Star Eagle publisher named Young Journalist of the Year

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Created: 05 July 2024

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Star Eagle Publisher Eli Lutgens was named Minnesota’s Young Journalist of the Year by the Society of Professional Journalists during the Minnesota Chapter’s 2024 Page One Awards ceremony held June 18, 2024 at the Lowlands in St. Paul. More than 500 entries were received from media outlets of every medium, including the Star Tribune, Mankato Free Press, Minnesota Public Radio, and many others.

“Lutgens was selected for the essential work he is doing in local, community journalism,” judges commented. “As his recommender noted, there would be no local newsrooms in the communities without his intervention. If running multiple publications wasn’t impressive enough, his dedication to reporting news running from local high school sports to local politics is clearly making a difference in the communities he serves. Simply put, we need more people like Lutgens to step up and do this vital work to sustain and advance democracy. There are fewer ‘news deserts' in Minnesota thanks to Lutgens’ efforts.”

Lutgens started his career in journalism at the age of 15 when he was hired as an editorial assistant to his father Jim at the Star Eagle in New Richland. However, as Eli often says, his life in journalism began the day his dad started working at the Waseca Weekly when Jim was only 20 years old and later, when Jim brought him along to work at the Albert Lea Tribune, something he did often. Simply said, Eli grew up in the back of a newsroom.

In April of 2021, Eli purchased the Star Eagle from his father. Later that year he acquired the Southern Minnesota Golden Link. On July 1, 2022 he began publishing the Waseca County Pioneer.

Eli frequently observes that none of his publications would be sustainable without the ongoing support of the NRHEG and Waseca County Communities, in addition to the help of a dedicated staff of talented writers.

The award given out last Tuesday was Eli’s second “Page One” Award, the first coming in 2021 in the Investigative Journalism Category, another first place finish for his piece on the mishandling of federal funds distributed to local governments under the Coronavirus Aid, Relief, and Economic Security (CARES) Act.

 

Delacruz and Shaw take on challenges of foster parenting

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Created: 20 June 2024

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By DEB BENTLY

Staff Writer

Last fall, New Richland residents Kelly Delacruz and her partner Robert Shaw recognized a gap they were willing to help fill.

“There’s a desperate shortage of foster homes,” Delacruz comments. “And we knew about someone who needed some help.”

After checking with the four children of their blended family living with them, the two went through the process to become licensed foster care providers. Given the home inspection, background checks and required paperwork, the process takes about three months; the pair first received their license last October.

Delacruz comments she is grateful she worked with the Lutheran Social Services office out of Mankato, saying the agency offered guidance and support each step of the way.

Candy Picka, the agency’s statewide program manager for therapeutic foster care, confirms there is a need for additional foster families. In 2023, she reveals, 6,150 Minnesota children experienced “out of home” care.

Both Picka and Delacruz mention encountering the misconception that children in foster care are there because of their own behavior.

“Pretty much all the children,” said Picka, “are in the system because of circumstances beyond their control.” She mentions parents who must be absent from the home to seek medical care or treatment for addiction; children have sometimes been the victims of abuse or neglect and are removed from the home for their own safety.

“Nearly all the children in foster care are there because of something the parents or family members need to work on,” observes Picka.

Another common misconception is about what it takes to be qualified to provide foster care. Picka says the Lutheran Social Services (LSS) office out of Mankato works with 24 foster homes. She mentions one which has been part of the system for 25 years. “We have married couples, singles, young adults. We have families with and without a stay-at-home parent.

“If your family has the room, time, patience and love to take care of them, foster children could live in your home,” she says.

County government agencies are the ones which determine which children must be placed out of their homes based on child protection rules and practices. Once a placement is decided upon, county employees begin looking for a place which can care for the children. Some counties, Picka explains, have placement agencies of their own. Others contact services like LSS to find homes; Picka estimates area counties may have working relationships with three to five agencies like hers.

It is a general practice to try and keep siblings together and to keep children as close to home as possible, but circumstances may not always allow doing so.

Delacruz comments that she and Shaw have learned a great deal over the past few months. This has included practical, everyday details such as the proper way to install and use carseats to procedural life lessons like being ready for anything and keeping track of details.

When their home is being considered for a placement, Delacruz explains, a call will come from LSS checking to see whether there is a possibility the numbers and ages of children can be accommodated at her house. “We can always say no,” she points out. “But we also want to help kids whenever we can.

