Friday, December 16, 2016

New Bench at Edgar Rec




Lots of improvements are happening at Edgar Recreation Center in Exeter.  The Exeter GFWC Woman's Club recently purchased and installed this bench near the playground equipment at the park.  The bench was purchased with memorial funds from the Marilyn Manning family along with funds the local club received from their District committee. Additionaly, some of the playground equipment has been updated, repaired and repainted by United Methodist church members.

Thursday, December 15, 2016

Exeter Village Board Signs Contract With JEO for Designs



By Leesa K. Bartu

Exeter Village Board members opened their meeting on Wednesday, December 7 with the reelected members, Mitch Schlegelmilch, Kathy Erdkamp and Alan Michl, reciting the oath of office.

The board once again nominated Alan Michl as Chairman and Tim Wilbeck as Vice Chair.  Both were reelected to their current positions.  The board also reviewed the appointments on various committees of the village.  After a brief discussion the board approved the assignments with a few changes.

Next on the agenda was a presentation from Steve Parr and Nathan Boone from JEO to review the progress on the downtown revitalization and street paving agreements.

The projects were divided into two separate agreements.  Parr was looking for the board to approve the design phase of the project.  He emphasized that once the design is complete the board can decide when and if construction will take place. 

Parr estimated that the total costs for the downtown revitalization construction would be in the $650,000 range.   This would include new lighting and sidewalks downtown along with quite a bit of water main work.

LED lighting could bring a large cost savings to the village, according to Parr.  He noted that Schuyler, Neb.  had replaced all of their lighting with LED and were anticipating a 10 year payback in the whole town. “It was more like a four or five year payback.  That is something we are not pushing it is just more efficient with better energy savings.”

Next Parr moved on to the street improvement project.  The JEO estimate included some geotechnical investigation. “We will do a sample boring on each street so that we can see what the substrate is.  This will limit the unknowns,” explained Parr.

JEO estimates the paving project will come in around $1.4 million but emphasized that cost estimates are very preliminary at this time.

The plans will include designs to pave current streets in town that are unpaved including the block on Union Avenue from Tecumseh Street to Seneca Street, another on Burlington Avenue from Maplewood Street to Liberty Street and also on River Avenue from Otoe Street to Kiowa Street.
Several streets are scheduled for repaving and Chairman Michl clarified the fact that homeowners would not have any costs where the village is repaving since those projects are maintenance related.

The board approved the contract to hire JEO to design the downtown revitalization project and the street improvement project.

The board discussed the current maintenance tractor used by the village which is 20 years old and has 2300 hours.  Clerk Becky Erdkamp reviewed the current financial situation of the village noting that the village has retired some debt but has also purchased some recent assets.

Maintenance Supervisor John Mueller reported to the board that the price he was quoted was $49,250 with a trade in of $8000 for the current tractor. The tractor quoted included a loader bucket.

The board discussed waiting an additional year to replace the tractor but after reviewing financing opted to purchase the tractor with a loader attachment this year.

Clerk Erdkamp received a request from the cemetery board to increase the pay for the secretary/treasurer from $88.25 a month to $125 a month.  The board approved this effective January 1.

The board asked Maintenance Supervisor Mueller about the progress on the ballfield project.  He reported that the new infield is in place, the sprinklers are in, the fence is back up and there are just some small clumps of clay in the infield that should melt away.

Board Member Justin Harre commented, “I am happy we got it done when we did because it will pack down over the winter.”

Clerk Erdkamp reported that $15,597.20 has been spent on the ballfield update.  The Exeter Community Foundation has indicated they will donate $7,500 toward the project. She also reported that sales tax for the month of September was $8542.00 and Keno for October was $378.92.

Erdkamp noted that the landline is not working in the fire hall and the police department phone is rarely used.  The board opted to disconnect both the fire hall and the police line.

Erdkamp had requests recently from two different people wanting to bring trailer houses into the village which is not allowed.  She notified the county zoning administrator that the village does not allow them.  The next meeting was scheduled for January 4.

Wednesday, December 14, 2016

Exeter-Milligan splits with Friend in home stand



The Friend Bulldogs definitely dogged the Exeter-Milligan Timberwolves Tuesday night in Exeter.  The first  quarter of the girls Game found the Timberwolves just trailing the Bulldogs but one until Sophomore Kate Jansky sunk a three pointer at the buzzer to give E-M the lead 12-10.  The girls were only up by two at the half 21-19.  Regulation finished with a nailbiter tie 40-40 so it was off to overtime.  The E-M girls dominated the overtime winning 46-40.  Above: KK White handles the ball for Exeter-Milligan while Raeleigh Menke follows.
below:  Samantha Horne (with the ball) finds a way out from the pack of bulldogs to find the net.



