Homeowners in the NRHEG School District should find a pleasant surprise when they open their 2014 Property Tax Statements. They will see a reduction in school taxes due to equalization enacted by the Legislature last year. A homeowner with a property valued at $150,000 is expected to see taxes go down by about $37.

Minnesota has a 40-year history of equalizing property taxes for educating children. Equalization means that for a certain level of dollars per child to educate a child, taxpayers pay the same percentage of home value statewide up to a certain home value — the equalization factor. In other words, regardless of zip code, children get the same opportunity to learn, and taxpayers pay the same percentage of home value in property taxes. 

The equalization factor had not changed in the state in over a decade, while voter approved operating referendums dollar amounts had more than doubled. The result was increasing taxpayer inequity.

"Poorer valued communities were paying a higher percentage of home value to provide the same dollars per child to educate the children of the community, than wealthier communities," said Fred Nolan, executive director of MREA, a statewide educational association representing nearly 180 Greater Minnesota school districts.

The 2013 legislature addressed this by equalizing the first $300 of operating referendum revenue per child at $880,000 of Referendum Market Value (RMV) per pupil. That is a 72 percent increase over the previous highest level of equalization factor. 

Senator Rod Skoe led the Senate Tax Committee to devote $60 million of state revenue to this effort to equalize the tax effort of homeowners across Minnesota. Much of that tax equalization was spread across rural Minnesota as can be seen in this map of changes to school taxes created by MREA to show the impact of the 2013 tax bill.

"This marked the single largest advance in education funding equity in Minnesota in a decade," Nolan said. "This will narrow the 5th to 95th gap to its smallest since 2003."

While most of the funding for educating children comes right from state income and sales taxes, The NRHEG School Board is most appreciative of our voter support for voter approved referendums that are critical to providing our quality education. As a result of the actions of the 2013 legislature, our total district property taxes dropped $73,484 and was replaced with state aid. That is a reason you should see a reduction in your school property taxes.

The system is not perfect. If you had an increase in home or land value, you will probably see a tax increase. Property taxes are a percent of the value of property, not a percentage of income.

When I have to prepare a presentation for any group, I try to get as much information as possible to meet the needs of that group. That means I need to do some research and make sure my facts are straight, especially since I often present to teachers. If I’m not prepared, they are a group that will jump on that as quickly as anyone.

So you’ll understand why I found it amusing to see an unprepared presenter at a community meeting concerning the future of the Ellendale Post Office.

Everyone is aware the USPS is in trouble financially and is making cutbacks. According to this presenter, they plan to have saved $2.1 billion by the end of 2014. A small trickle in that savings is cutting back hours at my local post office.

First off, I completely understand. It’s a business, one that is slowly deteriorating. I have no problem with cutting hours; it would seem that in our small town it doesn’t need to be open all day. However, the proposal of opening at 8:00 and closing by 3:00 at the latest didn’t sit well with me or a number of others.

After claiming that the postal service is trying to make things as convenient as possible, that was their best idea? While they are planning on having a 24-hour lobby for those of us with a PO box to have access to our mail, they would be severely limiting our ability to perform functions at the office such as purchasing stamps and mailing and receiving packages.

When this was brought up, his first response was to add package receptacles that could be accessed with a special key at all hours. When asked if he had seen the lobby and how that would be difficult to install, he admitted he had not been in there. And there’s where the problems started.

You’ve got to be prepared. To make changes to a facility, don’t you have to at least have walked through it first? This guy was from Fairmont; couldn’t he have swung over a little early and strolled through for five minutes before the meeting? He lost all credibility after that.

He also seemed oblivious to the working hours of the postal carriers. By changing the hours, they would get a later start. He seemed stymied by a suggestion that the office open at 7:00 or 7:30 at the very latest. This would give people a chance to access the office before going to work and would get our carriers out on the road earlier so they could finish before dark.

The postal service is on its way out; I would expect it will not last my lifetime. I don’t help since I pay most of my bills online and save in stamps. However, I also do more online shopping, which I’m sure makes up for that. All of us use it less; I used to go through a book of stamps every month, but with the two books I just bought, I’m probably good through the summer.

Part of the decrease in postal use is a little nagging. Mom used to have us write thank you notes after Christmas and our birthdays for the gifts we received. Admittedly, we’re a little lax in that regard with our own kids, but do try to get to that. It’s always a little perturbing to go to a wedding or a graduation party and find a generic thank you attached to a party favor. I’ve even seen invitations that take care of the thank you as part of the package! It would be nice to go back to a society where we thanked people individually rather than that method or mass emails or messages online. That alone could boost postal revenue greatly!

