The Austin Daily Herald from Austin, Minnesota • 1

AUSTIN DAILY 1 500Home Delivery 35c TUESDAY EBRUARY 14 1995 VOL 103 NO 77 Meat Market 433 2575 121 irst Ave NW Smoked Picnic Hams Lb(j6 Smoked Pork Loin Chops Hormel Little Sizzlers' Pk 59 ANNUAL US CHOICE STEAK SALE "Where The Best Costs Less" A Tradition of Service Residential arms Commercial Annraisak Diane Tigner 433 1833 STERLING REAL ESTATE Building tops agenda By NIKKI MERELD Herald Staff Water A proposal that has been dis cussed around town and even brought up tn letters to the editor of the Austin Daily Herald will finally come before the Austin Public School Board Wednesday Included on the agenda for Wednesday's meeting is a discus sion of the possible sale of the District Administration building located at 202 ourth Ave NE Superintendent Doug Myers stated he will present information to the board on the possibility of the transaction "It's pretty straightforward" according to Myers "We've been deliberating and the board will have a report" The deliberations on the sale of the building are part of the ongoing efforts to reduce the 1995 96 Austin Public Schools budget by $15 mil lion The administration has stated that a large sum of money needs to be cut from the budget in light of the failure of the November 1994 excess levy referendum Myers has stated in the past that central administration would attempt to reduce its budget by $500000 for next year The administration building cur renlly houses the superintendent'soffice as well as the employee rela tions department and management services Some residents of the communi ty have stated they feel that" the administration' should move into Austin High School Administrators often feel that moving jnto one of the district's schools seems to indi cate preference for that school and makes the administration less accessible to the public it serves Other items on agenda include an update from Lonnie Smith director of manage ment services on the progress toward completing next year's bud get a request for approval of the Staff Development Advisory Committee's plan for this year and next an update on the visitation of the schools in the Cedar River Education District (CRED) by a North Central Accreditation team a request to approve the lease pur chases of various musical instru ments a request for final approval of the Austin High School registration guide book The Austin Public School Board will meet Wednesday eb 15 at 4 pm in Room 106 of Austin High School Bridges of Mower County Brad Langan of Independent Welding of Blooming Prairie applies the finishing touches to one of the new bridges that spans the waterways at Ramsey Golf Course The course's owners were given spans of 'the former Milwaukee Road pedestrian bridge between 10th and 11th Streets Northeast in Austin and created three bridges for the course A A lirigfltafxlJwWWm VK al irvSr id J3B Hr JEir Students give vets valentines Doug isMS) Eastern Broadcasting purchases See SCHOOLS Page 11 average of 3000 valentines each Alex Pfeifer a fourth grader in the Southgate program put the idea into a much more per Doug Myers sonal perspective "They saved our country and so I wanted to help make them something" Pfeifer said neither be changes in the program schedule nor staff of the local news coverage team Eastern Broadcasting is owned by Roger Neuhoff and Brian Bums The corporation also owns KODE TV in Joplin Mo In the purchase of KAAL Eastern also purchased sis ter station KTWO in Casper Wyo according to' KAAL news director ber of students who wouldn't be served otherwise (without the man Myers stated "(It's still) a federal mandate driven by very lit tie federal money" Austin Public Schools spend approximately $35 million annual ly to address the needsof Special Education students Myers stated A second area that Myers said the district finds tough to deal with is the restriction of dollars or example during the 1994 95 school year 2 percent of the General und or $270000 has been i restricted by the state for use only on staff 1 development While the administration reached an agreement with staff that allows the district to count salaries for mser viceays as partof the staff devel opmen tj the burden is still tough bear Even Gary Knfltson chair of the staff development committee and a teacher at Austin High School has stated that the amount is too much and causes financial hardship andmost likely loss of staff positions for Austin childrenparticipate in Valentines for Vets 7 BY TIM MOfiRiSV Herald Staff Writer Children from the Kids Korner programs at five Austin area schools have been busy cre ating valentines for American war veterans as part of the Valentines for Vets program to be delivered to the