Southwest’s third-quarter 2018 total operating revenues soared by 5.1% year-over-year, to a third-quarter record of $5.6 billion. Southwest’s third-quarter net income also hit a record $615 million, or $1.08 per diluted share.
Third-quarter operating expenses increased by 7.2%, to $4.8 billion. The company reported quarterly economic fuel costs were $2.25/gal, including 6cts/gal in premium expense and 10cts/gal in favorable cash settlements from fuel derivative contracts. That compares to $2.07/gal in the third-quarter of 2017, which included 6cts/gal in premium expense and 31cts/gal in unfavorable cash settlements from fuel derivative contracts.
The company reported quarterly 2018 fuel efficiency improved by 1.1% year-over-year, driven primarily by the retirement of the classic fleet and the addition of more fuel-efficient aircraft.
Based on Southwest’s existing fuel derivative contracts and market prices as of Oct. 19, fourth-quarter 2018 economic fuel costs are estimated to be $2.30-2.35/gal, including 7cts/gal in premium expense and an estimated 14cts/gal in favorable cash settlements from fuel derivative contracts.
As of Oct. 19, the fair market value of the company’s fuel derivative contracts settling in the fourth-quarter of 2018 was an asset of about $82 million, and the fair market value of the hedge portfolio settling in 2019 and beyond was an asset of around $521 million.
Annual 2019 economic fuel costs are estimated to be $2.35-2.40/gal, including 4cts/gal in premium expense and an estimated 8cts/gal in favorable cash settlements.
“On the cost side, our third quarter 2018 unit cost performance was in line with our expectations. Our fuel hedge portfolio mitigated a significant portion of market jet fuel price increases, and we are pleased with the fuel hedge in place for both fourth quarter 2018 and annual 2019,” Southwest’s Chairman of the Board and CEO Gary C. Kelly said in a statement. “Based on current trends, we continue to expect modest year-over-year inflation in our annual 2018 unit costs, excluding fuel and oil expense and profitsharing expense.”
–Andrew Atwal, aatwal@opisnet.com
Shell’s Deer Park Refinery Resumes Operations: Official
Shell’s 340,000-b/d Deer Park refinery in Texas is back up and running after it was forced to shut down following Hurricane Harvey, a company official said.
“Shell Deer Park is now up and running following impacts of Hurricane Harvey,”
Shell spokesperson Ray Fisher told OPIS in an emailed statement. “We would like to thank all of our employees, contractors and local agencies who worked around the clock to get the site up and running as quickly as possible. The top priority of Shell Deer Park is to operate in a safe and environmentally sound manner.”
OPIS previously reported on Sept. 8 that the refinery was in the process of restarting. There were also separate reports that a fire broke out at the Shell Deer Park plant earlier this week.
–Andrew Atwal, aatwal@opisnet.com
Motiva Port Arthur Slated to Be at 40% Capacity by End of Weekend: Official
Motiva is expecting its 635,000-b/d Port Arthur refinery in Texas to be initially operating at 40% of total capacity by the end of the week, a company official told OPIS.
“Motiva’s Port Arthur refinery is in the final phases of equipment assessments and initial phases of refinery start up. We expect the refinery to initially return to approximately 40% production by the end of the weekend, provided that the final assessments meet our operational standards,” Motiva spokesperson Angela Goodwin told OPIS in an emailed statement. “We continue to work closely with state, local and federal governmental officials, as well as disaster relief organizations to address storm impacts on our business and to aid our communities in their recovery.”
Sources previously told OPIS that Motiva’s Port Arthur plant was expected to be down for about two weeks. The refinery was shut on Wednesday, Aug. 30, following Hurricane Harvey’s landfall in the Texas Gulf Coast region.
–Andrew Atwal, aatwal@opisnet.com
In its December Short Term Energy Outlook, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) warned about the “uncertainty and complexity” surrounding the IMO 2020 regulations. 2020 will ring in the implementation of a mandate to reduce sulfur emissions in marine fuel.
EIA examined the various options ship operators have for complying with the regulation, which include switching to the new compliant fuel. However, the agency said that the cost, availability and specifications of a new fuel for use in marine engines remains uncertain.
Another option is to install scrubbers on vessels to remove sulfur from the ships’ exhaust. Even if scrubbers become widely used, the price and availability of high-sulfur fuels after 2020 remains uncertain, the report stated. Clarksons Platou, a ship brokering company, said scrubbers have been adopted by an average of 7.5% of vessels across three major shipping sectors.
The EIA noted the new regulations pose a “significant challenge” for global petroleum refineries, as removing sulfur from marine bunker fuel can be an expensive and capital-intensive process.
“If scrubbers become widely adopted, higher-sulfur residual oils might still be used, potentially reducing the value of existing and new refining units capable of upgrading the residual oils,” the EIA report said.
Barclays Capital has, however, downplayed the possibility of non-compliance with IMO 2020 due to ship insurance concerns. The bank noted that few to no ship owners would be willing to risk losing ship insurance coverage by violating the mandate.
With the IMO 2020 mandate looming, many Gulf Coast distillate market players are grappling with how the regulations will impact spot trading.
“Ultra-low, middle distillates in the USGC will see an increased demand as we move closer to 2020,” a source said. “IMO regs require much less sulfur, and USGC refined jet is mostly ULSK [ultra-low-sulfur kerosene], because the majority of USGC refiners hydrotreat their jet.”
The source added that Gulf Coast ULSK streams should be sought after going forward for fuel blending to meet IMO specs.
“Look for more imports of typical 54-grade while the “near zero sulfur” USGC refined jet fuel gets soaked up for blending and exports until more ultra-low distillate refining capacity comes on stream by [the] end of 2020,” the source added
Another Gulf Coast trade source believes the IMO 2020 regulations may already be priced into the market.
“In general, forward cash markets are within $.0010 of the swaps quotes. To the extent the variables are ‘normal’ I do not expect the basis for ULSD to vary more than $.0200 either side of the current forward swaps,” the source said.
“What the swaps do indicate is that fourth quarter 2019 probably has some impact of IMO 2020 built in. Otherwise, I would expect fourth quarter to be close to -.0750. I would also expect by the end of first-quarter 2020, the market will realize that the impact of IMO 2020 is not as great as perceived in late 2019.”
There is also considerable attention focused on distillate demand as the calendar rolls to 2019.
“We expect colder YoY Northern Hemisphere winter, which should add 300,000 to
400,000 b/d of middle distillate demand; supportive for refining margins and throughput,” Macquarie Capital said in a report.
“We still expect distillate demand to outpace supply during the period, off an already tight Q4 2018 base,” said Energy Aspects. “(But) the biggest challenge from IMO 2020 is the need to wipe out huge amounts of surplus HSFO output. IMO can’t just be about raising clean product cracks, because this will enable simple refineries to stay in business. Most of the work needs to happen at the dirty end of the barrel in order to drive simple refineries with high HSFO yields out of business.”
JBC Energy noted in a recent report that weaker gasoline cracks compared to diesel could indicate supply tightness for the coming winter.
After Gulf Coast ULSD spot prices started 2018 around $1.95/gal, cash values are set to finish the year around some of their lowest amounts since 2017.
Notably, ULSD prices have fallen by more than 14% since the start of the year, while basis levels have been fairly steady, sticking close to the trends seen over the past several years.
As the calendar gets deeper into 2019, what remains to be seen is how prices and basis levels will be impacted by the upcoming IMO regulations.
–Andrew Atwal, aatwal@opisnet.com
2019 Preview: Jet Fuel Demand Holds Strong; IMO 2020 in Focus
As the calendar turns to 2019, jet fuel market watchers are now turning their attention to IMO 2020, and the possible impacts it could have on prices and trading.
There has also been a considerable amount of attention lately on jet fuel consumption by U.S. airlines, which has remained strong. The annual pace of the growth in jet fuel has also outdistanced its major transportation fuel components — gasoline and diesel fuel.
Recent statistics by the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) show U.S. jet fuel demand growth of about 2.3%, a figure that has remained consistently above 2% all year, with fuel consumption averaging about 1.75 million b/d.
On a global scale, jet fuel demand growth has doubled the pace of U.S. consumption, averaging closer to 4% annual the past several years.
For comparison, U.S. motor gasoline consumption in the U.S. has averaged less than 1% in 2018, running about 9.35 million b/d. Diesel fuel, meantime, consumption has been slightly stronger than gasoline, but at 4.1 million b/d, it still trails jet fuel by more than half.
Looking forward to 2019, U.S. jet fuel consumption is slated to continue to outpace gasoline. However, its rate of consumption growth may be rivaled by diesel as global oil markets transition to IMO 2020. The mandate requires ships to use low-sulfur fuel. Some vessels will install scrubbers to ensure clean fuel, while others will burn low-sulfur fuel oil or use diesel.
Most experts have agreed that IMO 2020 — set to take place Jan. 1, 2020 — will increase global diesel fuel demand requirements.
A source told OPIS that Gulf Coast ultra-low-sulfur diesel and middle distillates — including jet fuel — will see increased demand moving toward 2020.
“I think we’ll see USGC 54-grade move to a 2-3ct premium over 62-grade between now and fall of 2019,” the source said. “Also, the NYMEX differential on these products both should trade at least another 5cts higher than present by May and move towards NYMEX ‘flat’ by end of 2019.”
Looking back to December 2017, U.S. jet fuel demand set a record in terms of weekly deliveries of fuel to the market, according to the EIA. During that month, jet fuel demand hit 2.108 million b/d, which marked the first time ever that weekly jet fuel usage topped 2 million b/d.
For context, only once in 2018 did U.S. jet fuel consumption top 2 million b/d, and that took place in August 2018, when it reached 2.006 million b/d.
Nevertheless, jet fuel consumption in 2018 topped 1.9 million b/d for more weeks than any other time in U.S. history, according to the EIA. On five occasions, U.S. jet fuel consumption came in above the 1.9 million-b/d mark.
Also, the number of times it perched above 1.8 million b/d in 2018 was also the most ever.
OPIS projects that U.S. jet fuel demand will continue to grow in 2019 and can only be stopped by a global economic slowdown. Growth in passenger traffic in the U.S. and abroad, along with higher demand for freight deliveries, will continue to drive that growth.
IHS Markit, the parent company of OPIS, on several occasions in 2018 issued special reports on jet fuel, each time expressing confidence that demand will continue to be robust over the coming years.
By 2040, IHS Markit projects that global jet fuel demand will climb from 8% of total refined product demand in 2017, to more than 10% by 2040. The global market is expected to reach 9.5 million b/d by 2040, up from 7.45 million b/d in 2018, IHS Markit experts predict.
Most of that growth will be driven outside of the U.S., although America remains the biggest consumer of fuel, so it will remain a critical contributor to that expansion.
U.S. refiners have also continued to make a concentrated effort to ramp up jet fuel production.
While total jet fuel production in 2018 never topped the vaunted 2 million-b/d mark to match demand, it did top 1.9 million b/d on a regular basis during summer, averaging 1.96 million b/d in August 2018, a monthly record.
Moving forward, it is reasonable to believe U.S. jet fuel production will remain robust in 2019, as refiners keep pace with demand growth and an export market that has more than doubled for U.S. refiners over the last several years.
U.S. jet fuel exports consistently average more than 200,000 b/d, and easily double the export rates of any prior year.
Notably, twice in 2018 U.S. jet fuel exports topped 300,000 b/d, setting a record of 359,000 b/d in March 2018, only to be surpassed by the 377,000 b/d export rate set in October 2018, EIA data show.
Comparing U.S. exports of jet fuel with imports, it becomes evident that the U.S. has become a net exporter of fuel, with much of the material going to South America.
Refinery expansions and high utilization rates, driven by normal demand growth and IMO 2020 requirements, should mean sufficient production of jet fuel in the U.S. and worldwide to satisfy demand requirements.
However, infrastructure issues, including sufficient disruption capacity in terms of pipelines and storage, remain some of the biggest concerns for airlines as they compete with other transportation sectors for supply space.
Views on oil pricing for 2019 have already begun to take shape. The general view is that higher crude oil production from the U.S. and other areas will help to offset OPEC and Russia’s late 2018 decision to reduce output to help control a building surplus.