Above: Sidney Hall tries to hang on to the ball with #14 Brooke Baugh and #2 Claire Kubicek trying to strip the ball away.

Above: Samantha Horne throws a pass out from under the basket while Hailey Luzum, below, dribbles the ball.

Sydney, above and below working the ball in traffic,

The Bulldogs were too much for the Exeter-Milligan boys team/  The first quarter ended with Friend up 12-9 and at half it was 28-23 with Friend ahead.  They bulldogs pulled ahead the third and fourth quarter winning 59-42.  Above, Trevor Luzum, gets the ball out before the Bulldogs get him.
Cameron White hits the hoop for two above the Friend players and below, Eric Olsen beats Kolby Holden down the court.

Above: Patrick Murphy hit the hoop for two points and below Max Zeleny looks for an open player.

Above: Seth Maxson gets ready to pass the ball and below Patrick Murphy shoots one of his three point specials.

Above: Spencer Pribyl shoots on the line after he is fouled and below Eric Olsen takes some time to see where he wants to pass the ball.

Above: Patrick Murphy shoots and below Caleb Horne watches the progress of a shot.

Exeter Community Guide Page 9 and 10



The entire Exeter Community Guide is available to read under the tabs at the top of the website.

Tuesday, December 13, 2016

Exeter-Milligan Update: Sixth Graders Recycle



Ms. Katherine Roemmich and sixth grade students have joined together to promote recycling among students, teachers, and staff at Exeter-Milligan.  Once a week, students volunteer their time to pick up boxes of paper.  Students then gather all the paper together to be sent to a recycling center.  Students Sophia Gilliam and Jozie Kanode, are pictured gathering full boxes of paper collected by the office staff, as well as 3rd grade, 4th grade, 5th grade, and 6th grade students and teachers.

Monday, December 12, 2016

Exeter-Milligan Splits against Heartland Friday Night


The Lady Timberwolves extended their win record Friday night at home versus the Class D-1 Heartland Huskies. The Timberwolves held on to the lead that they had during the entire game but the final score ended just like the first quarter, ahead by one point.  The final at the buzzer was Timberwolves 55-54 Huskies.

Above: Exeter-Milligan’s KK White shoots around Heartland #20 Megan Kroeker for two points in their one point win over the Huskies Friday night in Exeter. Below: KK goes up for another two.


15 – Hannah Beethe controls the ball for the Timberwolves in an exciting fourth quarter in Exeter against the Heartland Huskies.  The Timberwolves kept their lead by one point at the final buzzer.




 Sydney Hall takes stock of her options on the court above before taking a shot below.

 Timberwolf Samantha Horne handles the ball around Huskie #12 Katie Bergen.  The Timberwolves were up by over ten points during the third quarter but the Huskies came back in the fourth to make an exciting few minutes for the crowd in Exeter.  The Timberwolves came out on top by one point.
 Above: Sydney Hall is watched by the Huskies as she puts another two points up while below Kate Jansky shoots another three!

 Above: Kate Jansky is hounded by some Huskies.  Below:  Hannah Beethe dribbles around two Huskies and hits the hoop for two.

 Anna Sluka handles the ball during the third quarter.
 The Timberwolf boys had a rough first quarter with their first points of the game coming from the foul line from Cameron White.  The T-wolves were down by19 points at the half and never came close to the Huskies.  The final score was 65-36 during the Friday night match-up.
Above Seth Maxson brings the ball into play for the Timberwolves.
Below:  Eric Olsen dribbles the ball around Heartland’s #1 Austin Stuhr during Friday night’s matchup in Exeter.


Above: Patrick Murphy put the first three pointer on the board for the Timberwolves. Below: Murphy gets a fast break down the court.

 Above: Trevor Luzum heads for the hoop for two while below Cameron White fights his way through traffic for another two points.

 White sends another ball toward the hoop.


Above: Colton Bossaller goes up for two points before #22 Ben Driewer knocks it away during Friday night’s game with the Heartland Huskies.
Below: Cameron White #42 looks for a way around #22 Ben Driewer during the Timberwolves loss to Heartland Friday night.

 Trevor Luzum rises above the Huskies to sink another bucket in the second half.
Eric Olsen looks for some room to move around the Huskies.

Sunday, December 11, 2016

Exeter Cemetery Clean-up



Over 35 people from Exeter and the surround community members took advantage of the long Thanksgiving weekend to spend some time at the Exeter Cemetery cleaning the windbreaks.  Many uninvited trees had grown into the windbreak and the crew spent the morning and part of the afternoon cleaning up the overgrowth.  Many volunteers brought their chainsaws and other equipment to make quick work of the mess.  The crew were also provided with lunch on the beautiful day.