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The
Official Newspaper of Manchester and Delaware County, Iowa
Tuesday,
August 29, 2006 | |
WD freshman attend ‘respect’ retreat
by Latisha Sand |
The West Delaware freshman class ran around, made a human chair and learned about respect at a Freshman Retreat that was recently held at the Delaware County Fairgrounds Community Center.
“Our goal for today is to experience a day where everyone in the same room respects each other,” John Sandahl told the students.
Sandahl, a retreat manager for Youth Frontiers out of Minneapolis, Minn., along with Eric Malmberg, a retreat staff member, taught the students respect through large and small group activities.
“It helps the students make the transition between middle school and high school,” said West Delaware High School Principal Jon Nordaas. “It’s a start of something, it’s not a solution.”
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LATISHA SAND / Press
The West Delaware freshman class, a few teachers and several junior and senior high school students enjoyed a day of learning and reinforcing respect at a recent Freshman Retreat day that was held at the Delaware County Fairgrounds Community Center. The students and staff enjoyed many activities including making a human chair, which involved the students and the leaders to get in a circle and sit down on the knees of the person behind them. |
Nordaas, along with a half a dozen teachers and between 15 and 20 high school junior and senior leaders, helped the students learn or reinforce self respect, respect for others and stepping up when someone was being disrespectful.
“There were reinforcing activities for some (of the students),” said Nordaas. While others, he added, only need help with standing up to someone else.
Nordaas found out about Youth Frontiers while at a training session. He helped start the program at the Charles City School District seven years ago.
“It includes a lot of team building skills with both indirect and direct activities,” said Nordaas.
The small groups were broken up not by popularity or by friends, but by each student having a different number on their nametag.
“We’re going to ask you to do stuff that’s out of your comfort zone,” Sandahl warned students.
“We ask you to be real and say what you think, not what your friends may think.”
The retreat was an all day event, lasting from 8:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m.
“We are going to evaluate (the retreat),” said Nordaas. “I’ve heard from some staff members already that they thought it was good.” But there are some financial costs to the program and the school will later get input from other teachers and from the students as well before making the final decision for next year. |
Supervisors address ethanol plant rumors
by Julie Sunne |
The Board of Supervisors addressed some rumors that are circulating about the possibility of an ethanol plant in Manchester or Dyersville at their Aug. 21 meeting.
Four basic questions were answered:
1. The board does support volunteer annexation of adjacent lands for the ethanol project.
2. The board will support improving streets and roads if there is a practical approach to it and depending on finances.
3. The board supports tax abatements if other requirements and restrictions allow it.
4. The board supports a TIF (tax increment financing) plan for infrastructure for the project if it is divided equally and fairly, and if any part of the TIF over five years will be the counties. The supervisors do not support a TIF plan for cash incentives or rebates for tax abatement for more than five years; believing the company should be strong enough not to need such help after five years.
Darla Rave, courthouse custodian, was granted a leave of absence through August 31 following a car accident. Lisa Tutton was hired as temporary custodian at $9.72 per hour effective Aug. 21.
Calcium chloride and salt quotes were awarded after taking a week to review them. Cargill Deicing, North Olmsted, Ohio, was awarded the contract for 2500 tons of deicing salt at $43.49/ton.
Standard Tar Products Company, Inc., Milwaukee, Wisconsin, received the contract for 50 tons at $357/ton.
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30,503 attended Aquatic Center in 2006
by Latisha Sand |
The Manchester Aquatic Center had another record-breaking year and Ben Page, Manchester’s parks and recreation director, is pleased with the numbers.
“The pool had a great season,” said Page. “We had 30,503 people go through.” Which means there were roughly 500 more people than last year.
Page contributes the success to the nice weather, the new bear slide and the new paint job.
“I track the weather every day during the pool season and we had an average temperature of 91 degrees this summer,” said Page. “The pool only closed five times on account of the weather.”
Another new option for the 275 families that purchased passes was a duel pass with Dyersville.
Forty families purchased this option.
“This gave families another option when our pool was closed,” said Page. And it’s something Page hopes will continue next year.
“We try to add what I call ‘a la carte’ items to the passes each year,” said Page. If anyone has an idea, they can contact him at Manchester City Hall.
Other improvements for next year will depend on the budget numbers and bids. For example, Page would like to add gaskets on the big slides to decrease the amount of water the slides lose each year. Lighting and deck chairs are also on the list of improvements.
“We are going to be celebrating our 10th anniversary next year,” Page said, “and these improvements will help the pool last us many years.”
The pool passed the revenue from last year and 96 people bought single passes this year.
“We’ve sold more season passes this year than over the last five years,” said Page.
And the Aquatic Center brought in $26,000 just in gate admissions this year as well.
“With the continued support of the city council we can do some great things,” said Page.
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Farm Credit Services moves into new location
by Brian Cook |
The Farm Credit Services of America office was closed last Thursday as team members moved into their new location on the far end of West Main Street in Manchester.
The new 8,400 square foot building will more than double the area available for the Manchester office, which was open for business again Friday. The new building is one of the last three new buildings for the company in a modernization effort that started six years ago.
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BRIAN COOK / Press
It was moving day last Thursday at the FCSAmerica office in Manchester as team members moved into their new 8,400 square foot building. |
The other new offices are in Marshalltown and Sheldon. FCSAmerica has 43 retail offices and 1,000 employees in Iowa Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming with its headquarters in Omaha.
The Manchester office serves Delaware, Dubuque, Buchanan and the lower parts of Fayette and Clayton counties, plus the surrounding areas.
The new building is structured around a team-based environment that allows for high collaboration with an open office environment, according to Team Leader Al Patten, whom is also a vice
president working out of the Webster City and Cedar Falls locations along with Manchester.
“It shows a long-term commitment to our customers or serving agriculture and rural residents,” Mark Engelbrecht, a financial officer at the Manchester office said of the new building. “Having a place like this allows us to have a high quality work force to give our customers better service.”
“I may lead this office, but my opinion is no more important than Mark’s or anyone else’s,” Patten added. “That’s the same way we approach our customers – with that team approach.”
Part of the modernization will be that all offices have become standardized. Patten said it allows for customer/owners to transact and be taken care of in any office.
FCSAmerica is a member-owned cooperative where the customer/owners have the ability to share profits. FCSAmerica has over 64,000 customers in the four states with assets of $10 billion. The Manchester location alone has a total loan volume of approximately $150 million and about 1,200 loan and insurance customers.
“We specialize in serving customers on the farm. The majority of our business is done on the farm, Engelbrecht explained.
Patten explained that they focus on serving agriculture in hopes that better expertise will lead to better decision-making. He said they have a distinct advantage having people dedicated fulltime to insurance related to the farming area.
“We have a fulltime crop insurance division. People dedicated all year long. That’s what they do,” Patten added “We think it makes for a better response and better service since they have more time to dedicate to crop insurance.”
The FCSAmerica Manchester location plans an open house for the new building on Sept. 20, from 11 a.m. until 3 p.m.
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