U.S. jet fuel prices will likely outperform crude oil, with strong crack spreads evident most of the year. However, if crude prices remain subdued as many project, U.S. jet fuel prices are not expected to top their highest rates of 2018, which peaked in October when the OPIS U.S. spot average hit $2.40/gal.
Given where U.S. jet fuel prices are finishing 2018 — near their cheapest levels all year — it would take a 30% spike in prices in 2019 to match the 2018 highs, which is not impossible, but not predicted.
Moving toward 2019, demand is expected to remain robust, with market watchers continuing to focus on IMO 2020 and the implications it may have on pricing and trade.
Yankton Man Recalls Overseas Experiences
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| Brooks Schild (left) poses with his brother Rich on a curb at one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces in downtown Baghdad. Both men were members of Yankton’s Charlie Battery when it was deployed to Iraq in 2005. Rich was killed in an IED attack in the Iraq capital. Brooks is currently a teacher at Yankton Middle School. (Photo: Brooks Schild) |
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
EDITOR’S NOTE: This is the last in a series of stories in conjunction with the 10th anniversary of the start of the Iraq War.———Brooks Schild still remembers the mail calls.For the Yankton native, getting a letter or package from home while he served two tours of duty overseas with Yankton’s Charlie Battery meant the world to him while he was stationed in Iraq and Kuwait.
“It’s huge to get something from home,” he said. “Getting letters in the mail meant a lot, and I would smell the envelopes and letters to have something nice to smell, since there isn’t much that smells good over there.”
This week marks the 10th anniversary of the beginning of the Iraq War, which sent thousands of soldiers, like Schild, to the Middle East.
After growing up in Yankton, Schild taught school in Council Bluffs, Iowa, before returning to teach in Yankton. While teaching in Iowa, Schild joined the Iowa Guard in the 1990s and served there for around a decade. After moving back to Yankton and transferring to the South Dakota National Guard, he was deployed to Baghdad in 2005 for a year tour of duty, and later deployed to Kuwait in 2009 for a nine-month tour.
Life in the far-flung lands was much different, ranging from the culture to the weather.
Schild said the first time he was deployed, he did not have a lot of free time. However, occasionally soldiers would have to go around Baghdad Airport and, while there, they would get steaks for their fellow comrades.
“They sold steaks around the Baghdad airport, and we would give soldiers who went there with around $50 to pick some up for us,” he said. “We would grill up some steaks and it would be one of the best things to happen that month.”
While in Iraq, he said a majority of a soldiers’ time was spent on missions and security.
“We would do a lot of work training the Iraqi police and working with them,” Schild said. “We would also do route security missions, which included making sure there were no IED’s (improvised explosive devices) in the area.”
He said advances in technology made keeping in touch with loved ones back home a lot easier than it was for soldiers who served in previous decades.
“When I was serving in Iraq, we would each have to pay $75 if we wanted Internet access,” Schild said. “The Internet was slow for United States’ standards, and was basically a dial-up connection.”
Even with the slow Internet, he could still send and receive emails, and could video chat with work every once in a while.
However, Schild’s tour of duty in Kuwait featured faster, wireless Internet, which gave him a more reliable way to video chat with his family members.
Nevertheless, he said getting letters in the mail meant the most.
“Getting United States mail was really the cat’s meow for us,” Schild said. “Letters are things that we all really appreciated.”
He said the strong community support that came from Yankton for service members overseas was priceless.
“Schools and organizations in the area sent us care packages, which we’re really thankful for,” Schild said. “Having the huge amount of support from the community back home was really nice. Soldiers that came before us, like in Vietnam, did not get the amount of support, or welcome home, that we got when we came back to the area.”
He added that veterans who served in previous wars helped pave the way for soldiers today to be sure they are welcomed back home.
Schild’s many experiences in Iraq also included a terrible 2005 IED attack in Baghdad, which killed his brother, Rich, and ultimately led to four Charlie Battery soldiers losing their lives.
Brooks, who teaches life sciences at Yankton Middle School, said he has a photo of Rich on his desk at school.
“It was really bittersweet being over there,” he said. “I lost my brother there, and three other soldiers were killed, as well, who I was close with. Two other people who I served with also sustained permanent injuries, so I can’t say being there was a great experience.”
As an educator, he noted that schools in Iraq were far different than schools in the United States.
Students in Iraq had beaten-up wooden desks in classrooms that had nothing on the walls. They also had few, if any, supplies, so U.S. soldiers brought them the supplies they needed for school.
“The students there really didn’t have anything. We went in and there were schools with insurgents surrounding the area,” Schild said. “Cars would get blown up in parking lots, so we went in to try to protect the kids.”
He recalls one experience where he spoke to kids about being able to speak openly about their government.
“I remember when I was there, some kids were talking about freedom of speech. They said they didn’t like Americans being in their country,” Schild said. “They wanted their freedom. When we asked them that, if we weren’t here, would they still talk about the government and Saddam Hussein, they got scared and said they wouldn’t have been able to.”
Looking back on his military tours, Schild said those who served abroad did the duty they set out to do.
“We did our duty there, served our country and made people proud of the mission we accomplished,” he said.
He added that soldiers aren’t the ones who start wars, or send others overseas.
“We just do what people tell us to do. It was our mission to go there, train the Iraqi police and make the country more stable,” he said. “We just follow orders. We went there, did our jobs and came back. We put everything we have into the missions we are given.”
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
Board Candidates Debate At Tuesday Night Forum
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
Yankton School District (YSD) school board candidates gathered at the Technical Education Center on Tuesday night to debate more issues pertaining to the district, most notably the districts budget crisis.
There are two openings on the school board, with four people running for the positions. Candidates are incumbent Jim Fitzgerald and newcomers Butch Becker, Wayne Wurth and Sarah Carda.
Questions were asked by audience members, and the first question brought up dealt with how candidates are prepared for the challenge of being a school board member.
Fitzgerald said this election is not as big a challenge for him as it was the first time he ran. He said he has been prepared for the position by baptism by serving on the board for the past three years.
Wurth said he would be prepared by hiring competent people and by trusting the people from whom he gets the information.
Carda noted that her experience working at Mount Marty should help her adjust to a position on the school board, while Becker added his experience in budgeting for businesses would give him some experience managing budgets.
Each candidate was also asked about his or her ability to represent the interests of the entire district.
“Teachers are most important in education,” Wurth said. “The teachers and students is what education is all about, and we need to make students and teachers the priority.”
Carda said the school board is representing students and sets forth to educate students.
“We need to take into account the importance of teachers,” she said. “We also need to be fiscally responsible and be able to do the most with the least.”
Becker noted his ability to understand issues and weighing their options as a way he would be able to represent the entire district.
Fitzgerald spoke of the role of the district in educating youth. He cited the high test scores and graduation rates of children that attend YSD.
Another question that candidates were asked dealt with staff morale.
“I don’t think the staff that work in management have a low morale,” Becker said. “If issues arise, I hope staff members can bring up their problems (to the administration).”
Fitzgerald said when finances become a problem, staff morale will decline, regardless of industry.
“Even though the morale of teachers might be low, I don’t think that deters them from doing the best job they can,” he said.
Wurth said he definitely thinks there is a big morale problem, and said he would oppose wasteful spending.
Carda thinks there probably is a morale issue as well.
“The question becomes whether the issue is externally or internally driven,” she said. “It’s an important issue, and with budget reductions, it’s only human nature to have a lower morale when you begin wondering about job security.”
All of the board candidates agreed they wouldn’t necessarily know what to cut from the budget without being able to take more time to look at the budget and the implications of cutting certain programs.
Other topics candidates spoke about included the sentinel bill, the role of the board and superintendent, elementary school class sizes and the ability to attract top-notch teachers to YSD in spite of financial problems.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
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Decision 2013: Budget Issues Dominate School Board Forum
 Sarah Carda
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By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
“We need to continue to offer a quality education,” he said. “There also needs to be opportunities for kids in different areas, including the arts.Carda said she decided to run after previously serving on the board at Sacred Heart School.“It’s important for me because I have kids in the district,” she said. “I’m pro-education and want people to have choices. It’s only fair that people who are able to give back do so.”
Wurth’s motivation to run for school board is based on informing the public that the school belongs to the people.
“People get silenced if they don’t agree with school district officials,” he said.
Becker said that, if elected, he would keep a careful eye on the financial situation for the district, if elected to the board.
The candidates were asked what the district has done well and what they’ve done poorly over the past several years.
Carda cited the strong academic reputation of the district as one of the things they’ve excelled in for years.
“YSD has had an exemplary graduation rate, which is good to have,” she said. “However, I think they’ve done poorly for explaining budget implications and what it means for students.”
Becker agreed with Carda, saying he thought the district has done a fantastic job educating students. However, he said the budget needs more work.
“We need to determine what we can take on and what we can’t take on,” he said. “How many things can we take from the community while still providing a good education for students?”
Wurth said the district has done a poor job by forcing issues on the public and trying to have opt-outs passed.
Fitzgerald said he feels as if the district has done a good job educating its students, but added board members should communicate with the public better on issues, including the budget.
One Interchange member asked board candidates what the role of education is with regards to fostering student achievement.
Wurth said one of the first things he would do, if elected, would be to demand individualism from students.
“Students should be judged on their own merit,” he said. “They’re not just a number, they’re individuals.”
Becker said he would concentrate on the academic portion, and said that No Child Left Behind (NCLB) attempted to foster student achievement, but failed to do so.
Fitzgerald talked about the importance of education not just being a role for schools.
“A lot of education happens at home for kids,” he said. “This brings up the values of community members.”
He also cited NCLB making educators teach to the test, and not to students.
Carda said she would be open-minded about the issues of education at YSD.
“I would try to get the best information I can, and I’d be honest about the things that must be done,” she said. “I’ll also be thoughtful about what we’re trying to do to best educate students.”
The candidates were also asked about the top three things they would focus on if elected.
Becker said he would focus heavily on the budget, analyzing and reviewing programs and looking at the Common Core standards.
Likewise, Fitzgerald cited finances as a main concern. He also said he would like to focus on maintaining high academic standards at YSD and keeping up with the changes in education.
Carda talked about addressing the academics offered for students, providing leadership for budget issues and said the purpose of the district, first and foremost, is to educate students.
On the other hand, Wurth said he would be focused on who works for whom.
“School Board members have an allegiance to the public, because they’re the ones who put you there,” he said. “I’ll also focus on who we hire, and getting education back into the teachers’ hands.”
Another question dealt with the candidates’ experiences managing a budget.
“I’ve dealt with doing a budget for my business, as well as while serving on the Hillcrest Golf Course board,” Fitzgerald said. “The school budget is a very tight rope we have to walk on.”
Carda said she offers unique experience, having served on non-profit boards and serving on Mount Marty’s executive team.
“I’ve worked on the budgets there, and it’s the same concept, even though Mount Marty’s budget is tuition-based,” she said. “There are complicating funding issues with the YSD budget as well.”
One of the things Wurth said he’s most concerned about is the government throwing money at education. He said money does not make kids smart.
Becker said if he is elected, he would continue to watch the healthcare program, as that is a significant cost for the district.
Along with the budget issue, a question was raised on ideas candidates have to balance the budget, while maintaining a low average class size.
Carda said she’s concerned with the class size now, and said it puts the district at risk.
“We have been increasing the class sizes in order to meet the budget,” she said. “We need to focus priorities with the budget on what’s most important.”
Wurth said he would discuss the budget properly, openly and honestly if he is elected.
“Officials need to make hard decisions on the budget,” he said. “You need to have confidence in who you have making those decisions.”
Becker and Fitzgerald both cited increasing healthcare costs as something they would monitor in upcoming years.
The school board election will be held April 9, with absentee voting available beginning on Monday in the YSD Administration Building and city finance office.
Another school board forum will be held tonight (Tuesday) at 7 p.m. at the Technical Education Center.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
YSD Superintendent Survey Results Likely To Guide Search
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
Eighty-three percent of community respondents felt the next superintendent should be a good communicator. Seventy-eight percent said the next superintendent should be good with budget skills, while 74 percent said he/she should have strong interpersonal skills.Other qualities community members want in the next superintendent include being involved in the community (71 percent), being a visionary for the district (65 percent), acting as an instructional leader (49 percent), being articulate and well-spoken (49 percent), and being courageous (36 percent).YSD faculty members had somewhat similar answers for the qualities they want in their next leader.
