browerville blade - 10/03/2013 - page 01
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7/27/2019 Browerville Blade - 10/03/2013 - page 01
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By Rin Porter
In Hartford Township east of
rowerville, on a hillside with a
tunning view, two-and-a-halfcres of grape plants soak up
sun and rain. After four years of
careful hand-tending, Turtle
Creek Vineyards grapes have
produced about 1000 pounds ofwine grapes, all to be sold to
Carlos Creek Winery in Douglas
County near Carlos, Minnesota.
The vineyard was planted by
John and Cathy Walburn and
Cathys sister Maryann Woeste
on the farm that Cathy and
Maryann bought from their
mother Christine Woestes
estate. The farm has been in
the family for at least 107 years
(Hartford Twp Homestead
records dated 1904, USGenweb).
Maryann said the farmhouse is
117 years old.
The Walburns and Woesteshave been making wine for per-
sonal use for many years. Both
sets of their parents made wine
at home. The Walburns and
Woestes donate wine baskets to
local fundraising events as
prizes and for silent auctions.
They use red and black rasp-
berries and chokecherries for a
mixed-berry wine they have
made during the last few years.
The Walburns have given
three classes in winemaking
through the local community
education service in Melrose.
Now theres a lot of people mak-
Tue. Oct. 1
Sunny/Wind
71/43
Wed. Oct. 2
Showers
72/51
Thur. Oct. 3
Rain
58/52
Fri. Oct. 4
Rain
52/40
Sat. Oct. 5
Showers
46/34
Sun. Oct. 6
Partly Cloudy
60/44
WEEKLY WEATHER REPORT
A community newspaper serving Browerville, MN and surrounding areas. USPS 067-560
Thursday, October 3, 2013
Volume 98; Number 15
www.bladepublishing.net
75Turtle Creek Vineyard produces its first saleable crop
By Rin Porter
One of the major topics of dis-
cussion at the Sept. 24 Todd
County Board work session was
the status of the effort to provide
Friendly Rider and RainbowRider bus service to residents
along the U.S. Hwy 71 corridor
that runs through the county
from north to south.
A three-year pilot program to
provide service to Eagle Bend
and Bertha was not able to meet
ridership goals. It ended in
2013, and cost the county $7,000
per year to provide just a few
people with rides.
The program, funded primari-
ly by the Minnesota Department
of Transportation (MNDOT),
will not be renewed by the state
because of low ridership and the
results of a citizen survey thatindicated only a few people
would use the service if it con-
tinued.
Several officials from the
administration of the two tran-
sit services along with
Katherine Mackadanz from
Todd County Health and Human
Services (HHS) attended the
work session to talk with county
commissioners about what to do
next.
Wadena County Social
Services Director Paul Sailer,
who oversees the Rainbow Rider
program in that county; Harold
Jennissen, Rainbow Rider
Executive Director; Kevin Hess,
City Administrator of Eagle
Bend; and two others took part
in the discussion about next
steps, options for route plan-
ning, barriers that reduce rider-
ship, appropriate destinations
for scheduled trips, costs, riders
needs, and other matters.
Verna Toenyan from the
Council on Aging also attended
the meeting and spoke about the
continuing need for transporta-
tion, especially for senior citi-
zens and disabled citizens.
The two most common rea-
sons for using the Friendly
Rider and Rainbow Rider tran-
sit services were the needs to go
grocery shopping and to keep
medical appointments.
After discussion, the board
asked Mackedanz to explore fur-
ther the possibility of arranging
once-monthly scheduled trips to
important destinations like
Alexandria, Wadena, Sauk
Centre, and Staples. An exper-
imental program of scheduled
trips could be heavily publicizedto county residents and subsi-
dized by the county to see if the
trips would draw riders.
Another important topic of
discussion during the three-
hour combination Health and
Human Services Board meeting
and County Board work session
was a presentation by Michael
Steinbeisser on MNCHOICES, a
new internet-based human serv-
ices assessment process that
will be used by all counties
beginning in November. The
counties are divided into nine
groups which will stagger their
roll-outs of the new assessmentprocess. Todd Countys roll-out
date is May 19, 2014.
The new assessment process
takes five hours, and is accom-
plished either in a persons home
or at the county offices, with the
assistance of a Certified
Assessor. This significant allo-
cation of time for completing the
assessment process is designed
to result in a complete under-
standing of which services, if
any, a person is eligible for, and
what the persons goals,
strengths, and preferences are
for receiving the services.
The Certified Assessors will
have completed between 16 and
28 hours of training, and will be
licensed public health nurses,
degreed social workers, or regis-
tered nurses with at least two
years of community home-based
service experience, when each
county program begins.
Currently, Todd County HHS
completes 120 to 125 new
assessments per year,
Steinbeisser told commission-
ers. Two staff currently work
together to complete the assess-
ment. It is possible, he said,
that when MNCHOICES is
launched, just one staff person
will work with each potential
client to complete the assess-
ment, due to the time require-
ment of MNCHOICES.
Todd Board Chair vows to
keep trying to make
Friendly Rider and Rainbow
Rider bus services available
to more residents
BHS Homecoming Coronation 2013
Trent Johnson and Abigail Irsfeld were crowned the 2013 Homecoming King and Queen dur-
ng a ceremony held September 30, 2013 in the high school gymnasium.
Additional coronation photos in next weeks issue.Continued on page 9.
Continued on page 9.
In Hartford Township east of Browerville, on a hillside
with a stunning view, two-and-a-half acres of grape plants
oak up sun and rain.
The vineyard was planted by John and Cathy Walburn and
Cathys sister Maryann Woeste on the farm that Cathy and
Maryann bought from their mother Christine Woestes estate.