The Official Newspaper of Manchester and Delaware County, Iowa

                     Tuesday, November 1, 2005
Superintendent withdraws Cole’s termination
Latisha Sand
West Delaware Superintendent Rick Hilbert withdrew his recommendation to terminate Russell Cole, lead custodian, after a four and half hour special board meeting on Tuesday, Oct. 25.

After hearing testimony and closing arguments from both parties’ lawyers, the board debated the evidence in an open session for over an hour before motioning to vote. The motion failed with two voting yes, two voting no and one not voting.

It was about that time when Cole leaned over and spoke to his attorney, Jeremy Kunz. Kunz asked the board if he could speak to Hilbert in private and soon Don Hoskins, a lawyer representing Hilbert, and Cole joined them.

After about 15 minutes, both parties came back, with papers in their hands, and Hoskins told the board that Hilbert was withdrawing the termination, “because of things that cannot be discussed in public.” He mentioned that the board members would be informed following the meeting.

An adjournment closely followed.

According to testimony, Hilbert was made aware of a situation after Ron Swartz, director of buildings, grounds and transportation, asked him if, “accuracy on timecards was a concern.” According to two individuals who are employed through the district, Cole was not doing his weekend security checks at Lambert Elementary School.

But Cole said he would mark down his time for the weekends on Friday and even if he didn’t come in during that exact time, the building checks would be done. However, Swartz said he would periodically stop by the building on weekends to see if Cole was there and he was not.

In the past, the school administrators have talked to employees about times on their timecards and Cole said he was never spoken to about it. If he had been, he said, he would have stopped marking the times on Friday.

The discrepancy of the times was the main reason for the board’s debate but so was his job performance even though evaluations were not part of the evidence.

“I feel I’m not doing my duty if we don’t look at all aspects,” said board member Ilona Durey after being told the case was not about his performance, just about his timecard. “We’ve only been given face value, but I think there is more to it.”

Mike Ryan, another board member, found it hard to believe that there had only been one problem in the 12 years that Cole has been employed with the district.

“The evaluations were off the table today, but they may have given us more insight,” said Ryan.

Mike Johnson, board president and Elwyn Curtis, board vice-president, saw it differently.

“In my opinion, the superintendent proved his case,” said Johnson. “He appears to have followed policy (the board policy) and the facts have been presented. I can’t find anything in the evidence that suggests otherwise.”

Hoskins interviewed three witnesses, Hilbert, Swartz and past director of buildings, Ron Struble and Kunz only interviewed Cole, but emphasized that they were not contesting the times on the cards, just the process of which it was handled.


Manchester voters have a choice in mayorial candidates
Brian Cook

Milt Kramer - Jeff Ogden
Next Tuesday voters will have a choice between two candidates with distinctly different outlooks for what is needed for the city of Manchester.

Jeff Ogden, who has served for two years on the Manchester City Council, is challenging Milt Kramer, who has been the mayor of Manchester for the past 31 and a half years. Kramer also served for four and a half years before that as a member of the Council, and recently filled in as city manager until Tim Vick could be hired.
“By running for mayor I am giving our citizens the opportunity to vote to complete the change over of our current 34-plus year administration,” Ogden said in a questionnaire sent to the candidates. “Five months ago we hired a new city manager, I feel now is the time for new blood, new ideas and a new direction.”

Mayor Kramer’s response to why he sought another term in office was, “I am totally dedicated to this city. I want the city to continue to be a city that other cities look up to, respect, admire and model themselves after. Over the years our Manchester City Councils have kept this city on the move and forward-looking. I want to see this continued in the years to come.”

When asked about his priorities for Manchester, Mayor Kramer said he wanted to continue the city’s sound fiscal policies, which promote providing services to the residents. Second, Kramer listed continued work on economic development, to bring jobs and make Manchester the place where people want to live and raise their families.

Kramer said his third priority would be to continue to improve streets, upgrade the waste-water treatment plant, create more leisure time activities in Manchester and to continue to improve the downtown area through incentives.