Ninety-two percent of faculty members said they believe the next superintendent should be a good communicator, 80 percent felt he/she should have strong interpersonal skills and 77 percent of faculty respondents felt the next superintendent should have strong budget skills.
In addition, 70 percent of faculty members thought the next leader of YSD should be involved in the community, 65 percent said he/she should be a visionary and 57 percent felt the next superintendent should be well-spoken.
A minority of faculty respondents thought the next YSD superintendent should be an instructional leader or be courageous.
Another question asked faculty and community members how they felt the success of the superintendent after a year on the job should be determined.
Eighty-seven percent of faculty respondents felt as if success after one year should be determined based on employees being satisfied, 85 percent felt it should be based off of school culture, while 51 percent said success should be determined based on how satisfied community members are.
On the other hand, community members felt as if success should be determined based off of a positive school culture (84 percent), a solid financial base (67 percent) and satisfied employees (63 percent).
The issues that faculty respondents thought it would be most important for the new superintendent to know included, in order of popularity, budget issues, lack of community support, low staff morale, failed opt-outs, salary issues and lack of communication.
The most important issues community members felt the new superintendent should know about included budget issues, drugs and alcohol issues among students, lack of community support, low staff morale, failed opt-outs and the need to keep extra-curricular activities.
Community members also thought the traits that are most essential for the new superintendent to have include being honest and trustworthy, good communication skills, good with fiscal management, being accessible and being a visionary for the district.
Faculty respondents thought the most essential traits are being a good communicator, being honest and trustworthy, having good interpersonal skills, being good with fiscal management and acting as a visionary.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
YSD School Board To Hold Special Meeting
A Bluegrass Brother Act
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| The Abrams Brothers will perform in concert at the Dakota Theatre in downtown Yankton Monday night. The Canadian brothers feature a bluegrass sound that has returned to popularity thanks to the success of such acts at Mumford and Sons. (Courtesy Photo) |
Abrams Brothers Get Back To Their Roots In Performance At Dakota Theatre Monday
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
“Their style of music is just so fun and easy to listen to,” she said. “If you like music — any style of music — I believe you will love the Abrams Brothers. They are great musicians and you can tell that they love doing what they are doing.”The Abrams Brothers have been on the road playing music for about the last 11 years.“We’ve been playing longer than that, but our band and touring act has been around for 11 years,” John Abrams said. “We still play music with our family when we’re home, and we’re now the fourth generation to play music.”The Abrams Brothers just released their fourth studio album, “Northern Redemption,” in September.
“The music on the new record is mainly bluegrass, with old folk and gospel influences,” Abrams said. “It’s a real blend of that, with some contemporary styles. We think the album is really creating original Abrams Brothers music.”
With bands like The Lumineers and Mumford and Sons, considered a bluegrass and folk bands, recently producing the chart-topping hits “I Will Wait” and “Ho Hey,” the genres have enjoyed a renaissance with mainstream music.
“It’s fantastic that bluegrass and folk has been coming back the last few years,” Abrams said. “It’s inevitable, in a way; a generation of people have been fed so much plastic from the pop media outlets. People start turning to things organic and authentic again.”
He compared this movement to the disco generation of the 1970s.
“It was a counter-culture movement that came into the spotlight,” Abrams said. “People had a desire to listen to bands that played more authentic music, like The Eagles, for instance. It became a craze, and bands started playing music that was more traditional.”
He said he feels like this is happening again with bluegrass and folk music.
“To see attention given to the bluegrass, folk and Americana styles of music from our peer groups is real encouraging and it makes us feel great,” Abrams said. “We use that as a jumping-off point as far as our musical creativity goes.”
One of the Abrams Brothers’ favorite shows was at a festival in Israel.
“We’ll be going back for the fourth time this year to headline the Jacob’s Ladder Music Festival, which features a lot of folk music and is right on the Sea of Galilee,” Abrams said. “It’s a lot of fun, not just musically. There is a profound history in that region and it feels like you’ve just stepped into a place where you’re so small in the grand spectrum of history.”
One of the Abrams Brothers’ other favorite shows came when they first performed at the Grand Ole Opry in Nashville. Abrams said they became the youngest Canadians to play the venue, and enjoyed the experience playing on the same stage that many legendary artists have.
Abrams said the style of music the band plays never changes, regardless of show venue.
“The genesis of our music and where we started is that, even though we might play a festival with crowds of 50,000, or a theater with only a few hundred, our style of music is very much about the sense of community you get between artist and performer,” he said. “It’s the kind of music that’s conceptually accessible. People sitting in the audience can see something tangible and real, it’s not just smoke and mirrors.”
The Abrams Brothers also thrive on the sense of authenticity in their music at live shows.
“The core of organic sensibility in our music is still very prevalent,” Abrams said. “We have spent our lives devoting ourselves to the idea that it’s integral for a musician’s career to build a relationship with a live audience.”
He said he also enjoys storytelling during the shows.
“People will hear stories of how our songs came together, and stories from our past and present,” Abrams said. “Our goal for the audience at our shows has always been to have people be positively touched by our music. If we’re able to do that, we’ve accomplished what we’ve set out to do.”
Tickets for Monday’s concert are available by calling the Lewis and Clark Theatre box office at 605-665-7811 or by emailing Marlette at lctc@midconetwork.com with the number of seats you would like to reserve.
“We are doing reserved seating for this concert,” Marlette said. “There are still good seats available, but we hope that by Monday we can say they are limited.”
For more information on the Abrams Brothers, log on at abramsbrothers.com or check them out on Facebook, Twitter, YouTube or MySpace.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
‘Bully’ Film Is Aiming To Open Some Eyes
Documentary To Be Shown At Library
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
“Our job as a library is to help educate the community,” Jacobs said. “The subject of bullying might not be something everyone will be interested in. Some might have questions about the subject but won’t want to come in to a public viewing, so hearing about the movie might make them check it out on their own.”In addition to the movie, the library will have the book, that goes along with the film available and will have resources for adults on how to deal with the situation if their child is a bully or being bullied.“It’s a difficult subject to talk about, and I tend to get very passionate about it, but I just hope that people have the courage to come out to see the film,” Jacobs said. “People can come see the film out of curiosity, or if they feel like they want to learn more about the topic or do something about it.”
For more information, contact the library at 668-5276.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
YSD Could Feel Sting Of Sequester
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| Yankton School District (YSD) superintendent Dr. Joe Gertsema discussed the impact the federal government sequestration could have on the district, during the Yankton school board’s monthly meeting Monday night. (Kelly Hertz/P&D) |
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
The impact of the federal government sequestration on the Yankton School District (YSD) was discussed at the regularly scheduled YSD school board meeting on Monday night.
Because the federal government could not agree on a budget resolution by March 1, sweeping cuts were triggered in many areas of the budget, including education.
Although the South Dakota Department of Education is still awaiting a final interpretation of the cut’s impact on education, there have been some numbers given to the department that are providing a sense of direction.
“We don’t know enough yet to know how the cuts might impact Yankton School District,” said YSD superintendent Joe Gertsema. “However, there are projections that special education and Title I and Title II A will be cut by about 5 percent.”
The 5 percent cut would be based on census data, so schools with lower enrollments could face a higher percentage in cuts to their programs.
“Census information will dictate how the dollars are spent,” Gertsema said. “We will not know how we’ll be impacted until the feds tell the state and the state tells us.”
YSD business manager Jason Bietz said the district has nearly $382,000 invested with Title I funds, equivalent to about six teaching positions. If the government cuts Title I by 5 percent, YSD would face a cut of around $20,000 to the program.
In addition, YSD has more than $194,000 in the Title II A program, with three full-time equivalent positions invested, and a 5 percent cut would mean $9,700 taken from the program at YSD.
The IDEA (special education) program at YSD has 9.8 full-time equivalent teachers in it, and an investment of about $656,000. If YSD faces a 5 percent cut, it would mean a loss of around $33,000.
Early childhood programs would also be impacted by government cuts, and YSD’s program would face a loss of around $1,000.
All told, Bietz said, the cuts would mean a loss of around $63,000 from the YSD budget.
“The sequester with the federal programs is a bit of a curve that we weren’t anticipating would be fully enacted,” he said. “But it’s here and we have to deal with it and assume it will fully happen. The cuts we face, if put together, are about the equivalent of one certified position.”
Also at the meeting, board members approved changes to the Yankton High School (YHS) language arts curriculum.
“There is a seven-year cycle we go through where we review the curriculum and textbooks,” Gertsema said. “Sometimes changes come with changing education standards.”
Faculty members began working on the new curriculum more than a year ago, and compared the curriculum to be sure it would be aligned with the new Common Core standards.
“With addressing the new standards, we dropped one course which didn’t line up with the Common Core,” Kindle said. “We also combined some courses and re-named ninth grade grammar to English 9.”
He added that some of the course names were changed to bring the district up to date with the technology and other course resources available.
“We really haven’t reduced the number of courses in the department that much within the last 20 years,” said Jill Mikkelsen, who was on the curriculum review committee. “Some of the characteristics of the courses we had were overlapping, so we made changes.”
She added that faculty members began revising the curriculum last spring and the change over to the Common Core standards came at a perfect time for the department because they were already looking to amend the language arts curriculum.
“We’ve been looking to add more non-fiction to the classes we offer,” Mikkelsen said. “They’re not sweeping changes we made, but we feel really good about the curriculum changes.”
Also Monday, the board members heard a report from child nutrition supervisor Sandi Kramer on the summer food program and the proposed Department of Agriculture (USDA) school food guidelines.
The summer food program takes place at Webster School and feeds about 200 kids and a dozen adults each week.
“We like having adults eat with students and talk to them during lunch,” Kramer said. “The program is aided a lot by some staff members, volunteers and young adults that help out by volunteering.”
Some of the proposed food guidelines districts face include restricted juice sizes, calorie limits on snacks and entrees, and the limitation of vended items to fruit, vegetable, whole grain, protein or dairy products.
The regulations would also cover items sold during bake sales, and officials want bake sales to be monitored.
“The USDA is seeking comments on the proposal until April,” Kramer said. “This would impact a lot of the programs we have here, including the a la carte choices and the vending machine options we have for students.”
Additional agenda items included:
• Authorizing a non-exclusive licensing agreement with LRG Prep LLC to track, verify and audit licensing royalties for use of YSD name, marks, seal and mascots;
• Approving a project development agency agreement with Johnson Controls, Inc., for a premises evaluation study and energy usage audit in accordance with design-build procedures;
• Approving an amendment to the YEA master contract by adding the following sentence: “However, at the end of the 2012-13 school term, a maximum of 10 teachers will be allowed to elect early retirement.”;
• Granting eight early retirement requests;
• Approving the resignation of Sandra Hoffner;
• Approving a lease agreement with Lewis and Clark Shriners Club for the use of Crane Youngsworth Field for a circus on July 9.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
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One-Time Funding Could Help YSD
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
YSD school board member Jim Fitzgerald said he appreciates the one-time allotment from Pierre.“The one-time moneys, we will certainly take and is nice to have,” he said. “The issue is, one-time money is nothing you can plug into the budget that can impact ongoing expenses.“Anything the state wants to share with us is great, and we’ll certainly take it, but that’s probably about 10 percent or less of what our budget shortfall will be,” Fitzgerald said. “We will have to get creative with how we’ll balance the budget. We need to do what’s right for the district and figure out how to close the gap.”Specht wondered when the lawmakers will put a priority on education funding across the state.
“How large do we allow our class sizes to get, and how many programs are eliminated before parents in our state tell their elected representatives to make K-12 education funding a higher priority?” he asked.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
YSD Schools No Longer Polling Stations
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
“I don’t know if that helps us any for our elections to replace the middle school, since it is way over on the west edge of town,” he said. “However, they have plenty of room and there is a large conference room we can use.”
New potential voting center sites discussed by the commission included the Yankton Mall, Chan Gurney Airport, Hillcrest Golf Course or the NFAA Archery Center. However, commissioners expressed a desire to have a polling station on the northeast side of Yankton.
“We should be thinking about this while driving around town,” commissioner Donna Freng said.
