Published: Thursday, July 19, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

 http://yankton.net/articles/2012/07/17/community/doc5004db3593b9a273790821.txt

Published: Tuesday, July 17, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

By Andrew Atwal

Published: Monday, July 16, 2012 12:55 AM CDT

Mount Marty College has recently announced several new additions to its student affairs staff — some of whom come from thousands of miles away.

Sister Mary Jo Polak steps into the role of director of campus ministry, after serving in other positions at MMC during the last few years.

Emily Johnson comes to MCC from the Minneapolis area, where she worked as a social worker. She will be the director of disability services and a residence hall director.

John “Jake” Kidney will also be a residence hall director. He is from the area, having just graduated from the University of South Dakota.

John Bennett will act as the student activities director at the college, which is a new position at the school. He previously worked at Ball State University in Indiana, and held a similar role at Florida Tech.

Meanwhile, Sarah Carda, the vice president of student affairs at Mount Marty, will be back for her 11th year on the job, and is the veteran of the group.

“I’m really looking forward to working with students in all different aspects,” Johnson said. “I think I’m prepared for the job and think it will be a fun adventure.”

Her biggest goal in her new job is making sure that students have good experiences in their residence hall. She added that she also wants to make sure students enjoy their whole experience on campus at Mount Marty.

Her role as residence hall director is similar to Kidney’s. Both will supervise resident assistants and manage activities in the residence halls, among other responsibilities. Johnson will also assist students that have a disability and make sure they do well in their academics.

“I’m excited to be here,” Johnson said. “Yankton is a pretty cool town.”

She added that she is still getting accustomed to the area and all of the services that are available to students.

“I really want to maximize community resources, along with what’s available for students on campus,” she said.

In addition to all of her job responsibilities, Johnson will also be living with her husband and son in the residence hall.

Kidney comes to MMC from USD, where he had served as a hall director, while finishing his master’s degree in educational administration.

“It might be a little bit difficult at first, since I was withdrawn from students at USD, to now be on a first-name basis with them,” he said. “I’m excited to get to know students and the campus.”

In addition to the roles that he and Johnson share, Kidney will also head up the Student Diversity Club on campus. He will act as an adviser to the club, and also help students put on programming in the residence halls.

“I’m really looking forward to students coming on campus,” he said. “There is a lot of energy and excitement that they bring with them.”

Bennett comes to MMC after serving in similar roles at schools in Indiana and Florida. He is in charge of orientation, student government, homecoming, family weekend and putting on events for students throughout the year.

“Because I had worked at bigger schools, it should be easier to get to know students here, which will be fun,” he said. “I’m really going to try to help enhance students’ experience outside of the classroom.”

One of Bennett’s biggest goals is increasing student involvement in on-campus events, and also generating trips and other activities for students.

“I’m going to try to create trips for events outside the area,” he said. “One trip I’m working on is a trip up to the Mall of America for students.”

Bennett added that such events will also help with student retention rates.

“Students are more likely to stay enrolled if they are involved on campus,” he said.

He said his office will always be open for students to come in and talk with him, and that he will be open to any trip or event suggestions that students might have.

Polak, the campus ministry director, had served in a similar part-time role during the last few years at MMC.

“My first goal is to keep up the good things initiated by our past staff,” Polak said. “My second goal is that campus ministry will help our MMC students grow into leaders in the Church, just as we want them to be successful in the profession that they are learning here.”

She added the most important thing that campus ministry can do for students is create a place for them to meet, know and love Jesus.

Her responsibilities include coordinating activities with other campus departments, finding opportunities for students that are not Catholic, and also working with campus faith-based groups, including the women’s spirituality group.

Carda said she is excited for the new staff surrounding her in student affairs.

“This is the first year since I’ve been here that we’ve had significant turnover,” she said. “It’s sort of like starting from square one.”

She added that it is sometimes difficult to find out-of-area candidates for positions at MMC because it can be difficult to recruit people to come to Yankton.

“The people that we have hired have really great background experiences,” Carda said. “They see student affairs as part of their career track, which is really nice.”

Carda said she is particularly excited to see the impact of the new full-time student activities director position, and the potential impact it could have on students at MMC.

“Bennett has a lot of great experience and maturity,” Carda said. “He wants to get students out and exposed to different things with his trip series idea, and we are fortunate he was willing to come here.

“The goal of student affairs is to serve students first and foremost,” Carda added. “We have to be open to what students want on campus.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal

Published: Friday, July 13, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

Published: Wednesday, July 11, 2012 12:36 PM CDT

 http://yankton.net/articles/2012/07/10/community/doc4ffba76cdafbe554868561.txt

Published: Tuesday, July 10, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

At its annual reorganization meeting, the Yankton School Board elected a new president and vice president who displayed hope for the future, despite ongoing budget problems within the district.

