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Steele County News/Page B1

Serving Blooming Prairie

and the Four-County Area

since 1893TheheT imesmesVol. 120, No. 9

Steele County’s Only Community Weekly Newspaper

Protecting our children

EMERGENCYContinued on Page A4

RESELANDContinued on Page 3A

Bikers and Buddy Bears in Blooming Prairie United Way kick-off event announced

Times photo by Troy Thompson

Members of the Flatlanders motorcycle club presented the Blooming Prairie Fire Department, Police and Ambulance with teddy bears as part of the ‘Buddy Bears’ program. The program provides the bears to injured children during emergency responses to as-sist in helping them through an incident. A.B.A.T.E. Minnesota and the Flatlanders have been providing the bears for more than 20 years. The presentation was held after the club’s Buddy Bear run on Saturday, Aug. 18. Representing Blooming Prairie’s emergency services, with the teddy bears, from left: David Wradislavsky, Rick Hansen, Nola Wradislavsky and Jake Peterson. Dan Bye and Mi-chele Legried presented the bears on behalf of the Flatlanders.

New emergency notifi cationsystem for Steele Co.

By DENNIS OTTOSENCounty Writer

A new emergency alert sys-tem called Everbridge went into effect for Steele and Rice coun-ties on Friday. Compared to the old system, Everbridge can alert more people, faster, in the case of an emergency.

Mike Johnson, Owatonna fi re chief, said during times of emer-gency citizens are looking for information and with this sys-tem it will be readily available.

“We feel that it’s going to be more effi cient in putting out emergency notifi cations faster in our community,” Johnson said. “Our mission is to save lives and property,” Johnson said. “With this system that’s our goal.”

The system is easier to use as well, giving offi cials the ability to activate the system remotely from handheld device like a cell phone or iPads.

“You don’t have to be in the 911 center to send out an imme-diate message if there’s a threat to a person or property within Rice and Steele counties,” Boy-er said.

To receive alerts residents of Steele and Rice counties must go online and submit their cell phone, landline, email, work phone, or school phone to be contacted during an alert. Tim Boyer, administrator of the Rice – Steele 911 Center, encouraged everyone to sign up for the new alert system. He said the system allows a person to register to get alerts for up to fi ve locations.

“The system is only as good as the data that’s put in,” Boyer said. “The hope is that majority of constituents in both counties provide data for the system.”

The new system involves fi ve entities: the sheriff ‘s offi ces in Steele and Rice counties as well as Faribault, Northfi eld and Owatonna police.

The 2012 United Way cam-paign kick-off will be held on Tuesday, Aug. 28 in Bloom-ing Prairie. The event will take place at the Pizza Cellar from 6 to 8 p.m.

US Bank in Blooming Prai-rie and Owatonna is this year’s corporate campaign leader. Bank president Corey Men-sink and branch manager Katie Smith have been tapped from US Bank to lead the campaign.

Locally, the United Way supports approximately 20 programs through funding provided in part by the annual campaign.

The Boys & Girls Club of Blooming Prairie is a Unit-ed Way recipient, as are Big Brothers and Big Sisters of Southern Minnesota, the Steele

County Crisis Resource Center and Food Shelf.

This is United Way’s 125th year of their annual fund-rais-ing campaign. The leadership and support organization cur-rently boasts approximately 1,800 community-based chap-ters in 45 countries and terri-tories.

United Way is celebrating 125 years with a LIVE UNIT-ED campaign.

This year’s United Way goal is to raise $750,00 in support of programs like those mentioned, and many more.

The public is invited to attend the kick-off event and enjoy free pizza and live entertain-ment by the Tuition Daddies.

The Steele County Block Party kick-off event is free.

By RICK BUSSLER Publisher

Sadness fi lled the air midway through last week’s Steele County Free Fair in Owatonna as one of the fair’s greatest icons ever passed away just hours after making sure the fair was in good hands for another successful season.

Elmer Reseland, 76, who was the manag-er of the fair for 18 years until last October, died at his home in Owatonna. Even though he had retired, Reseland was still active in this year’s fair as he ran the carnival opera-tions for the fair board.

The fair observed a moment of silence in Reseland’s honor Saturday afternoon. The midway shut down rides and concessionaires were asked to stand in front of their stands while an announcement boomed across the public address system at 3:30 p.m. The con-cessionaires placed a wreath on the fl ag pole in Fair Square in his memory.

On Friday, Reseland had just taken a pho-tograph with the fair board around 2:30 p.m. He had left for home to take a nap and died just hours later in his sleep.

“It is a sad day for all of us. It’s unbeliev-able,” said Todd Hale, publicity director for the fair and longtime friend of Reseland’s. “He put his life into this fair. He is just a

legend statewide,” he said.Darrell Hansen, who is the general man-

ager of Frontier Communications and one of the fair’s many vendors, was shocked to fi nd out about the passing of Reseland during the fair.

“It just broke my heart,” Hansen said. “He is a legend and pillar of this fair.”

Hansen said Reseland went to great lengths to make sure all vendors were satis-fi ed and well taken care of. “He had such a caring personality and a concern to make sure everyone was happy.”

Well-respected legend passes away during Steele County Fair

Times photo by Rick Bussler

Current Steele County Fair president Corky Ebeling, left, is consoled by a fair concession worker during a memorial service for long-time fair manager Elmer Reseland. Reselend passed away just hours after making sure the 2012 Steele County Fair was in good hands for another successful season.

Record crowd attends 2012 fair

By RICK BUSSLER Publisher

The biggest reunion in the state of the union just a little big-ger.

This year’s Steele County Free Fair set yet another all-time record attendance. The six-day fair attracted an estimated crowd of 321,926, according to fair manager Jim Gleason.

The attendance was up about 5 percent from the previous year, clipping a record of 306,000 set in 2011.

Gleason attributed this year’s record to ideal weather and the fair’s new midway.

“We had perfect weather for the entire fair,” he said. “It was picture perfect.”

Even though Mega Ride ticket sales were down slightly, the overall carnival sales were up by more than 20 percent. The mid-way fi nished with an increase of $18,000 in revenue over 2011.

Gleason said many people commented about how good the carnival was this year. Fair of-fi cials hired Gold Star Amuse-ments of Minneapolis for the fi rst time and expanded the size of the midway by 20 percent.

The increased carnival sales “pointed out the fact that we did our homework and picked the right carnival,” Gleason said.

Because of the success achieved with Gold Star, the fair has extended its contract with the carnival through 2014, Glea-son said.

Fairgoers, he said, enjoyed the new look of the beer garden.“The outside canopy was a big hit,” Gleason said. “People liked it because they could visit more.”