Hyperion Refining LLC executives won’t be getting their water from the local Clay Rural Water System. On Jan. 28, the CRWS Board of Directors unanimously voted to “respectively reject the current proposal submitted by Hyperion Refining LLC and to information Hyperion (officials) of this decision.” According to CRWS Manager Greg Merrigan, the board received a request Jan. 7 from Hyperion Vice- President Preston Phillips for 9 - 12 million gallons of water per day and he wanted CRWS to finance this water project up front. Hyperion would repay CRWS through a long-term arrangement. This is identical to the request Hyperion officials had made in November 2008. At that time, the request was tabled because Hyperion officials wanted to focus on other pieces of their 400,000 barrels a day oil refinery and power plant, said Merrigan. About 50 people attended the CRWS meeting where this decision was made. Only CRWS members were allowed to speak. Doug Maurstad of Alcester, Clay County Commissioner Jerry Wilson of Vermillion, and Harry Scholten, also of Vermillion, spoke against Hyperion’s proposal. Board Member Vic Hendriks made the motion to reject Hyperion’s proposal and either Rick Peterson or Randy Erickson seconded it. (CRWS doesn’t record who makes motions any more.) “Most of the members present feel we would be putting our system at big risk by doing this,” said Peterson. “I just don’t feel we as a board would be very responsible if we went ahead and did something like this.” He noted several years ago, CRWS turned down a similar request by Glacier Lakes Energy. CRWS did provide water for the offi ce facility but that company paid up front for that service. “To me, this is not any different than that,” said Peterson. “We also deny people with livestock (operations).” CRWS attorney Mike  McGill of Beresford explained Hyperion’s request puts the board in a “quandary.” They have to make a decision based on the economics of it as to whether or not they’ll waive the right to serve a very large user that could make money for your water company so that’s why it’s a funny request Hyperion is making.” “What will happen is Hyperion will turn to another water service provider and ask for water,” he said, adding the board needs to deny service to Hyperion for their commercial and industrial needs. “(The board) does not want to make a decision that would have ramifications in the future, that would prohibit your water company from providing water to consumer rural household uses, to future people who come to live in this area.” “A more difficult question for this board is if Hyperion would approach them and say we will invest $54 million to capture, treat and pump that water and we want to use your name and pay for it,” said McGill. “That’s a completely different situation.”

Old Man Winter and Mother Nature are wreaking havoc with the world. This year, in many places, the weather is the worst in a century - the deepest snow, the coldest temperatures, icy conditions and heavy winds have left a trail of frozen strawberries and oranges and vegetables and farmers and travelers placed at risk.

For most of the nation, though, it is business as usual. Tarpon Springs, where I live, is a large Greek community and has a Greek Orthodox Church, where for the last 104 years they celebrate Epiphany, and the baptism of Jesus, on January 6 with deep religious fervor. A great spiritual event is the diving for the cross in the bayou by young men of the church. On this cold winter day, it was 40 degrees, 66 young men, ages 16 to 18 and members in good standing of the Greek Orthodox Church were battling to retrieve the cross.

The day started at 8 a.m. with a church service led by Archbishop Demetrios of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America ending at noon after which the congregation walked down the street to the bayou joined by the young divers in their swim trunks and bare feet. Thousands of spectators, wrapped in blankets and wearing their winter coats surrounded the bayou. After many more prayers and the reading of much scripture (I think half the Bible was read) the priest threw the cross into the water and those 66 bodies dived in and searched for the cross. After a short time 16-year old Dimitrios Kalogiannis of New Port Richey found the cross, swam to the podium, crawled out and stood dripping wet and cold holding the cross high and waited for his blessing from the priest. His family swarmed around hugging him. His grandmother, who came from Greece especially to watch him dive, threw a blanket around his shoulders while she cried for joy. According to the Orthodox Church it is a special blessing to the boy and his family to retrieve the cross and so excited were they that they hardly noticed the cold. Four of the divers were treated by medics for exposure to the cold after the dive. What devotion!

I’m glad my church doesn’t expect me to dive into the Sioux River to retrieve a cross or I’m afraid I would be a woman without a religion. It is cold here in Florida.

My scriptural words of advice to you all is, "And this too shall pass."

Keep Warm!