So we know that eventually the USPS will go the way of the dinosaur, but the obliviousness of our presenter continued as he predicted the postal service would grow and change and continue to be relevant. Of course, this was after he shot down questions about a continued decrease in service hours, calling it “speculation.” Um…

The post office will not grow if they don’t give local communities a chance to access their services in person. While some things can be done online, I can’t pick up a package on my computer. Much like the lack of preparation by this presenter, it would seem a general lack of preparation by the entire industry has led them to the precipice. It looks like a short fall.

Word of the Week: This week’s word is incorrigible, which means incapable of being corrected or reformed, as in, “The presenter was incorrigible, failing to admit that he might be wrong.” Impress your friends and confuse your enemies!

As the fishing opener draws closer I can actually feel myself getting amped up about wetting a line. With the weather we have been having it has been pretty hard to get too excited about fishing and I don’t believe that I am the only one thinking like that. The good news is that this year the ice should be off of the lakes by the opener.

Once again I will be attending the Governor’s Opener and fishing on Gull Lake which is another lake that I have had the chance to fish before. The nice thing about having the opportunity to attend the annual governor’s opener each year is that it has allowed me to fish many different lakes that I may not have otherwise fished.

I am planning on heading up to my cabin for a few days right after participating in the Governor’s fishing opener. This year, as in the past couple of years, I will be making my first visit of the season to our cabin after attending the opener.  This is an anxious time because there is always the question of what will be awaiting me. Some years I have been greeted by numerous downed trees and there is always the question of how the cabin weathered another harsh winter. Once I have taken care of any problems that my have arose and have put things away I will officially be ready to enjoy the upcoming season.

When we first had the cabin somewhat livable my two oldest grandsons, Trevor and Taylor would accompany me for a weekend in April just to check things out. This was before we had the wood stove so the only heat was a kerosene heater that wasn’t perfect but served the purpose. On those first couple of April trips we had no insulation in the floor, walls or ceiling so needless to say it was not going to receive a 5-star energy efficient rating. We actually had what I thought was going to be a traditional April trip going but alas it took the boys only a couple of years to decide that April was too early and too cold to be spending a short weekend at the cabin. I maybe don’t have that annual trip to look forward to anymore but I will always have pictures and some good memories to enjoy.

I am planning on purchasing a new ultra-light rod & reel for the upcoming season. Although my old one is still useable it is pretty much worn out and needs (?) to be replaced. It seems kind of funny to be saying that when I look back on my days as a kid when getting a new cane pole would have made me happy. I would have thought that it was my birthday or something if I would have gotten this old rod & reel back then.

When I look back on those days of my youth I always knew exactly when the opener was and somehow felt that all things were right with the world once the season opened. Now I can tell you that living north of town with only the “crick” and the slough to fish in afforded little or no access to the game fish that I held in high esteem. I would always hold on to that glimmer of hope that my Uncle Ben & Aunt Marcie would once again come through and ask me along on an up north vacation.

I can remember reading a story in a fishing magazine that had a story about fishing in up-state New York. It had a picture showing folks standing elbow to elbow while fishing steelhead in a river in New York State. I guess that this was the first time that I had thought of New York as someplace other than a big city.

I actually found this intriguing and this was also when I first learned from another article in the same magazine that there was a species of pike called the chain pickerel. Although chain pickerel are found in waters as far west as Texas, the species is mainly a resident of the East Coast, with thriving populations in numerous lakes, ponds, reservoirs, and rivers of the Mid-Atlantic and New England states from Maine to Virginia. Chain pickerel (Esox niger) aren’t generally held in as high regard as their bigger cousins, the pike and muskie.

One reason for the lack of acclaim may be the average size of pickerel. Most weigh less than two pounds. The all-tackle record, for example, is a 9-pound 6-ounce Georgia whopper caught in 1961. I found this interesting as a youth and it still interests me today. It has been many years since I have even thought about pickerel but I can recall the time when my mother’s cousin Elaine and her family visited from Canada and her son John told me about fishing pickerel. John was a little older than me and I was fascinated by the fact that he had fished for a species that I had only known existed for a short time. I suppose that you could say that the chain pickerel is to the pike family what the sauger is to the walleye.

Until next time, the opener is upon us so it’s time to enjoy some fishing on one of our great Minnesota lakes. No matter where you plan to fish be safe and if you’re in a boat be sure to wear your life jacket.

