News from the week of December 15, 1999Headlight Herald - Serving Tracy, Minnesota, since 1880
School board begins overdue evaluation
Tracy School Board members agreed Monday that it's time to reevaluate the Activities Director position.
It's not that board members are dissatisfied with incumbent Bill Tauer. But when the Activities Director position was created four years ago, it was on a trial basis. No reevaluation has ever been done.
The board is seeking the answers to two questions: 1) Should the Activity Director be considered an administrative post? 2) What is the cost difference between having two part-time positions and one full-time position?
Four years ago, the district combined two part-time positions — athletic director and community education director — into one full-time position.
“The job is only going to grow,” stated Supt. Rick Clark.
Dr. Clark said he felt the full-time position was working well. Combining the two part-time positions had greatly reduced scheduling conflicts, he said. A part-time community education director position, he added, would be difficult to fill.
Board member Eric Nelson asked for a cost comparison of the new position and the two part-time positions. Nelson also wondered whether the school would be better served if the position were an administrative position rather than its current inclusion in the school's education association.
Tauer felt it would be better if the position were administrative because of the nature of the job and related personnel issues, and offered to share information with the board that he had compiled from other school districts. He said that at the time the position was created, the Tracy Education Association wanted to protect his seniority in the eventuality that the position not be permanent.
The board asked Dr. Clark to prepare a cost analysis and to gather information on any licensing requirements involved in making the position administrative.
Anchors aweigh! WaveTamer raises JNB Originals' boat
• Growing Tracy business making splash with innovative fishing & boating products
The tide is rising for two Tracy entrepreneurs.
Nancy and Joe Beech, founders of JNB Originals, are sailing into a period of rapid expansion, thanks to the growing popularity of their products.
"Our lives have been in a whirlwind this past year," Nancy says.
Husband Joe smiles. "A shipment of five to ten yards of fabric used to be a big deal." Recently, the company received 3,000 yards of fabric.
Since early 1997, JNB Originals has grown from a fledgling home business into a respected fishing sporting goods manufacturer with markets in 20 states. Production has increased more than tenfold in the past year.
The firm's success is anchored in The Wave Tamer, a drift bag used to control boats in windy conditions. Overnight, JNB's Wave Tamer has become a must-have product for serious fishermen. Three other new JNB products—storage devices for fishing tackle—are also generating enthusiasm.
"We had no idea that all this was going to happen," Nancy says.
• • •
Three years ago, Nancy operated a small shop in Downtown Tracy called "Tailoring and Tans of Gold." Joe, an avid walleye tournament angler, asked Nancy to make him a better drift bag for his fishing boat. Joe was frustrated with his old drift bag, finding it difficult to deploy, fish around, and bring back into the boat. As if three strikes weren't bad enough, the old bag smelled like rotting algae and was falling apart.
Combining Nancy's sewing expertise and Joe's fishing background, the two designed a durable polyester, lead-weighted drift bag that was easy to set out and retrieve. Their new drift bag resisted tangling and spinning.
The Wave Tamer, as they named their device, performed beautifully in the water. Joe knew immediately the Wave Tamer was superior to anything else on the market.
Word spread among fellow fishermen. Friends called in orders. With Nancy painstakingly measuring and cutting material by hand and spreading out the fabric in her shop, a make-shift manufacturing operation began. Soon she was so busy, she relocated from her small downtown location to a remodeled barn behind their Highline Road home.
Marketing efforts began. Ducks Unlimited, Pheasants Forever, the Lake Shetek Area Improvement Association and other area banquets were an ideal forum for showcasing their product. Many Wave Tamers were donated as prizes. Influential people started plugging their product.
"Joe LeTendre has been great," Nancy says of the Slayton radio announcer who speaks at banquets across the region. "He really talked us up. Word of mouth is the best possible advertising you can have."
