Grand Junction Fire Station-Community Center, Main Street Rehab Project Moves Forward

CITY HIRES FIRM TO DRAW UP PRELIMINARY PLANS

Grand Junction City Council approved hiring Snyder & Associates, Atlantic, to draw up preliminary design plans for the new fire station and community center. Council voted unanimously Feb. 13 to spend $6,400 to have Tim Teig of Snyder & Associates prepare a site plan, floor plan and street-view drawing of the proposed facility to be built on Main Street opposite Peoples Trust and Savings Bank.

Teig met with the council to outline his proposal to prepare the materials, which will incorporate preliminary discussions among city and fire department officials, Teig and representatives from building firms held in December and January. Snyder will prepare materials that incorporate “the size of the building, floor plan design, and how the facility will reflect the design of the bank and [related] quality of construction,” said Teig.

After reviewing the materials, the next step will be for the city to hire a firm to prepare an actual cost estimate, says City Clerk Rita Jenkins.

Funding for the new fire station-community center facility is being grouped under a new “Downtown GJ Revitalization” line item on the city budget. LDC Grand Junction made the initial gift to the fund of $5,000.

Since then, the city has received a grant of $10,000 from Union Pacific Railroad and a $750 grant from Black Hills Energy. A grant request for $25,000 from Prairie Meadows was not funded.

Grant applications are being submitted this month to the Greene County Community Foundation to support the community center portion of the facility and Keep Iowa Beautiful to assist with tearing down the old buildings.

In other business at the Feb. 13 meeting, Curly Holz asked the city for permission to cut down three trees at his expense that front the parking of his property at the southeast corner of Bennett and South 12^th Streets. The parking areas are owned by the city.

“The trees are soft maples and pretty much hollow,” he said. “One has roots that get into my drain. They also make it difficult to get satellite television. The one directly to the west is the worst. The other two are on the south parking and at the southwest corner. With hollow trees and westerly winds that blow around here, I am worried they will blow over onto my house.”

Council agreed to allow Holz to remove the trees at his own expense.

In other business, the council:
*Discussed progress on the Lincoln Highway Welcome Center being developed in the front portion of the Watts Building and the spot for the Hair Junction in the rear of the building.
*Discussed progress toward completion by the Iowa DOT of the Lincoln Highway Interpretive Center at the intersection of Old 30 and U.S. Highway 30.
*Reviewed changes to the city’s dog ordinance.
*Met with City Treasurer Jackie Ostrander to discuss the 2012-13 budget and to set a date for the budget hearing.

Habitat for Humanity to Rehab GJ Home

VOLUNTEER EFFORT EXPANDS BEYOND JEFFERSON

Habitat for Humanity of Boone and Greene Counties will rehabilitate a home in Grand Junction as part of its extended outreach in Greene County.

Erich Kretzinger, executive director, Habitat for Humanity of Boone and Greene Counties, met with the Grand Junction City Council on February 12 to discuss repairing a home in Grand Junction.

“For the past 15 years we’ve building and repairing homes in Jefferson, but now we are looking to extend out to the other communities of Greene County,” said Kretzinger, who is based in Boone. “We always work with owner-occupied homes, and there is some sweat equity involved on the part of the homeowner. The homeowner pays the cost of the materials.”

Kretzinger said “we have a family ready to go in Grand Junction. Their insurance was cancelled last fall.” Repairing the home will make it insurable, which was not the case for the home destroyed by fire in the north part of Jefferson last fall that killed 18-year-old Cody Garreans-Walsh.

Kretzinger said Habitat of Humanity considers both younger families and the elderly in working to rehabilitate homes. “Family and friends can fill in to handle the ‘sweat equity’ share for the elderly home owners. And the families do not have to be debt-free,” he pointed out.

The outreach to towns around the county builds on a program formerly known as Brush with Kindness, but has since been changed to Helping Hands, said Kretzinger.

Habitat for Humanity relies on volunteer labor and support. Kretzinger said a call for volunteers will go out soon channeled through the local contacts for Habitat for Humanity.

Hawks Bow Out in District Final

FALL TO GUTHRIE CENTER, 65-36
 
This time, there was no magical late-game rally. East Greene dug itself into a hole in the third quarter and no comeback materialized, sending Guthrie Center on to the substate game with a commanding 65-36 victory in the district final Thursday night, Feb. 23, at Boone.
 
The Hawks hung with the veteran Tigers—a 2011 state tourney team—in the first half, trailing 12-9 in the first quarter and tying things up at 19 later in the half. Guthrie then outscored the Hawks 11-3 and took a 30-22 to lead into the locker room.
 
