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Wednesday, September 13, 2023
Albany City Council considers key hourly increases
Number 37
Volume 134
Pure
happiness
ATKINSON TO TALK ABOUT SPACE MISSIONS BOOK AT MELROSE LIBRARY
Melrose researching policing options ... pg. 3 Hiltner happy to carry on legacy ... pg. 7 ‘A Team’ has first baby boy in 2017 ... pg. 16 Gymnasts scoring with the best ... pg. 10
pg. 6
BY CAROL MOORMAN STAFF WRITER
Employee wages dominate preliminary budget discussion
O
ne-year-old Nile Luxem is changing lives. It might be through his BY TIM HENNAGIR infectious smile as he interacts with his STAFF WRITER parents, Jason Luxem and Crystal Altendahl, Employee hourly wage of Melrose, or when he is playing with his increases – in particular those siblings – Mackenzie, 12, and Dominic involving key staffers – domiTimp, 9, and Alexander Middendorf 6, Crysnated the Albany City Council’s tal’s children; and Kaylee Damhoff, 15, and Sept. 6 review of the prelimiErrin Luxem, 12, Jason’s children, who love nary 2024 budget. him dearly. Next year’s proposed budNile is a happy go-lucky baby boy who get includes an 8% employee loves eating puff cereal. He is reaching baby hourly wage increase. milestones, just at a little slower rate. City leaders directed “He refused to rollover at first and now interim city administrator Tom you can’t stop him from rolling over,” Jason Schneider to reconfigure wages said Sept. 6. above that 8% for deputy On Feb. 8, five months after Nile clerk Heather Cruz, part-time was born Sept. 4, 2022, he was diagadministrative office assistant nosed with Down syndrome, which Molly Hoppe and public works followed an infantile spasms diaglaborer Kurt Beuning. nosis, after he had seizures. “Those were the three the “He’s not a Down’s baby; council wanted adjusted to he’s a baby that has Down synbring them in line with what drome,” said Crystal, an advoprivate employers are paying,” cate for educating people about Schneider said. “The proposal children with special needs. “My for all employees is 8%. We goal for Nile is for him to be can’t have a serious staff retreated like any other kid and the duction like we did a year-andonly way that can happen is if I help a-half years, we ranto rise Monday, educate people on his diagnosis.” As theago. sunFor was starting Commercial aContractors really skinnyCompany administrative they learn workers from As Melrose wereabout in- Down syndrome, so department. We On can’tMain do that others.on securing side the Lisa’s buildingwill working anymore.” ThereMOORMAN was no indication before Nile’s the west wall. PHOTO BY CAROL Schneider was referring to birth that he had medical conditions. the 2020 retirement of Diane “Everything went great with my pregJesh, former administrative nancy,” Crystal said. “I had monthly checkassistant, and the 2022 resigups because I was considered advanced age nation of Dannielle Zierden, at 38.” administrative assistant. Their medical journey started when Nile had spasms, which they first thought were
COMMUNITY COVERAGE 127 YEARS
400 Block update
Melrose couple blessed to share life with son who has Down syndrome
Wages page 3
PHOTO BY CAROL MOORMAN
Crystal Altendahl and Jason Luxem hold their son, Nile, Sept. 6 inside their Melrose home. Nile, who was diagnosed with Down syndrome, brings pure happiness to their family.
from immunizations he received during a well-baby check. From the St. Cloud Hospital, they were referred to Children’s Minnesota Hospital in Minneapolis where it was determined he had infantile spasms, a rare but serious type of epilepsy that often looks like a sudden, brief stiffening of a baby’s
muscles. “It is more common in babies between four and 10 months,” Jason said. Nile was placed on large doses of Prednisone to decrease the seizures.
Sisters recall life at
Lux Farm Supply BY CAROL MOORMAN STAFF WRITER
Like many small Minnesota towns, Albany had numerous implement businesses years ago. Replicas of three – Schiffler Farm Equipment, Lux Farm Supply and Peternell Implement – have been constructed on the Stearns County Pioneer Club grounds in Albany and two of them will be open during the Sept. 14-17 Albany Pioneer Days in rural Albany. The Schiffler Implement building was showcased for the first time in 2022, with Lux Farm Supply this year and Peternell Implement slated for 2024. “It was our life,” sisters Carol Hallman, of Brooklyn Park, and Mary Luethmers, of Freeport, said in unison Sept. 5 talking about their family’s business, Lux Brothers Implement Co., later known as Lux Farm Supply. “We lived it,” Luethmers said. Lux Farm Supply was established in Albany in 1946 by their grandfather, Alex Lux, and their parents, Keith and Jean (Lux) Des Marais. At the time, the Lux brothers, Alex and Everett, had an implement business in Long
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Blessings page 3
Albany implement shops showcased at Albany Pioneer Days PHOTO BY CAROL MOORMAN
John (front, from left) and Mary Luethmers and Tony Scepaniak; and (back) Tom Blattner gather Sept. 8 in front of a replica of the Lux Farm Supply building, next to a replica of the Schiffler Implement building with the Peternell Implement building still under construction, on the Stearns County Pioneer Club grounds in rural Albany. The tractor was purchased by the Scepaniak family from Lux Farm Supply, which was owned by Mary Luethmers’ parents, and Blattner had it restored.
Prairie, and they were doing so well they wanted to expand into Albany, Hallman said. At the encouragement of Everett, Keith and Jean joined Alex and opened
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the business on main street in Albany selling John Deere farm machinery, Maytag machines and New Holland balers. Alex passed away in 1952 and their parents
their own niche,” Hallman said. The sisters recall farm machinery, which was much smaller at the time, displayed on a strip of open land just east of their main street building. When land became available, and with a growing business, in the 1970s Lux Farm Supply moved across Interstate 94, selling John Deere equipment and Maytag, where it remained until 1986 when their parents retired took over full ownership, Keith running operations and Jean doing and closed the business. the bookwork. “There were many implement Pioneer Days page 7 shops in town and everybody had
PUBLIC NOTICES Albany Area School Reg. Meeting, Sept. 13 Agenda ............... pg. 8 Albany Area School Special Meeting, Aug. 28......................... pg. 8 Albany Area School Work Session, Aug. 23 ............................. pg. 8 Stearns County Planning Commission Hearing ....................... pg. 8 City of Albany Refuse Fees Hearing ........................................ pg. 8 City of Albany Amendment to Ord. No. 71 .............................. pg. 8 Mortgage Foreclosure ............................................................ pg. 8
OBITUARIES page 4 Wilfred D. Hinnenkamp Duane A. Kleve Roselyn M. Lehner
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