• • •
The Wave Tamer went Major League 18 months ago, after a friend suggested that they send a Wave Tamer to Al Linder, a highly-regarded fishing expert for In-Fishermen, a Brainerd firm that publishes In-Fishermen magazine and produces a nationally-syndicated television and radio fishing program.
The Wave Tamer was sent unsolicited to In-Fisherman. The Beeches had no reason to expect the Waver Tamer would ever get to Linder, and if it did, whether he would ever try it. But he did.
Linder recommended the WaveTamer to Walleye Expo organizer Paul Hartman, who invited the Beeches to the prestigious walleye expo in Shakopee in February of 1998.
"We were really excited that Al Linder liked our product," Nancy recalls. "If you are a serious fishermen, what Al Linder says goes."
The Wave Tamer got good reviews at the Shakopee expo. So good that the Beeches were invited to exhibit the Wave Tamer at an even bigger fishing show at the Minnesota Convention Center three weeks later in the Gander Mountain booths.
At the Minneapolis expo, Perry Good, a professional walleye tournament champion from Eagan, bought a Wave Tamer.
"As soon as people saw him walking away from our booth with a Wave Tamer, 14 other people came up and wanted one too," Nancy said. "Every hobby has their heroes, and people want to use what their heroes have."
One thing has led to another. The Wave Tamer received favorable ink in a number of fishing publications. Several respected professional walleye fishermen—Jim Randash of Rapid City, S.D. and Dave Hanson, Bemidji and Good—agreed to promote the Wave Tamer.
And they hooked up with Lee Fisher of Pequot Lakes, a fishing tackle sales representative with 24 years experience and contacts across the Upper Midwest.
"I don't want it to sound like we have done it all," comments Nancy. "We'd never be where we are today without help from a lot of wonderful people. The people who have helped us are honest and true. They are people who are what they say they are."
Joe agrees.
"We've ended up with the cream of the crop. We've had the right people helping us." These contacts, he feels, enabled them to avoid many mistakes and get direct access to the decision makers in companies they deal with.
• • •
Wave Tamer material is no longer cut by hand. An automated cutter (designed by Joe and custom-made by DeSmet Weldors and Kurt's Body Shop of Tracy) allows Joe to cut 700 yards of fabric in 45 minutes—enough material to make 350 drift bags. The cut pieces are then jobbed out to eight independent contractor sewers scattered around the area, who assemble Wave Tamers in their homes.
"We couldn't do it without them," Nancy says. "Their work is top quality."
Workmanship is so good, Joe points out, they have never had a Wave Tamer returned in three years of production.
The Beech's three other products—one designed for keeping leeches and the other two for neatly storing fishing tackle—have also been hits. Building on the Wave Tamer Group trademark, the other products are called Leech Tamer, Bouncer Tamer and Planer Tamer. They hope to continue introducing one new product annually.
• • •
The couple has ambitious plans for the company. A loan from the Southwest Minnesota Foundation is allowing the company to expand their inventory and move products into some larger sporting goods chains (Gander Mountain, Scheels, Burger Brothers, Fleet Stores). Their goal is to boost production to 1,500 Wave Tamers, 5,000 Leach Tamers and 5,000 Bottom Bouncer Tamers a season . The Leech Tamer and Planer Tamer retail for $9.95 each, while the Bouncer Tamer is $13.95. The Wave Tamers, which are marketed in two sizes, are either $84.95 or $119.95.
The expanded production means they will need about ten additional independent contractors. However, they have no plans to open an assembly plant and hire workers directly.
Their long-range aspirations are to market their product "coast-to-coast, border-to-border and into Canada." They are encouraged by their company's potential, in part because of the growing popularity of sport fishing and boating. Someday, they'd like to "work themselves out of a job."
For now, they enjoy the challenges of nurturing their growing company.
"We've put an awful lot of work into this company," Joe comments. "There's a lot of satisfaction in producing quality products that aren't going to fall apart ." Still, they acknowledge that choppy waters sometimes go with the territory. Joe explains it this way:
"It's a lot of work running your own business. It's not for the faint-hearted. If they can, people will eat you up and spit you out. But it's an adventure."