P&D reporter Nathan Johnson contributed to this report.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
YSD School Board To Meet Monday
Published: Saturday, March 9, 2013 1:06 AM CST
Red Cross To Hold Benefit Friday
Still No Deal For YSD Teachers
Yankton’s Kindle Not Offered Norfolk Position
Center Benefit Aims To Raise Funds And Awareness
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
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Yankton Hosting State Debate Meet
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
Schools from around the state will be traveling to Yankton on Friday and Saturday to participate in the South Dakota State Debate Tournament, being held at Yankton High School (YHS).
There will be approximately 18 schools in Yankton for the tournament, including most AA schools with a debate team, and some A schools, such as Vermillion, Harrisburg and Spearfish.
Local preparations for the tournament began around Jan. 1 with coordinators getting in touch with people to help with things needed for judges and making sure all rooms and backup rooms were read for the event.
The tournament will have several categories, including the group debate categories of policy, Lincoln-Douglas and the public forum debate. The individual events include original oratory, international extemporaneous and United States extemporaneous.
“The policy debate is an issue of policy. This year, students will debate whether the federal government should increase its investment in transportation infrastructure,” said Leo Kallis, YHS’ debate team coach. “Students have the resolution and work on it all year.”
The policy debate is the longest of the three group categories, lasting about 90 minutes.
The public forum debate is shorter, and is designed for a more current event or hot-button issue. Students go through a different resolution each month and, during the tournament, they will debate how the rise of China could be beneficial to the United States. The public forum debate lasts about 30 minutes, with each speaker getting six minutes to talk.
The Lincoln-Douglas debate pertains to resolutions of value. During the debate tournament, students in this category will argue about the idea of rehabilitation being preferable to retribution in the United States criminal justice system. The Lincoln-Douglas debate round lasts about 45 minutes.
“A three-judge panel determines the winning team in each round,” Kallis said. “The policy and Lincoln-Douglas debates are judged primarily by coaches and former debaters, while the public forum debate is judged by community members and is designed for a community audience.”
During the first few rounds, judges will eliminate each team with two losses, and then try to eliminate additional teams by the end of round four of the contest. The quarterfinal, semi-final and final rounds are all single elimination.
During the single elimination rounds, each judge will provide a reason for picking a school on their ballot. Ballots will also feature a 30-point scoring system.
“Each team is guaranteed three rounds of debate,” Kallis said. “We will start everything Friday morning, and hope to be done Saturday evening around 6 p.m.”
He added that kids want to do well in the state tournament, and have spent their last two weeks at national qualifying tournaments preparing for this event.
In addition to benefits for the kids in the competition, Kallis notes that the tournament brings a lot of positives to Yankton as well.
“The community, as a whole, will benefit from the teams staying in hotels in town and eating in Yankton’s restaurants,” he said. “I think community members should know that there are extracurricular activities out there other than sports, where students apply what they learn in class to a competitive environment.”
Kallis said, as an educator, he enjoys seeing kids extend what they learn from the classroom into the debate team.
The YHS team has a good history of competing in the group debate events, but Kallis said they can always get better in the individual tournament events.
Winners are picked for each category of event, as well as each class of school. Schools are limited to two entrants per event.
Kallis said he hopes students see their hard work pay off in this weekend’s tournament.
“I hope students get the sense of accomplishment in the tournament because they’ve worked hard all season and they’ll be able to show the results of their work one last time,” he said. “I hope they win, but we just ask them to work hard to prepare and do the best they can in every round. I hope the students continue to do that.”
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
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http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/02/25/community/doc512af3b01b136566448452.txt
Firm Focused On Recruitment In Search For YSD Superintendent
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
The Yankton School District (YSD) school board recently entered into an agreement with Dakota Educational Consulting. The agreement allows the consulting firm to lead the search for YSD’s next superintendent.
Dakota Educational Consulting has previously led administrative searches for districts across the region, including in Sioux Valley, Canistota, Rock Valley and Storm Lake, among others. The firm is currently leading searches in other districts, including Viborg-Hurley and Aberdeen Roncalli.
Tom Oster and Dr. Rick Melmer head the two-year-old consulting group, and both have an extensive background in education across the region. Oster currently serves as superintendent at Sioux Valley schools, was a superintendent in Avon and served as the Secretary of Education for South Dakota. Melmer currently is the dean of the College of Education at University of South Dakota, has been the South Dakota Secretary of Education and was a superintendent for Watertown schools and the Sioux Center school district.
The group will focus on recruitment as it conducts Yankton’s superintendent search.
“We will spend a lot of time over the next few weeks contacting potential candidates, discussing the position and giving candidates information about the school district and the community,” Melmer said. “Our group will also help facilitate the interview process and help narrow down the applicants for the board to review.”
He added that he is not aware of other firms with which the board negotiated to handle the search, but cost could have been a reason why his group was chosen. The board will pay Dakota Educational Consulting $8,000 for search services.
“Tom (Oster) and I are connected throughout South Dakota and the region, and now, a lot of folks in education as well,” Melmer said. “We have both been with the Department of Education and have been superintendents in the state, which allowed us to make connections in education.”
Another reason why the firm may have been chosen, according to Melmer, is because of the nature of its proposal.
“All of the board members have jobs or lives outside of their work at the board, many of them probably don’t have the time to make contacts, call recruits, answer questions about the application process because they’re already busy in their daily lives,” he said. “Many of the members on the board probably don’t have the connections Tom (Oster) and I have because board members, generally, live in the private sector. Oster and I are well networked in the state and region.”
The application and recruitment phase for Yankton will be open until around March 15.
“I don’t think there are very many drawbacks to the timeline the school board has in place,” Melmer said. “It’s early enough that the district will get good candidates for the position.”
He added that there are a number of smaller districts in the area looking for superintendents, but Yankton differentiates itself because of its larger size.
“Either candidates are ready for Yankton School District or they’re not,” Melmer said. “The district is a good size compared to others that are also looking for a superintendent.”
One of the strategies the firm will use comes through the contacts Oster and Melmer have made in education across the region.
“We ask the people we know in education and call other names around the state and region and ask if they know anyone who might be interested in the job opening,” Melmer said. “We will follow up with the names we receive and ask if they’re interested in the position. There will also be natural candidates that apply through the postings we have online.”
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
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Kindle Interviews For Norfolk Schools Opening
From P&D Staff Reports
Yankton High School (YHS) principal Dr. Wayne Kindle interviewed for the superintendent opening at Norfolk Public Schools on Wednesday.
He said he began the interview process at 7:30 a.m. Wednesday morning, with his final interviews at 8:30 p.m. that evening with the Norfolk School Board.
Kindle said candidates were asked to limit their discussion with the media until all interviews are completed so he did not offer any additional comments.
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Classic Tale Is Brought To Life By YCTC
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
Although Tara Gill has an extensive background directing plays in Yankton, “Aladdin And His Wonderful, Magical Lamp” will be her first time heading a show for the Yankton Children’s Theater Company (YCTC).
“The people from the Yankton Children’s Theatre Company asked me to direct a play for them so I thought I’d give it a shot,” Gill said. “I directed ‘Annie’ for Lewis and Clark (Theatre Company) and enjoyed working with the children in that production, so I thought I’d give an all-kids play a shot.”
She added that she is thoroughly enjoying her first production with YCTC, and looks forward to directing more plays with them in the future.
Gill said that when many people think of “Aladdin”, they often think of the Disney version of the production. However, this play is more of an adaptation of the original version of the book.
“Aladdin is a boy who gets into a lot of mischief,” Gill said. “He’s always looking for an adventure, and because of that, it leads him to get into trouble.”
Eventually Aladdin comes across Jamaal, who is an evil magician in search of a genie lamp. Through all of Aladdin’s adventures, he meets Princess Jasmine, who is supposed to get married soon. By the end of the play, he ends up with Jasmine.
“It’s just a cute musical, with a lot of new music,” Gill said. “The play doesn’t have the same songs as the Disney version, and the characters have different names. Although the story is similar, this is a different perspective on it.”
She added that the characters in the play are fun, and each have their own, individual personalities.
The production will be held on Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday the weekends of Feb. 28 and March 7. Sunday shows are at 2 p.m., all others are at 7:30 p.m. at the Dakota Theatre.
“The kids we have in this play have worked so hard and it’s truly an all-kids production,” Gill said. “We have a lot of talented kids in this town and the play incorporates dancing and acting. We need a good audience to keep them motivated and keep them in theater. Coming out to the show is a good way to support YCTC and everyone involved with the play.”
Cast List:
Jamaal — Jordan Kuipers
Halima — Olivia Hudson
Scheherazade — Blake Wieseler
Alakazam (monkey) — Gage Becker
Aladdin — Sky Nockels
Chop Chop — Logan Haak
Princess Jasmine — Megan Haselhorst
Sheba — Jordan Walter
Zara — Rachel Wood
Ali Bubba — Sam Carda
Dragon — Daniel Bruegman
Queen Sultane — Haylee Heinemeyer
Sultan — Jacob Smith
Neela — Catherine Perekslis
Mother of Aladdin — Gabby Slowey
Merchant Woman (Jarma) — Tajia Schamp
Merchant Woman (Sahria) — Tori Class
Genie of the Ring — Kaycee Smith
Genie of the Jewel — Kaitlin Paulson
Genie of the Lamp — Anna Carda
Genies-in-Training — Aria Beaudette, Raina Schaeffer, Joselyn Pearson
ROYAL PROCESSION:
Asha — Emily Wieseler
Asad — Jaden Pearson
Hadi — Makayla Palacek
Nadim — Cory Lucht
Nadira — Emma Eichacker
Prema — Anjeliene Schaeffer
TOWNS PEOPLE:
Safia — Jasmine Gill
Thana — Tess Zoss
Ashan — Alyssa Ogstad
Saleem — Carson Heinemeyer
Hema — Cora Johnson
Abbud — Joseph Wieseler
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
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http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/02/21/community/doc5125967857511846921768.txt
YCTC Seeks New Home
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
The Yankton Children’s Theatre Company (YCTC) has been rehearing in the old Elks building, in the 400 block of Walnut, for several years, knowing that the facility could be sold at any time.
That time has come.
“The Old Elks building has been our home base for several years, so having to move at this point is certainly a challenge,” said Jill Paulson, president of YCTC. “However, we plan to do everything we can to work towards the continued progress of the organization, despite this bump in the road.”
The YCTC has been informed that the building will be sold after May 1, but they must be out by that date.
Paulson added that since the building has been for sale before, it was always a possibility that they would have to move out at some point.
“On a few occasions, we have reached out, or attempted to reach out, to property owners in the community that we felt might have empty or underutilized buildings that could fit our needs,” Paulson said. “Unfortunately, we have not been able to find, or connect with, the right opportunity at the right time. Through connections on our current board, we do have a few possibilities to explore, but we certainly do not have anything definitive in the works at this time.”
The building is scheduled to be sold at a hectic and busy time for YCTC. They have just completed one of their major annual fundraisers this past weekend, and are still in rehearsals for their largest production of the year, “Aladdin and His Wonderful Magic Lamp.”
Paulson said this will be an issue that YCTC will need to continue to work on as it moves forward.
“If we cannot find a new home, we are prepared to put our large collection of costumes, props and set items in storage temporarily,” she said. “This would not be an ideal situation, but we’re committed to keeping these creative opportunities open and available to all Yankton-area youth and their families.”
In YCTC’s current situation, officials are able to build their sets, prepare costumes and hold all of their initial rehearsals at the old Elks building. However, the building, Paulson says, is not a viable location for productions, so the YCTC must rotate between the three main theatres in town (Dakota Theatre, Summit Center Theater and the Marian Auditorium), based on the needs of the production and availability.
“In an ideal world, YCTC would love to find a home that would allow us to do all the things like rehearsals, set construction, productions in one place,” Paulson said. “This would not necessarily require a ‘traditional’ theater space — we are a creative group of people and might see possibilities in spaces that others might not. This would only increase our ability to enhance and grow our productions and offer new programming.”
She added that what YCTC needs more than anything is a constant and stable location for storage, set and costume construction, as well as rehearsal space.
The YCTC has been instructed to be out of the building no later than May 1. However, that date may change.
“We have not been informed of a specific date at this point, but it is our understanding that the building will go up for auction sometime after May 1,” Paulson said.
She added that programs like the YCTC are important for the public because often arts-related programs are being cut in schools, so community-based programs for children, like YCTC, are increasingly important.
