By Elaine Rassel
Another busy week! I finally got my black ink two days after I ran out. At least I can print now! We were at Remsen for the MMC School Board meeting. It was organizational time for both Boards. It wasn’t a very long meeting. One part of the meeting I thought was interesting. Principal Sprague reported on the status of the Enrollment at MMCRU (Marcus). It consisted of the total students in Elementary and High School as well as how many boys vs. girls were students. Race was involved and there was a breakdown of electives and how many females vs. males were participating. These electives were agriculture, business, FCS, Industrial Tech, art, band, and choir. It gave a good picture of who is in our Marcus school.
There was also a part on what the IASB (Iowa School Board) supports. There were too many parts to print but I did include an example.
I got the chicken ready for Jeanette’s birthday supper. I was going to have it ready by shortly after five on Thursday. Meanwhile I went to get some milk ready to make ice cream and found the milk was sour! This was just after 4 p.m. when I asked Zachary to get me some milk as I needed it also for the biscuits. I reminded him at 5:30 and again at one minute to 6 o’clock. Her supper was a little late.
Jeanette wants to thank all that remembered her on her birthday by cards or the phone. It just make her day. A week earlier Steve celebrated his birthday and also wants to thank those for remembering him. I am hoping that we can have ice cream tonight (Sunday). It is an electric mixture so there isn’t any hand cranking to it!
I went to the Library to talk to Margo on the newly formed non profit organization to help generate financial support for the improvement of the library. There is a Board now that is separate from the Friends of the Library that do gardening and bring refreshments. This Board of Friends of the Library is NOT the same board of the Library where the city nominates board members.
I went to find some information on the first library in Marcus. It was started by a Women’s Club in 1908. Through the years, there were many moves for this Library. A fire sent it on another move. I have located two of the places where it was located at one time but am still wondering where 213 N. Main was. It was supposed to be in a small building where City Hall at that time was also located. When the present Municipal Building was made with bricks taken from the water tower on the Public School lot, the Library was located there until the gift of $75,000 from W.L. and Ethel Gund Estate designated for a library was given.
Since its dedication in 1964, the Library has improved. To keep up with current books, events, etc. funding is becoming harder to receive. This is where the Board of Friends of the Library come in at. They have an ad elsewhere in the newspaper explaining their involvement and how other interested people in the Library can be of help. They are having a Meet and Greet on Wed. October 6 from 10 a.m. to 11:30 a.m. with refreshments and invite you to come and see what the Library has done and ask for more information on their endeavor.
Did you see in the S.C. Journal the other day about the mother from Marcus that was sentenced in Cherokee court? The 40 year old woman was in a couple of Marcus police reports some time back. She had encouraged her then 13 year-old daughter to have a relationship with an older man. The woman did plead guilty Sept. 14 in Cherokee County District Court to child endangerment, an aggravated misdemeanor.
According to court documents, she had encouraged her and her brother to befriend this man, 22 years old of Le Mars in the summer of 2017. After the girl turned 13, he moved into their Marcus home where he supplied marijuana to all the residents. The girl told authorities she had been in a sexual relationship with this man since 2017 until October of 2020. She had told her mother she wanted nothing to do with him but the mother encouraged her to give him another chance and to stay with him.
The man was arrested in April and is scheduled to stand trial in November on two counts of third-degree sexual abuse.
Well, what do you think the mother received from the judge? She had a suspended two-year prison sentence and was placed on two years’ probation and was fined $855. I couldn’t believe this sentence. When all these boys and girls (now adults) are coming forth to tell about their “clergy” (for example) relationships, and how it has affected their lives_does this judge think this girl won’t have a life just like the aforementioned people? It is hard to believe that this mother will be affected by her sentencing at all. I only hope the girl is no where near her mother and will receive some help in the near future.
I see where Lulu Grauer passed away. She had sent me, many years ago, a letter that Peter Grauer had sent explaining his involvement in World War I. I did get to meet her one day when Linda and I went to her apartment to pick up some history to give to Delores Grauer. Lulu was down sizing her papers and this information was one of the items she was sending on to someone else for historic keeping.
We have a wedding this weekend. Granddaughter, Shania is getting married on Saturday, Oct. 2. These grandchildren are growing away from us! May her future be everything she is hoping for.
Is there anyone who would like a kitten or two? They have all had their shots. I went with Bethany to feed them Saturday night. When they saw her coming, they came out of the pasture and ran up to her. Of course, she had to pick them up and talk to them. They are people friendly which is a good thing. Get in touch with her if you are interested. It won’t be easy for her to see them find another home. She is truly an animal lover!
I understand the Human Society cannot give an animal away because of their expenses, but have you seen their ad in the newspaper? Some are over $100 to adopt. Kittens are not cheap, either. The sad part about these adoptions is that you don’t know where the animal came from and how it was treated. These two things do affect the animal once it becomes “yours”. There are times you don’t know about this until you reach home with it. It is sad when a person cannot treat an animal in a good way.
It is time to find some other places for some of my information! I just had some fall and scatter all over! I did find an interesting article about the man from Sergeant Bluff the was fined $80,000 in June of this year for violating state environmental laws in 2018 when burning thousands of railroad ties on his property. He has had a history of environmental violations, benefited financially from illegally setting fire to the railroad ties and took little action to extinguish the fire which burned for four days and sent thick, dark smoke into the air.
He burned more than 5,000 railroad ties on his property on Aug. 11-14. He had called DNR field office employee and told him he had 30,000 ties and planned to burn some of them because the $160,000 cost to properly dispose of them was too high. He was told burning them was illegal.
He barricaded his property to prevent firefighters from putting out the fire and said he would let out his three pit bulls if any one entered his property to put out the fire. On Aug. 11, he began the burning as well as other solid waste. On Aug. 13 he told DNR employee that he had burned 5,000 and 6,000 ties that would have cost him $400,000 to dispose of them in a landfill. He was told to put out the fire that continued to burn and smolder until Aug. 14 even though he said he had put out the fire.
He had been subject to DNR action for violations seven times since 2000 and had argued that the burning was exempt because the ties were not solid waste and they accidentally caught fire when he was burning other trash. He also said the fire contained landscape waste, exempting it from Iowa burning laws. My question is_why did he have all these railroad ties on his property in the first place?
Remember to keep in your thoughts and prayers those who have lost loved ones recently to death, who are struggling with an illness, are trying to financially get back to normal, can find a job even though it might not be what you want, and can shorten the distance that is keeping them from their family.
I will leave you with this quote from Franklin D. Roosevelt (1882-1945) 32nd President of the United States: “When you reach the end of your rope, tie a knot in it and hang on.”