Quarterback Logan King heads up field on a 74-yard touchdown run in the second quarter against Watertown-Mayer Friday.
Clearwater River Watershed District Board President Bob Schiefelbein said board members’ good working relationships with landowners and with local, state and federal partners make it easier to accomplish projects that benefit water quality of the Clearwater River and the lakes within the watershed. The MPCA removed Lake Augusta and Union Lake from its impaired waters list in 2022. Both lie within the watershed near South Haven. The Clearwater River runs through Schiefelbein’s pasture in Meeker County. Scott Lake is just out of the frame to the left.
Clean Water Funds from the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources supported the Clearwater River Watershed District’s stormwater treatment project at Watkins, seen here. That project contributed to water quality improvements in Clearwater River. Two lakes in the watershed, Lake Augusta and Union Lake, were removed from the impaired waters list in 2022.
Phil Votruba
Union Lake, seen March 16, 2022, from the public access, was removed from the MPCA’s impaired waters list in 2022. The Clearwater River Watershed District credits landowners’ actions as having the most direct effect on its improved clarity and reduced phosphorus.
The Clearwater River is seen from a Meeker County road crossing in mid-March. The river flows through nine lakes on its way to the Mississippi River in the city of Clearwater.
Clearwater River Watershed District Board President Bob Schiefelbein said board members’ good working relationships with landowners and with local, state and federal partners make it easier to accomplish projects that benefit water quality of the Clearwater River and the lakes within the watershed. The MPCA removed Lake Augusta and Union Lake from its impaired waters list in 2022. Both lie within the watershed near South Haven. The Clearwater River snakes its way through Schiefelbein’s North Kingston Township pasture in Meeker County on March 16, 2022. Scott Lake appears in the distance at left. Photo Credit: Ann Wessel, BWSR
SOUTH HAVEN — The Clearwater River Watershed District’s decades-long cooperation with landowners, cities, state and federal agencies to improve water quality has resulted in two South Haven area lakes’ removal from the impaired waters list in 2022: Lake Augusta and Union Lake.
“It means we’re on the right track. Everything we’ve done has been to do that, and if it’s happening we must be on the right track,” said Bob Schiefelbein, CRWD Board president and a Meeker Soil & Water Conservation District board member whose family beef farm borders the Clearwater River in Kingston Township.
Lake Augusta, one of nine in the Clearwater Chain of Lakes, straddles the Stearns-Wright county line. Union Lake, one of 17 more throughout the three-county, 159-square-mile watershed, sits on the Wright-Meeker county line. Both were impaired for nutrients.
When the CRWD was founded in 1975, Lake Augusta’s nutrient levels were sometimes five times higher than the acceptable threshold. The 187-acre, 82-foot-deep fishing, boating and swimming lake experienced intense and frequent algae blooms.
Phosphorus concentrations have declined. From 2016 through 2021, average levels were below the deep-lake threshold of 40 micrograms per liter. Water clarity also shows a positive trend, with average Secchi disk readings bettering the deep-lake standard of 1.4 meters for the past 10-plus years.
Brainerd-based MPCA Watershed Project Manager Phil Votruba, whose territory includes the CRWD, said the watershed district’s focus on protecting and improving water quality was imperative to its success.
“You’ve got intense pressures around that area from a land-use perspective. They knew if they didn’t work proactively to protect these resources, that they would degrade. Once they tip over the edge, it’s really hard to get them back in line with our standards,” Votruba said. “They stepped in and addressed these resources while there was still time to do so. That’s why we’re seeing these delistings showing up now.”
Because water quality improvement work started in the headwaters area, all of the lakes in the chain are showing significant water quality improvements.
“Water’s not going to be crystal-clear in our watershed. It’s got a big, big farming area that comes into it,” Schiefelbein said.
Since 1981, the CRWD has worked with landowners and local, state and federal partners to implement nearly $7 million in water quality improvement projects and programs that contributed to Lake Augusta’s delisting.
That included about $4 million that leveraged Environmental Protection Agency grants available through the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency’s Clean Lakes Fund with CRWD tax levies and landowners’ matching funds.