The Tigers, top seed in the district, then poured it on in the second half, building a 47-27 lead after three periods and coasting the rest of the way. The Hawks had no answer for Darren McGivney, who hit 5 three-pointers on his way to a 24-point performance.
 
EG shot a chilly 12-of-46 for 26% and its usually reliable long-range game was absent, as the Hawks connected on just 3-of-24 three-point shots. Reed Ostrander scored 14 points and pulled down 14 rebounds to lead the Hawks. He also had 4 blocks. No other Hawks hit double figures.
 
The Tigers nailed 27 of 62 attempts for 44% shooting. They also had the upper hand on the boards with a 44-31 advantage.
 
East Greene closed out the season at 12-11 while Guthrie Center advanced with 14-9 record. The Tigers were thumped by St. Mary’s of Storm Lake, 75-47, at Fort Dodge on Saturday, Feb. 25. The substate game was a rematch of last year’s clash in the semifinal round in state tournament in Des Moines, where St. Mary’s won 62-49 to advance to the state championship game, which the Panthers won over undefeated Danville 74-59.
 
Danville and St. Mary’s are back in the tourney again this year and hold down the top two seeds. St. Mary’s (25-0) takes on Lisbon (20-6) and Danville (25-0) squares off against St. Albert’s of Council Bluffs (14-10) on Monday, March 5. The two teams were ranked 1-2 throughout the 2011-12 season.
 
EYE ON GJ SAYS: The district final game was the final appearance on the court for five EG seniors—Broc Timm, Kelsey Coffin, Corey Gohn, Alex Dobney and Jacob Scanlon. Timm has played a key role of the bench alls season and started several games. All five of the seniors saw action in the Guthrie Center game.
 
The Hawks return the entire starting lineup from this year’s squad along with key reserve T.J. Lint. The other starters at Boone were juniors Tory Beger, Alex Gordon, Wyatt Beaman and sophomore Cody Hidelbaugh.
 
This week, Ostrander, a junior center, was named to the Rolling Hills Conference first team, one of two unanimous picks. Beger and Beaman were named all-conference honorable mention.
 
Conference foes Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton and CAM played in the district final at Clarinda, with EEHK getting the win, 51-42. The  Spartans moved to substate play with the chance to make a repeat trip the state tournament, but they were downed 49-41 by Nodaway Valley (Greenfield). EEHK finishes the season as conference and district champions for the second year in a row. The Spartans have compiled a 44-6 record the past two seasons.
 
2011-12 ROLLING HILLS CONFERENCE BOYS BASKETBALL
Final Conference and Regular Season Records
Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton  17-1                 22-2
CAM (Anita)                        15-3                 19-5
Ankeny Christian                  14-4                 16-7
Adair-Casey                          11-7                 13-9
East Greene                             9-9                 12-11
Orient-Macksburg                   7-11                 8-13
Iowa Christian                        7-11                 7-13
Glidden-Ralston                     6-12                 7-15
Walnut                                    4-14                 8-15
Paton-Churdan                        0-18                 0-20

Services Sunday for Lois (Jewett) Freerksen

GRAND JUNCTION NATIVE DIED MARCH 1

Memorial Services for Lois Freerksen, 91, of Jefferson formerly of Grand Junction will be at 3 p.m. Sunday, March 4, 2012, at Slininger-Rossow Funeral Home in Jefferson. Burial will be in the Junction Township Cemetery, Grand Junction.  Memorials are suggested to the Opportunity Village in Clear Lake and may be left at Slininger-Rossow Funeral Home in Jefferson.

The former Lois Jewett, she was born and raised in Grand Junction. She graduated from Grand Junction High School in 1938. She later returned to Grand Junction and built a new home in Neel's Addition. She was librarian at Grand Junction Public Library for many years and a member of First Presbyterian Church in Grand Junction.

Lois is survived by her son, David Foster, Sacramento, Calif.; daughter, Karen Luchsinger, Port Orange, Fla.; and sister, Dorothy Neel of Panora. She was preceded in death by her brother, Dale Jewett.

EG Board Votes To Share Jr Hi Sports

VOTES GOES 3-2; WILL START NEXT YEAR

East Greene school board voted 3-2 on Wednesday, Feb. 15, to share junior high sports next year with Jefferson-Scranton. The vote comes after a work session last month that was primarily dedicated to discussing the pros and cons of offering junior high sports one more year.

Board president Marc Hoffman, Tim Bardole and Ashley Johnston voted in favor with Rich Gordon and David Tipton opposed.

