and public health staff from the six counties met Tuesday at the Murray County Human Services Building to discuss the logistics of combining the two joint powers collaborations into one.

July 14: Six senior managers of Ito Ham in Japan and a senior marketing director for the U.S. Meat Export Federation (USMEF) made a stop at two rural Worthington farms Tuesday evening as part of a week-long tour of beef, pork and grain operations in the Midwest.

After spending the morning with industry exporters in the Twin Cities, the group traveled to southwest Minnesota to tour cattle feedlot operations at the John Widboom farm and visit with corn, soybean and beef producers during an evening at the Bill Gordon farm.

July 16: Six Worthington High School students are among 40 marching band members from Minnesota, Iowa, Illinois and South Dakota who will compete in a march-off Saturday during the 2010 Drum Corps International Tour stop in Minneapolis.

July 20: Starting this fall, students at Sibley-Ocheyedan High School will no longer have to fight for computer usage time.

The district’s school board unanimously approved the purchase of 260 13-inch, Mac book computers at its July 12 meeting, securing a laptop for each student in grades 9-12.

July 21: The District 518 Board of Education dispelled rumors of middle school construction delays at its Tuesday meeting.

Construction is on schedule to be completed by the first day of class, board members assured.

July 21: Two of the four people charged in the July 2 robbery of the First State Bank Southwest, Rushmore branch, are now facing the federal court system.

Felix Mendez, 22, and his 19-year-old nephew Jose Osoria-Mendez, both of Worthington, are scheduled to make 3 p.m. detention hearing appearances Thursday at the United States Courthouse in Minneapolis. They are currently in the custody of the U.S. Marshal Service, having been removed from the Nobles County Jail.

July 22: No sooner had the last strains of the “Amazing” Worthington City Band’s final 2010 summer concert faded over Lake Okabena last night than director Jon Loy had the assembled audience anticipating the 2011 season — and the promise of a band trip to Crailsheim, Germany, to cap it off.

July 23: Driving east on A34, the flooded ditches and rows of partially submerged corn near George give way to flooded basements and ruined property inside the city limits.

Nearly every resident of the small town spent Thursday reacting to a storm that dumped as much as 11 inches of rain on parts of Lyon County and left most basements in George flooded with varying levels of water and sewage.

July 24: Worthington Fire Chief Rick Von Holdt was surprised and happy Friday to hear Nobles County has been awarded $551,741 through the Assistance to Firefighters Grants.

The grant, part of the Department of Homeland Security, will be used to purchase the new radios needed for interoperability between departments.

July 24: The farm in Section 34 of Larkin Township has been home to 89-year-old Andrew Wagner all of his life. His wife of 65 years, Geraldine, has lived there since they were married in 1944. Together, the couple and their children, grandchildren and great-grandchildren are being honored this year as Nobles County’s Farm Family of the Year.

July 26: Saturday was a day of cleanup for many in southwest Minnesota after a storm swept through Friday night, knocking down trees, pulling down barns and causing havoc in many locations.

The reports that came into the National Weather Service Office vary from town to town, with wind gusts being clocked at 60 to 83 miles per hour.

July 27: The city’s financial advisers presented suggestions for pushing forward the stagnant events center project at the council’s special meeting Monday, but none of the options are overly appealing to council members, who face a dearth of developers willing to invest in the project.

The project was to include a convention center with adjoining hotel, both to be managed and operated by a private developer. Plans with the city’s original partner, Ruhr Development, and another interested party, are being held at a standstill because lenders are now requiring as much as 50 percent equity before they will invest in high-risk development projects.

July 28: The people of Westminster Presbyterian Church in Worthington are praying for good weather Thursday night, when they open up their lawn to a free concert presented by the Christian musical group Go Fish. The guys will perform from 7 to 8:30 p.m. on the west lawn of the church, at 230 Clary St.

July 29: Ben Fick earned grand champion on his robotics project at the Rock County Fair Wednesday in Luverne. It’s the fourth consecutive year he has earned a Minnesota State Fair trip in robotics —a rather nice streak, considering the 4-H project area was just introduced four years ago.

July 30: Brittany Larson may be taking on a new role at St. Mary’s School, but she’s already familiar with the students.

Larson, a native of the Rushmore area, has taught second and third grade there since 2006. Former principal Barb Daly has been helping her with the transition to administration.

July 31: Here comes that odor again — the acrid, pungent smell akin to rotten eggs. It’s hanging in the air just down the shore from Sailboard Beach, but if conditions are ripe — perhaps with the high temperature and lack of wind forecast for this weekend — people will likely smell the effects of decaying blue-green algae all around the lake.

July 31: O’Brien and Osceola counties were among those for which President Barack Obama authorized a presidential disaster declaration.

At least 32 counties in Iowa were impacted by flooding and storms beginning June 1.

July 31: An all-new Worthington Area Community Orchestra is in its fledgling state, and its organizers are scouting for string players to join in what promises to be a multi-generational musical endeavor.

The recent receipt of an $11,206 grant from the Southwest Minnesota Arts & Humanities Council (SMAHC) is transforming what was once a pie-in-the sky dream of a handful of local musicians into a concrete reality.

July 31: Marco Inc., Davis Typewriter Co. Inc. and Ed Davis Business Machines have announced the sale of their copier division to Marco.

Davis Typewriter Co. Inc. has locations in Worthington and Marshall; Ed Davis Business Machines is located in Willmar. The two companies will continue to operate and provide their other office supply, furniture, and related office products at their current locations.

Tags: year in review, news