“Give credit to their board. They’re so good at building relationships with landowners, and they’re so respectful — not just to the landowners but all the agencies and partners that they work with. I think it takes all of that to have success, and they were very good at putting all of those pieces together,” Votruba said.
Over the past 10 years, two Clean Water Fund grants from the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BWSR) contributed to about $3 million in leveraged funding.
The first BWSR Clean Water Fund grant affecting Lake Augusta, $70,900 awarded in 2010, supported Kimball’s $115,200 stormwater management project. The infiltration basin captured urban runoff to protect Willow Creek — a trout stream — Lake Betsy, and ultimately, Lake Augusta, from temperature impacts, and from sediment- and phosphorus-loading. It treated a 428-acre drainage area, and kept an estimated 244 pounds of phosphorus and 6.5 tons of sediment out of the waters each year. One pound of phosphorus can feed 500 pounds of algae.
BWSR awarded the CRWD a $666,080 Clean Water Fund grant in 2012 to support Kimball’s second phase of stormwater work. That $889,815 project reduced phosphorus loading by an estimated 1,175 pounds a year through a wetland restoration; a system that irrigates a park with water from stormwater basins; a stormwater pond expansion; and best management practices such as vegetated swales and sediment-trapping chambers.
While the total reductions weren’t huge, Schiefelbein said the Kimball projects clean nearly all of the water that runs from the city’s drainage area to the Clearwater River.
“Without (Clean Water Funds) we had no shot,” Schiefelbein said.
In the case of Union Lake, the CRWD credits landowners’ actions as having the most direct effect on its improved clarity and reduced phosphorus. One landowner converted row crops to pasture. Another spearheaded rough fish removal in a downstream lake.
“They were doing a lot of (rough fish removal) in the ’80s and ’90s. Carp can be very destructive in those lakes,” Votruba said. “They uproot vegetation, and they stir up the nutrients, get the water cloudy.”
Several other efforts throughout the watershed contributed to Lake Augusta and Union Lake being delisted, including:
- The CRWD-led Variable Rate Targeted Fertilizer Program helped producers work with a local co-op to implement precision farming techniques.
- Carp management focused on select lakes.
- The CRWD’s Alternative Tile Intake Program provided water quality improvements to field drainage infrastructure, building upon sediment and bacteria studies that identified critical areas and specific projects.
- Capital improvement projects addressed impairments including dissolved oxygen and nutrients.
“(The delisting) mentions ‘for unknown reasons’ on those two lakes,” Votruba said. “They’ve done so many projects within those watersheds. It’s a non-point source situation; everybody’s made a difference. But some of those early projects did make a difference. It’s such a high standard for the state, and they’ve done such a nice job. They deserve a lot of credit for that work. If it wasn’t for them and their early efforts, Clearwater Lake would likely be impaired today.”
Clearwater is the largest and most heavily used of the watershed’s recreational lakes, which lie 40 miles northwest of the Twin Cities.
Two more Clean Water Fund grants from BWSR support the CRWD’s work elsewhere in the watershed.
Just off Minnesota Highway 55 near Watkins, the watershed district treated 6,500 acres that drained urban and agricultural runoff. The $610,470 project reduced phosphorus to the Clearwater River by an estimated 796 pounds per year. It drew from a $351,900 Clean Water Fund grant BWSR awarded to the CRWD in 2015. The treatment diverts part of the water from a tributary through a series of practices including a pre-treatment sedimentation basin, a phosphorus-capturing limestone filter, a stormwater pond nearly 1 acre in size, and native prairie plantings.
In 2022, BWSR awarded the CRWD a $361,000 Clean Water Fund grant centered on Clear Lake south of Watkins. The lake is close to meeting water quality standards for phosphorus. The project, estimated at $451,250, would install an iron-enhanced sand filter to capture phosphorus entering the lake from a wetland complex.
“We have the big plan. We know where the problems are,” Schiefelbein said. “It’s not many big problems anymore. Most of those are solved. It’s more of the small ones now.”