The board held its annual reorganization at its meeting on Monday, with Chris Specht moving from vice president to president, and Jim Fitzgerald taking the role of vice president for the 2012-13 school year. In addition, Matthew Pietz was sworn in as a school board member, replacing Verlin Ailts, who is retiring from the board.

“It’s very exciting to be on the school board,” Pietz said. “I’m anxious to get to work and hopefully get past the budget issues we’ve been having.”

He added that one of his focuses will be getting better technology for students to learn from and use in their classroom activities.

“I’m focused on educating students in the very best way we can,” he added.

Specht, who replaces Kathy Greeneway as board president, said the school board will continue to try to provide the best education possible for the children in the Yankton School District.

“This has been a challenging last year for everybody, not just the board, but the community and YSD’s employees,” he said. “Even as president, I still have just one vote and still need to work.”

He noted that there are very important issues facing the district in this coming year, including the new drug and alcohol counselor, school funding, achievement levels, absentee rates, among others.

One agenda item that was discussed in detail at the meeting was the potential for new administrative services for the YSD health plan for its employees.

The YSD health plan currently operates under a two-tier system — either a single employee plan or a family plan. A new option is to change to the four-tier system — single employee, single employee and spouse, single parent, or family options.

The school district also has the option of changing administrative providers altogether, which could save the district hundreds of thousands of dollars.

Paula Weydert, president of the Yankton Education Association (YEA), spoke on behalf of the YSD employees’ about the options.

“We’d rather just keep what we have,” she said. “It’s not a problem that needs to be fixed.”

She did add that she would be in favor of moving from the two- to four-tier system.

The board also approved reinstating two library aide positions for the elementary schools. Two years ago, each elementary school in the district had a full-time library aide in its building — positions that were cut last year due to budget constraints. The proposal reinstates a halftime library aide at each of the elementary schools for the upcoming school year.

YSD Superintendent Dr. Joseph Gertsema said its a good starting point in bringing these positions back, but would prefer to have four positions full so each elementary school has its own full-time library aide.

Another agenda item included the unveiling of the potential 2012-13 school budget.

Because of the continued decrease in enrollment at YSD, the new budget is a $1.1 million decrease from where it was last year, which is equivalent to about a 9.4 percent change.

Some of the ways the board was able to save money including tapping into the health care savings reserves established by the district, cutting some funding for school activities, and not filing vacated teachers’ positions.

“The health plan reserves have been a fundamental savior to the budget,” YSD business manager Jason Bietz said. “Without the reserve, more cuts would have been needed.”

He noted that the health plan is a significant portion of the general fund, so the review process could save the district a significant amount of money, if it chooses to change administrative providers.

“We can’t deficit-spend forever,” he said. “We are listening to the public and are addressing their concerns brought forward.”

“Because we’re funded by the number of students we have, when student enrollment continues to drop, you need to cut back,” Specht said. “However, the public should not have too many concerns about this potential budget and we are looking at more ways to further reduce spending, including changes to the health plan.”

The board plans on voting on a budget for the upcoming school year at its Sept. 10 meeting.

In other business, the board designated the Yankton Press and Dakotan as the official newspaper for the 2012-13 YSD proceedings. This was originally slated as a consent item, but Dave Baumeister of the Missouri Valley Observer opposed. Despite the opposition, the board approved the proposal 4-1.

The next school board meeting will be held at 5:30 p.m. Aug. 13 in the YSD administration building at 2410 West City Limits Road.

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal

Published: Tuesday, July 3, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

Some businesses and agencies in Yankton have gotten aboard the growing national trend that allows employees to exercise while at work.

Recently, the Yankton Police Department began allowing its 911 dispatchers and core services employees to sit on yoga balls as office chairs, as well as have cycle pedals for use while employees sit at their desks.

In addition, the First National Bank Service Center in Yankton allows its call-center employees to use treadmills while manning the phones.

The police department first got its exercise equipment a few months ago, with 911 dispatcher Jennifer Palsma leading the effort.

She thought of the idea after overhearing one of her supervisors talking about an insurance agency that allows call center employees to work out while on the job. That inspired her to do some research before eventually making the proposal.

“When you’re stuck in the same spot for a 10-hour shift, there is not a whole lot of time for working out during, or after, the job,” Palsma said.

Research has shown that employees who exercise at work often exhibit better time management, mental performance and mental ability on those days. There is also a strong positive mood effect that goes along with exercise. It can also reduce health care costs for companies and cut down the number of sick days that employees use.

She sent out her research findings to Chief Brian Paulsen on the benefits of simply allowing desk-workers to use a yoga ball as their office chair.

The benefits include improved spinal health, better blood flow, strengthening of the abdominal and back muscles, improved balance, weight loss, and better focus and alertness for employees.

