Exeter Days - Art in the Park

Liberty Johnson (right) helps create with some art in the park attendees.

 

Art from Friday night's activity was displayed in the park on Saturday morning.

 For Exeter Days attendees Saturday morning was “Art in the Park.”  All kinds of art was displayed for purchase at nine different booths featuring everything from paintings, photography to fiber art, mugs and Bible Journaling.  Heidi Chapman was painting through the morning at her booth and had some of her work available for sale.

Chezney Kanode (far left), Brynnlee Johnson (middle) and Hannah Petersen look over the items at the booth “Trust Jesus, Hun,” by Daisy Kanode.  The girls learned all about Bible Journaling and made a bookmark.

Lunch was food truck time in the park.

 Kollin Harre does the painting activity in the park with some of the high school art students.

Throwback Thursday 07/29/2012

 

07/29/2012

The parsonage and the pulpit are filled at the Exeter United Methodist Church after being empty for a few months.

 

Glen Holtz, a Nebraska native, recently pastored at Ceresco and Valpraiso and is now ministering to the flocks at the Exeter and the McCool Junction United Methodist Churches.

 

Pool Hours Change Soon

The Exeter Aquatic Center will close for the season on September 3rd.

Starting the week of August 13th the pool will be open MWF from  4:00 - 7:00 with no dinner break. Sunday's they will be open from 1:30 - 7:00 with a dinner break from 4:30- 5:30. 

Not only did Exeter-Milligan graduate Claire White play in the All Star Volleyball game this summer but she was coached by Exeter graduate Craig Songster.  

Exeter Days - Dinner and a Movie

Everyone enjoyed the free burger supper at the Legion sponsored by the Exeter Area Community Foundation.

 It was time to get ready for the movie with some fun glow in the dark body paint sponsored by the Exeter-Milligan Booster Club.  Chezney Kanode paints on Westin Yound as they wait for the movie to start.

Kolbie Kahlandt watches as Lisa Kanode paints one more layer of glow in the dark paint on the heart on her leg.

Exeter Librarian Cindy Markowski does double duty as she makes cotton candy and snow cones before the movie night.  All of the proceeds went to the Exeter Library.  Markowski was busy making both at various locations throughout the weekend.

Emmet Schlegelmilch was eagerly awaiting his cotton candy with his mom, Mary Schlegelmilch.

Leo Nicholas, left, and Westin Yound, are all ready to watch the movie in downtown Exeter during Exeter Days.

  “E.T.” was the show to watch when it got dark in Exeter on Friday night during Exeter days.

 

 

There were definitely “Small Town Vibes” in Exeter last weekend as the village held their annual summer celebration.  Instead of just a few select activities the weekend was packed with fun for the whole family.

About a month ago, Exeter resident, Sara Pella decided she wanted to see how she could expand on the traditional weekend activities and from there the event exploded adding tons of art activities along with a triathlon,  a 3 on 3 basketball tournament and so much more.

The weekend began with the traditional meal at the legion which was sponsored by the Exeter Area Community Foundation.  There was also a “seltzer sippin’” event which allowed those 21 and over to taste a new alcohol product sold by Greg’s Market.

Inside the legion an art activity was added to the evening which allowed everyone to make an ET picture to go with the movie.  Before the movie started there were snow cones and cotton candy (with proceeds going to the library) and glow in the dark body paint sponsored by the Exeter-Milligan Booster Club.

Lawn chairs were set up and popcorn was passed around in anticipation of the showing of E T on the side of the Live Well Massage building.

Saturday morning was also full of activities with a co-ed softball tournament, beer mile, garage sales, art in the park which included vendors, an art display and art activities.  The pool was also open for a free swim with games and prizes donated by Twisted Wrench.

There were also a bookmobile and food trucks at the park.  In the afternoon, Handy Hands 4H club sold soft serve ice cream downtown which was sponsored by Manning Grain.  A corn hole tournament was held behind the Fire Hall with over 40 teams entered.

The parade started at 3 p.m. with Exeter resident Jameson Trauger singing the national anthem as the Color Guard stopped in front of the Legion.  Trauger then announced the rest of the entries in the parade.  The parade entrants threw out tons of candy along with popsicles, stickers and tattoos. 

Another new event, the three on three basketball tournament was very popular.  There were four divisions of players and the tournament went on for over four hours before all the winners were crowned.

Before the street dance, the senior center sponsored bingo and the Exeter Women’s Club sold slices of pie.  The Exeter Volunteer Fire Department served a bbq pork dinner which sold out quickly.  The beer garden was open at five p.m. and “Dad Rock” took the stage from 8 p.m. until midnight.

Sunday morning started with a community church service in the park by Pastor Murry Johnston of the Exeter United Methodist Church.  Next on the schedule was the first ever Triathlon sponsored by the Exeter Area Community Foundation.  Each age group had to swim, ride their bike and run a course through the south side of Exeter.  As the age increased, so did the length of each portion of their triathlon. 

Also at Gilberts park there was face painting by the Exeter-Milligan cheerleaders, cotton candy and snow cones, miniature horse rides and the pool was open for free swim.

Pella had a long list of people to thank including the many sponsors for the different events.  She also noted that several of the ideas for events came from Lisa Kanode who was instrumental in setting up many of the art activities along with introducing the idea of the triathlon to Pella.

