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Page 8 The Advocate News (Wilton-Durant, Iowa) Thursday, June 7, 2012

OpiniOn
Three too many unexplainable tragedies test us

n Sunday, May 27, I was able to attend commencement ceremonies at both Durant and Wilton. Whether or not the schools consider each other when scheduling graduation, Id like to say its really nice that one began at 1 p.m. (Durant) and the other was at 2 p.m. (Wilton). This allowed me to easily and safely get from one to the other. We know that the school calendars are already being planned together. Having commencements on the same day wont change, but staggering the times is great! Perhaps theres a lesson there for things like prom? Ive written about the fact that its asinine to have Wilton and Durants proms on the same day. Of course staggering times wont work there, but having them a week apart would be a start as Im sure there are kids from both high schools that would go to both. I digress. The take home message for me while attending both graduations was one very sad statistic both classes were faced with the death of a classmate. In December of 2010, the community of

Durant lost Emily Bohnsack, who was killed Never could I imagine that in the interim, in an automobile accident not far from school one of our schools would deal with another or home. tragedy. On May 29, on what should have In January of this year, the community of been the first day of summer for WHS and Wilton lost Krysten Reddick, who was killed DHS students, the community of Wilton was in a car crash while attempting to drive to rocked again for the second time in six months school on a snowy morning. as WHS sophomore Justice Melton was killed Both schools acknowledged their fallen in a car accident just outside Wilton (see page classmate. In Durant, a 1 for the story). group of very emotional In two years, the WHS seniors sang a song in class of 2014 will also commemoration of Emmark commencement ily and in Wilton, student with the fact that one of council president Abbi their own wont be there to Leathers talked of Krysten graduate due to tragedy. in her welcome speech to Justice was so involved By Derek Sawvell those in attendance. in WHS activities, it was All the while I was impossible to not know left to wonder, when was the last time either who she was, at least by face recognition. school dealt with the death of a student while Unfortunately, due to her still being an ungoing through commencement. Also, had there derclassmen, I hadnt ever spoken with her. ever been a year in which both schools had However, I can say that whenever I saw her graduating classes with a fallen classmate? at a Wilton event, she always seemed to comBased on our snake issue last week in mand attention as her peers would gravitate Wilton, those thoughts from commencement toward her. got pushed aside. Yet I felt theyd be just as She seemed to be the type with a very fun, applicable this week. bubbly personality. The kind of girl that was

Case in Point

fun to be around. It showed, as I always saw her being the life of whatever group she was in when I would see her around events. These tragedies are often unexplainable, leaving families and communities asking why? At the same time, it also brings out the best in our communities. As WHS principal Ken Crawford said, these communities give us a sense of family. Im often interviewing high school seniors on the verge of big decisions, such as deciding to go to college to continue their athletic or music careers and one thing I like to tell them is dont forget about Wilton (or Durant) because it wont forget about you. My parents live very close to Heartland Fellowship Church, where Justices visitation and funeral were held. On Sunday during her visitation, every time I went outside, the line outside the church stretched down the street. The continued outpouring of support from our hometowns is amazing. Sadly, this is the third story of its kind that I have had to prepare in the 3 1/2 years that Ive been back here at the AN. Thats three too many.

Highs and lows


In retrospect, I am still at a loss to summarize ation bills (e.g. supply chain, ESOP, incentive the 2012 legislative session in a sentence or fund), although many were killed in the Sentwo. There were moments of triumph, good ate. bipartisan work and true reform. There were 10. A flood prevention and mitigation bill also moments of great disappointment, partisan can help communities prepare and mitigate bickering and lack of compromise. for a future disaster. In this, my annual review of the session, Areas of Disappointment I include 10 areas of success and 10 areas of 1. A complete lack of responsibility by the needed improvement and even failure. Senate in failing to pass a compromise property Heading the list of successes is finally get- tax reform and relief package. ting the state budget in order. The overriding 2. Failure of the Senate to address the imfailure of the session, in my opinion, was the minent property tax increase of more than $2 Senate rejecting a real opportunity for biparti- billion by not even debating the compromise san movement on tax relief property tax bill. and reform. 3. The weakened TIF Areas of Success reform bill does not go far 1. A truly balanced budenough to reform excesses get where we dont spend in the system. more than we take into the 4. The opt-out regionalState Treasury. (And eight ization option in the mental of the 10 House budget bills health reorganization plan By Rep. Jeff Kaufmann were strongly bipartisan.) may still be problematic. 2. An end to the budget5. Education reform ing gimmicks of the past like using one-time should and could have been stronger and more money for ongoing expenses and intentionally encompassing. delaying appropriating money until later in the 6. The failure to reform traffic cameras by year. limiting fines and revenue generation, guaran3. Full emergency funds and a healthy tee due process, and standardize procedures. reserve balance will greatly help to meet 7. The Iowa State Highway Patrol should increases in our future priorities. have stronger appropriation levels to increase 4. The new mental health reorganization Troopers on the road. strives for equality of services regardless of 8. Failure of the Senate to pass a stronger where you reside in the state. property rights bill that garnered more than 5. A beginning to education reform, al- 90 votes in the House. though a long way to go. 9. The Senate killed a bill that overwhelm6. Strong anti-piracy language in the TIF ingly passed the House and would have helped reform bill. our disabled veterans. (Tax dollars were not 7. Two hundred million new dollars in K-12 even used in this bill.) education and significant increases to higher 10. The lack of more discussion and education. pragmatic solutions to Iowas infrastructure 8. Storm Chaser bill will help protect issues. citizens from unscrupulous (many times out Next week, I will present my last edition of state) contractors during an emergency. of Your Capitol Voice. 9. The House passed a number of job cre-

