News from the week of October 28, 1999
Landmark barn has new home on Breezy Point
Lee Leysen has big plans for a big, big barn.
With Van Dyke Heavy Haulers of Chandler providing the expertise, Leysen had a landmark 3,600 square-foot barn moved four miles to a new foundation at Breezy Point Tavern. The eight-acre Breezy site is about a mile from Lake Shetek.
Leysen, who has operated Breezy Point for 11 years, plans to remodel the 70-year-old barn into a restaurant and dance hall.
"This barn is unique and deserves to be restored," Leysen says of the 36x100 foot structure.
Leysen hopes that the barn's unique look and close proximity to Lake Shetek will draw patrons from miles around. And so far, he says, he's been encouraged by the interest the barn has generated.
"One lady told me that people will drive for a hundred miles to see that barn." He feels that the barn fits in with other attractions on the west side of Shetek, including the state park, End-O-Line Railroad Park, and the Shetek to Currie bike trail.
The barn was moved Thursday from a vacant farmstead on the west side of Section 24, Shetek Township. The barn was built by John and Isaac Holum about 70 years ago.
In renovating the barn, Leysen intends to retain as much of the barn's rustic character as possible. One compromise he will have to make, he said, is replacing the barn's original wooden shakes with asphalt shingles. The cost of wooden shingles, he said, would be astronomical.
All of the barn's original windows will be replaced, he said, along with new heating, plumbing and kitchen improvements
He has not finalized his plans. But Leysen hopes that the facility will open sometime next year. A factor in his favor, he said, is that the barn is in excellent condition.
"This barn was built to last."
Leysen said he hasn't decided how the barn project will affect the Breezy Point Tavern, which is a local landmark in itself. The bar opened in 1938 as the Midway Road House, with the name changed to Breezy Point shortly thereafter. Leysen is considering the name "Breezy Barn" for the new restaurant/dance hall, but hasn't made a decision.
Leysen, who says he has always been fascinated by old barns, says he's had his eye on the Holum barn for about five years.
Roaring fire sparks close call
'I thought the museum was going to go'
• Four firemen okay after treatment for smoke inhalation
Charred corn stubble, roasted cobs and dusty black soot only hint at the inferno that endangered the Wheels Across the Prairie Museum and the lives of Tracy firemen last week.
"I thought the museum was going to go," remembered Tracy Fire Chief Keith Engesser of the precarious position firemen found themselves in late Thursday afternoon.
A roaring wall of flames 100 yards wide was advancing southeasterly across a corn stubble field from the city dump. Fanned by northwesterly wind gusts up to 40 miles-an-hour, the fire had reached the ditch on the north side of Hwy. 14. Smoldering debris and sparks flew through the air. Thick smoke reduced visibility to near zero, closing the highway. Out of water, Tracy Fire Department tanker truck 1115 retreated along Hwy. 14 toward town.
It was about at this moment that another group of Tracy firemen were in a race for their lives.
Pumper truck 1119, with four men on board, was coming out of the city dump on a gravel road, intending to join the men fighting the blaze on Hwy. 14. The firemen stopped momentarily to battle flames creeping up along the road's west side.
With a startling suddenness, the fire's intensity exploded, with flames and smoke threatening to engulf the men.
Firemen Dave Buysse, John Judkins and Marv VanAcker dropped their hoses and scrambled for their lives.
"It's hard to explain," said Judkins later. “It was like boom, all of a sudden the smoke and heat were much greater than they'd been before. It was almost like we were in a firestorm where the fire builds its own wind."
Firemen routinely put up with smoke and heat. But Judkins admitted this was different.
"I don't want this to sound overly dramatic, but to be honest, I was scared. You feel like you are suffocating. Every breath is hot air, If Jake (Don Jacob) hadn't got us out of there, I don't know what would have happened."
With heat so intense that one of the firemen would later discover a melted tobacco pouch inside a pocket, the three firefighters leaped onto the truck. With the landscape nearly erased by smoke, driver Don Jacob guided truck 1119 down the dump road, hoses dragging behind the truck.
"That's not exactly kosher," Jacob said. "But I figured that the lives of the men were more important than our hoses." The smoke was so thick, Jacob couldn't see anything except for a few clumps of grass along the side of the road as he drove.