All in all it was truly a fun filled family weekend definitely packed with “Small Town Vibes.”

 

 

Exeter-Milligan School Board Hears Coaches Proposal

 

Exeter-Milligan school board opened two hearings, for student fees and parental involvement, just prior to opening their regularly scheduled monthly meeting.  There were no comments on the hearings, so the board moved on to open the regular meeting and approve the consensus agenda.

Next on the agenda, the board welcomed coaches from both Exeter-Milligan and Friend who were representing  a committee of all the coaches from both districts. From Friend, Brian Arp and Exeter-Milligan, Brian Murphy.  Friend Superintendent Derek Anderson was also present at the meeting.

Murphy and Arp used a power point slideshow to highlight the results of the April 8 meeting of all of the head coaches in both districts along with a May 13 subcommittee meeting with representatives of both schools.

The power point outlined a proposal for the two districts to coop all activities starting with the 2023-24 school year.  They highlighted some of the benefits of the proposed coop including a higher level of competition, more athletes for practice, more opportunities to play opponents on the same level, students able to bond and make friends with more kids with similar interests and coaches able to focus on coaching fewer sports.

One concern they expressed was the increase in travel time for practices.

The presentation then outlined how the committee saw the activities would be distributed with each district being the primary listed with NSAA.

Fall Activities:

Girls Golf- Friend

Softball – No change FC/E-M/F coop to continue

Volleyball – Exeter-Milligan – home varsity matches played in Friend

One Act – Friend – performed in Exeter and Friend

Winter activities

Basketball – Friend – varsity games played in Friend

Wrestling - Friend

Speech – Exeter-Milligan

Spring activities

Boys golf -Friend

Track and Field – Friend

Murphy did note that with the coop Junior High sports practices would be held after school.  They also explained that most junior varsity and junior high practices and game locations had been discussed but would either be decided based on the number of students participated from each district (to avoid the need for a bus for transportation) or by the coaches and administration.

Board member Eric Milton asked about scheduling.  Murphy responded that even spring sports this year would not be possible, “We already have our contracts for our meet sent out to schools and they are signed.  If we are going to do this it would be good for coaches and kids to have a little closure.”

“You are going to have a lot of logistics,” added Arp, “uniforms and gyms . . .and there are a lot of other things that we are not thinking of that will be logistically dogmatic.”

The question was raised as to the latest a decision could be made about cooping and still fall under NSAA cut off dates.

Anderson responded noting that football is already set, “If we got a start in November or December after fall sports were completed we would be ok.”

Exeter-Milligan School Board president Adam Erdkamp commented, “Sooner would not hurt.”

“We have gone through and tried to think of all the things we would need to do but I am sure things will come up,” added Sheffield.

It was asked how the decision would be made as to which coaches would be retained.  Sheffield explained that anyone would be able to apply for the positions, “There would be an application process and as administrators we (Sheffield indicated himself and Anderson) would make that decisions.”

Erdkamp wanted to make sure that the audience understood that Friend and Exeter-Milligan have an upcoming area committee meeting at the end of July.

Arp and Murphy presented their power point to the Friend school board on Monday evening and Arp explained that most of the same questions were asked. 

Murphy concluded with one more positive about the coop, “If you have a large school you are more likely to have a coach that wants to come and start their teacher career and stick around.”

The board opened the meeting to public comment.  Jordan Marr, an Exeter-Milligan high school teacher expressed concern about the lack of proposed athletic events in Exeter.  “Perceptually patrons might not like that aspect of it.”

He was also concerned with the lack of concessions at Exeter-Milligan.  “As concessions manager we help kids get three-fifths of their funds from concessions. This could be a big hit to a lot of groups like band, cheerleading and FCCLA”.

Erdkamp responded, “Nothing has been decided the coaches just wanted to present their ideas.”

Sheffield added, “Derek and I have talked about it and we would work out a rotation for all classes and groups to benefit.”

As to the majority of the activities being held in Friend, Erdkamp commented, “The Friend site has benefits so that is why, logically, we would consider that. They just have the facilities.”

Another patron, Allison Petersen, asked why there were days in the upcoming school year where the elementary had no classes but the middle and high school is in session.

Principal Laura Kroll explained that the district is using a new curriculum and needed extra days for training.

The board briefly discussed the 2022-23 preliminary budget. Sheffield explained the challenges with recent legislation which requires a levy hearing if you ask for an increase of more than two percent.

He also noted that the district is supposed to begin receiving revenue stream from the Milligan wind project but currently the Fillmore County Treasurer doesn’t have any numbers on that yet.

“I think that legislature will cap the tax asking at three percent in future legislation.  This will hamstring you down the line.  If you reduce it you can’t make it up,” explained Sheffield.

The district noted that it will continue to offer free admission to home contests.  The first home football game is at three p.m. in Friend because of the lack of officials.  Sheffield added that it would cost $1000 to guarantee officials for a Friday night game.

The Board approved a new transportation contract with A & M, Inc. Sheffield briefly explained the changes in the updated contract before the board approved the updated contract.

The playground installation was started on Wednesday and should take three weeks to assemble.  Sheffield’s only concern is the delay in the astro turf installation.

The board set the next meeting for Wednesday, August 10 at 8 p.m. in Milligan.