More than two dozen interested students, parents and patrons of the district turned out for the meeting, although some of them were senior class members making a presentation to the board for approval of a senior class trip at the end of the school year. Several others were present to discuss the proposed closing of the Rippey school, which was the topic of a public meeting in Rippey on Jan. 18.

Hoffman and Tipton took sides right off the bat. Hoffman referred to a list of 15 requests to open enroll out of the East Greene district because of the junior high sports situation. He noted these families want to send their children to a school that can offer sports for those grades without concerns that too few students will be available to field a team.

“When I look down at this list, it’s telling us what should be done,” he said. Looking at the list, he noted that if the students listed do leave the district, “we won’t have a girls high school basketball team next year” as apparently some of the middle school parents who expressed in enrolling out were also parents of high school students.

Hoffman said the loss of those 15 students would be “$6,000 each, that’s a loss of $90,000 to the district on top of $146,000 that the state will cut in aid to the district next year. We would be operating with $236,000 fewer dollars.”

Tipton and Gordon acknowledged the numbers for girls are very low but were in favor of keeping boys sports separate next year for junior high but having the girls share.

Bardole had expressed his sentiment that both boys and girls “stay together” for junior high sports in the work session last month. Tipton disagreed, noting that the junior high teams traditionally have participated independent of each other.

Johnston made a point about games being cancelled due to low numbers from opposing teams. This is valid, as in football, East Greene completed an 8-man junior high game where Adair-Casey finished the game with just 8 players and no reserves on the sidelines. She also asked about the girls’ participation levels in junior high volleyball, which school officials say has a higher turnout than basketball and softball.

Hoffman repeated his concerns about students not getting a full participatory experience, noting that in the past years East Greene has had to cancel junior varsity games in football due to low numbers because the JV players needed to be moved up to varsity.

He said the “junior high boys can go over there and learn 11-man football,” but Tipton countered at that age level they are learning the fundamentals, which are the same for both 8-man and 11-man football.

Two parents addressed the board. Mary Millard, parent of sixth grade girl, spoke in support of sharing, Tina King, parent of a seventh grade boy, spoke in favor of keeping boys here.

The board had earlier committed itself to keeping high school sports here at East Greene for two years even though all the students would be attending classes in Jefferson. That decision has since been amended to one more year. The district will need to create a class for all East Greene high school students at the beginning or end of the school day and the class must be taught by an East Greene teacher. Yet all of East Greene’s current junior and high school teachers will be teaching in Jefferson next year.

Bardole, who was out of town, but participated by teleconference, said “we’ve been talking about sports for three years.” He then made a motion for an “up and down vote” on sharing junior high sports with Jefferson-Scranton, which was seconded and approved 3-2.

In other business, the board:

*Approved a senior class trip to Minneapolis. Senior class members Karissa Wilkens and Harrison Johnston appeared before the board to discuss their plans to travel to Minneapolis in May. Amber Wilkens and Jeremy Richards, parents of Karissa Wilkens, and Jake Smith, EG transportation director, will be the chaperones for the trip with Smith handling driving duties. The class has raised enough money to pay for the costs of the trip ($3,100) plus funds for an after-prom party at Misty Lanes in Grand Junction that will cover costs for pizza, soft drinks, bowling and video games ($700).

*Approved offering boys golf for the spring. Athletic director Tony Beger told the board that five students are going out and three have previous golf experience. Team golf scores are comprised of the top four golfers scores. If a full team is not available, golfers can still participate and their individual scores are included the in meet medalist and runner-up competitions.

*Approved spring sports coaching contracts for Charles Brobst, golf; Dean Lyons, boys track; Steve Sillyman, girls track; Tony Beger, junior high boys track; and Ron Fick, junior high girls track.

Hawks Advance to District Finals

EG BEATS ANKENY CHRISTIAN 56-49

East Greene came from behind the in the fourth quarter to beat Ankeny Christian Academy 56-49 in a district semifinal game tonight at Rippey. The win puts the Hawks in the district championship game in Boone on Thursday night against Guthrie Center.

Ankeny Christian came out strong and took a 15-7 first quarter lead. Both teams played evenly in the second quarter with the Eagles holding to a 26-18 advantage at the half.

ACA was still in control in the second half, staking out a 36-29 lead at the end of three quarters of play. The Hawks mounted a rally and cut the lead to 36-34. EG then hit two back-to-back three-pointers to take its first lead of the game, 40-36. The Hawks maintained the intensity and were up 43-40 with 3:32 left in the game.

The Hawks kept their poise against the ACA full-court press and hit some key free throws down the stretch to get the win. EG outscored ACA 27-10 in the final quarter.