Members of the YCTC are encouraging the public to call executive director Allison Spak if they think they have a space, or know someone that does, that might work for the organization.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
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http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/02/20/community/doc512452a699368214609745.txt
Forum Tackles Medicaid Expansion
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| Joy Smolnisky, director of the South Dakota Budget and Policy Project, discusses the pros and cons of South Dakota joining the Medicaid expansion plan, during a forum held Tuesday at Mount Marty College. (Kelly Hertz/P&D) |
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
The pros and cons of Medicaid expansion were discussed during a forum held at Mount Marty Tuesday.
Joy Smolnisky, director of the South Dakota Budget and Policy Project, reviewed the potential positives and negatives of Medicaid expansion and also took time to answer audience members’ questions.
Smolnisky said the Affordable Care Act has five components to it that will not change regardless of potential Medicaid expansion in South Dakota. Those components include coverage guarantees, insurance exchanges, federal tax credits to help pay for insurance, an individual mandate and funding provisions.
“The main concept of health care remains the same: If someone is sick, we will treat them,” she said. “However, with provisions in the Affordable Care Act, no one can be turned down for insurance because of preexisting conditions. Insurance also has to be affordable, given someone’s income level.”
Smolnisky added that 20 percent of non-elderly South Dakota adults do not currently have insurance, and that number could come down if Medicaid expands in the state.
One of the provisions of the Affordable Care Act — federal tax credits to help individuals pay for insurance — works under the premise that if a household or individual has a lower income, they are entitled to lower premiums. However, as their income increases, they take more responsibility for their costs of insurance, making their premiums rise with income level.
Smolnisky said that the 2014 insurance exchange subsidies will only be in place for those that are within 100-400 percent of the federal poverty level. Thus, those under 100 percent of the poverty level and above 400 percent are not eligible for the subsidies.
Without Medicaid expansion in 2014, there will be approximately 30,000 South Dakota residents left uninsured.
“Some of the lowest income residents across the state will not be eligible for certain aspects of the health care reform,” Smolnisky said. “In some cases, if someone has an income that is too low, they will not qualify for federal subsidies to buy insurance and their income would also be too high to qualify for South Dakota Medicaid, if the state chooses not to expand the program.”
She added that the expansion decision might be purely political for legislators.
“If South Dakota does decide to expand, and then they don’t like the results, they can choose to change back to the old Medicaid program,” Smolnisky said. “There is also a broad array of folks out there, both providers and consumers of health care, that are in support of the expansion. However, regardless of the decision, health care reform and Medicaid must continue to be monitored by officials.”
She said the Medicaid expansion decision would primarily impact the poor, adults without children, non-elderly and parents who are between 50 and 100 percent of the federal poverty level.
“It makes economic sense for the state to expand the Medicaid program from the perspective that they would get a 10 to 1 match from the federal government for the program,” Smolnisky said. “It brings money into the state to provide care that is needed for poor people. If, down the line, the government can no longer afford to give funding to states for the Medicaid program, South Dakota can switch back to the old program.”
There will be a public hearing on Medicaid expansion today (Wednesday) in Pierre at 10 a.m. The hearing will also contain a period of public testimony where South Dakota citizens can voice their opinions on the Medicaid expansion decision to legislators.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
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http://yankton.net/articles/2013/02/19/community/doc5122fed076bfe825484363.txt
A Distinctive Honor
 Jane Pugh (pictured) and Judi O’Connell were honored with “Woman of Distinction” awards during an annual luncheon held at Mount Marty College’s Roncalli Center. (Kelly Hertz/P&D)
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O’Connell, Pugh Win Annual Awards For Service
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
Women from Yankton were honored for their service to the community during the annual “Women of Distinction” luncheon held at Mount Marty College on Monday.
The program featured a keynote speech from Kristie VerMulm, who was born in South Dakota and now anchors television newscasts at KTIV in Sioux City for 17 years.
VerMulm spoke about the life lessons that people can take from a roll of South Dakota sod.
“The experiences we have, both good and bad, help shape who we are,” she said. “A roll of sod on the side of the road was a big deal for my family growing up. One day my brother wanted to go back and get the roll he saw on the road but my dad already got it. This made me realize that simple things bring joy to families.”
She connected this to volunteering, telling the audience at the Roncalli Center, that our actions can be simple but they can make a difference in the community.
“This event is great because it recognizes people that make a difference in their community,” she said. “All of the women here today have great talents and give up their time to the community. We need more people like that across the country.”
Some of the lessons that VerMulm spoke about including finding humor in your life, understanding the challenges other people might face in the future and to love the life you are living.
“Each of us has a life and a story to tell,” she said. “You’ll never know how many lives you’ve had an impact on, both positively and negatively.”
Their were 10 nominees this year for the Women of Distinction awards, including two who were nominated in both the Outstanding Community Service and Outstanding Professional categories.
Nominees in the outstanding professional category were Joan Neubauer, Judi O’Connell, Jane Pugh and Sister Margo Tschetter. Nominees for the outstanding community service award were Mary Fiedler, Dagmar Hoxsie, Jane Pugh, Joan Neubauer, Diana Roth and Leah Smith.
The winner for the outstanding professional award was Judi O’Connell, while the outstanding community service winner was Jane Pugh.
“I feel so honored to receive this award,” O’Connell said. “All of the nominees here are outstanding Yankton citizens.”
O’Connell founded Judi’s Dance Studio in Yankton and has been involved with Yankton Area Arts, the Dance Network of South Dakota and Beta Sigma Phi.
When Pugh found out about winning her award she said every woman in the room deserves the award, but was appreciative of the achievement.
“Both emotionally and in my heart I can’t tell how much this means to me to win the award,” she said. “I’m honored and humbled and really can’t put any words to it. This event is important because women need to be honored for what they do in the community, and often times that doesn’t happen.”
Pugh has been involved with the Susan G. Komen Foundation, the Yankton Contact Center and the Human Services Center Advisory Board.
She also noted her battle to overcome drug and alcohol problems more than 20 years ago.
“When I first found out about the nomination, I said ‘Wow,’ and wondered who nominated me and why,” she said. “But I have put in a lot of work in the 24 years I’ve lived in Yankton and felt that it’s what I needed to do to be a part of the community.”
Paula Tacke, who is on the Women Community Leaders Committee of the Yankton Chamber of Commerce, said there were a number of qualities that separated O’Connell and Pugh from other nominees.
“It was a tough decision because there were a lot of really good applicants,” Tacke said. “Judi (O’Connell) was nominated by her daughter, who put a lot of love and passion into her application and resume. Jane (Pugh) had obstacles she had to overcome, but when she did, she went full speed ahead with being involved in the community.”
Tacke added that O’Connell has impacted a lot of lives both within the dance community and with the other programs with which she’s involved.
“This year we had fewer nominees than we’ve had in years past, but the voting for winners was really tight,” she said. “We had tough decisions to make on nominees and winners.”
Carla Addy, committee chair, said this year her group wanted to bring more attention to each nominee.
“The volunteer work that each of these ladies perform daily is truly amazing and inspiring,” she said. “Each nominee provides so much value to the community because of their hard work, and yet their efforts are mostly ‘behind the scenes.’”
Addy added that she enjoys praising the work, dedication and the tenacity of each of the nominees.
“Choosing a winner in each category is a difficult process. The committee works in a democratic matter — each member has one vote — and each member relies solely on the information in the nomination form,” she said. “This event is truly about recognizing the achievements of all the nominees — not just the winners.”
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
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http://yankton.net/articles/2013/02/16/community/doc511ec74c94c3d551522169.txt
Local Man Inducted Into Hall Of Fame
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| Larry Hames (right), stands with his wife Irene, after he was inducted into the Sacred Heart School Hall of Fame last month. (Submitted Photo) |
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
After years of volunteering for a local school, Larry Hames was recently recognized with a big honor.
A ceremony was held during the 5:30 p.m. mass at St. Benedict’s on Jan. 26, while an additional presentation for Hames was held at the 11 a.m. mass on Jan. 27 at Sacred Heart.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/02/15/community/doc511db7f914b53450227155.txt
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Wrestling Community Questions Removal Of Sport From Olympics
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| Yankton High School wrestlers celebrate with Royce Reisner, center, after he scored a victory in the 285-pound match on Jan. 18 in Yankton’s ESD dual win over Brandon Valley at the Summit Center. Area wrestling fans are shocked at the decision by the IOC to drop the sport from the 2020 Olympic Games. (P&D File Photo) |
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) decision Tuesday to drop wrestling from the 2020 Olympics is hitting home for many local wrestlers, wrestling officials and other members of the wrestling community.
At the IOC’s meeting, the committee was expected to drop the modern pentathlon, but instead decided to remove wrestling from the games based on various criteria, which included the sports popularity and how many people participate in the sport worldwide.
Dave Cornemann, who started wrestling in elementary school and went on to be a two-time state champion for Gregory High School, a two-time All-American at South Dakota State University, a national champion while in college, a wrestling coach and an official, said he was shocked when he heard about the IOC’s decision.
“I don’t think it’s a good idea for them to have dropped wrestling out of the Olympics,” he said. “The sport is popular among high school students across the country and it ranks among the most participated sport among high school students.”
Cornemann, a former Yankton High School coach, added that when schools went through the Title IX crunch years ago, a lot of high schools and colleges were forced to drop wrestling programs as a result of the law, but wrestling was able to weather that storm. He hopes it can weather this one too.
“Wrestling is one of the original sports of the Olympics,” he said. “I don’t know why they decided to drop it, but it could have been for financial reasons. It’s a big blow for the sport, but I don’t think a lot of kids start wrestling in elementary school or junior high thinking they’ll eventually become Olympic champions. I don’t think that’s why they go out for the sport to begin with.”
Dan Specht, who wrestled in high school and college and has also been an official for about 20 years, also can’t understand the decision.
“Wrestling has a long-standing history in the Olympics, so to drop that significant part of the Olympic history is tough to figure out. I think wrestling was dropped for political reasons,” he added. “Think about it, the IOC keeps a sport like Trampoline, but drops the most historic event of the core sports. I think it’s important to note that the deal hasn’t been sealed as of yet, but the recommendation is out there and must stand on its own merit.”
Ryan Hage, coach of the YHS wrestling team, said he was also surprised when he heard about the IOC’s recommendation.
“The IOC, which among other things, emphasizes equality and participation, is going against its very purpose by eliminating wrestling from the Olympics,” he said. “In the United States alone, there are more than 1 million wrestlers, and that is a small number when compared to other countries around the world.”
Hage added that men and women now compete for the right to represent their country in wrestling, with the dream of bringing home a gold medal. In the United States wrestling has the third highest medal count out of all the Olympic sports.
Despite that, he said he doesn’t think anyone knows why the IOC made the decision to drop wrestling.
“I don’t think anyone really knows why they made their decision. Figureheads for wrestling, like Dan Gable and John Smith, were caught off guard and did not know that there was even a possibility that wrestling could get cut,” he said. “Unfortunately, I think the decision was driven by money.”
Mark Manning, the head wrestling coach at the University of Nebraska Lincoln, and a Vermillion native, released a statement on the IOC’s decision, and said he’s just as shocked as everyone else is.
“Removing wrestling from the Olympics would have a far-reaching impact on our sport,” he said in the statement. “It not only greatly affects our current and future Olympians, but it would also damage the sport at the collegiate, high school and youth levels. Hopefully, the IOC will take into account the impact of this decision on the American and international wrestling communities and re-consider when they meet in May.”
Cornemann said the decision is a “big blow” because it takes the sport out of the national and international spotlight.
“The decision does not make any sense to members of the wrestling community,” he said. “There are petitions going around to, hopefully, reinstate the sport in 2020. I hope the IOC reevaluates their decision.”
Specht said he was saddened by the decision and it hit home for him because of the amount of great wrestlers South Dakota has produced.
“South Dakota has had some great Olympic wrestlers including Randy Lewis from Rapid City, Lincoln McIlravy from Philip, Bill and Jim Scheer from Mobridge, and Dennis Koslowski from Doland,” he said. “Those famous South Dakota wrestlers are some I’ve known and wrestled with. Now dreams like they had may be going away for our next generation.”