'Couple things to address'


Editor: I attended the April and May Durant school board meetings. First, I would like to thank Mr. (Brian) Fargo for stopping me from asking more questions. I know this was not the proper thing to do with more than myself and the board members at the meeting. I had asked the board to meet with me alone but it seems they dont want to listen to people in the school district. I have a couple things I would like to address. Maybe someone from the board or the attorney can answer them. In the May 10, 2012 issue of the Advocate News, attorney Cam Davidson said the school district had made payments of $7,900 to Lane & Waterman. He wondered where the $5,000 deductible talk had come from. At the April meeting, this is what the school district said the deductible was. In the March bills, there was a $726 payment made to Lane & Waterman. In the May bills, there was a $13,174.50 payment made to Lane & Waterman. I think the school district should know what these payments were for. One thing I noticed at both meetings was that no one made a motion to pay the bills. I thought the board normally approved all bill payments. The next items I am going to write about are of my own opinion. The school attorney said he thought the people of the district should be more interested in the education of the children than the (Rouse) trial. I agree with him on this. He needs to remember the people of the school district did not create this problem. I think after the hearing in 2009-2010, the attorneys may have advised the board to continue this issue. I have heard people say this. I think this is true from information I have. A survey by superintendent (Duane) Bennett was then made, asking teachers about wanting the past principal back. This sounds like the same thing Mr. (Duane) Bark told me in 2010. My answer to him was Do you think everyone would be truthful? If they dont agree with the person making the survey, they may lose their employment. In 2010 when I met with Mr. Bark, 16 teachers had left our school district. I would like to know, during the years Mr. Bark was here, the total number of staff that left our school. Now to my last item: I think the reason the (Iowa) Supreme Court would not rule on this case is because if they had been in favor of the school, a superintendent could come in and walk any employee out anytime. Remember, in a lot of cases, they refer back to decisions that were made on past rulings. I am now at the point that I hope this case goes to a jury trial. Maybe this will finally end this issue. Just remember, no one knows who may be called as a witness. As I have said in previous letters, Im not angry at anyone, just disappointed in what has happened. Wayne Lincoln Durant

Your Capitol Voice

Brother, can you spare a dime?


Editor: That was the cry during the Great depression, luckily we are nowhere near that today but the recession has taken a heavy toll on families; even here in Cedar County. Our food pantries in Cedar County have done their best to meet the food needs of families that are struggling, but they need our help now more than ever. They have always depended on private donations, but the recession and a lack of awareness have reduced contributions. Recently, the Iowa Senate passed legislation which would have provided $2 million to Iowa Food Banks, which in turn they could have provided many more millions of dollars in food through their purchasing power. Unfortunately, the Iowa House cut that back to $500,000, which still would have done a lot of good. However, the Governor apparently knows best because on May 28, he line-item vetoed that appropriation even though we have a billion dollars in rainy day surplus funds. Can you explain that to the hungry children of Iowa, the disabled, or the elderly on a fixed income who rely on food assistance programs and funding? So its up to us. Will we step up and fill the need? Your first opportunity will be Saturday June 9 at 2 p.m., at the Tipton City Park for Hunger Hoops. Lets be sure no child goes hungry to bed at night in Cedar County. Justin Nelson Durant

When is it really closed?


Editor: My most recent trip between Wilton and Durant used a portion of Y-14/Taylor Avenue, marked Road Closed. It seems like use of Y-14/ Taylor Avenue and 110th Street has become the standard detour route between our towns while old Highway 6 is under repair. I say this after seeing business delivery trucks, school buses, the ambulance, and most of the locals using this route. One day soon, we can expect the construction company to actually begin placing fresh concrete on Y-14/Taylor Avenue. Actual construction will prevent us from using this standard detour route. How will we know when the road is really closed? The signs from Highway 38 to the edge of Durant already tell us the road is closed. What can we expect to change with the signs when the road is really closed? Please dont have any of us drive out to a construction fence, like many of us did when the project originally started, and we were to look for a more reasonable detour route. Jon A. Koppenhaver Wilton

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