Those small projects tend to be more expensive per pound of pollutant reduction. So the CRWD aggressively pursues grants. Schiefelbein said board members shared the goal of pursuing clean water at the best price, spending money prudently, as if it were their own.
D
Anoni Haynie, as Maurice the Lemur, Jazlyn Franklin as Lynn the Lemur and Kylah Freitag as King Julien rehearse a scene.
Rosanne Hansen has been around Litchfield theater productions for more than two decades, but she’s never been in the role she has taken on this year.
Don’t get the wrong idea. For Hansen, the term “role” is not what one might first think of when it comes to a stage production. She has not spent the past 20-plus years in the spotlight, but rather behind the curtain helping manage actors, props, sound and lighting.
“Backstage is my forte, I guess,” Hansen said. “Most of the time, I’m painting sets and sending out the notices and the rehearsal calendars (to cast members).”
She’s been doing some of those things this spring, too, but they’ve been as much smaller parts of Hansen’s much bigger role as director of Litchfield Community Youth Theatre’s production of “Madagascar — A Musical Adventure Jr.”, which takes the stage this week at Bernie Aaker Auditorium.
“Well, mostly it’s the fact that I’m in charge,” Hansen said when asked how taking on the director duties this year is different from her previous theater duties. “So, everybody’s looking to me for all of the answers. Before, they would come to me to get answers, and some of the time I would have to go somewhere else to get the answer, because I wasn’t in charge and I couldn’t make those decisions. But now, it’s all coming to me, because I have to make the decisions.
“It’s been a good experience,” she added. “It’s just different.”
Hansen is thankful, she said, for her many years of theater experience, which started as a teenager painting sets for a Litchfield Community Theatre production in 2001. She says she didn’t really have a choice but to be involved in theater, given her family’s extensive participation.
“Rebecca (her sister) was in the show, and so my mom’s like, yep, you and Shawn (her brother) are getting involved, you’re going to do this,” she said. “I’m like, OK, so a couple hours a week, I’d be here painting sets.”
Hansen’s path to director of this year’s youth theater production can be traced to her mother, as well. Mary Hansen, who has held a multitude of community theater roles, from actor to director, is a member of Litchfield Community Theatre’s board of directors. She knew Rosanne had an interest in directing at some point, and when Litchfield Community Youth Theatre’s chosen director for this year’s show had to back out, she spoke to her daughter about the opening.
“She was talking to me, and they didn’t have a director yet, this was last year sometime already,” Rosanne said. “I didn’t want the show not to happen, because there’s not a director, so I was, like, maybe. And then somebody else stepped forward, and I said, ‘OK, perfect. That’s just fine. I don’t need to do it.’
“I was still going to help … and then that person backed out, and I’m like, ‘OK, I’ll direct then, I guess,’” Hansen said.
She quickly learned the duties of a director extend far beyond the stage, even far beyond the rehearsal calendar, as LCYT Producer Louise Brooks and Mary Hansen “just kept throwing all these things at me … all these questions, like when do you want auditions, where do you want auditions, who’s on your team … all these things that have to be decided.”
Though not totally prepared for those responsibilities, Hansen said she’s learned quickly, and she’s thankful for her production team, which includes mom, sister Jessica as assistant director, dad Pat and brother Shawn as lighting and sound technicians, in addition to choreographer Amy Toenjes, Sara Dollerschell as music director, as well as other volunteers in support roles.
“It’s been great to have them here,” Hansen said. “Sara and my mom have been directors, too, so they’re all helping with that, too, so it hasn’t been super overwhelming.”
Hansen says her role as director fits well with her “real job” as an elementary art teacher in the Annandale School District. She’s in her fifth year teaching art to kindergarten and first-graders, after having also taught in the Sauk Rapids-Rice and Howard Lake-Waverly-Winsted school districts.
Her degree in art has played a valuable role in the work she’s done designing theater sets in the past, and her experience as a teacher helps in relating to the young actors in the youth theater production — though she’s glad most are a bit older than the students she has in eight sections of art she teaches in Annandale.
