Chris Hahn

Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, February 6, 2025.  Reprinted with permission and gratitude.

Gretchen Mensik Lovejoy

Fillmore County Highway Engineer Ron Gregg sat before the Fillmore County commissioners last Tuesday, Jan. 28 with a cooperative agreement with the city of Spring Valley for the construction of County State Aid Highway (CSAH) 8 – Tracy Road – from Highway 16 and 63 to Section Avenue, or CSAH 1.  

The construction agreement will outline “how it will happen and how the county will participate in the cost of the project.” Commissioner Mitch Lentz, who represents the district that includes the Wykoff area, asked Gregg, “Have you worked out the Safe Routes to School…if there’s funding?” Gregg replied that that effort would have had to begin as a collaboration with the school district prior to the CSAH project being planned by the city and county. However, he assured Lentz that sidewalks are included in the project’s design. Lentz, who is a farmer who often travels the portion of CSAH 8, Farmer Street, that the county and city repaired and upgraded just over a year ago, registered his mild frustration that Farmer Street was narrowed when it was reengineered and now does not have enough space to accommodate in one lane tractors with dual rear wheels when there are cars parked on both sides of the street. “Shouldn’t there be no parking the whole way? It was narrowed the whole way. When residents park on both sides, I, with my little tractor, have to drive in the center.”  

Gregg spoke again of the proposed Tracy Road/CSAH 8 project, relating that existing parking allows adequate space for cars and that that space will be narrowed by one foot as Tracy Road is narrowed. Lentz pointed out, “Tracy Road is extremely busy with buses. With all that traffic parked on the sides of the road, if the residents park on the sides of the road, it will be a lot narrower.” Commissioner Duane Bakke, who represents constituents in the Lanesboro area, asked, “Can you change parking to one side?” Lentz added, “I would like to see, when you narrow roads like that, no parking on both sides.” Gregg countered, “In order to accommodate tractors in town, the city (sets parking ordinances). The city is responsible for half the cost of sidewalks.” Commissioner Larry Hindt, who represents the district that includes the city of Spring Valley and who resides close to Tracy Road/CSAH 8, remarked, “On Tracy Road, when there are school activities, people park on both sides of the street. It really narrows the street.” Bakke commented that motorists – including farmers and truck drivers – should be able to drive in their own lanes, according to the designs being considered. Lentz stated, “It would be best if there was no parking when the road narrow.” Bakke persisted in his opinion that parking ought to be limited to one side of the street, and Hindt said, “The school should be aware that there would be parking on one side for events…they need to be aware of that.”  

Commissioner Marc Prestby, chairing the panel, asked Gregg what he thought the commissioners should do, given the new discussion about parking. Gregg answered that the construction agreement is “ready to go,” and Prestby pressed, “This agreement is set to go, but….” Lentz suggested that the commissioners should recommend the parking issue to the city of Spring Valley before determining what to do. Hindt made a motion to approve the agreement, and Lentz seconded, saying, “I second it, but I will vote against it because I don’t believe that narrowing roads (is beneficial in this instance).” Bakke said, “This agreement is for the cost, not the actual construction.” The motion passed, and Gregg called for the board to clarify what it had just accepted. County administrator Bobbie Hillery responded, “This is for the agreement, but we will bring it back (for parking discussions).”  

Fillmore County Sheriff John DeGeorge arrived to finalize details for the purchase of body cameras. The commissioners and the sheriff’s office have been communicating about the purchase and implementation of the cameras and a camera policy for at least the past several weeks. The total cost will be $95,500, and the county is required to pay $24,501.10 upfront and $17,749.72 a year for operation and support. Commissioner Randy Dahl made the first motion to approve the camera purchase. Lentz seconded, after which the board voted to approve the cameras, then the policy governing their use.  