She noted that a dispatcher is usually stuck to his or her desk due to the need to consistently monitor the phones and cameras. Because of this, Palsma proposed the yoga balls to promote better health, more activity and stimulation in what is  normally a limiting environment.

“The job is usually completely sedentary,” Palsma said. “As a dispatcher, you’re stuck in the same spot for your 10-hour shift, with not a lot of physical movement.”

She added that, once she proposed the idea, the process took a few months, with equipment arriving earlier this spring.

“When I first proposed the idea, others laughed at me,” Palsma said. “Chief Paulsen got on board with the idea pretty quickly, though.”

The First National Bank Service Center began allowing its employees to utilize treadmills after renovations took place this past spring.

Operations Director Twyla Andrus said the main reason why the treadmills were brought in is because employees asked for an exercise room as part of the renovations.

“In this type of office and call-center setting, employees are sitting at a desk for a majority of their eight-hour shift,” Andrus said. “They wanted to have an avenue to get up from their desk to stretch and move around.”

The center added two walking treadmill stations to their facility after renovations were complete.

“Today about half of our employees have gone through training on these stations,” she said. “Each trained employee can sign up to walk on the stations for 30 minutes each day.”

The treadmills only have a few speeds, and nothing faster than a brisk walk is offered because employees are also speaking on the phone and operating a computer while walking.

“So far, we have had a very positive response to the equipment from our employees in the collections and customer care departments,” Andrus added.

“I used to get headaches all the time when I worked,” Palsma said. “Since the equipment came in, I never get headaches anymore at work.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal

  http://yankton.net/articles/2012/06/30/community/doc4fee728fde83c938159210.txt

Published: Saturday, June 30, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

New projections show July 4 travel this year could tie a 10-year record for the area. Total travel among South Dakota residents for the Independence Day holiday is expected to be up about 5.4 percent this year, according to AAA.

In addition to the statewide numbers expected to be up, numbers across the country are projected to go up as well. The total travel for people in the United States is projected to be up nearly five percent. These projections represent a nearly 42 percent increase from where the numbers were just three years ago. The holiday travel period is defined July 3-8.

“AAA’s projection for a decade high number of Independence Day travelers is being fed by Americans’ appetite for travel, a mid-week holiday and lower gas prices,” Marilyn Buskohl, spokeswoman for AAA South Dakota, said in a statement.

Jacquie Fuks, Director of the Southeast South Dakota Regional Tourism Association, said that she expects travel numbers to go up because the holiday is in the middle of the week.

“One thing that will make the numbers better this year is because the 4th of July is in the middle of the week,” she said. “People will take the beginning of the week off, the end of the week off, and some may take that whole week.”

She noted that when the holiday is in the middle of the week, it expands the holiday travel from one weekend to two.

Shane Bertsch, District Park Supervisor for the South Dakota Game, Fish and Parks (GF&P), expects numbers to be very good for travel into the Lewis and Clark Recreation areas.

“The numbers are going to be really good for July 4,” he said. “It’s going to be mostly full, and I expect the rest of the available campsites to go in the next few days.”

He added that campsites in the park are expected to be at, or near capacity, beginning this weekend for the next week. The increased patrons to the area mean more staff will be on duty at boat ramps and beaches on the grounds.

“If the weather is good, we expect about 1,600 campers or so for the 4th of July, which is more than a normal busy summer weekend would be,” Bertsch said.

In addition to the 1,600 campers, he expects about 500 to 700 boats to be on the water on the 4th of July alone.

Fuks noted that the biggest impacts on holiday travel are the weather and gas prices. She added this year’s travel could skyrocket for the July 4 holiday because the gas prices have been lower and the weather has been good.

“The 4th of July is the holiday that makes you go somewhere,” Fuks said. “It’s the middle of the summer, kids want to go somewhere and the weather is usually stable.”

She added that another factor that could play in to the numbers going up is that there were a lot of visitors to the area last year to see the flooding — visitors that had never been here before. She said that there is the potential that they travel back here this year to enjoy the area and all that it has to offer.

In addition to the Yankton-area numbers being up, Fuks said that other tourism directors in Sioux Falls, Mitchell and Madison report their numbers of visitor requests being up as well — which could prove to bring the number of travelers into those areas up for the season.

Travel to the area should not be affected by the hot weather, according to Bertsch.

“As long as its not extremly hot, the heat should not affect the numbers,” he said. “The beaches will be packed all week, and people will want to take their boat out regardless of the heat.”

Bertsch notes that, due to the nice weather in the winter, they were able to make a lot of improvements to the grounds, including a lodge that just opened for use this year. Staff members at Lewis and Clark are currently working on an elevated shooting range for archery, which is expected to be open by the end of July.

“We take pride in our customer service and keeping the grounds neat, clean and well-groomed,” Bertsch said. “If we can maintain those things, along with the draw of the lake, it will keep guests coming back each year.”