“So being a teacher is a lot like, or very similar aspect to the relationships and interacting with the individual kids,” she said. “So, it’s like I’m working from 7:30 in the morning ‘til 9 o’clock at night some days, but I get different kids in there.
“But it’s been really fun,” Hansen added. “Seeing them … you get to have them two and half hours a day, four days a week, you get to have a relationship with them. It’s nice to get to know them and know things about them.”
Show auditions took place in late January, and rehearsals began in early February. Since then, Hansen, her production team, and the 40 members of cast and crew, who range in age from about third to 11th grade, have been rehearsing four evenings every week. Though at times hectic, Hansen said she’s enjoyed her first experience as a director and can’t wait to bring the show to live audiences this week.
“Its fun to see it go from an empty stage to this hour-long production,” Hansen said. “It’s just so much fun, and I definitely enjoy working with children. The little kids — kindergarten, first grade art — is my jam. That’s what I love to do. But I don’t think I can handle doing kindergarten-first grade theater. (Working with) the older kids is definitely nice; it gives me a break in my day from working with the really little kids to working with some kids who can do stuff on their own.”
Litchfield Public Schools are in sound financial position.
That was the message during the March 28 School Board meeting, as the board approved a revised budget that shows the district finishing the current fiscal year with a projected balance of $12,927,957.
“Overall, the school district is in really good shape … projecting to be in better shape at the end of this year than at the end of last year,” Business Manager Jesse Johnson told the board. “Hopefully, this will keep us going in the right direction.”
The revised budget shows an 11% fund balance, which is slightly better than the board’s policy of carrying at least a 10% fund balance. The district has seen fund balances of 6% and 7% in recent years.
The biggest area of change is in the General Operations revenue fund, which saw a $1.159 million increase — to $19 million — in the revised budget. That helped the fiscal 2022 revenue budget increase to $25,552,684, up $1,711,955 from the original 2022 budget.
Much of the increase to the General Operations fund is a result of an increased student population, Johnson said. The district’s average daily membership is currently 1,547, while the district started the year with an average daily membership of 1,497.
The most significant increases in student enrollment over the beginning-the-year projections come in kindergarten, where the district budgeted for 115 students, but currently has 138. Other elementary school grade levels have seen increases, as well, Johnson said, as enrollment bounced back after one year of increased at-home and online school due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Any increase in the student population is a good thing for the bottom line, as districts receive $6,728 per pupil in general education funding from the state.
The revised budget also shows an increase of $371,091 in the food service fund, a result of about 13,000 additional meals being served during the year, Johnson said. Also playing a role is the federal funding the district receives for food service, which increased during the pandemic. The current federal reimbursement per meal is $4.56, while a paid student usually pays $2.65 per meal and the free-and-reduced meal program reimburses the district $3.16 per meal.
The number of lunches served at the high school have increased this year, Johnson said, but he couldn’t pinpoint a specific reason.
“There are a lot of positive things going on at the high school (in terms of school lunch),” Johnson noted. “We started seeing the trend (of increased meals) before some of the free meals came into play.”
Among the changes at the high school are a new menu, new grab-and-go lunch options, in addition to the renovated lunchroom, which is part of the construction projects throughout all three of the district’s school buildings.
Things are going so well financially in terms of food service, that the district plans some kitchen improvements. The revised budget shows a projected balance of $532,176 in the food service fund, which is more than the approximately $300,000 balance allowed by state guidelines, Johnson said, so kitchen upgrades are being investigated.
The district’s General Fund Unassigned balance is projected to be $2,047,208 by the end of the fiscal year June 30, which is a $428,427 increase from the 2021 budget.
“That’s a good number; we’re going in the right direction,” Johnson said.
The elimination of pandemic restrictions also is expected to help the district’s General Fund Assigned balance, which shows a $25,312 increase over 2021. Much of that is from projected revenue from the high school construction house, for which Johnson said he is hoping for a $45,000 profit.
After hiring a new superintendent in February, the Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City School Board focused its March meeting on preparing for the 2022-2023 school year. Future superintendent John Regan, who is currently business manager for the Staples-Motley School District, was present to observe the board’s plans for the coming year under the leadership of Interim Superintendent Paul Carlson.