Minnesota Driftless Hiking Trail representative Alex Shapiro updated the board on the long-distance hiking trail project’s progress, explaining that work to plot the trail was begun approximately six years ago and that it will be the first of its kind in southern Minnesota as a pedestrian route longer than 25 miles. The trail’s construction will require “substantial funding and support” from landowners, county officials, the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, and from the state legislature. The trail will likely bring foot traffic to towns for “safety and economic development,” and the proponents assured the board that the trail will be accessible to emergency utility vehicles for medical purposes. Construction is expected to be completed within the next decade.  

Director of nursing Jessica Erickson brought forward a request to purchase 21 first aid kits for the sheriff’s department and local police departments and pull-up seals for the kits. She related how the kits would be distributed – 15 would be placed in deputies’ squad vehicles, and three each would be given to the Rushford, Preston and Lanesboro departments. Erickson shared that the Chatfield Police Department declined the kits because it had already purchased them. She went on to state that the seals she requested are meant to “help keep track of whether a kit has been used…if you don’t have the seals, then you have to inventory the kits, and this helps to see if a kit has been used.” The commissioners obliged both requests.  

Human resources officer Lindsi Engle asked the board to consider the resignation of social worker Kourtney Olson – effective Jan. 10, and to promote eligibility worker Christina Gilder to social worker as of Jan. 31. The county is advertising internally and externally for a replacement eligibility worker. The board agreed to promote part-time deputy Drew Copley to full-time deputy – effective Feb. 28 – and then passed a memorandum of understanding with the Local $49 union. Lastly, Hillery brought forward discussion regarding the commissioners’ respective committee assignments and potential changes to the list, as Prestby agreed to assume corrections committee duties in place of Bakke.  

The consent agenda included approving the minutes of the Jan. 14 meeting.  

Fillmore County’s commissioners convene on the first, second and fourth Tuesday mornings of each month at 9:00 a.m. in the lower-level boardroom at the Fillmore County courthouse in Preston. The public is welcome to attend. For more information, log onto the county website at www.co.fillmore.mn.us, or have a seat in the gallery at the next meeting. 

Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325

Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, November 14, 2024.   Reprinted with permission and gratitude.

By Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy

Skinny though he may be, Santa’s real name is Mark.

At least in Spring Valley, of course…beyond, it’s “Yes, sir,”

“On December 7, we have a toy drop-off drive-through at the Dollar General from 9:00 to 1:00. It’s something that we started last year,” shared Spring Valley Toys for Tots coordinator Mark Cummings, anticipating standing outside the local dollar store to watch motorists drive up to donate toys to the United States Marine Corps Reserve Toys for Tots Program, an initiative in which Cummings firmly believes, even more than he believes in Santa himself, because he agrees wholeheartedly with the project’s motto that “Every Child Deserves a Little Christ mas.”

The Toys for Tots website outlined the official Toys for Tots Foundation mission, stating, “The mission of the Marine Toys for Tots Foundation is to assist the U.S. Marine Corps in providing a tangible sign of hope to economically disadvantaged children at Christmas. This assistance includes providing day-to-day leadership and oversight of the program, raising funds to provide toys to supplement the collections of local Toys for Tots chapters….”

Overseen by reserve members of the Marines — putting officers of all ranks in charge of collection and distribution of donated toys, the program allows for collection and distribution of toys to children who may otherwise not receive any thing for Christmas, even as they watch the skies for Santa’s sleigh. The regional chapters of Toys for Tots delegate to community coordinators such as Cummings, who enthusiastically take up the work of placing collection boxes in stores, banks, restaurants and more for generous hearts to fill them with new, unwrapped toys for children zero to 18 years of age. The Rochester chapter in 2023 collected 32,785 toys distributed to support the wishes of 9,742 children – numbers that make Cummings’ cheeks feel rosy. “Kids that are under public assistance usually don’t get too many toys, if any, and this gives them something to open at Christmas. Last year went real good, and we’re hoping to do good this year, too.”

