Judge vows he will rule soon to resolve issue

HARTINGTON — An answer to the freeholding fiasco may be just down the road.

A decision out of District Court in Cedar County cannot come soon enough for the Wynot School District.

According to County Assessor Don Hoesing, additional petitions asking to have land transferred out of the Wynot District were filed last month.

Five Coleridge teens ended up in the hospital after the car they were driving ended up in a ditch southwest of Coleridge Friday morning. After losing control on a gravel road, the car rolled and slid down a steep embankment before coming to rest on its wheels. Three of the four teens, driver Melissa Hoffart, her brother Ben Hoffart and Clinton Wemhoff were transported to Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City by LifeNet crews from Sioux City and Norfolk. Two other passengers, Morgan Arduser and Haley Hefner were transported by ambulance to Avera Sacred Heart Hospital in Yankton. Arduser, Hefner, Wemhoff and Ben Hoffart, have been released from the hospital. Melissa Hoffart remains hospitalized but is expected to be released early next week. Emergency crews from Coleridge and Hartington responded to the accident.

HARTINGTON — Dean and Lisa Burbach’s dream became a reality last year when they ventured into marketing their own dairy products.

Burbach’s Countryside Dairy, which is located southeast of Hartington, started filling re-usable glass bottles with their farm fresh milk at the end of September.

They have now expanded on that dream. Countryside Dairy has added flavored milk to their products.

HARTINGTON — The tragic death of a young Hartington woman last week, has left the community in grief and asking questions.

Janell Burbach, 20, died Wednesday at Mercy Medical Center in Sioux City, Iowa after she contracted bacterial meningitis.

She was life-flighted to the Sioux City hospital Tuesday afternoon.

Burbach was the 2005 Cedar Catholic Valedictorian and was enrolled as a junior music major at the University of South Dakota.

HARTINGTON — A report the Hartington School Board received from the Faculty Absentee Committee (FAC) at its Monday meeting raised a series of questions.

The situation where students will not receive credit for a class due to failure to provide necessary documentation of absences was discussed.

The students, whose names were not part of the public record, will be allowed to retake the class next year.

HARTINGTON — Ideas are still coming out of a May 22 meeting with area school board members.

Three Hartington School Board members, along with school administration, met with representatives from the Coleridge and Wynot School Boards and administration that day.

The meeting, which lasted for three hours, was a good positive meeting according to Hartington board member Colin Kathol.

HARTINGTON — Several Cedar County taxpayers will be seeing a change in their real estate taxes, which come due on May 1st of next year.

The Cedar County Assessor’s Office mailed out 3,800 valuation change notices to property owners the end of May.

“Property owners received a notice if their value went up or down from the prior year,” said Deputy County Assessor Joyce Gentrup.

Deanna Anderson, Cedar County News

HARTINGTON — Recent letters to the Cedar County Historical Society used the words ‘sweet’ and ‘cool’ to describe note-worthy items visitors can see at the Cedar County Museum in Hartington.

Letters from students at the Hartington and Randolph Public Schools who had visited the museum were read at the Cedar County Historical Society meeting Thursday evening.

A favorite item of the students from both schools seemed to be a two-headed pig.

HARTINGTON — People that purchased engraved bricks as part of the Park Enhancement fundraising campaign, can now view their personalized engraved bricks in the courtyard surrounding the new water fountain in Felber Park next to the gazebo.

According to the Park Enhancement Project Coordinator Dan Kathol, a total of 303 engraved bricks were sold and cemented in last week by Bill Hochstein, a local masonry contractor.

In addition, there were 510 plain bricks placed with the engraved bricks to complete the brick courtyard.