A couple of dominant stretches of solid basketball allowed Akron-Westfield’s girls basketball team to down Remsen St. Mary’s, 52-35 on Jan. 30. Jordan Harris had 16 points, Karly Groon 11, and Monica Harvey nine to lead the Westerners. Harvey, a sophomore, hit a three-pointer at the end of the first half as part of a 20-5 A-W run that allowed the squad to pull away. A-W is 12-6 overall. “The last time there, we beat them by only five points. They have good, quick, athletic players. We missed a lot of ducks, lay ups, and were in foul trouble, but we made the shots when we had to,” A-W coach Kent Johnson said. A-W’s 12th win, however “ugly” it was, counts, and the Westerners are 6-2 in the WEC now. They hoped to actually have some practice time this week, Mother Nature allowing, before a trip to new conference team Hartley-Melvin-Sanborn Feb. 5. Johnson said this was the worst month for missed practices due to weather that he can remember. The visiting Hawks, also having a good season with nine wins, fell behind early, 7-0, but came back and it was 21-15 A-W when Brandi Davis’s hoop started the key scoring spree. Harris added two free throws, and then came Harvey’s three-pointer with 1.6 seconds left for a 28-15 halftime lead. “Harvey’s shot was huge; she had a good game and runs the floor well,” Johnson said. Harris opened the second half with five points, Caitlin Heyl added two field goals, and Groon and Harvey scored, and it was a 21-point lead heading into the fourth quarter. RSM 6--15--22--35 A-W 12--28--41--52 Leading scorers, A-W, Harris 16, Groon 11; RSM, Klein 8.

Akron-Westfield’s girls basketball team lost a tough one on the road to a very talented Elk Point-Jefferson team, 65-51 on Jan. 26. The Huskies’ Chrissy Strassburg, who the week before became the school’s all-time leading scorer, had 13 points and seven rebounds, bringing her career total to 1,207 points. Reanna Bertram led EP-J with 17 points while Tory McGreary had a double-double with 13 points and 10 rebounds. Jordan Harris led the Westerners with 15 points and Karly Groon had 13 points and four rebounds. Sarah Parkinson had nine points and six rebounds. Caitlin Heyl led the rebounding effort, with seven. A-W was only out rebounded by two. The Huskies made nine threepoint shots, while the Westerners could manage only one. A-W won the free- hrows 10-2 and had 14 assists. Tasha Johnson had six assists, five rebounds, and three points. A-W slipped to 10-6 overall with the loss to the 10-3 Huskies. A-W 15--31--38--51 EP-J 21--37--56--65 A-W 58, South O’Brien 24 The Westerners bounced back for their 11th win of the season Jan. 28, with a big league win on the road over South O’Brien. Groon led the way with 18 points and Harris added 15. Caitlin Heyl added nine points for the Westerners and Monica Harvey had six. Sarah Parkinson was a force in rebounding, finishing with 14. “We shot the ball very well in the first half, “ coach Kent Johnson said. It was all but over after a 41-9 lead after the first half. A-W was 11-6, 5-2 WEC after the win.

In the end, a quicker St. Mary’s boys basketball team got to the free-throw line more than twice of Akron-Westfield’s total, and that spelled doom in an overtime loss for the Westerners, 65-59, on Jan. 29. That, plus career-like nights from Beau Pick with his 30 points and 14 from teammate Tanner Kockler ended a rough three-loss week for the Westerners, that is thankfully a thing of the past. A-W countered with a monster game from senior Eric Eskra, who poured in 20 points, many in clutch situations, and 18 from junior Connor Heyl, who had three-three pointers. Anthony Miller had eight points, with some blocked shots, too. “At the beginning of the year, you could say it’s the refs, but not when your opponent has 27 free throws and you have 12. We just made mistake, after mistake, that was costly for us, like fouling 80 feet from the basket, and having a turnover become a lay up and not seeing a screen in overtime,” A-W coach Craig Doty said. “The biggest thing is to box out, and they know that, and we work hard in practice, and we did not do that.” Yet he was also pleased with the heart and effort the team showed, for a 40-minutes of play in the game on Friday. “I love them, they play hard, but it’s the inexperience. I believe that we can play with any Class 1A team in the state, but the margin of error is very small,” Doty said. Eskra highlighted the A-W effort against the Hawks, with his 20 points. He gave the Westerners a lead early in the fourth, 37-36; another driving lay up cut a fivepoint RSM lead to three and he hit a basket for a Westerners’ 46-44 lead with a minute left. But Kockler hit a shot play on a put back, and it was 49-49 with an extra four minutes to play. RSM got to the free-throw line in the overtime, making five of six tries, for a 56-51 lead. Heyl came to the rescue with a three pointer, and Ben Brown added two free throws for a 58-56 deficit with 1:11 left. A steal and lay up by Kockler and two more free throws accounted for the final RSM tally, while the Westerners had three more points from Eskra, but it was not enough. Doty complimented Eskra’s play in his leadership role on the club. “Eric knows that his career is winding down, and has taken it upon himself to fire the team up,” Doty said. Another player earning recognition is Michael Harris. Harris has a knack for intercepting passes, plus guards his man well, doing the kind of things that don’t grab the headlines, Doty said of the junior. A-W started strong, with a 21-11 lead early, and led by seven points early in the second half on a hoop by Brown. A 7-0 RSM run gave the visitors a 34-33 lead heading into the fourth quarter in this barn burner. A-W is 5-12, 2-7 in WEC play. RSM, which lost at West Sioux the night before to an up-and-coming Falcons team, gained its 10th win. Overtime nor the weather has been kind to the young Westerners this winter. They’ve lost several overtime games, and had only five full practices this January, but everyone is in the same snow-filled boat on the weather ‘s wrath. “It is tough when you’ve had only five practices in January. It is hard to prepare and when you have to restructure the team it is very difficult,” rookie coach Doty said. A-W is at Hartley for a game with HMS Feb. 5 in WEC action, then hosts Alcester-Hudson Feb. 6. Don’t forget, the Feb. 6 game is Good Samaritan Feet night, for Haiti, so prepared to take off those shoes, A-W students, and donate to the cause.