Cummings pointed out that area communities such as Spring Valley and Lanesboro hold their own toy drives and are then able to distribute according to specific needs. If there is a shortage of toys, he and Toys for Tots volunteers spend donated funds to meet the needs by shopping locally. He listed that collection boxes are stationed in Spring Valley at Dollar General, Racks, First National Bank, Pizza Place and more, and in Preston, at POET Biorefining. “What we collect in Spring Valley, we usually keep in Spring Valley. We collect only toys – no clothes – and people don’t have to buy the big, expensive games that kids want us to buy, because the limit is about $35 per kid. We usually run short of things for the kids 13 to 18 years old and for the little characters… the babies and toddlers.”

The twinkle in Cummings’ eye grows brighter as the calendar advances and Christmas approaches because it’s his chance to give back to the community and witness good will as friends and neighbors take time to remember the children whose stockings and Christmas trees may do well to have a hand from elves in dis guise as people who simply care for others, that they can have the merriest of Christ mases.

For more information, log onto the Southeastern Minnesota Toys for Tots website at https://rochester-mn.toysfor tots.org/, or log onto Facebook at Semntoysfortots. First Sgt. Vince Reynolds is the local campaign coordinator in Rochester. To contact Rochester’s Toys for Tots, email rochester.mn@toysfortots.org, or call 507-251-5085.

Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325

Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, November 7, 2024.   Reprinted with permission and gratitude.

By Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy

“They now call it the ‘Bonnie Bus.’ It’s always going to be the ‘Bonnie Bus,’ and I don’t even know how it started…maybe one kid started that, and it’s the ‘Bonnie Bus’,” observed Bonnie Hammon, flipping the keys and as she’s used to having that weight hanging there when she’s not behind the wheel.

The Spring Valley resident hadn’t quite given up her driver’s seat yet in late September, but full retirement’s ahead as winter approaches and she’s determined that she doesn’t want to find herself on glare ice with a load of “precious cargo” buck led behind her in the Spring Val ley Rolling Hills Transit (RHT) bus she’s known to have driven around town for the past 11 years, so she’d been substituting until someone replaces her. Spring Valley’s residents expect to see – and can almost envision into reality – her running the 22-passenger rural transit bus’s route, picking up riders ranging from toddlers to senior citizens and getting them where they need to go, be it daycare to preschool for the junior set, or shopping and errands in Rochester for seniors who don’t have everyday transportation.

Hammon is known just as “Bonnie,” whom everyone knows. And she most certainly is “Bonnie,” whom everyone who ever boarded her buses loves. She can partly thank her family for their affinity for motoring the countryside as a career…and for her eventual affection to do the same. “My dad drove bus, and my mom drove station wagon for a while, taking kids who had disabilities to a school in Lanesboro. I helped on the farm, and I tried different things for a while. I started driving for HeadStart in 1984 – my son Jason was going to school – and the driver was going to quit, so his teacher talked me into getting my CDL. I drove for 29 years for Head Start, and the rest was for Rolling Hills – it’s all SEMCAC. I was always a driver, but I worked at HeadStart before that…I didn’t drive at HeadStart until 1984, but I was a volunteer before that.” She followed HeadStart from its classroom in Spring Valley to its new classroom at Ostrander’s church, then to LeRoy. She recounted, “I drove there for a while until they cut transportation.”

Fortunately, her timing was excellent in that she took the driver’s seat just when a need presented itself with HeadStart and perpetuated with RHT to provide her incredibly rewarding job security. “I got my regular license, then I got my CDL, and with that, I was grandfathered in with the school bus endorsement. To drive school bus, you have to take a test every two years and renew every four years, do a physical. I started driving a passenger van, and I went through three of those through the years, then I started at Rolling Hills and drove a 16-passenger van, and now I’ve been driving a 22-passenger bus with wheelchair seats.”