• • •
Thinking back on their humble beginnings, they say they are grateful to the Tracy Economic Development authority.
"If it hadn't been for the EDA, we wouldn't be here. They worked with us on our first loan," Nancy says.
"As soon as he heard about us, Dennis Fultz (EDA member) stuck his head in here and asked if there was anything we needed help with," Joe said. "It's little things like that that keep you going."
And what have the entrepreneurs learned in three years of business?
"I don't think people think nearly big enough. We didn't," Joe sums up.
Recovering from cycling mishap, John Johnson plans to ride Harley Davidson in Sturgis again
Four months after a motorcycle accident left him with a broken pelvic bone and fractured femur, John Johnson's Harley Davidson is repaired and ready to roll again.
But mending his body will take a little longer.
Last week the Tracy man returned to Sioux Valley Hospital where doctors manually bent his leg to break up scar tissue that had formed while his leg was healing -- the build up of scar tissue was limiting the movement in his knee.
While it's too soon to determine the extent of any permanent disability, he said doctors have told him he'll no doubt have a “drop foot” as the result of damage that was done to the nerves and tendons in his left leg. His lower leg has been fitted with a brace.
Johnson has been undergoing physical therapy in recent weeks and is walking on crutches.
While he still has a ways to go, he says he's looking forward to returning to work at Tracy Ace Home Center. He's also making plans to ride his Harley again -- his calendar is marked for next summer's annual bike rally in Sturgis, SD.
“I'm going again,” he said last week. “I'll probably trailer it out this time, though.”
Johnson says the camaraderie among bikers is hard to explain. Moments after his accident, doctors, nurses, firemen — all fellow bikers — were on the scene. A man from Texas that he met at last summer's rally has kept in touch since the accident.
Bleacher law creates Pavilion hot seat
• City seeks exemption from state regulations
A consultant estimates that it will cost between $105,000 and $136,000 to upgrade Prairie Pavilion to meet state standards.
The new standards, passed by the 1999 state legislature, are due to go into effect Jan. 1, 2001. However, the cost estimates have city officials wondering whether the standards will force the city to close the Pavilion to most public events, if the state law isn't changed.
"We need to have this law repealed," Mayor Claire Hannasch told city council members Monday. If not, Hannasch indicated that any events that require bleacher seating couldn't be held at the Pavilion. He noted this was especially unfortunate, since in 1998 city had just spent over $90,000 on new flooring at the Pavilion.
City Administrator Audrey Koopman said she didn't see how the city could afford to upgrade the bleachers.
"They (the legislature) passed this bill without any knowledge of the financial repercussions." Koopman said the city is one of only a few municipalities that own large seating-capacity arena like the Pavilion. With all bleachers pulled out, the Pavilion has a seating capacity of about 2,300 people.
Silent Night
The first Christmas was portrayed by St. Mary's school children in their annual Christmas program, "Silent Night." The pageant was presented Friday afternoon for Tracy Elementary students and again Sunday afternoon for the general public.
James Zimansky earns Eagle Scout designation
James Zimansky became Tracy's 21st Eagle Scout Saturday.
An Eagle Scout Court of Honor for Zimansky was conducted Saturday at the Tracy Church of Christ. The 1998 Tracy High School graduate is the son of Dan and Patricia Zimansky of Tracy.
The Eagle Scout rank is the highest honor possible in Boy Scouts of America. For his community service project, Zimansky improved trails at Garvin Park. He and other scouts working under him devoted over 160 hours to the project.
Participating in the ceremony were: Pastor Homer Dobson of Church of Christ, Garvin Park Manager Rick Anderson, scouts of Boy Scout Troop 31, and Scout Master Tim Byrne. The Tracy Eagles Club, which sponsors Troop 31, was represented by Dave Spencer.
Zimansky is a student at Southwest State University.