"I just about took out the left gate post."
When the fire truck hit the highway, the driver was still blinded by the smoke. So with not much more than a wing and a prayer to guide him, Jacob turned a sharp left after all four wheels hit concrete.
"I just hoped that no one was coming because I couldn't see a thing. There wasn't much else I could do."
The fire truck soon pulled up alongside the Tracy ambulance which was pulled alongside the road. Judkins, VanAcker and Buysse, along with Dennis Schroeder from pumper 1115, were all taken by ambulance to Tracy Hospital where they were treated for smoke inhalation. Other firemen also suffered from smoke inhalation, but were not taken to the hospital.
Truck 1115, driven by Duane DeSmet, also had difficulty getting away from the heat and smoke. DeSmet backed the truck up along Hwy. 14 with doors open, using white lines along the road as guides. With DeSmet were Schroeder, Steve Blanchette, Donnie Hansen and Tony Rolling.
"The smoke did get a little thick," DeSmet said, in what might have been the understatement of the day.
Engesser described the blaze as the most intense grass fire he's ever seen.
"It was just roaring. I couldn't believe it. It was moving faster than a man could run." Schroeder said that in retrospect, firemen probably waited too long before retreating.
"We were standing on the truck, shooting water from two hoses trying to knock down the fire. You are there to fight the fire, and I guess it is human nature to stay in there and get the job done. But we probably should have got out of their quicker."
What might have happened to the museum, had firemen not stood their ground until their water gave out? Engesser says that firemen may have knocked the fire down just enough to prevent the fire from spreading across the highway to the museum.
"If it had jumped across the road, that barn (the museum's main building) would have been gone," he said.
Firemen gained the upper hand in the corn field only after they returned with air masks and tanks.
Holy haberdashery!
'Music Man' plans community hat-making day
There was a time in Tracy when any woman needing a hat could drop by Dardis' Women's Clothing Store and have one made to order.
Any color. Any size. Any shape. Adorned with feathers, flowers or fruit. Or plain and simple.
Those days are long gone, so what's a women to do these days if she needs a hat? Make it, say directors of the upcoming community production of The Music Man.
Several dozen 1912 era hats are needed for the musical, so a hat making day is set for Saturday, Oct. 23 beginning at 9:30 a.m. in the music room at Tracy Elementary and running until 1:00 p.m.. Participants are asked to bring scissors and glue guns.
Anyone interested in making hats is welcome to join the fun. Also needed are donations of feathers, flowers, fruit, netting, suitable fabrics and lace.
Saturday is also when cast members are asked to come to the school between 9:30 a.m. and 1:00 p.m. to be outfitted.
“Come early if you want a pretty dress,” Director Ade Miller quips.
Also needed for the show are two high backed rocking chairs like those used on front porches. (Contact Marge Robinson or Chris Schons.)
FFA group heads for Louisville
Tracy FFA students left Wednesday for Louisville, Kentucky, to attend the National FFA Convention. The group includes three recent Tracy Area High School grads who will be receiving top national awards.
Matt Knott is a national proficiency award finalist. Mike Scott and Kelly Schmidt will be receiving the American FFA Degree, the highest honor in FFA.
Knott, a 1999 grad, is one of four national finalists for a Proficiency Award in Outdoor Recreation-Entrepreneurship. Knott's project is based upon his job as a guide and outfitting specialist for big game hunting and camping trips in Idaho. Knott became eligible for the national award after winning state competition earlier this year.
Knott has worked for White Cloud Outfitters, near Challis, Idaho for the past three summers. This summer, he has stayed in the mountains through the fall hunting season. His duties include packing gear and cooking for guests. He plans to attend college next year.
Tracy has had only two other National Proficiency Award finalists in the 70-year history of the FFA chapter. In 1990, Jim Christian was a finalist in swine entrepreneurship. Phil Skoglund was a proficiency finalist in landscape management in 1997.
Scott won the state proficiency award in food science in 1998 and was a member of the fourth place state FFA degree team.