Please remember to keep our troops in your thoughts and prayers because they are the reason we are able to enjoy all the freedoms that we have today. 

Echoes from the Loafers’ Club meeting

I was an old lion tamer. I quit last year.

Why did you quit?

I ran out of old lions.

Driving by the Bruces

I have two wonderful neighbors — both named Bruce — who live across the road from each other. Whenever I pass their driveways, thoughts occur to me, such as: if I were a chicken, an egg would be the same price as a new Cadillac.

If you don’t like the weather, blame the weatherman

I haven't put the snow shovel away yet. I don't want to rile the gods of winter. I spoke at a couple of things in Luverne, Minn. during this reluctant spring. The windshield wipers of my car were employed all the way there and back. Luverne had been suffering from a lack of moisture, as well as temperatures much lower than average. A farmer in that area told me that he’d just planted some corn. He said he was told that corn should be stored where it was dry and cold. That described the soil perfectly.

Mother’s Day

My mother taught me how to cook. Sort of. She showed me how to use a toaster. She taught me the right way to use it. Being able to make toast was a giver of goosebumps. A banquet of burned peanut butter sandwiches moved within my reach.

I have wondered since that time who it is who uses the highest setting on a toaster. And what do they use it for, thawing permafrost?

My mother taught me the right way to do many things. Turning bread into toast was but one of those things.

Happy Mother’s Day.

I wanted to live in a treehouse

Back when the only tablet I had was made by Alka-Seltzer.

Back when our family reunions had an entire table covered with nothing but homemade pies. LOL. That meant "lots of lard."

Back when "The Wizard of Oz" was appointment viewing.

I had received a GE transistor radio and a much-wanted book by John Steinbeck for my birthday.

I placed the radio on top of the book and positioned them on my nightstand so they would be the first things I’d see when I opened my eyes in the morning.

Added to the bouquet of frying bacon and brewing coffee coming from the kitchen, they made for the start of a fine day.

My friends the ex-cons

In the process of chasing the horizon, I drove through Prairieville, Sogn, and Wangs, three Minnesota towns that can’t get much smaller. A stranger waved at me. I waved back. Your cousin who lives there says, "Hi."

As I left Sogn, I listened to an NPR story about our overcrowded prisons.

My grandmother and aunt lived in a very small town in Iowa. It was nearly nonexistent. They lived next to a couple of elderly bachelors. I was told that the two old men had spent time in prison, but neither my aunt nor my grandmother would tell me why. As a boy, I visited often with the two old bachelors, trying to find out why they had been in prison, without asking them. I’d hold up a newspaper showing a headline of some crime and say, "Why would anyone ever do something like this?"

They seemed nice. Maybe prison had changed them?

Customer comments

Viola Nolte of Fairmont began teaching country school in 1935. She had 30 pupils in grades 1 through 8. She was paid $35 a month.

Ric McArthur of Morpeth, Ontario wrote, "The National Institute of Health has just released the results of a $200 million research study completed under a grant to Johns Hopkins. The new study found that women who carry a little extra weight live longer than the men who mention it."

I overheard a coach yelling out instructions during a girls basketball game in Prior Lake, "Guard your man. Don’t let her out of your sight!"

In gratitude

Thank you to all the readers who showed up at the New Richland Public Library and at Barnes & Noble for my book signings.

Nature notes

Doug Bushlack of New Richland asked how to discourage grackles at the feeders. Don’t use tray or platform feeders that allow grackles to land. Tube feeders surrounded by cages work. They allow small birds to enter, but not larger birds. There are feeders with adjustable, weight-activated perches that close when a heavier bird, like a grackle, lands on it. Feeders can be made unappealing by shortening or removing perches. Reduce the amount of seed that birds throw out by replacing seed mixes with black-oil sunflower or hulled sunflower seed. Use safflower. Grackles eat many kinds of seed, but don’t favor safflower.

Meeting adjourned

"Kindness is more important than wisdom, and the recognition of this is the beginning of wisdom." — Theodore Isaac Rubin

(This special column is being reprinted by request from our May 9, 2013 issue.)

Do you know what day is an important day in your life? Sunday, May 11, 2014. Living or deceased, it is in honor of a very important person in your life. If they’re living, a nice gift to that VIP could be a solar dancing flower. If deceased, how about, “Thanks, Mom.”

If you do nothing, quit reading, proceed to just north of the I-35-Hope exit, and you’ll be yourself “beyond Hope.”

Have you ever wondered why God did this or how God did that? I had some questions of this nature about moms, so I decided to get my answers from the experts.