It appears that ACGC will once again have a four-day school week with longer-than-average days when school is in session. The board unanimously approved applying to the state department of education for the district’s “flexible learning year” to be continued for the next three years.
Although initially piloted to save transportation time and costs, in the rural ACGC district, which encompasses 350 square miles, the four-student-days-per-week schedule has been successful academically, with improved test scores, graduation rates, open enrollment and attendance among students during the decade that this schedule has been in effect — with the exception being the past year, when attendance dipped 4 to 5 percentage points, likely due to the COVID pandemic.
Surveys have revealed that the four-day-week schedule is favored by 94 percent of district families and staff. Classes are slated to begin the day after Labor Day, Sept. 6, with the final student day and graduation set for May 26, 2023. The board is also planning to have teachers pivot to replace several “snow days” with “e-learning days” next year.
The proposed 2022-2023 school schedule includes changes in bus arrival and departure times at both buildings. The middle school/high school adds a short “home room” period where students check in for the day and experience a new character building curriculum. Overall, ACGC students still have more hours of instruction than is required by state law.
Character curriculum
School counselor Quincy McNeil told the board that the new “Character Strong” curriculum would be used during one homeroom session per week; it won’t replace current academic classes. To make preparation easier, this curriculum includes prepared slides and videos. It. The homeroom is designed to benefit relationships among teachers and students, he said. High School/Middle School Principal Robin Wall told the board that there have been student behavior issues in her building this year, possibly related to periods of separation from in-person school during the pandemic.
Course guide approved
At the March 28 meeting, the board also approved the 2022-23 course guide booklet for high school students, which includes a number of college-level courses, and several new vocational offerings, including Engineering Essentials. Last month, McNeil and shop teacher Ben Sovucool told the board how a new engineering curriculum “Project Lead the Way” could benefit students at ACGC. The board approved accepting a $16,000 grant to offset the cost of this new course.
SWWC changes
Randy Erdman of the Southwest/West Central Service Cooperative met with the board to discuss modifications in its annual contract to provide some special education, consultation and technology services to ACGC. A revised contract for 2022-23 was approved.
Personnel changes
- The resignations of special education teacher Grace Jorgenson, choir teacher Joshua Sorenson and math teacher Tanner Lilienthal were accepted, effective the end of this school year. Lilienthal also resigned as knowledge bowl coach.
- Kendra Miller and Laura Nagel were hired as paraprofessionals and Ryan Peterson and Lauren Block were hired as para substitutes. They replace paraprofessionals who resigned earlier this winter. District Administrative Assistant Alysia Listerud and Account Clerk/MARSS coordinator Jessica Graham had their contracts modified and reinstated.
- The board also approved a list of spring sports coaches and accepted the resignations of dance team coaches Kristi Lilleberg and Nicole Ammerman.
- The board also approved the retirement of longtime elementary secretary Nancy Thorp.
Nursing rooms improvements
Nursing mothers’ rooms. School nurse Angela Walsh told the board about recent improvements to nursing mothers’ areas in both buildings. The improvements were facilitated by grants from the Kandiyohi and Meeker County public health offices via the state SHIP program.
Walsh said the rooms are located near the schools’ gyms, to be accessible to both staff and community members attending events at the school.
Board approves audit contract
Audit contract approved. Because of changes in the business manager and superintendent’s offices, the board decided to extend its contract with its current auditor, Bergan KDV, to maintain continuity. The firm will charge $19,450 to audit the district’s basic financial statements, plus $2,800 each for each major federal program, if applicable.
Lietzau leaving Cosmos building
Lietzau Taxidermy vacating quarters in Cosmos. Board member Scott Stafford told the board that Lietzau Taxidermy has constructed a new building in Cosmos and will no longer be leasing quarters at the Cosmos Learning Center from the district. It may take several months for the move to be completed.
Kaisner appointed to board vacancy
Former School Board Member Randy Kaisner accepted his appointment to fill the board vacancy left by the resignation of Michael Hendrickson last month. He will serve until after November’s general election.