Schmidt won the state proficiency award in beef production in 1999. He also served as Region 6 FFA president during the 1997-98 school year, and was a state FFA officer in 1998-99. The pair join 11 other Tracy FFA members who have earned the American Farmer Degree. They are:
Tom Hook (1983), Eric Fultz (1984) Brian Hicks (1988) Jim Christian (1991), Tim Vandendriessche (1991), Chad Buysse, (1992), Jon Boerboom (1993), Mike Edwards (1993), Ben Ludeman (1993), Cory Buysse (1997), Phil Skoglund (1997).
Fifteen Tracy High School students are attending the convention: Mike Weedman, Wayne Seehusen, Pat Robbins, Ryan Schulte, Sam Jens, Sarah Pamp, Alison Tanghe, Shannon Furhmann, Katie Hayes, Ashley Erbes, Nikki Reese, Nicole Wilking, Leah Schmidt, Kayla Hosier, Teresa Zeug. The group left by charter bus early Wednesday afternoon, and will return Saturday. FFA members are paying most trip expenses themselves. FFA advisor Paul Skoglund and student teacher Mr. Schentzel are accompanying the group.
At the convention, students have a chance to hear several noted speakers and participate in leadership development workshops. A career show features over 300 exhibitors.
This year marks the first time the FFA convention has not been held in Kansas City, Mo.
Hospital, clinic take cost-cutting measures
Major cost-cutting measures are being implemented by Tracy Area Medical Services.
The budgetary rollbacks, designed to save about $100,000 over the next seven months, come in the wake of a hospital and clinic operating losses for the 1998-99 fiscal year.
Interim Hospital Administrator John Olson reviewed the budgetary cutbacks with TAMS advisory board members last week.
"It's been a difficult year financially," Olson told board members. "It's not a pleasant thing (budget cuts), but unless we are pro-active and address the problem now, it is only going to get worse."
The administrator said he consulted with department supervisors in determining where saving could best be realized. Care was taken to avoid anything affecting the quality of patient care, he said. Efforts were also made, he added, to minimize the impact on people's jobs.
Spending reductions identified by Olson include:
• Not replacing a full-time physical therapy position created by the recent resignation of David Doyea. Instead, physical therapy assistants will help Physical Therapist Kari Johnson as needed. Johnson now heads the physical therapy department.
• Close clinic in Balaton as of Nov. 1.
• TAMS will no longer pay for the electricity used by the MRI truck visiting the hospital.
• Reducing hours for a part-time Wellness Director position.
• Elimination of on-call pay for surgery.
• Reduction of hours in lab and radiology departments.
• Reduce marketing position by one-tenth.
• Reduce hours in nursing administration.
• Reduce home health service hours.
• Reduce maintenance hours.
• Reduce respiratory therapy hours.
• • •
Olson said that Sioux Valley is also studying the possibility of moving some billing functions out of the hospital and/or the clinic to "a centralized business office."
Precisely how the reorganization will affect Tracy, Olson said he didn't yet know. But the changes could affect Tracy jobs.
"My guess is that there will be lay-offs, but I can't say for certain.”
Olson told members that it is important to make the budget cuts before a new administrator is hired.
"It's not fair to welcome a new CEO, and then have to say, by the way, we're going to lose a quarter million dollars this year, what are you going to do about it?"
Bleachers don't meet state standards
Tracy Public School bleachers don't meet state standards, school board members learned Monday.
A report from the Health and Safety Committee regarding a recent bleacher inspection revealed that none of the bleachers at the school — football, baseball or gymnasium — meet the state's current standards. According to the report, everything from loose bolts to height requirements was cited. Football bleachers, said Dr. Clark missed spacing requirements by 3/4 of an inch. End rails on the football bleachers will need to be raised to 42" rather than the current 36".
Bleachers in the west side of the high school gymnasium meet spacing requirements but need to have a few structural problems, such as loose bolts, corrected. Bleachers on the east side of the gym received the worst marks with both structural and spacing problems cited.
The school and other public buildings in the state have until January of 2001 to bring the bleachers into compliance. The state will reimburse schools $80 per 18 inches of seating for improvements or replacements. It is uncertain at this point, said Dr. Clark, how much the repairs and/or replacements will cost the district. Several possibilities are being investigated. The superintendent is hoping the state legislature will amend the mandate to allow schools to seat families with small children in lower sections only.