Wyatt Beaman had 20 points to led the Hawks and Reed Ostrander had 18. Damon Stubbs lead ACA with 18.

EG takes a 12-10 record into the district championship game. This was the third game this season between EG and ACA with the teams splitting the first two. The Eagles end the season with a 16-7 record.

Guthrie Center (14-9) advanced to the final with a 54-48 win over Coon Rapids-Bayard, which ends its season at 11-12.

Hawks Advance, Beat Madrid 60-55

HOST DISTRICT SEMIFINAL TONIGHT IN RIPPEY

A 60-55 win over Madrid on Thursday, Feb. 16, in quarterfinal district action at Rippey advanced East Greene into the semifinal round. EG takes on conference foe Ankeny Christian Academy in a 7 p.m. game tonight at Rippey. The Eagles (16-6) and the Hawks (11-10) split their games during the regular season with each winning on the other’s home court.

Against Madrid, EG jumped out to an early 7-4 lead but the Tigers tied it up 9-all midway through the first quarter. The Hawks moved in front by three on an Alex Gordon three-pointer, 14-11, and a Wyatt Beaman trey—just as the quarter ended—put EG ahead 20-15.

Madrid then cut the lead to 20-17, but Broc Timm came off the bench and hit a three-pointer to put the Hawks on top 23-17.

Late in the half, with the Hawks leading 28-23, Madrid’s C.J. Manthe was called for a foul while defending Tory Beger. The EG playmaker motioned to the referees that he had been hit in the mouth on what was a definitely a hard foul by the Madrid football and track standout. The official closest didn’t care for Beger’s feedback and called a technical foul on him.

Beger went to the line first for his foul shots and connected of the front-half of a 1-and-1. Manthe then got two foul shots but could connect on only one, cutting EG’s lead to 29-24. The half ended with the Hawks still in front, 33-29.

As the second half got underway, the Tigers tied the score at 33-all on a free throw and a three-pointer. The two teams played evenly the rest of the quarter. Madrid had switched to a man-to-man after the break which put the brakes on the Hawks’ outside attack while at the same time bottling up the middle, keeping EG center Reed Ostrander away from the basket.

The Hawks got the lead back on a lay-up at the buzzer to end the quarter with a 42-40 advantage.

Ostrander then started to find his touch on both ends of the court. He was fouled while driving to the basket and hit both free throws, putting the Hawks in front 48-43. The Hawks then got a stop and came down the court and scored again on a Wyatt Beaman jumper, stretching the lead to 50-43.

Loew had been having success driving against Ostrander, and he slipped through the lane again, pulling the Tigers to within five points, 50-45 with 5:22 left in the game.

Ostrander took aim from beyond the arc, however, and got the home town ignited as the Hawks stretched their lead to 53-45.

EG held the Tigers at bay the rest of the game. The final score is misleading as the Hawks were ahead 60-52 as the final seconds ticked away. Manthe threw up an off-balance three-pointer with 2.2 seconds that drew a foul from Gordon, sending Manthe to the line with three free shots. The Tigers had gone just 6-of-12 from the line all night, but Manthe connected on all three to make the final tally 60-55.

Ostrander scored 35 points to lead the Hawks with Beaman adding 14. The Hawks were 19 of 35 from the field for 54% and 7 of 17 for three-point shooting for 41%. EG went 15 of 22 for 68% at the free throw line with some key shots made down the stretch as Madrid was forced to foul to stop the clock.

Loew lead the Tigers with 22 points and 15 rebounds, helping Madrid to a 32-25 rebounding advantage, one of the few games this season—especially a win—where EG was outrebounded. Mark Nerhrin added 15 points and Manthe had 12.

Manthe’s final three free throws moved the team’s foul shooting to 9 of 15 (60%) but the Hawk defense gave the Tiger shooters fits all night. EG held Madrid to 38% on 22 of 58 field goals and just 14% (2 of 14) three-point shooting.

East Greene evened its season record at 10-10 with a 77-73 road win at Audubon on Friday, Feb. 10, in the final regular season game of the year.

EG and Audubon battled evenly at the start of the game with the Hawks ahead 14-12 at the end of the first quarter. “We came out slow against Audubon because we knew nothing about them,” said coach Mark Renslow. “Then we started playing some defense and hitting three’s and they couldn’t stop us.”

The Hawks had a 37-28 advantage at halftime and stretched the lead to 58-39 at the end of three quarters. Audubon mounted a furious rally and nearly pulled even with the Hawks. “We lost our composure with their press and let them get back in it,” said Renslow. “They just ran out of time, and we hit our free throws down the stretch.”