“After all, it’s a safe bet they’re experiencing some sort of crisis.”

Foster children may be scheduled to stay a day or two, a few weeks, or even to be “permanently” placed in a home. The length of the stay is also something Delacruz and her family take into account when deciding whether or not to accept a placement.

Once her family consents and the children arrive, Delacruz says, they may have suitcases packed with everything they need, or they may have only the clothes on their backs.

“You work out a system for times like that,” says Delacruz lightheartedly, mentioning New Richland’s Lady Bug thrift shop has been supportive and helpful. She is also quick to point out the county and philanthropic organizations also provide needed items.

When it comes to keeping track of details, Delacruz mentions children may need to be transported to medical appointments, family visits, court appearances and other events. When she or Shaw are available, they can take care of it and be reimbursed for their expenses; otherwise county representatives ensure it is taken care of.

“There are a lot of supports in place to make it all do-able,” she observes. “The longer you do it, the better you get to know those supports.

“But no matter how well you know them, it’s really beneficial to be working with an agency like Lutheran Social Services.” Delacruz is highly complimentary regarding how accessible and helpful Picka and others have been. She says an important element of being a foster parent is providing stability, structure, and attention to the children’s individual needs, which can be widely varied depending on the circumstances of their home lives.

When behaviors are difficult, she says she reminds herself not to take it personally.

“I have barely any idea what that child may have been through,” she points out. “Just like with any children, they need time, patience, love and understanding.” She says the rewards of the work are seeing the children become comfortable in their new setting. She also enjoys seeing the children’s pleasure when they have a chance to try something that hasn’t been part of their lives in the past. “Even a simple walk with the family or an afternoon playing in the park can be really profound,” she observes.

Both Delacruz and Picka make clear that, when children are removed from their homes, the goal is to reunite the family. While children are in placement, parents may be taking part in activities meant to help them manage their everyday lives in a way that assures the children’s needs will be met.

Delacruz mentions that some people have an impression being a foster parent is a way to make money. “Yes, the costs for caring for the children are met,” she says. “You’re not losing money, but you’re not making money, either.

“The reason to do it is because you know you’re doing something to help children who have likely had some very rough stretches in their lives, and you’re trying to be part of a path to improvement.

“The kids may be confused and uncertain about what’s going on. They may have trouble recognizing their role in the new circumstances.

“But as far as I’m concerned, they’re part of my family for the time they’re with us. I hope someday they’ll have the perspective to look back and know they had a place in our lives and our hearts.”

Candy Picka shared a note she received from another person who has been a foster parent: “I feel fortunate to play a small part in each foster child’s story by giving them a temporary loving home and family. It is amazing to watch my own children build relationships with every child who they see as a sibling. My family has become more patient, stronger, and empathetic by providing foster care to children in our community.”

State of emergency in New Richland

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Created: 05 July 2024

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By ELI By LUTGENS

Publisher/Editor

Flooding that Minnesota Governor Tim Walz has described as "catastrophic" has taken over much of the state, leaving "entire communities under feet of water."

Officials in Waterville said their area is experiencing the worst flooding in its history and that the Minnesota National Guard has been activated to assist with alleviation efforts. Walz declared a peacetime emergency for the state over the weekend, which allowed the National Guard to deploy.

"Across the state, intense rain has had catastrophic effects. Flooding has left entire communities under feet of water, causing severe damage to property and numerous road closures," Walz said.

The emergency proclamation mentions that Waterville, which is wedged between Tetonka Lake and Sakatah Lake in Le Sueur County, received between 14 and 18 inches of rainfall, pushing those lakes and the Cannon River to "uncontrollable levels." 

"Residents have been evacuated and the flood has already caused significant damage," the proclamation, issued on Saturday, says.

"It's all hands on deck here in Waterville. The water continues to rise and officials say they don't know when it's going to stop," CBS News Minnesota's Jason Rantala reported on Sunday. 

"We just have too much water," Le Sueur County Commissioner David Preisler said. 

Locals have been posting countless photos and videos of the damage on social media. One resident said on Sunday evening that "hundreds of cabins and homes" have been flooded, along with most of the downtown area. At his home, he said there were about 18 inches of water in the shed and around the cabin. 

"The water is 3-plus feet deep in some places," stated one witness on Facebook. "Several roads in town are impassable and they have the fire department limiting access in many places."

Officials have called this the worst flooding event ever to hit Waterville as 1,000 people volunteered to fill sandbags over the weekend to try and prevent even worse damage. 