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
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BREAKING NEWS EXCLUSIVE: Kindle Named Finalist For Norfolk Superintendent Opening
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
Yankton High School (YHS) principal Dr. Wayne Kindle has been named a finalist for the superintendent opening at the Norfolk (Neb.) Public School District.
Norfolk Public Schools cover nearly 69 miles in Madison, Pierce, Stanton and Wayne counties in Nebraska. The district has seven elementary schools, a middle school (grades five and six), junior high (grades seven and eight) and a high school. It also has an alternative school, Montessori school and an early childhood center. The district has an enrollment of about 4,000 students.
“A professional goal of mine has been to have an opportunity to lead a school district as a superintendent. It is a real honor to be selected as a candidate to interview for the superintendent position of the Norfolk Public Schools,” Kindle said. “I appreciate the leadership and personal qualities the search committee saw in me as a candidate. I am looking forward to meeting the committee, as well as other patrons of their school district.”
Norfolk will interview candidates for the position next week, and the school board will have a discussion the interviews on Feb. 23. The district will no longer accept applications for the position after March 8, and officials hope to have their superintendent hired by April.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
ONLINE BREAKING NEWS STORY:
http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/02/14/community/doc511d57e07f261912497528.txt
Kindle Named Finalist For Norfolk Superintendent Job
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By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
Yankton High School (YHS) principal Dr. Wayne Kindle has been named a finalist for the superintendent opening at the Norfolk (Neb.) Public School District.
Norfolk Public Schools cover nearly 69 miles in Madison, Pierce, Stanton and Wayne counties in Nebraska. The district has seven elementary schools, a middle school (grades five and six), junior high (grades seven and eight) and a high school. It also has an alternative school, Montessori school and an early childhood center. The district has an enrollment of about 4,000 students.
Norfolk will interview candidates for the position next week, and the school board will have a discussion the interviews on Feb. 23. The district will no longer accept applications for the position after March 8, and officials hope to have their superintendent hired by April.
For more, see Friday’s Press & Dakotan.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
http://yankton.net/articles/2013/02/12/community/doc5119c603f0284191655057.txt
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Group Ready To Begin Search For Yankton’s New Superintendent
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
For next year’s budget, Bietz projects a shortfall of around $1.6 million, as of today.
“The projected budget does not take into account any one-time monies the state might give us,” he said. “It only considers ongoing revenue sources for the budget.”
The district recently utilized its healthcare reserves in order to avoid making drastic cuts to student programs.
“The health insurance we have is a significant expense to the district,” Bietz said.
Board members might consider utilizing healthcare reserves again, using capital outlay flexibility or unemployment reserves.
“The Affordable Care Act will have a big impact on the district going forward,” Bietz said. “Sixty-three employees will be added to the healthcare plan from us, having to cover employees who work 30 or more hours a week, versus the 35 or more hours a week we previously covered. We have to comply with the law or we will face significant fines.”
Also Monday night board members:
• accepted the bid from Jonhston Painting of Wakonda to paint Beadle School this summer;
• approved the bid from APS Sports Floors, Inc., for sanding, painting and refinishing the gym floors at Yankton High School/Summit Activities Center this summer;
• approved the bid from Floor To Ceiling of Yankton for carpet repair and replacement at Beadle School;
• approved the bid from Roy Johnston Roofing Co. of Yankton for roof repair and resealing at Lincoln and Webster schools;
• approved a five-year service contract with SDN Communications for high-speed point-to-point fiber connectivity between school buildings in accordance with Erate requirements
• approved an orchestra trip to Marty Indian School and Wagner schools.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/02/11/community/doc5118459a3d89f804964382.txt
Stage Set For L&CTC Gala Saturday
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
The Lewis and Clark Theatre Company (LCTC) is set to hold its annual gala this weekend, with all proceeds from the event benefiting the Dakota Theatre in downtown Yankton.
The event will be held on Saturday, Feb. 16, at Minerva’s in Yankton. Tickets can be purchased by calling Michele Leibfarth at 605-661-0303. Tickets will also be sold at the door if the event does not sell out.
“There will be a live auction, silent auction, hors d’oeuvres, a cash bar and a dessert auction as well,” Leibfarth said. “Back by popular demand this year will be Yankton’s version of the’ David Letterman Show’ featuring Chris Hilson as David Letterman with Mike Hilson as Paul Shaffer with a band, too.”
The band will feature music from Jay Gilbertson, Mark Johnson and Tom Zoss, with Ted Powell on the piano and Scott Olson playing the role of Doc Severinsen.
“Each year, the live auction has been very popular and will feature a number of dinner options,” Leibfarth said. “New this year, there will be a fishing excursion with Cabela’s master Walleye circuit world champion Curtis Olivier on the Missouri River.
“However, the main draw to the event has always been our version of the David Letterman show. Everyone that goes loves it, and people that don’t go say they’re sorry they missed out every year.”
Other live auction items include a dinner with the president of USD, a dinner with the president of Mount Marty, a big barbecue party put on by Steve Huff, and a Chilean dinner. There is also another boating trip with a tour of the Gavins Point power plant.
Leibfarth added that Chris and Mike Hilson add a lot to the annual show. Chris Hilson, playing Letterman, a former radio personality, making him a natural for the role. Mike Hilson is a very in-demand area musician.
“They put the band together just for this show so it should be really nice to see,” Leibfarth said. “There will also be various ‘stars’ that come out to the show — some back by popular demand and others who will be brand new this year.”
The actors playing the stars for the show come from around the region, including some from Minneapolis, Sioux Falls and Nebraska.
“They all have a history here in Yankton and are popular individuals in town and have done performances in the past with the theatre company or high school theater,” she said. “The show, as a whole, is really funny and is really professionally done so people that go love it. Terry Winter has been a director for many plays in Yankton, including for the Yankton School District and theatre company.”
Leibfarth thanked the sponsors of the event and said they can only put on a show due to their generous help.
“Last year, the event raised more than $14,000 for the theatre company, and this year we’re hoping to push that number up above $15,000,” she said. “All of the proceeds go to the theater. Last year the funds we received really helped to keep the theater open. Our goal is to keep live theater up and running in downtown Yankton.”
The 20212 fundraiser attracted approximately 300 people. Committee members hope to push that number to more than 320 this year.
Leibfarth added that many people don’t know how much it takes to keep the theater doors open. The theatre company must have the rights to the shows its presents, plus have directors and costumes, plus the building upkeep — all adding up to a lot of expense.
“We began doing these fundraisers four years ago to keep the theater here open,” she said. “After each event is over, we immediately began making the plans for next years event, including putting together our ideas and gathering the entertainment for the night. It takes more than six months of hard work and planning to get each event off the ground.”
Leibfarth said she enjoys gathering all the people together that love theater in Yankton to share in the enjoyment of a show that helps out the theatre company.
“This is a very popular event and a really fun night out. I can’t describe it any more than, you just have so much fun at the fundraiser,” she said.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/02/11/community/doc511845bfa8b43756263201.txt
Legislators Discuss Education, Medicaid Issues
 Rep. Mike Stevens
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By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
When District 18 legislators met at a Saturday morning cracker barrel at the Avera Professional Pavilion, education funding and Medicaid were two of the more vigorously discussed topics.
Legislators agreed that there are a lot of issues with Medicaid that must be examined, but there were disagreements on when the state should approach the issue.
“There are a lot of issues that are going on with the Medicaid program that we need to address,” said Rep. Bernie Hunhoff. “However, I spoke with someone who has worked in Medicaid for years who said South Dakota has the best functioning Medicaid program in the nation and have had that for many years here.”
He added that he supports a medical bill, which a similar form was passed in Nebraska, that would give pre-natal care to babies regardless of the mother’s citizenship status.
Sen. Jean Hunhoff said she thinks there must be more funding available for the Medicaid program.
“The reality here is that we all must go through the process and see what kind of money is left over at the end of the session,” she said. “If there is any money left over, the money added to various programs is only a one-time allotment. However, we do need to have more money in Medicaid but there is really no new money out there.”
Rep. Mike Stevens said if the Medicaid program was so simple, other states would have signed up for it in a snap.
“Once you get into the program, it is highly unlikely you’ll be able to get out of it,” he said. “I don’t think it’s a stupid idea to wait and get more information about the program.”
However, Rep. Hunhoff thinks the program would help South Dakota immensely and doesn’t believe the state should wait any longer before signing up for Medicaid expansion.
“We have always been trying to provide care for working poor adults,” he said. “Some of the provisions in the Affordable Care Act provide coverage for those adults. Having the program here would be a big thing for healthcare and the work force in the state.”
Rep. Hunhoff added that Medicaid expansion in South Dakota is inevitable, but it is more of a matter of how fast it happens. He said the program is critical to both large and small hospitals across the state and region.
On the other hand, Sen. Hunhoff said she is concerned with the federal allotment of money for states to fully enact the Medicaid program.
“Are the feds going to be able to provide all the funding they are promising?” she asked. “It’s the real elephant in the room in this situation. I’m for expansion, but I don’t want the burden to eventually be put on the taxpayers of South Dakota.”
Another hot-button issue discussed was education funding.
Stevens believes that, if there is a one-time funding allotment this year, the money should go back to local school boards to make the decision on how to use the funds.
“There have been a lot of different ideas about education funding floating out there,” he said. “I think it is up to local school boards to decide how to best educate their children — local control is the best way to do that.”
Rep. Hunhoff agreed, and said there are a lot of funding discussions going on in the Legislature each day.
“The big debate has been whether we start to micro-manage education again versus having more local control over it,” he said. “It seems like we’re moving back towards categorical aid for education. There is only so much money to go around, and we’ve fallen way behind in education funding in the state.”
Sen. Hunhoff said it is always the same discussion each year and legislators must work together to find a comprehensive plan for education and education funding.
Also discussed Saturday was the Human Services Center (HSC) and its proposed demolition of some of its old, unused buildings.
“It’s been about 30 years since the (old) campus of the HSC closed,” Rep. Hunhoff said. “Gov. Daugaard assured us that he wants to see the historic buildings saved, if possible. Since we’re only a few years away from demolition, this is really the last shot to find developers for the historic buildings.”
Sen. Hunhoff agreed, saying if the community wants to redevelop the buildings, people must step up now because the Legislature can’t continue to postpone the demolition plans.
Stevens said Daugaard is serious about getting input from others on the buildings and what can be done to potentially save them.
Legislators also discussed the recent passing of a prison reform bill, each saying how important the bill is for the prison system and its future.
The next cracker barrel will be held in Yankton on March 2.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
CAFETERIA RENOVATIONS
http://yankton.net/articles/2013/02/08/community/doc51148843450b3393560716.txt
MMC CAFETERIA GETS OVERHAUL
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| Mitch Pinkelman, an executive chef with the A’viands food service of Minneapolis, Minn., stands next to the floor plans of the renovation being done to the Mount Marty College cafeteria area. The $325,000 project is expected to be completed later this month. (Kelly Hertz/P&D) |
BY ANDREW ATWAL
ANDREW.ATWAL@YANKTON.NET
She added that the new dining service will be much better for students when everything is in place, with far more options for students than there were before.“It’s important to show the students that we are always trying to grow and evolve and make things better for them,” Carda said. “It’s nice to see those kinds of things happening on campus.”You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
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CANCER CENTER MACHINE
http://yankton.net/articles/2013/02/07/community/doc511329f97d27c679701718.txt
A NEW TOOL IN FIGHTING CANCER
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| Avera Sacred Heart Cancer Center dosimetrist Lindsey Olson (left), therapist Julie Steffen (center) and therapist Christy Jensen stand next to the center’s new Varian Linear Accelerator, which is currently being installed. The device will provide far more accuracy in radiation therapy, and will work much faster than current equipment. The new accelerator is expected to be operational later this winter. (Kelly Hertz/P&D) |
CANCER CENTER ADDS NEW VARIAN LINEAR ACCELERATOR FOR RADIATION THERAPY
A New Tool In Fighting Cancer
Cancer Center Adds New Varian Linear Accelerator For Radiation Therapy
By Andrew Atwal
andrew.atwal@yankton.net
The Avera Sacred Heart Cancer Center in Yankton is adding a new technology to make radiation treatment more comfortable for patients, and more accurate for doctors.
The Cancer Center is getting a new Varian Linear Accelerator, which is the device that produces radiation beams for radiation therapy.