Offensively, the Hawks had their most balanced effort of the season with five players in double figures. Reed Ostrander led the charge with 19 points with Alex Gordon, back in the lineup after an absence of several games, scoring 18. Wyatt Beaman notched 16 and Tory Beger and Cody Hidlebaugh each added 10.

DISTRICT FINAL IN BOONE ON THURSDAY

The winner of the EG-Ankeny Christian game tonight will face the winner of the Guthrie Center side of the bracket in a district final on Thursday night in Boone. The Guthrie bracket game matches up two West Central Conference rivals—Guthrie Center and Coon Rapids-Bayard.

CRB (11-11) beat Woodward-Granger 55-47 at Woodward to advance while Guthrie Center (13-9), the top-seed in District 6, beat Audubon, 63-47. Audubon had moved into the quarterfinal round with a first-round win over Glidden-Ralston, 59-52.

Madrid had advanced after beating Paton-Churdan 66-37 in a match-up of lower-seeded teams on Monday, Feb. 13, with the winner to face East Greene, the No. 2 seed. Ankeny Christian, the No. 3 seed, took out Southeast Webster-Grand in Ankeny, 67-53, on Thursday in Ankeny.

CRB, WG, Madrid and Guthrie Center all are West Central Conference teams. Des Moines Christian (19-1 WC) beat Ogden (18-2 WC) for the league title outright with a 79-70 win over the Bulldogs in Ogden on Feb. 7. DMC and Ogden are both 2A teams. Each is playing for a district title to tonight, and they could face-off for the third time this year in a substate game at Johnston on Saturday. The winner will advance to the state championship.

DMC takes on Panorama, another West Central team, at Adel while Ogden meets St. Edmond (Fort Dodge) in Boone. Ogden handed DMC its only loss this season in Urbandale. Ogden’s only other loss was to Earlham.

Woodward-Granger had the best finish of the Class 1A teams in the West Central, tying Woodward Academy for third place, 13-7. Guthrie Center followed at 12-8 and CRB was right behind with a 10-10 mark.

Guthrie and CRB have solid tournament tradition. Guthrie advanced to state last year and finished as consolation champion. CRB was a state tourney qualifier in 2010. This makes for a power-packed group of semifinalists as Ankeny Christian was also a 2010 state qualifier. The Eagles finished third (14-4) in the Rolling Hills this season while EG was fifth (9-9).

All five of the upper division teams in the Rolling Hills are still in contention in the post-season and two are guaranteed to advance tonight as they take on another conference team. Along with ACA at EG, league foes Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton and Adair-Casey square off tonight in Elk Horn. CAM (Anita), the league runner-up, hosts Corning. Winner of tonight’s games in Anita and Elk Horn meet for the district championship on Thursday in Clarinda. The Clarinda district winner meets the I-35 (Truro) district winner in a substate game at Southwestern Community College in Creston on Saturday.

ACA beat EG 73-55 in the first game between the two teams in Rippey in early December. When they met again in Ankeny in January, the Eagles were without Zach Cousins, who had poured in 32 points on 13-of-14 shooting from the field and went 6-of-9 from the line, along with 7 rebounds and 7 steals, in the game at Rippey.

The Hawks had the upper hand in the rematch, winning 60-53. Sources says Cousins, a junior, has left the team and school, transferring to Ankeny High School. He was the top shooter on the team with 13.7 points per game average and 66% field goal accuracy. His last game for ACA was a Dec. 20 win over Walnut. ACA was 5-1 through that game. Since then, the Eagles have gone 11-5.

The winner of the District 6 winner will move on to face the District 5 winner in a substate game on Saturday at Fort Dodge. District 5 features No. 2-ranked and defending state champion St. Mary’s (Storm Lake) and No. 5-ranked Harris-Lake Park. St. Mary’s (22-0) hosts Bishop Garrigan (Algona) tonight while Harris-Lake Park (21-0) takes on Newell-Fonda in Lake Park. Tonight’s winners will meet Thursday in Emmetsburg.

Rolling Hills Conference Boys Basketball
FINAL CONFERENCE STANDINGS
(Season records through Thurs., Feb. 16)
Exira/Elk Horn-Kimballton  17-1                 20-1
CAM (Anita)                        15-3                 18-4
Ankeny Christian                  14-4                 16-6
Adair-Casey                          11-7                 13-8
East Greene                             9-9                 11-10
Orient-Macksburg                  7-11                 8-12
Iowa Christian                        7-11                 7-13
Glidden-Ralston                     6-12                 7-15
Walnut                                    4-14                 8-15
Paton-Churdan                        0-18                 0-20