16 shopping days until Christmas!
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MABFEOLR-DC-PAETERSON RUSH
Monday, December 9, 2013
State Champs!
See the Winter Sports insert in today’s Journal!
Page 26
page
12
Volume 29 Issue 12
Shimmering Lights page
14
Rushford Village reduces levy page
31
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
Bond rating upgrade for Preston By K aren R eisner karen@fillmorecountyjournal.com
Local sculptor and artist Karl Unnasch created the “holiday tree” above.
Photo by Karl Unnasch
Local artist spreads joy with Playtime Jubilee slightly used outdoor-friendly toys and sporting goods. The barb@fillmorecountyjournal.com vision Unnasch provided was Local artist Karl Unnasch so impressive that it was chohas completed a sculpture that sen as the winning proposal. is spreading joy to the City of Unnasch spent three months Silver Spring, Md., the Wash- accumulating items to be used ington D.C. area, the Fillmore for the sculpture from variCounty area, and perhaps the ous places including Craigslist world. and auctions, some donated The sculpture, which is titled items, and Unnasch stated he Playtime Jubilee, began as only even did some shopping hima vision when Unnasch sent in self in order to have all of the a proposal for the project which pieces he needed to complete was commissioned by The the project. Peterson Companies and the Some of the items used to Art and Humanities Council create Playtime Jubilee include of Montgomery County to cre- 58 disk sleds, various sports ate a non-traditional sculptural balls, rackets, chairs and stools, “holiday tree” using new and helmets, xylophones, and many By Barb Jeffers
Teri Klaehn CPA, LLC 507-765-3696
others. Gathering all of the necessary supplies in a U-Haul Unnasch drove to Silver Spring and began to create the 35 foot-tall and 16 foot-diameter “holiday tree” he had envisioned which is located at the Veteran’s Plaza in Silver Spring. Unnasch stated, “It took one solid week of 10 to 12 hour days to get it up in the sky.” Karl had help from his “ablebodied elves” as he likes to call them, which included his partner Nicole Huss and two assistants who were provided. The result is a towering sculpSee JUBILEE Page 7
Tax plan
City administrator Joe Hoffman announced good news for the city at the council’s December 3 meeting. Standard and Poors in a random review raised the city’s bond rating from AAto AA (stable). This is especially good news as the city is planning a large street improvement project. Hoffman noted that the city could pay 0.15 to 0.20 percent less interest on bonds in 2014. Over a 15 year period the better rate could save the city $40,000 to $50,000. Some of the reasons given by S & P to support the upgrade included a strong budgetary flexibility (reserves at 85 percent of expenditures), strong liquidity, and a strong debt profile. 2014 Budget and Levy review Hoffman reported that the 2014 levy will increase by 5.3 percent or $36,078. The total levy will be $708,803. $21,000
of that increase will be related to new bond costs. Without the bonding costs for the street improvement project the levy increase would have been 2.2 percent. Hoffman warned that while the 5.3 percent increase is higher than we wanted to be, property owners will continue to see increases in years going forward to pay for the street projects. The city’s revenue comes from the tax levy (44 percent), state aid (30 percent), police and fire revenue (11 percent), library, park and tourism (6 percent), and other revenue (9 percent). No residents were present to comment during the public comment portion. Hoffman noted that most homeowners saw a reduction in the market value of their home and a corresponding reduction in their See PRESTON Page 4
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County hires social services manager Kristina Kohn, Human Resources, announced that the karen@fillmorecountyjournal.com hiring committee has recom The new county coordina- mended hiring Neva Beier to tor Bobbie Jo Vickerman on replace retiring Social Services her first day working for the Manager Gail Bunge. The board county was seated next to retir- approved the hire of Beier effecing county coordinator Karen tive December 30. Kohn noted Brown at the board’s December that Beier is a resident of Fill3 meeting. Brown’s retirement is more County and has excellent effective December 31. The four skills. She will have a higher week overlap will help yield a starting wage to help minimize smoother transition. See COUNTY BOARD Page 14 By K aren R eisner
to avoid surprises later. now Appointments still available.