“This type of accelerator is very advanced. With the old accelerator we had, it only let us take x-ray pictures of patients, which are two-dimensional,” said Dr. Michael Peterson, radiation oncologist at the Cancer Center. “This one can do three-dimensional CAT scan images, which allows us to get much more detailed information about where the patient is positioned in relation to the beam the way we want them to be.”
He added that the new machine can detect skin marks and how they shift in relation to the organ that doctors are trying to reach.
“If you actually have a CT-like image, it gives you much better assurance that doctors will be able to hit the treatment area in exactly the way they want to,” Peterson said. “This means there is less of a need to treat normal tissue around the tumor to make sure you’re hitting the area you want every time.”
The machine will do a special type of treatment where its head can rotate around the patient, allowing doctors to conduct a treatment during which the dose prescribed goes exactly where they want it to around the tumor. The new treatment is also faster than it was before. With older machines, radiation therapy treatment could take around 20 minutes, but with the machine it could take fewer than 10 minutes.
“This machine not only does some things better and more accurately with improved treatment quality, but it also does them faster as well, making treatment more comfortable for the patient,” Peterson said. “This machine will be helpful, not only in terms of voluntary motion by the patient, but also by minimizing the amount of involuntary movement of the patient.”
The new device could mean the difference between a patient getting some of the long-term side effects of radiation or not getting them at all because of how precisely the new machine is.
“Patients on the new machine will be treated more comfortably as well. Instead of having them try to hold still for more than 20 minutes when a certain part of their body is hurting, they will have less pain on the treatment table and will be more convenient for them as well,” Peterson said.
Another advantage of the new machine is that it has thinner leaves then the old one, meaning it is able to treat infected areas more precisely.
“If we want to be able to treat a certain area, having wider leaves on the machine is not good,” he said. “We are able to treat areas with more accuracy with thinner leaves on the machine.”
The new accelerator has leaves that are about 1/2 cm wide, whereas the old machine had leaves that were about 1 cm.
Although doctors have the machine at the Cancer Center now, they will not be able to treat patients with it until later this winter.
“We can’t say for certain when we will be able to treat our first patient with the new accelerator until physicists do their final checks on the machine,” Peterson said. “There is a very extensive quality assurance process that all new radiation machines have to go through to make sure, when we prescribe radiation to a patient, that it’s the amount that comes out of the machine and that no beams are stronger than others.”
The machine was delivered to Sacred Heart in December and some other hospitals have had them for a few years, but Peterson notes it does almost all the latest treatments that machines coming out even this year are able to do.
“We couldn’t get the same detail with the older machines,” he said. “The machine we have been using has been here for about seven years. We’re not getting rid of it because it’s on its last legs — we’re getting rid of it because we’re committed to having the best new technology here for treatments.”
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
COLUMN: HEART-TO-HEART TALK
http://yankton.net/articles/2013/02/07/opinion/editorials/doc51131a4e794b5398663415.txt
WRITER’S BLOCK: LET’S HAVE A HEART-TO-HEART TALK
BY ANDREW ATWAL
ANDREW.ATWAL@YANKTON.NET
Congenital heart defects are the number one cause of birth defect related deaths.
One out of every 100 children is born with a congenital heart defect.
In the United States, twice as many children die from congenital heart defects each year than from all forms of childhood cancer combined — yet funding for pediatric cancer research is five times higher than it is for heart defects.
I am one of those born with a heart defect, but just by looking at me on the outside, you’d think I was a healthy adult.
I had open-heart surgery at about two months of age to repair Tetrology of Fallot back home at the Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia. My second open-heart surgery came at 23 years old, on Dec. 6, 2012 at Mayo Clinic in Rochester. By the time many children with heart defects reach their teenage years they’ve needed several surgeries to stay alive.
Tetrology of Fallot is a condition where blood that does not have oxygen spills out to other areas of the body, causing obvious problems if not treated.
I underwent Pulmonary Valve Replacement surgery on Dec. 6, a recovery that lasted six weeks at home — including four weeks without driving. However, I was able to return to work in the middle of January.
February is American Heart Month, and Feb. 7-14 is congenital heart awareness week. Thanks to new technology, many children are able to survive their defects, but others are not so lucky. Each child with a defect, however, now has someone to look up to in Shaun White, who has won multiple Olympics and X-Games medals who was born with Tetrology of Fallot.
I live a fairly normal life, aside from needing surgery and going to a cardiologist to get checked on every year. I graduated from high school, got my Bachelor’s degree and then moved to Yankton to work for the P&D. Without the surgery I had, particularly as an infant, none of this would have been possible. Without the surgery I had in December, things would have continued to deteriorate.
My surgeon said because the deterioration has occurred over an extended period of time, I never felt how bad it actually was — that is, until after this surgery where I saw how big of a difference it made and how much better I feel because of it.
As technology continues to improve, more and more babies will have these problems detected sooner, making survival and living a normal life more possible than it ever has been. Sen. Jean Hunhoff has seen the need, as she introduced SB 168, which requires newborns to be screened for congenital heart defects. The bill was passed on Feb. 4.
Although survivalship into adulthood is a strong possiblity for those both with a heart condition, more research must be done to find out why so many born with a heart condition do not have it detected until they reach adulthood — or until after it’s too late.
I live a fairly normal life, and from outside appearance you’d never know I was born with a heart defect or that I’ve had two surgeries to correct it. Congenital Heart Defects are a real problem, a problem that must be solved in order to have more and more children survive their defects and live a normal life.
HUTCHINSON COUNTY SCHOOLS
http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/02/06/community/doc5111ddfe109ca022708928.txt
HUTCHINSON CO. SCHOOL OFFICIALS LEERY OF SENTINELS
BY ANDREW ATWAL
ANDREW.ATWAL@YANKTON.NET
Officials from Hutchinson County schools are expressing their disinterest in legislation making its way through the state Legislature that would allow local school boards to place armed, trained personnel in their school buildings.
Some officials believe the bill has raised more questions than it answers.
Chris Christensen, Menno’s superintendent, said he doesn’t think some of the legislatures around the nation have thought through all the implications that the bill would cause.
“There would be liability issues with the training,” he said. “Would schools be able to get liability insurance to cover accidental shootings or students killed from friendly fire? Do guns only go off when they are supposed to, and do they always hit only the intended target?”
He added that he doesn’t think they do, so one cannot conclusively say that guns are safe.
HB 1087, which passed the House last week, says that the school board must obtain the approval of the local law enforcement official who has jurisdiction over the school campus before implementing the sentinel program. In addition, any person who is hired for the position must complete a school sentinel training course and nothing in the bill authorizes any person to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.
The bill also states that any discussion by a school board regarding the program will be conducted in a closed meeting without any printed materials or record available to the public.
Pam Tieszen, principal and superintendent at Freeman Academy, a private, Mennonite school, said the core values at her school teach service, nonviolence and respect for all people.
“I do not anticipate our board considering the idea of placing a sentinel in our school,” she said. “We feel as if it’s more appropriate to discuss and train staff to be aware and recognize community members who are in need, or facing mental crises, rather than placing a sentinel in the school.”
“Our teachers strongly feel that peace and nonviolence carries more power than a sentinel or weapon. That doesn’t mean that violence can’t happen here, but we have a different perspective on how to deal with each other and our students.”
Tieszen added that having a sentinel in Freeman Academy would not bring the security school officials are looking for, but would only draw more attention to fears that can be addressed in more peaceful ways.
Lynn Vlasman, superintendent at Tripp-Delmont, said he believes the bill was brought forward with good intentions, but it places too high a burden on local school boards and sheriffs in answering a rather lengthy list of questions on how to implement such a program.
“How much training would be needed for staff members?” he asked. “What happens when the trained staff member takes employment elsewhere?”
Vlasman also asked who would own the weapon — would it be the individual or the district? Also, who is liable for the employee that is trained?
“I believe that a majority of our school district staff members would not feel comfortable serving as a sentinel, but there probably are some that would consider it,” he said. “However, in it’s current form, I see the bill creating more questions than answers, and I think our local school boards may be overwhelmed in trying to answer those questions.”
Shayne McIntosh, who serves as superintendent at Parkston schools, said he appreciates the Legislature listening to schools and helping them identify a potential problem and working to fill that gap.
“We take school safety very seriously,” he said. “However, I am not convinced that the creation of a school sentinel program is the answer. Rather, I would like the Legislature to provide the funding so that schools can make a serious effort to hire resource officers and communities to hire mental health experts.”
Christensen said every teacher he has heard from is against having guns in schools and believes schools will be no safer if the bill passes.
McIntosh agreed, saying he believes most teachers and administrators feel they do not have the skill set or mental preparation to be put in such a position.
“I do not believe that a person who is in the state of mind to shoot defenseless children would be deterred by this law,” he said. “They would find other opportunities like waiting for recess, a ball game, lunch hour or some other opportunity.”
There was no response at press time from officials at Freeman Public School.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
SCHOOL SENTINEL
http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/02/05/community/doc5110877b898fe489049569.txt
YSD OFFICIALS DON’T SEE LOCAL NEED FOR ‘SENTINEL’
BY ANDREW ATWAL
ANDREW.ATWAL@YANKTON.NET
Yankton School District officials are expressing their disinterest in legislation making its way through the state capitol that would allow school boards to place armed, trained personnel in school buildings.
HB 1087, which passed the House last week, says that the school board must obtain the approval of the local law enforcement official who has jurisdiction over the school campus before implementing the sentinel. In addition, any person who is hired for the position must complete a school sentinel training course and nothing in the bill authorizes any person to carry a concealed weapon without a permit.
The bill also states that any discussion by a school board regarding the program will be conducted in a closed meeting without any printed materials or record available to the public.
Both Yankton school board chairman Chris Specht and YSD Superintendent Joe Gertsema do not expect the sentinel program, should it become law, to be implemented in Yankton.
“I’m glad the Legislature chose to allow the local school boards to make the decision,” Specht said. “I can’t understand what it would be like to make the decision in a smaller community where the police force could take more than 30 minutes to get to the school in an emergency.”
Gertsema said he doesn’t anticipate the board embracing the proposed program.
“YSD has always had a good relationship with the Yankton Police Department and they have quick access to our facilities in the event of an emergency,” he said.
Specht agreed, saying he doesn’t think he’d be in favor of it in Yankton, but said local school boards can each make their own decisions.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
SUPERINTENDENT SEARCH
http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/02/05/community/doc5110874fd1230861560858.txt
SCHOOL HIRES FIRM FOR SUPT. SEARCH
BY ANDREW ATWAL
ANDREW.ATWAL@YANKTON.NET
The Yankton School District (YSD) school board approved Dakota Education Consulting (DEC) as the firm to lead YSD’s search for a new superintendent.
The decision was made at a special school board meeting held Monday at the administration building.
DEC is headed by Tom Oster and Rick Melmer, both of whom had previously served as the South Dakota Secretary of Education. Melmer currently serves as the dean of the School of Education at the University of South Dakota, while Oster is the superintendent of the Sioux Valley school system in Volga.
“Oster and Melmer run an independent search firm that helps school districts search for administrative personnel to help fill open positions,” said school board president Chris Specht. “In their proposal, they clearly pointed out that superintendent vacancies throughout South Dakota over the last 15 years have been primarily filled through people living in, or from, South Dakota, so we felt as if we didn’t need a national search firm.”
Specht added that the school board looked out how to fill the position in both the most efficient and economically reasonable way. Based on this, the board decided that the hiring DEC to lead the search was the best option.
The cost of the contract with DEC is $8,000.
“The price includes all of their travel and all of the advertising they do,” Specht said. “If the school board decides to advertise in other newspapers like the Omaha World-Herald or the Star Tribune (of Minneapolis), that is a cost we have to pay for ourselves.”
DEC will conduct all the advertising for the search and also be the recipient of all the candidate applications that are generated. The DEC is anticipating receiving between 60-80 applications for the position.
“I thought the number of applications they expect to get was a little high, but that’s the number they expect to see,” Specht said. “DEC will look through the applications and bring the board a top number of candidates that we want, which could be the top 10 or 20 candidates.”
The search group will assist the school board with paring down the search based upon applicants’ qualities, expertise and experience to the top candidates, which could be two candidates or more. The board will then decide how many rounds of interviews to conduct.
