Tigers Bar-B-Q Win Days Coin Two Hunt Clue #2 Page 11
ONE HUNDRED AND THIRTY-SIXTH YEAR
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BELLE PLAINE, MINNESOTA, july 5, 2017
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NUMBER 27
Wes Koepp may have just turned 80, but he has no plans to stop working. He may slow just down a bit.
Wes Koepp Isn’t Retiring Just Yet
At 80, He’s Just Slowing Down a Bit
Brian Hillstrom, his wife Sheila, and their children, Steven a bit, but Hillstrom is confident his crop is off to a good start. The shop behind Wes and LaVonne Koepp’s house on and Tyler, have seen taller corn by Independence Day in pre- His primary concern is a dry, hot July. West Main Street is filled with vious years. This year, a wet and cool spring delayed planting the equipment mechanics need to service cars and trucks. There is no indication it belongs to a man who plans to retire. All the tools are meticulously Brian Hillstrom never doubted working on agricultural equip- tion farmer. He learned farm- 7 feet tall by now, the cold, wet placed in just the right locahe wanted to be anything but ment. Hillstrom admits it was a ing from his father, Doug, who spring this year delayed farm- tion, and the equipment is right a farmer. He started learning “fallback” position. learned it from his father, Neal ( ers to the point where the out- where it ought to be. The anwhen he was young and contin- Hillstrom farms 270 acres in who passed away in 2015). dated adage, “knee-high by the nouncement Wesley Koepp ued his education through col- Carver County’s San Francisco fourth of July” is closer to true has retired from his auto and lege. It’s a job that offers every- Township, just outside of Belle truck service business seems a Hillstrom Hoping for a thing he wants, independence Plaine. Field corn accounts for bit premature. Truth is, Koepp (continued on page 5) and the opportunity to work 176 acres and the rest of the Good Year agreed, he probably doesn’t outdoors. acreage has soybeans planted in Although the 2017 season “I can do whatever I want. If them. He also maintains a herd started late, thanks to a cold I don’t want to do something, I of 30 Hereford beef cows. and wet spring, Hillstrom is exdon’t have to,” he said. “But the The land is part of a large pecting a good year. “Anything problem is, the work still has to family farm divided up among above 160 (bushels per acre) be done.” the family’s children. Brian’s is a good, with corn and 50 After graduating from Belle father, Doug, sold the herd of with beans is a good year,” he Plaine High School, Brian dairy cows in 2008 and bought said. Last year was an “excelwent to school at South Cen- hogs. Brian just raises row lent” year, Hillstrom said. He tral Technical College in North crops. He’ll sell the corn and harvested 200 bushels per acre Mankato, Minn. He earned a beans when the price for each of corn, 70 bushels per acre of two-year degree in agricultural is right. soybeans. tech. – the science and skill of Hillstrom is a sixth-genera- Unlike years where corn is 6 or
Hillstrom Taking Slow Start to Growing Season as Just Another Day on the Farm
Betsy Ollhoff (center) and a team of volunteers staff the Belle Plaine Food Shelf. The food shelf is celebrating its sixth anniversary this week. It serves over 1,000 families annually (duplicated count) and benefits greatly from the generosity of the community, Ollhoff says.
Grateful to Community, Food Shelf Celebrating Anniversary They would like to put themselves out of business but know that’s not likely to happen anytime soon. So in the meantime, the volunteers at the Belle Plaine Food Shelf will continue to help people who need help. Sunday (July 9), the food shelf will celebrate its sixth anniversary. “All we wanted to do was meet a need we knew wasn’t being met,” said Betsy Ollhoff, the food shelf board’s president. “We were worried there were people who were hungry.”
Any doubt that the food shelf wasn’t making much of a difference rests in the annual report of the people it serves. In 2015, the food shelf served 1,525 families (a duplicated count), with 126 families making use of the service for the first time. That’s an 8 percent increase in the number of new families using the food shelf over the previous year. “We were worried at first people wouldn’t come,” she said. Senior citizens accounted for about 6 percent of the food
shelf’s clientele in 2015. Just over 50 percent are adults with the remaining 42 percent being children. “There are families out there who are just one (missed) paycheck away from needing us,” Ollhoff said.
In the Beginning
The food shelf has seen growth beyond the number of people it serves. It opened at the corner
Food Shelf
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know how to retire. “I’ve been busy every day of my life. I’m going to be slowing down a bit,” he said. “I’m still going to work long days; I’m just going to work fewer of them.” Koepp has every reason to retire. Though still healthy just after his 80th birthday, the aches and pains that come with time and decades working on concrete while servicing vehicles are just starting to catch up with him a bit. He plans to cut back on new customers and service the cars and trucks of well-established customers and
Koepp
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Under the direction of the fair board, Rhonda Kucera and Tom Hesse are leading efforts to prepare the fairgrounds for the Scott County Fair July 26-30.
A New Way to Prepare for the Fair Over the years, the Scott County Fair Board has relied on the talents of an individual general manager to prepare the county fair and its grounds for what is billed as “The Five Best Days of Summer.” Norm Pint’s retirement earlier this year presented the board with an opportunity to take advantage of talents of an existing staff member and a newcomer. They believe the approach is one that will present the fair as an enjoyable experience for those who attend the fair later this month (July 26-30). Rhonda Kucera is the fair’s office administrator who joined the fair board staff in 2014. Her work includes scheduling events and attractions during
the fair’s five-day run and also during the off-season. She also works with vendors who’ll be at the fair and, with help from staffers Anna Brekke and Katie Gauguie, prepares promotional information for print and social media. The fair board wants the fairgrounds in St. Lawrence Township as busy as possible during the weeks when the fair is not in operation. Events like Muck Fest, dog shows, Autumn Fare, concerts, bridal shows, Motokazie races, and other events will have the fairgrounds busy during the year. She handles inquiries about storage rental in the fairgrounds’ buildings. Tom Hesse is the other half of the team leading preparation of
the fairgrounds. He joined the team in 2016. His job is to have the 80-acre fairgrounds ready for the thousands of people who will visit in three weeks. He is also responsible for making sure it is ready to host the myriad of events on the calendar during the year. Hesse’s biggest challenge is making sure the new restroom building is ready for use when the fair opens the last week of July. Construction on the long-
Fair
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