Ogden lists as his top priority televising council meetings on the local cable access channel so that the citizens of Manchester know where their tax dollars are being spent. He also wants the City of Manchester to manage its income sources more efficiently to ensure that the proper funding is available for required infrastructure improvements. Ogden said he also wants to improve communications between City Hall and ordinary citizens so that everybody’s voice can be heard.

The two candidates claim to have a similar vision of what they want for Manchester’s future.

“I see new industry in a vibrant community that will continue to serve our increasingly diverse population, keeping Manchester an affordable, safe, friendly and educated community we all can call home,” Ogden explained.

“I am committed to providing the services our residents want and deserve,” Kramer answered, “I will work with Delaware County economic development on a daily basis to bring in more business, industry and jobs. I want Manchester to have the continued respect that it has throughout the state of Iowa.”

Polls in Manchester open at 7 a.m. next Tuesday and at noon in other areas of Delaware County. All polls will close at 8 p.m. If anyone has any questions on voter registration or the election, they can call the Delaware County Auditor’s Office at (563) 927-4701.


Palmer recalls devastating hurricane damage, clean up
Latisha Sand


PHOTO SUBMITTED/Kyle Palmer
Kyle Palmer, owner of Palmer Tree Service, LLC, works inside what is left of a house damaged by Hurricane Katrina. Palmer and his employees traveled to Louisiana to cut down trees that were on top of houses, roads and powerlines.
After spending about seven weeks cleaning up the devastation left by Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in the southern states, Kyle Palmer is back in Manchester.
Palmer and some of his employees from Palmer Tree Service, LLC traveled to Louisiana and other southern states to help cut down trees that had fallen on houses, roads and power lines.

“It’s good to be back,” said Palmer. Besides family, Palmer missed the little things.

“I missed the normalcy of home, the little things in life,” said Palmer. “Like going out to eat, a glass of milk. They don’t have that down there.”

And since there is still no electricity is some parts of the south and no running water, Palmer said it made life more interesting camping in parking lots.
“The conditions have greatly improved,” said Palmer. “The power is back on for most areas and business are mainly open.”

Even though life is somewhat back to normal, Palmer said that people are still waiting for their houses to be repaired and some of the people still haven’t been allowed into their neighborhoods.

“We were watching people come to their house for the first time,” said Palmer. “They would walk up to the house and it could have a tree in the middle of it. It was hard to deal with because they were just devastated. It’s very sad moments that you will remember forever.”

Palmer, who was on stand-by for Wilma, said if they were asked to help again, he would probably go down.

Palmer, who turned in his resignation after three years of service on the Manchester Police Department, said he has no regrets for leaving everything behind to help, although he will miss being a part of the police department.

Palmer wants Iowa residents to know that the survivors still need help.

“Christmas is coming up and those kids won’t have any toys,” said Palmer. “And with Halloween, there won’t be any trick or treating. It’s a old topic up here but it’s still going on. It’ll be going on for months.”

After weeks of not having steady business hours, Palmer Tree Service, LLC is back in full force and ready to help their customers.


WD students perform at UNI Vocal Arts Festival


PHOTO SUBMITTED
UNI Vocal Arts Finalists from West Delaware are (l to r): Front row – Tiffany Sherman, Cami Philgreen, Laura Bohlke. Back row – Jon Sill, Philip Cooper, Jordan LeClere.
There were 23 West Delaware students who had the opportunity to rehearse and perform the vocal selections from the Iowa All-State Choral literature at the Oct. 9 and 10 Vocal Arts Festival at the University of Northern Iowa. Mallory McCool, a West Delaware senior, was one of the soloists on the piece, “Cloudburst.”

As part of the festival, select students had the opportunity to take a lesson from a member of the UNI Voice Faculty. The voice faculty then chose 14 finalists from all of the students to perform again as part of a scholarship competition. Six students from West Delaware were chosen as part of these 14 finalists. Chosen were: Tiffany Sherman, Laura Bohlke, Cami Philgreen, Jordan LeClere, Philip Cooper and Jon Sill.
From the finalists, Cami Philgreen was chosen as one of four soloists to sing at the evening concert, and Laura Bohlke was the winner of a UNI Music Scholarship.


109 E. Delaware - P.O. Box C - Manchester, Iowa 52057
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