I decided second grade Sunday school kids were the most qualified experts on the subject of moms. To get my answers, I posed the following questions to second grade Sunday school children at local churches.

Why did God make mothers?

1. “She’s the only one who knows where the Scotch tape is.”

2. “Mostly to clean house.”

3. “To help us out of there when we were getting borned.”

How did God make mothers?

1. “He used dirt, just like for the rest of us.”

2. “Magic plus super powers and a lot of string.”

3. “God made my Mom just the same like He made me. He just used bigger parts.”

What ingredients are mothers made of?

1. “God makes mothers out of clouds and angel hair and everything nice in the world and one dab of mean.”

2. “They had to get their start from men’s bones. Then they mostly use string, I think.”

Who’s the boss at your house?

1. “Mom doesn’t want to be boss, but she has to because Dad’s such a goofball.”

2. “Mom. You can tell by room inspection. She sees the stuff under the bed.”

3. “I guess Mom is, but only because she has a lot more to do than Dad.”

If you could change one thing about your mom, what would it be?

1. “She has this weird thing about me keeping my room clean. I’d get rid of that.”

2. “I’d make my mom smarter. Then she would know it was my sister who did it, not me.”

3. “I would like for her to get rid of those invisible eyes on the back of her head.”

Why did God give you your mother and not some other mother?

1. “We’re related.”

2. “God knew she likes me a lot more than other people’s moms like me.”

What kind of a little girl was your Mom?

1. “My Mom has always been my Mom and none of that other stuff.”

2. “I don’t know because I wasn’t there. But my guess would be pretty bossy.”

3. “They say she used to be nice.”

Why did your Mom marry your Dad?

1. “My Dad makes the best spaghetti in the world, and my Mom eats a lot.”

2. “She got too old to do anything else with him.”

3. “My Grandma says that Mom didn’t have her thinking cap on.”

What would it take to make your Mom perfect?

1. “On the inside she’s already perfect. Outside, I think some kind of plastic surgery.”

2. “Diet. You know, her hair. I’d diet, maybe blue.”

Readers, if there is any feeling of who the second grader reply might be from, it could be more than coincidence! Remember, those boys and girls are from area churches.

———

Bob is a retired AAL (Aid Association for Lutherans) agent, currently working on his master’s degree in Volunteering. His wife, Genie, is a retired RN, currently working on her doctor’s degree in Volunteering. They have two children, Deb in North Carolina, and Dan in Vermont. Bob says if you enjoy his column, let him know. If you don’t enjoy it, keep on reading, it can get worse. Words of wisdom: There is always room for God.

NRHEG Elementary will team up with two professional actors this weekend to present Prairie Fire Children’s theatre’s original musical version of the classic tale, “Pinocchio.”

“Pinocchio,” with script by Robert Gribas, original music by Angela Rinaidi Gribas, and costume and set design by Deborah Nelson Pick, continues Prairie Fire’s tradition of presenting classic tales as you’ve never seen them before.  From the Enchanted Forest of the Blue Fairy to the Isle of Fun, follow Pinocchio’s adventures as he learns what it means to be a real boy.

An exciting opportunity to lead the Minnesota Agricultural Interpretive Center, Farmamerica, is open for applications and nominations.

Executive Director Jim Gibson is retiring from the part-time position in June, after serving in the role since July 1, 2009. The Farmamerica Board of Directors will consider applications based on educational attainment, agricultural experience, people skills, and interests in education and member development.

Star Eagle seeks veterans photos

In observance of Memorial Day May 26, the NRHEG Star Eagle will publish a section dedicated to our defenders of freedom. Area veterans or family members are encouraged to bring in photos of veterans in uniform from all branches of service for inclusion and the recognition they so justly deserve. The deadline for photo submission is noon, May 16. For questions or more information, please call the Star Eagle office at (507) 463-8112 or e-mail This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it..

Funeral services for George Marvin Anderson of New Richland, MN, will be held at 2 p.m. Thursday, May 8, 2014 at the Trinity Lutheran Church in New Richland, MN. Pastor Paul Andree will officiate. Visitation will be held one hour prior to the service at the church. Interment will be in St Olaf Cemetery, New Richland, MN.

Mr. Anderson died Sunday, May 4, 2014 at the New Richland Care Center. He was 98 years of age.

George was born November 29, 1915 in Byron Township, MN, the son of Andrew and Carrie (Noftsker) Anderson. He was baptized and confirmed at the Trinity Lutheran Church by the Reverend J.C. Walledom. He attended school at the Matawan School.