The National Weather Service predicts the weather contributing to the flooding across Minnesota may not be over yet, with the possibility of severe storms still appearing in forecasts across the week. Local river levels are also still rising and flooding continues to be a concern, forecasters said.

New Richland Area

Over the weekend, more than 4 inches of rain fell across Waseca County, with totals as high as 7 inches in Janesville. 

Damage in New Richland seems to be minimal compared to past flooding issues. The Care Center is safe; the baseball fields in town were still underwater on Monday. Some trees have fallen across power lines, leaving some residents in New Richland without power for several hours Saturday. 

A state of emergency was declared in New Richland on Saturday. According to city administrator Anthony Martens, the main purpose of this proclamation is to make the city eligible for reimbursement for damages sustained during the storm. Examples of damage include landscaping in the city park and damage to the fences and the concession stand at Legion Field. 

Martens dubbed People Service manager Shell Johnson a “rockstar,” saying “She kept a lot of water out of a lot of basements. She does a phenomenal job. 

“I don’t think she slept more than 5 hours in the past 48 hours,” Martens told the Star Eagle Monday morning. 

Shell Johnson, 54, has been the People Service Manager running New Richland’s wastewater treatment facility for the past three years.

Johnson’s non-stop weekend began Friday morning, when overwhelming quantities of water forced the facility to limit the processing water received before being released into its normal outlet of Boot creek. 

“It isn’t possible to handle that much water,” Johnson said. “At the height of it, 5 million gallons were going through.”

Johnson explains many checks and balances are in place for emergency protocols used over the weekend. She also said the water still runs through the preliminary building garbage catcher before passing through to the creek. 

Another emergency action was the use of pumps placed on Broadway at 2:30 a.m. Saturday. Two three-inch pumps were used to transfer water from storm sewers directly into Boot Creek. Doing so helped prevent stormwater from infiltrating the city sewage system and possibly creating a sewer back-up. 

“The system gets more and more full; pretty soon [stormwater] can’t go anywhere,” Johnson explained. “We caught it in time and pumped it out in time.”

Johnson said she was extremely grateful for the help of local residents and city staff.

“They would drive by and bring water and snacks,” she said. “They were all so nice and helpful.” 

Johnson spent the weekend sleeping in her office on a pullout cot and in her truck. Every 45 minutes she would have to wake up to put gas in the pumps on Broadway. 

“Scott, the maintenance man from the school, brought me coffee at 3 a.m,” Johnson said. 

“Others, even Bob (the director of the care center) and Anthony (the city administrator), city staff Braeden Thompson and maintenance man Erik Hendrickson all took turns watching the pumps so I could go check on the plant and do my paperwork.

“I don’t want the flooding,” she said. “We’re lucky we’re not in the predicaments these other cities are facing.” 

Rapidan Dam

In Blue Earth County, as of Monday evening, the Rapidan Dam in the Blue Earth River southwest of Mankato was in an ‘imminent failure condition.” 

The Blue Earth County Sheriff's Office said the river has cut a new path around one side of the dam and debris has been accumulating in the water. It announced the "imminent failure condition" status and notified those who may be impacted.

"We do not know if it will totally fail or if it will remain in place, however we determined it was necessary to issue this notification to advise downstream residents and the correct regulatory agencies and other local agencies," the sheriff's office said.

By Monday afternoon, the sheriff's office reported a "partial failure" of the dam on the west abutment. 

"The dam is still intact and there are no current plans for a mass evacuation," the sheriff said on Facebook. "A portion of the river flow has diverted around the west side of the dam and water continues to flow."

An Xcel Energy substation at the dam, which supplies power to about 600 customers, was washed away early Monday. The utility company said its crews were working to replace the destroyed substation and restore power.

"The river level was already high from the large amounts of recent rainfall and moving fast when it diverted around the dam near the substation and flowed onto the bank," the company said in a statement. A home on the bank is at risk as shoreline continues to wash away.

Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz related at a news conference Monday morning that the state has received roughly 18 inches of rain over the last few weeks, saturating the ground and leaving the water nowhere else to go. There is potentially more rain coming, he added.

Last days at the ‘place to start’

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Created: 14 June 2024

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By DEB BENTLY

Staff Writer

Teri Kormann’s last day as “the place to start” at NRHEG Secondary School was Wednesday, June 5. Since 2012, Kormann has been the face at the office service window where people would come with questions, drop off forms, or simply stop by in search of a sympathetic ear.