Each day as an RHT driver began early at a rented shed at the Spring Valley Sales barn. “I’d get up at about 6:00 because I was supposed to be there at 7:00. I’d be there about 6:40 to do inspections, get the bus warmed up. I’d be driving from 7:00 to 3:30 in the afternoon, then I’d have to do post-inspection.” The morning through afternoon with RHT could find her traveling any direction and on an established or unpredictable schedule, and the weather factored into her route, especially if it was forecast for freezing rain, in which case she’d rather that the school district cancel in advance than attempt to pull all students into class. “They’re (dispatch) good at keeping track of the weather in all the different Rolling Hills areas, but the hardest parts were fog at intersections…and driving on ice. I’d rather that the school call it before school than get there and turn right around again to get them home in bad weather.” And technology has changed how Hammon’s bus route was mapped and scheduled for her each day. “We went from getting printouts of where we’re going every day to now, when we’ve got tablets right on the buses so that we can just look it up.”

Hammon acknowledged that she didn’t give her youngest riders’ parents room to register too many complaints about minor details if they entrusted her with their children, and she didn’t give the children any slack when they were to buckle up and stay buckled into their seats. “If parents complained about something, I just would say, ‘I have precious cargo. They’re my responsibility.’ And the kids have to be in seatbelts. I had a rule that they had to stay seated. If they unbuckled their seatbelts, the bus pulls over on the side, and they knew what that meant right away.” Perhaps it was a stern eye in the rearview of the RHT bus, or a reminder that their parents would be notified that they weren’t being safe, but with her commitment to getting everyone to their destinations in good condition, it was for their own good and because she had grown to love each and every passenger, small or tall, sharing that her favorite part of being Bonnie on the “Bonnie Bus” was taking the best care she could of her “precious cargo.” She commented, “It was the people…the kids.”

She cited some of the reasons why she’s decided, in addition to winter’s weather hazards, that she wanted to hand over her garage remote and keyring. “Time and regulations put on all the CDL drivers…it’s getting overwhelming. They expect more and more, and that’s why they’ve got a shortage of drivers overall. You have to have first aid, CPR, defensive driving, all that stuff. They even had an obstacle course that you had to drive the bus through, and that’s where I’m an introvert, doing that stuff in front of people.”

Some things can be measured in mileage, but not Bonnie’s career. “Somebody asked how many miles I put on over the years. I don’t know. Not as much as a semi driver.” Instead, ATTENTION: All Veterans & Your Families she estimated that her career spans approximately 580 children, or the first and second generations of preschoolers in local families that now have elementary students, or by the shift in who her senior passengers were. “We used to take the nursing home residents fishing every year in Lanesboro. And I’ve taken a lady in her nineties down to coffee every morning from Monday through Thursday, and she said, ‘This is what I look forward to, getting out and down to coffee’.

It’s the people.” Retirement promises time to explore what she’d like to do now that the Bonnie Bus has someone else at the wheel. “My official last day was September 8 or 9, and my retirement party was September 28.” Volunteering in her community will fill her days and evenings, as she firmly believes in it. “Why not? You’re a part of the community. Volunteering is what makes a town grow. Every little hour helps. I have not been idle yet. I do concessions at the school basketball and volleyball games, I take tickets at football. I planned to be at Pinter’s on Saturdays and Sundays in October, and after October, it should be quiet until basketball starts. That shouldn’t be bad. I’m also working on my house. I plan to hibernate and lay low this win ter. I do what comes up, and my kids keep me busy. I’m sure my grandchildren will have ball games and concerts, and one of my grandchildren does barrels and poles riding horse, so we have to drive all the way to get there.” Her children often tease her for her notoriety. “Everywhere I go, even in other towns, I’ll see someone, and my kids will ask, ‘Can we go anywhere without you knowing anybody?’

I like to stay active.” And as for the “Bonnie Bus” becoming the “Doug Bus” for her co-worker, Doug, who drove it shortly after her departure, or any other name?

No question for her preschool precious cargo – it’s STILL the “Bonnie Bus.”

Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325