Fuks noted that, this year, visitor requests have come from an unexpected state — Ohio.

Ohio has topped all other states in terms of visitor information packet requests, she said. This includes the normal traffic from Nebraska, Iowa, Illinois, Wisconsin and Minneapolis, something that surprised her.

“Yankton is really a good, hometown feel type of place to go to,” Fuks said. “The fireworks and parks here are big draws for July 4.”

Despite all the fun that comes with the area on the 4th of July, Bertsch said guests should always have safety in mind.

“If you’re out on a boat, have the life jackets and safety gear prepared and ready to go,” he said. “Make sure all safety precautions are taken and use caution, because there will be a lot of other boaters out there, too.”

For the guests enjoying the beaches at Lewis and Clark, Bertsch wants to remind them that no pets are allowed and glass containers are prohibited.

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal

Published: Friday, June 29, 2012 1:09 AM CDT

Officials at Mount Marty College announced that the Otto Ullrich Trust Fund has gifted $150,000 to the school to build the Otto Ullrich Memorial Botanical Laboratory.

The laboratory will be constructed as part of the new science center project, which will move all nursing and science operations and classrooms at the college into the old library space.

Ullrich spent most of his life as a clerk at the Manhattan Bar and Cafe in Yankton. He also was an active member of the Elks Club and was proud of the opportunities that Yankton presented to its youth. Since his passing in 2006, the Otto Ullrich trust has dispersed more than $400,000 to various education-based charities and civic organization. However, this is the largest donation they have given so far.

Construction on phase one of the project, which includes science labs and the greenhouse, is expected to start this fall, and should take about a year to complete. Phase two of the project, which is the nursing facilities, is expected to begin shortly after phase one of the project is complete, and will take a shorter amount of time to complete.

Phase one of the project will include five new labs, two for chemistry, two for biology and one for physics. There will also be offices for science faculty members and the greenhouse addition.

The entire project is expected to cost about $3 million, with the greenhouse costing $150,000 — all $150,000 donated from the Ullrich Trust Fund.

“We are very fortunate that the trust has chosen to memorialize Otto Ullrich with a botanical lab on campus,” Mount Marty President Dr. Joseph Benoit said. “It’s nice to have a named building on our campus from someone who had such a large impact on the Yankton community.”

The new greenhouse, along with the other lab rooms that will be constructed, will allow students to engage in aspects of science education that are clearly aligned with educated individuals in science. The new center will also allow for more hands-on opportunities for students, and more problems-based learning opportunities as well.

Benoit noted that the lab will give students the opportunity to learn more about biological diversity, ecosystems and the interactions of organisms with their environment. He added that students will also be given the chance to deal with species that may not typically be available without a greenhouse because of the harsh South Dakota winters.

“Students’ educational experiences are enhanced because of the greenhouse,” Benoit said. “We are quite excited about the donation.”

He added the new science complex will allow for the community and region to have new opportunities not present before for education in the sciences.

“These will be wonderful new educational spaces for us,” Benoit said. “It is a great opportunity to have newer facilities to educate our students in.”

Barb Rezac, Chief Advancement Officer at Mount Marty, has high hopes for the project and the impact it could have on the community.

“I hope the new project will generate confidence in what we’re trying to accomplish here at Mount Marty,” she said.

She added that, while officials at the college are focused on this project, they’re also thinking about ahead to improving some of the other facilities on campus.

Rezac approached members of the trust this past March to propose the greenhouse to them. She finally heard back from them in June approving the donation and kick-starting the efforts on the greenhouse.

“We worked back and forth on the proposal for a few months before we finally got the go-ahead,” she said.

“The impact of a facility like this is going to last for years,” Benoit added.

He noted that Mount Marty should be able to recruit and retain students from other areas because of the new facilities and opportunities they allow for students in the science and nursing fields.

The potential for more students at Mount Marty benefits the economy of Yankton.

“There is a natural economic impact that occurs,” Benoit said. “When family and friends visit students, the economic impacts really can’t be measured in a lot of ways.”

Benoit noted that he wants to have the entire nursing department located on the north side of campus, where the new science facility will be located.

Rezac added the nursing program has expanded in recent years, and it will expand even further this coming fall, when the Masters of Nursing program will begin. She said that there was a big need for more offices for nursing faculty, and the new project will allow for that, along with new, state-of-the-art technology for students in the program.

Both Benoit and Rezac thanked the Trust Fund members for their kind donation to the    college.

“The greenhouse will show the community every day Otto Ullrich’s love for youth and gardening,” Rezac said. “It will memorialize him each day and we are really grateful for the generosity of the trustees in selecting this project.”

“Ullrich was a key example of someone who did a lot with his life,” Benoit said.

Rezac added, “The new greenhouse and science center will make a big difference in the lives of a lot of people.”

You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at www.twitter.com/andrewatwal