“If they didn’t know where else to go, this was the place to start,” observes Kormann. “If I couldn’t help them, I would find the person who could.”

Kormann’s history with the school actually begins with her second-grade year, when her family moved to the area. She graduated from New Richland-Hartland High School in 1977. Also graduating that year was classmate and sweetheart Lonnie Kormann; the two married in 1978 and moved away for a time, but returned as they began having children. Their three sons are all NRHEG alumni: Bryan graduated in 2004, Justin in 2007 and Jonathan in 2009.

Kormann had been a stay-at-home mom, but when her youngest began attending kindergarten, she learned the school was looking for help supervising the playground. She volunteered on the days Jonathan was in school. “They needed help, I lived close by. It seemed like a good fit,” she recalls, saying she enjoyed playing kickball and watching kids entertain themselves on the playground equipment.

The next year she joined the staff as a paraprofessional, someone who attends class with students who have special needs and also works one-on-one with them to help them study and learn. She remembers being one of six paras working under teachers Beth Knudson and Stacy Stork, and all of them based out of a single classroom. The close quarters and the many demands of the job, she said, helped them become a tightly-knit group. “We all had each other’s backs,” she remembers. “Those ladies were definitely my work ‘family.’”

In 2012 when the position for the administrative assistant to the principal became open, Kormann applied. “Paul Cyr took a chance on me; I will be forever grateful,” she says of that first year. “I absolutely loved working in the office and with Paul,” she recalls.

Kormann has been in the office ever since.

“I have absolutely loved this job,” Kormann says. She mentions the variety of duties the job entails–everything from attendance and lunch count to working closely with the sports programs. But mostly, “It’s the people.”

“I will miss the entire, wonderful staff,” she says. “It takes very special people to want to work with kids every day.”

Among the things she will not miss, she mentions, are having to be at school by 7 a.m., even when there was a snowstorm. She is deeply grateful the pandemic is over, and of course hopes there will not be another. “Those years were awful for everybody,” she remembers. “For the teachers, the parents, and most of all, the students.”

Kormann takes special pleasure in having been able to be there and help in sometimes subtle ways. Thanks to her position, first as a paraprofessional and then in the office, she holds a warm place in her heart for the members of the class of 2018, whose company she kept from the time they were kindergarteners until their graduation.

She says she always enjoyed the fun and variety of dress-up days and special events such as homecoming, snow week and prom.

She will always remember some of the traditions that popped up across the year–for example when military recruiters would come to the school, they would challenge students to do pull-ups in the hallway next to the cafeteria.

She says she has been continually grateful for the community’s engagement with the school–attendance at games, concerts and performances. During years when the wrestling team and the girls’ basketball team went to state, she remembers the school needed six or seven buses for all the people interested in being there.

Her favorite day of the year “was always the first day of school,” she says emphatically. “I loved the fresh energy, the excitement, the anticipation, the new students moving wide-eyed from place to place.

“Everybody’s in a good mood,” she says, smiling.

Her second-most favorite has been the last day of school when, yet again, the mood is positive and the air is filled with anticipation–this time for the summer ahead.

Of NRHEG’s students, Kormann says, “Most of them have woven themselves right into my heart.” She tells the story of being at a post-season basketball game taking place in another community. “There was a gentleman supporting the opposing team sitting kitty-corner behind us,” she recalls. “He asked whether one of the kids on the floor was mine.

“I told him they all were, and I meant it.”

In fact, seeing the students every day is what she says she will miss most. “It was such a privilege to watch them grow, mature, and learn,” she says. “It will be hard not being a part of that anymore.”

She says she hopes she is remembered as having been a good listener, someone to rely on, and a calming influence. “I didn’t want to be the scary office lady,” she jokes. “I wanted kids to always know they could trust me.”

Kormann has already spent a few days mentoring Nikki Cromwell, who has been hired to be next year’s administrative assistant to the principal. She also expects to be in the school a few days next fall as Cromwell continues to learn the ropes.

Now that she has retired, Kormann says the plan is to take life a bit easier, including sleeping past 4:50 a.m. She and husband Lonnie plan to do some traveling and to spend more time with their grandchildren, Emma, 11; Owen, 5; Brooklyn, 3; and Jayce, 20 months.

“I want to read more books, take more walks, watch the birds, and putz in my yard,” she says. “Now I will have time to do it.”