Akron-Westfield basketball fans are encouraged to take their shoes off as a show of support for victims of the Haiti earthquake at a basketball game Feb. 6. The Westerners play Alcester-Hudson that night. Students Zach Tindall, Mitch Hedlund and Chance Klemme came up with the idea, Principal Derek Briggs said. Students said donations will be sought of cash for Haiti as one pays for admission that night. Cheerleaders and basketball coaches will also take their shoes off, as well as the invitation to the entire student cheering section. A South Dakota State University basketball coach is spearheading such an effort. A group, Good Samaritan Feet, will receive the funds raised. “It’s a very good cause,” Briggs said. “I also saw one on ESPN’s Sports Center,” Tindall said. “There’s good support, the cheerleaders are for it.” Students said they were told that cash donations are better than shoes themselves because of shipping costs involved.

 

by Steve Peterson

Cole Oltmans at 119 and Chet Utesch at 125 pounds gained championships for Akron-Westfield at the Boyden Hull-Rock Valley meet held at Rock Valley Jan. 16. The Westerners finished fifth as a team with 113.5 points. Sheldon/South O’Brien won the team title with 180 points, and Boyden Hull-Rock Valley was second at 123.5. Third place went to Okoboji, with 122 points. MOC-Floyd Valley was just ahead of A-W with 119 points. Oltmans improved to 15-9 on the season with his championship, and beat Preston Hoebelheinrich of BHRV, avenging a loss to him earlier in the season. “I was real proud of Cole. It was a job well done by him to avenge a loss. With Cole, you sense that he is always wanting more,” A-W coach Mark Van Oort said. Utesch keeps dominating, at 119 or 125, with a perfect 28-0 record in his sophomore season. He is ranked third in the state at 119. “He does what he needs to do to win. He knows that he is not at the top of the hill yet, and has a long way to go. We move him around for what is best for the team,” Van Oort said. Utesch was seventh in the state last year at 119 as a freshman. Tyler Schneider took second for A-W, the third straight year there that he has reached the finals but not won. “We looked at each other and said, ‘it is not meant to be.’ But Tyler wrestled well, aggressively, and is coming around,” Van Oort said of his 15-13 wrestler. Freshman Chet Willer was down 5-2 in his opening round match, but reached down and won at 145 pounds, 9-7, and came in third on the day. “He overcame that deficit, and did a fabulous job, He is 15-13 as a freshman, and you know he has talent and will be part of the future of this program,” Van Oort said. Senior Josh Taylor took third at 130 pounds on a 1-2 day, now 19-9 overall after a 9-0 start. “He was up in the third-place match, with 30 seconds to go, but lost 6-2 as he got caught with back points. He needs to have something happen to turn the year around. Josh wants to get back on track. He looks at Joe and John Sievert, our most recent champion and third-place winner, whom he respects, to know it is not uncommon for someone to have losses late in the season. It is how you respond to them,” Van Oort said. Taylor James took fourth at 152, and is 14-14 on the year. He had ranked opponents from MMC and MOC-FV in his bracket, but will take those losses to positive uses in the future. Westerner Daniel Beitelspacher was fourth at 171, and is 13-14. He continues to work hard and the freshman has a bright future, the coach said. A-W freshman Daniel Dirks placed sixth at 135 pounds. Adam Kroksh at 112 and Ethan Hecht, now at 160 both wrestled well, but did not place for the Westerners. Alcester-Hudson, West Sioux and Dakota Valley come to A-W for the second-to-last home meet Jan. 19. The BCIG tournament is a big one, too, Jan. 22-23. “It is a very prestigious tournament with a lot of state ranked guys. We hope to keep up the momentum,” Van Oort said. A-W hosts Hinton and Lawton-Bronson for Parents Night at 6:30 p.m. Jan. 26. A meet at Woodbury Central concludes regular season matches on Jan. 30. There will be a JV tournament at MOC-Floyd Valley Feb. 1.