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“Where Fillmore County News Comes First” Weekly Edition
County residents stage protest Page 16
Fillmore Central approves staffing changes page
Monday, September 3, 2012
2012 Football Preview
2
page
11
Volume 27 Issue 39
County awarded grant for AEDs page
Diverse points of view on sand
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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
Rushford seeking to retain, expand business By K irsten Zoellner kzoellner@fillmorecountyjournal.com
Jennifer Nolte of Chatfield shot and killed a 403 lb. Black Bear.
Photo submitted
Local bear hunter tags possible record holder By K irsten Zoellner kzoellner@fillmorecountyjournal.com
When you think bear hunting, you may get the image of a burly, north woodsman holding a large rifle while stalking a massive beast. You may be surprised then to meet Jennifer Nolte, of Chatfield. The smallframed mother of three young children is hardly the stereotypical hunting image, but her skills with a bow are nothing less than impressive. Nolte, along with husband Chad and friend Tim Melver, of Preston, recently returned from a hunting excursion in Ignace, Ontario with quite a
tale to tell. While the trio is still awaiting official news, following a 60-day wait period, Jennifer may have tagged the largest black bear ever shot by a woman. There’s no doubt that the bear will at least make the top ten record book. With the season opening this past August 15, the trio made arrangements to hunt through an outfitter. The way the system works is much different than the lottery-type hunting here, due to the high number of bears in Ontario. “The outfitter purchases a permit for a 150 square mile piece of land in a bear management area,” says Melver. “It’s wild
hunting, on provincial land, exclusively open to only nonresidents, and we purchase our tags through the outfitter. It’s actually really affordable.” While it was Melver’s fourth bear hunting trip, it was the Noltes’ first bear expedition. In two days, Melver says the trio saw six bears and they tagged their bears in three days. To some it may sound terrifying, being only 12-15 yards away from the bears in nothing but a portable tree stand, but Black Bears are not See BEAR HUNT Page 13
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The city has received a detailed summary report following a Business Retention & Expansion (BR&E) Needs Assessment by Economic Development Authority (EDA) member Tom Driscoll, Joyce Iverson, and City Administrator Steve Sarvi. Formed in the spring, the BR&E group is seeking to not only demonstrate the municipalities interest in strengthening the business community, but to identify any red flags within that community immediately. The process began the careful structuring of a quality survey geared at the area’s approximate 260 businesses. Once a varied cross-section of the business was identified, 26 surveys were sent out. Then, appointments were set up with the businesses and in-depth interviews were conducted. From there, the group took the 3,200 points, plotted them into a worksheet, studied
the answeres and categorized them into a system. “This isn’t the Holy Grail, but it does provide a pretty good snapshot of the area,” noted Sarvi. Driscoll agreed adding, “We tried to capture the comments, sentiments, flavor of where we’re at with our business community. No one has objected to the process or the recommendations.” The recommendations rang clear, according to Driscoll, who encouraged that a second round of surveys could be sent to collect further data, focusing the snapshot further. They included training, marketing and promotion, and singled out a few red flag areas. In terms of training, local businesses would make significant use of hospitality training for their staff. Driscoll encouraged that municipalities “pony up and provide” this service, See RUSHFORD Page 3 Comment on this article at www.fillmorecountyjournal.com
Chatfield Center for the Arts, local landmark designation school buildings in January. Another copy was sent to the kreisner@fillmorecountyjournal.com Minnesota Historical Society Robert Vogel, Preserva- for review and comment. tion Planner, explained to the The Minnesota Historical Chatfield City Council at their Society noted in a June letter August 27 meeting the process that the “auditorium-gymnasito designate the Center for the um is a well-preserved example Arts as a local landmark. Paul of a Public Works AdministraNovotny was absent. tion project, thereby serving to Vogel had submitted a report illustrate the benefits of the fedto the Heritage Preservation eral relief program at the local Commission detailing the his- level.” The letter continued that tory and plans for the 1936 the Chatfield High School and auditorium and the 1916 high See CHATFIELD Page 10 By K aren R eisner
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