At its next meeting on Feb. 11, the school board will spend time talking with Rick Melmer about the process, including how long it takes to get applications in, how long it takes to go through them and the characteristics the board will look for in a candidate. All of those questions must be answered before DEC can begin advertising for the position.
“Our goal is to have someone hired by the end of May,” Specht said. “We think it’s a realistic time frame. If the process moves along faster than this, then great — but we would hate to see it drag on longer.”
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
MUSIC DIRECTOR
http://yankton.net/articles/2013/02/02/community/doc510c5b4f34c87724754040.txt
FORMER YHS MUSIC DIRECTOR TAKES NEW PATH
NOW RETIRED, POWELL PURSUES HIS EARLY INTEREST IN THE FUNERAL BUSINESS
BY ANDREW ATWAL
ANDREW.ATWAL@YANKTON.NET
Growing up, Ted Powell told his dad he would either like to pursue a career as a music director, or a funeral director. His dad quickly told him to go into music instead of working funerals.
Following a 20 year career working with musicians in the Yankton School District (YSD), Ted Powell has turned to his other passion — working funerals. Although he retired, he said he still wanted something to occupy his time.
“I retired from working as a band director and I really needed something to do and I wasn’t quite ready to be a greeter and give out carts at Wal-Mart,” Powell said. “I wanted something to do and I wanted to do something fulfilling.”
Powell now works for the Opsahl-Kostel funeral home as a Family Service Counselor. He said he talked to Kevin Opsahl, with whom he’s been friends with for a long time, when Opsahl asked if he’d consider working for him.
“Because I have known Kevin (Opsahl) for a long time, I trust him and his family implicitly so I said yes and decided to work along side him at the funeral home,” Powell said.
Powell started out at Opsahl-Kostel in August and helped with visitations and then working funerals as an employee. After a few months had passed, he began to work with funeral pre-arrangements and helping people that come into the funeral home to make their final plans.
“I had to start studying so I could take the Insurance Producer test, which I passed, and am now licensed in South Dakota and Nebraska,” he said. “I really enjoy helping people make their final decisions. I get to help people line up how they see their funeral service happening and what they would like to have happen at their funeral.”
Powell added a lot of times people feel relieved that the plans are in place and the survivors and their children won’t have to arrange a funeral after they pass away.
“When people come in to arrange their final plans, it can be as simple as them filling out a sheet with what they would like to have done,” he said. “They can also pay for everything up front to make it easier on their survivors. A lot of people that come in are relieved that their kids won’t have to arrange anything.”
Despite Powell thoroughly enjoying his new job at Opsahl-Kostel, he said there are still a number of things he misses about working as a band director.
“I miss seeing kids all the time at school,” he said. “But I did have a great 32 year career and really enjoyed teaching in the Yankton School District. I had 20 years of outstanding kids here and making outstanding music.”
Powell said he enjoyed traveling with his students all over the United States to concerts and summer shows, but added it was time to do something new.
“It was a really tough decision for me to retire and I thought about it for a year,” he said. “I had a friend tell me if it isn’t fun anymore, don’t do it. While the job was still fun, I felt as if it was time for someone else to have the opportunity to be the band director in Yankton.”
Powell added that although there are a lot of differences between the two positions, working as band director has prepared him for his new job.
“The main similarity is that when you teach, you’re working with the public so you know how to talk to people and how to approach people,” he said. “However, the position I was in when I worked in the school district had a lot of competitions and contests which really doesn’t occur working for Opsahl-Kostel.”
One of the things that Powell likes most about his new position is helping people.
“I like working funerals and visitations and helping people when they need support. When I go to a funeral or visitation, I do anything the family needs at the time,” he said. “I like to be there when they have questions, but be in the background if they don’t — you need to know when to be with them and when to get away.”
Powell said he has no regrets with taking the position any sooner than he did.
“If my career wasn’t as successful as it was, I may have said I made a mistake by not working here sooner, but I don’t feel as if that was the case,” he said.
SOCIAL SECURITY
http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/02/01/community/doc510b4517d9cdc015851688.txt
PAPER BENEFIT CHECKS TO END MARCH 1
BY ANDREW ATWAL
ANDREW.ATWAL@YANKTON.NET
By March 1, all Social Security checks and other benefit recipients who are receiving their checks by mail must register for direct deposit or the direct express deposit card.
“In January 2011, we sent out about 11 million checks each month,” said Treasury Department spokesperson Walt Henderson, director EFT strategy division of the U.S. Department of Treasury Financial Management Service. “As of this January, we are down to only about 5 million checks a month. This shows that people are listening and are making the switch. We hope to get the remaining recipients registered by the March 1 deadline.”
One of the main reasons for the switch is that sending checks out by mail is significantly more expensive than electronic payments. It costs about $2 a check to be sent by mail, but only about 10 cents for an electronic payment.
“This is really good savings for taxpayers,” Henderson said. “There is also added safety and convenience of doing electronic payments, and it’s the best way for Social Security and other benefit recipients to get their payments.”
It is estimated that converting the remaining paper check recipients to electronic payments will save American taxpayers about $1 billion over the next 10 years.
Henderson added that there are no lost, stolen or delayed checks, or issues delivering checks in bad weather, with the new electronic payments.
Although it is the law to switch, if someone doesn’t switch by the March 1 deadline, Social Security officials said they will be sensitive to the fact that these are needed payments for many people.
“We won’t interrupt their payments if they don’t comply with the deadline, but we will reach out by mail to them to get them to switch,” Henderson said. “However, there are waivers for people in certain situations, including geographic barriers, like people living in a remote place without access to an ATM or infrastructure for electronic payments. There is also a waiver for someone with a mental impairment and anyone over 90 years old.”
In order to make the switch to electronic payments, there is a call center setup to help people register at 1-800-333-1795. You can also visit the bank or credit union with whom you have an account and they can help you make the switch. People can also visit the Social Security office in Yankton at 121 W. 3rd Street.
When you go to make the switch, you should have the following information with you:
• 12-digit federal benefit check number;
• Amount of most recent federal benefit check;
• Financial institution’s routing transit number, which is often found on person checks (direct deposit only)
• Account number, which is also often found on personal checks, and type — checking or savings (direct deposit only)
“I really think the electronic method is the best way for people to receive their payments,” Henderson said. “You don’t have to wait for your check to arrive in the mail, the funds are in your account on the morning of the payment date. You also don’t have to make an unnecessary trip to the bank and electronic payments wipe out the possibilities of difficulty delivering checks in inclement weather.”
For more information on switching to the electronic payments, visit www.godirect.org.
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
CAMERON PASTOR
http://www.yankton.net/articles/2013/01/30/community/doc5108a4d84cf33667948096.txt
A LEARNING EXPERIENCE
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| Tim Sodea is a pastor that has been visiting Gayville Lutheran Church from Cameroon since November. He has followed Pastor Ralph Egbert’s daily working activities along with observing what the church does well to take back to his congregations in Cameroon. He is shown here with a traditional instrument called the Sanzie, which he often plays during church services. (Andrew Atwal/P&D) |
EXCHANGE PASTOR MAKES MOST OF TIME IN GAYVILLE
BY ANDREW ATWAL
ANDREW.ATWAL@YANKTON.NET
A pastor from Cameroon is wrapping up a three month long learning experience in Gayville today (Wednesday).
Tim Sodea, who is the pastor at seven Lutheran churches in Cameroon, has been visiting the Gayville Lutheran Church as part of a pastoral exchange. The purpose of the exchange is so each pastor can learn from each other about the church life in each place.
“Each evangelical Lutheran church in the United States is related to another church in a different part of the world, and we’re related to the churches in Cameroon,” said Ralph Egbert, pastor of Gayville Lutheran Church. “It’s mostly people from the United States going over there to put roofs on churches and support the education system they have in Cameroon.”
While in Gayville, Sodea has lived with Egbert and has spent time traveling around South Dakota meeting people. He has also been to Rapid City, Mitchell, Aberdeen, Sioux Falls, Springfield, Canton and Pierre, among others.
“While he’s here in Gayville, he does pretty much everything that I do,” Egbert said. “He comes with me when I do funerals, hospital visits and make calls, along with attending meetings that I go to at church.”
Sodea said this is the first time he’s been in the United States and that he is lucky to live with Egbert, whom he had met in Cameroon previously.
“I had a lot of culture shock when I first arrived,” Sodea said. “The first town I came to was Chicago, which is a big city with big buildings, so I had some confusion as to how big the town I’d be staying in would be.”
However, Gayville has been different because he can meet people and sometimes ask them questions about living here. He said that he’s happy to be here and share information with the members of the church because oftentimes Christians send money to Cameroon but never actually see or meet anyone from there.
“It’s a good thing for me to come here so people in America know more about Cameroon,” Sodea said. “I see how Ralph (Egbert) is working here and how he can help me do some things in Africa. When he goes there, he will see what is good and what’s not good, and we can share that information together.”
Egbert will spend three months in Cameroon beginning in March.
Sodea said he has learned a lot from being in the United States.
“People can express their opinion during Bible study which sometimes helps the pastor with the sermon for Sunday,” he said. “I also see how the churches here take care of the youth. Back in Africa, the children’s program is done separately, outside of the church, so I appreciate the sense of community that takes place here.”
Sodea added that churches here are also more organized than they are in Cameroon.
“In Africa, time isn’t that big of a deal to people, so it even takes a lot of time to do announcements and when people want to speak during the service, they just raise their hands and talk,” he said. “When programs are more focused, it’s faster and better because it allows us to control how the service is going and how long the program will last for.”
Another big difference, Sodea said, is that in Cameroon, people often visit the pastor at their house after the service, whereas here sometimes people just greet the pastor right after church then go their separate ways.
“Just being in church here, I find the community of being together in a place that we can all exchange conversation and a sense of community,” he said. “In small group bible study here, we share with each other our thoughts about something we’re all learning about together.”
One of the big things that Egbert has been amazing for Sodea has been the connections he’s seen people have to Africa in places like Menard’s or the grocery store.
“These connections have been there probably about a dozen times and it’s really been amazing to see doors get opened and have people interested in what’s going on,” he said.
Sodea said one of the things that fascinated him was the November elections, which took place shortly after he arrived in Gayville.
“The elections in Cameroon sometimes have trouble afterwards,” he said. “The loser of the election in Cameroon sometimes disappears, while here, people do not divide after the election — they walk together. I have to bring back the message that living in peace in Cameroon will help the country.”
Sodea added that when he goes home, the first thing he has to teach people is how to be free.
“I need to teach people how to have a dialogue with one another — a good dialogue is to tell the truth to someone, and if you have a problem it’s good to share it with other people,” he said. “In Africa, if you have a problem, you usually keep it to yourself.”
Egbert said the time he has spent with Sodea has been amazing.
“He’s coming from a place where the people are more patient, time is different and issues of authority are also different,” Egbert said.
He said one of the things that shocked Sodea was the concept of leftovers.
“Tim got here in November, so one of the first things we’re cooking was turkey,” Egbert said. “We put some turkey back in the refrigerator and ate it again. In Cameroon, you sit at the table and eat everything that’s there. A person who puts leftovers away for another meal is considered selfish.”
When Egbert travels to Cameroon in March, he said he is looking forward to seeing how people live there and how church is run.
“Some of the things they do there are similar to here, but others are not,” he said. “Most of the Lutheran churches there are in French-speaking areas, and I have a very limited knowledge of that language. I’m also interested in seeing how people react to me as an American, because most people there have not had much contact with American people.”
You can follow Andrew Atwal on Twitter at twitter.com/andrewatwal
CLOCK RESTORATION
http://yankton.net/articles/2013/01/26/community/doc510347b5ee453073022809.txt
A SIGN OF THE TIMES
 Terri Cash, of TeMari Designs, stands in front of the newly restored clock and her new sign on third street in downtown Yankton. Cash is set to move her business into the former location of Meredith’s Jewelers on February 1. (Kelly Hertz/P&D)
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HISTORIC DOWNTOWN LANDMARK RESTORED TO ORIGINAL FORM
BY ANDREW ATWAL
ANDREW.ATWAL@YANKTON.NET
FOR ADDITIONAL NEWS ARTICLES CLICK ON THE CATEGORIES ON THE RIGHT HAND SIDE OF THE PAGE
By Andrew Atwal 