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“Where Fillmore County News Comes First” Weekly Edition
Full agenda for Kingsland School Board Page 25
Rushford sets levy, looks for cost savings page
Monday, December 24, 2012
Flip the switch
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page
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Volume 28 Issue 14
R-P referendum denied page
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Superintendent Harris addresses school safety page
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Canton l Chatfield l Fountain l Harmony l Lanesboro l Mabel l Ostrander l Peterson l Preston l Rushford l Rushford Village l Spring Valley l Whalan l Wykoff
Security at Fillmore County Schools By Mitchell WA lbridge mwalbridge@fillmorecountyjournal.com
Melinda Lutes, new owner of Coffee Street Fitness and Dance in Lanesboro.
Photo by Barb Jeffers
Shape up Fillmore County signature Project Hot Body Bootcamp and Zumba classes, bjeffers@fillmorecountyjournal.com for the last two years. She is New owner Melinda Lutes certified in fitness, nutrition, will take over ownership of and coaching, which is why it Coffee Street Fitness and made sense to offer her servicDance in Lanesboro, Minn. on es to people who are interested January 1, 2013, just in time in their health and well being. to help everyone in Fillmore Melinda’s clients “have been County with their New Year’s able to lose weight, lower their resolutions. Melinda is very cholesterol, and get in tip top excited about her new venture shape,” according to Melinda. saying,“It is very rewarding to Melinda has personal expehelp people reach their health rience with weight loss and and fitness goals.” a healthy lifestyle as she per Melinda is no stranger to sonally lost over a hundred Coffee Street Fitness and pounds after her children were Dance as she has been teaching born. Because of her constant fitness classes there for the past battle with weight loss, and two and a half years. Melinda other health related issues, she is a certified fitness instructor/ wanted to learn how to sucpersonal trainer and feels she cessfully live a healthy and is qualified to run a fitness balanced lifestyle so she went center as she has been teaching to school to become a certifitness classes, including her fied fitness instructor/personal By Barb Jeffers
trainer. Melinda cares so much about families living a healthy life together that she started a non-profit organization called Project Fit Families. Project Fit Families is about bringing families together and sharing experiences. The mission of Project Fit Families is “to raise money with our fun events and activities so that we can support local fitness programs for kids” according to its website www. projectfitfamilies.com. All of the money raised goes towards school sports programs, yearround recreational programs, scholarships for fitness, and sports activities education. As the owner of Coffee Street See FITNESS Page 2
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Monday-Wednesday - Closed Thursday - 4-8pm Friday - 4-9pm Saturday - Noon-9pm Sunday - Noon-8pm 109 S. Parkway, Lanesboro, MN 55949 www.riversideontheroot.com
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The tragedy of Newtown, Connecticut on Friday, December 14 resulting in twenty children and six Sandy Hook Elementary staff members dead has had a rippling effect across the United States, including Fillmore County. The recent sorrowful event in that community has with no doubt stirred concerns among students, their parents, community members, and school administrators and employees. In light of this unsettling situation, school districts are looking at their emergency plans and making sure they meet the priority of keeping children safe while they are receiving their educations. Each school district in Fillmore County has its own plan in case emergencies arise ranging from fire evacuations, tornado and severe weather sheltering, and more recently brought to our attention—lockdown procedures. All of these plans help the local dis-
tricts of Fillmore County uphold the priority of keeping children safe. Although crisis management policies and procedures among school districts vary slightly, all have the same goal of security for the children and employees who attend Fillmore County’s learning facilities. Minnesota state law requires a minimum of five lockdown drills every school year in addition to five fire drills and one school-wide tornado drill. According to the Minnesota Department of Education, lockdown procedures are used in “situations where harm may result to persons in the school building, such as a shooting, a hostage incident, an intruder, trespass, disturbance, or when determined to be necessary by the building administrator or his or her designee.” As learning and education continue, school administrators try to reassure parents that their See SECURITY Page 7
EDA gets nod to take step toward Root River property acquisitions By K aren R eisner kreisner@fillmorecountyjournal.com
Cathy Enerson, EDA, outlined steps taken so far toward land acquisition and clean up of dilapidated properties along the Root River at the city council’s December 18 meeting. Buildable properties near the trail head location could then be used either for residential building sites or as a possible permanent site for the National Trout Center (NTC). The city and the DNR each
already own some of the lots in the area. Enerson described a “perfect storm” of conditions where all property owners are lined up and willing to sell. She detailed preliminary work for possible 2013 acquisitions. The purchase of the Preston POP bulkhead would be somewhat of a risk because of the unknowns as to what would be necessary for cleanup. The EDA has worked to get land owner approval to purSee PRESTON Page 24
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