Veterans' Administration Hospital in Minneapolis The valentines between 150 to 200 of them were picked up by Austin VITV Post 1216 last week "We're really happy that they Were able to do thisLVW Quartermaster Ben Winkels said ol' the plugfail hcTl die vct erans receive these they will be very happy" The valentines were delivered yesterday and today Lise Mittag coordinator of the Southgate Kids Korner pro gram said the idea to get involved in the program came from an Ann Landers column in the paper "We thought it Would be a good way for the kids to show their appreciation for the veter ans" Mittag said Last year veterans at Veterans Administration Hospitals received nearly 1 mil Smaller schools face tough times By NIKKI MERELD Herald Staff Writer The smaller districts in Mower County often have an even tougher time meeting call to provide more and more services to students on fewer and fewer dollars Paul Trelstad superinten dent of the Lyle School District stated staff develop ment mandates hit the dis trict hard Dave Kopp The purchase transaction process actually began last summer according to Kopp but was held up due to a technicality He would not elaborate KAAL was previously owned by MBM Broadcasting a subsidiary of the Dix Corporation That company had owned the station since 1985 By NIKKI MERELD Herald Staff Writer As of Wednesday eb 15 KAAL TV Channel 6 in Austin will have new owners The station has recently been purchased by Eastern Broadcasting Corp Clark Cipra general manager ofthe station stated that there will Mandates hit schools hard LI LUUdr yuvci I ill let iio i lave complained at length about programs forced upon them from the federal gov ernment With no funds allo cated to put the programs in place These unfunded are the subject 'of a four part series which continues today with the third part looking at local school situations By NIKKI MERELD Herald Staff Writer I though' 'p i a Education man dates provide services to stu dents who are truly in need coming up with the funds to pro vide alTthe vari ous equipment and staff needed to meet federal criteria is tough according to Austin Public Schools superintendent Myers examine what local politi 1 cians are doing to address 5 the growing problem Tim MorrisseyDaily Herald Austin VW Post Quartermaster Ben Winkels is almost invisible as he is surrounded by stu dents from Southgate Elementary School's Kids Korner The group is showing off some of the valen tines they created for the for Vets" national program Children in the Austin school's five programs created about 200 valentines for the VW to deliver to the VA Hospital in Minneapolis lion valentines from people around the world as part of the program according to Veterans Administration statistics More than 170 hospitals received an "I'm excited about it (the pur chase by Eastern)" Kopp said He added that the purchase of the television stations was a new venture for Eastern Broadcasting Neuhoff was apparently retired but decided to come out of retirement to try his hand at television station operation tie naa previously uwueu several radio stations said Kopp See AUSTIN Page 11 MKL" '1 iiaiasWB 4 'r XI miMr S9I I 77 a TRAVEL Alaska 1995 Princess Cruise Land Vacations July 22 August 3 1995 Escorted by Lolly Nelson 7 Night Cruise on the Crown Princess Denali National Park on Princess' own Ultra Midnight Sun Express Rail Cars 20 meals August 5 16 1995 Escorted by Lois Anderson Minht Cniica nn fhn Iru Pnnrpt: VyiU VIMIUV VI IV Juneau Skaqway Anchorage Denali National Park Dawson UmMUtMMKA THI9 YKMtt or A REE Brochure Call 433 1823 or 1 800 388 6654 212 NE 4th Ave Austin 'Since 1967 Seasons maiei Akin CRUISE CENTER INC Index Ann Landers 7 Astrology 8 Bridge a 8 Classified 9 11 Comics 8 Crossword 8 Obituaries 2 Opinion 4 Region Sports 7 6 10 Weather 2' 1 Lottery Numbers 1 Daily 3: 3 6 3 Weather Minnesota Minute CANADA 1Jernatonal allsf 1 7 oorea 1 I Duluth I k'" mich £21' WISC S' I Minneapolis! 24 St Paul 241 pT LwwJjj IOWA Mower County can expect mostly cloudy skies Wednesday A 50 percent chance of snow exits with highs in the mid 20s 7X A'' DL proposes cut ST PAUL (AP) House DL leaders have proposed an immediate $10 million budget cut for state agencies and the Legislature saying they should have to make the same choices local governments face under the budget plan 1 House Speaker Irv Anderson DL International alls Said that GOP Gov Ame Carlson has proposed cuts in state aid to local governments that could force them to redo budgets already in place only fair that the Legislature and state agencies be put in the same predicament and have to reduce spending Anderson said Cyndy Brucato spokeswoman dismissed the House DL proposal as level 5'7 7 V' WMJ 5.