4/27/05

Wednesday, April 27, 2005

Mood tense over Lyle school levy

 LYLE -- Not everyone applauded when Les Norman finished speaking Tuesday night at the Lyle Fire Station.

Most did, but not all.

The Save Our School and Community faction went to an undisclosed location to plan their strategy to convince Lyle Independent School District voters to approve an $8.34 million bond referendum to update and remodel portions of the existing school facilities and build a new addition.

The Concerned Citizens For Lyle's Future committee remained behind to discuss their strategy to defeat the Tuesday, May 24, bond referendum.

Les Norman, the Lake Crystal-Welcome school district superintendent, went his way.

Paul Dorr, the man he warned Lyle about, stayed behind.

"Our goal on the SOS committee is to provide factual information to voters," Dean Rohne, co-chairman of the committee, said. "What we anticipate happening is that there will be skewered information to be presented voters to mislead them into voting 'No'. Our goal is for getting factual information to voters to make an informed decision. We have very smart voters in this school district and that's all we want to do: provide factual information."

Randy Fett, co-chairman, said, "One of the things I have for being in the community is a concern for it, and we feel we have a great community here."

"The Lyle Area Cancer Auction is a good case in point about how we can pull people together. Take the school out of this town would completely ruin this fine community," Fett said.

For three consecutive times, a school referendum has failed in Lyle. In previous referendums individuals have on their own sponsored "Vote 'yes'" ads to encourage voters to support the referendum. This is the first time an organized campaign has been mounted to encourage that support.

The SOS committee invited Norman to speak. Norman did so without compensation other than mileage.

Lyle school superintendent Jerry Reshetar and principal Royce Helmbrecht did not attend the meeting. Both remain neutral, according to Rohne and Fett.

It might appear that raising money for a campaign designed first to support the referendum, but secondly to counteract the perceived negative influence that the opposition's standard-bearer, Paul Dorr, is bringing to the battle is an act of desperation.

"Yes, we are," said Fett. "He is splitting our community. He's going to come in; he's going to try to tear the community apart. It's hard to sit back and watch that happen."

Norman detailed how the Lake Crystal-Welcome school district -- a consolidated version of five individual school districts near Mankato -- faced a similar situation as the residents of Lyle.

"People do not want to lose their school," Norman said echoing a thought heard often in Lyle.

Faced with declining enrollment, aging buildings and the emotional wish to save their school, the voters went to the polls six times and saw referendums fail each time.

Finally, one was passed last fall and now a new 7th through 12th grade school is going to be constructed, Norman said.

That occurred despite the best efforts of Dorr, who lives at Ocheyedan in northwest Iowa and has gained a reputation as a hired gun, taking aim at defeating school referendums in the name of saving taxpayers' money.

"His tactics are very, very effective. He's excellent at what he does," Norman said.

What Dorr does is polarize a community, according to the superintendent.

"Your community is going to be divided as a result of Paul Dorr being here," Norman said.

Norman said that while school districts and their officials must deal only in facts, opponents, such as door, can deal in opinions.

In front of a crowd of over 120 people, Norman proceeded to detail how Door sells his services to those people fighting school referendums.

"He leaves a trail of divided communities with no remorse," Norman said of Dorr's tactics.

Alternating between a blistering attack on Dorr, Norman concluded his remarks saying, "You have an individual here that really knows what he is doing."

Despite SOS co-chairman Fett's invitation to the crowd to ask questions, there were none.

Dorr's children handed out pamphlets for the Concerned Citizens For Lyle's Future committee outside the fire station. Dorr himself entered the building after Norman's presentation ended.

Dorr and Norman greeted each other amiably.

On his way from the fire station, Norman said he has visited two other Minnesota communities where Dorr is helping organizing similar campaigns.

He denied he is obsessed with Dorr. "This is information I had to put together in order to run an effective bond referendum campaign for the Lake Crystal-Welcome bond referendum. We just had to figure out ways to prevail," he said.

Construction on the new Lake Crystal-Welcome school building begins next month.

Dorr declined to talk, but referred questions to the Concerned Citizens For Lyle's Future committee co-chairman, John Fossey (Lowell Franzen is the other co-chairman).

"We want to keep the school district viable as long as possible," Fossey said, reading from a prepared statement. "The majority of our school board is giving us two options: build a new building or close the school We think there are other options, which include keeping the school we have," Fossey said.

"Grand Meadow and Blue Earth have proved that building a new school will not protect enrollment or financial condition," Fossey said. "Fifteen million of debt obligation stacked against our school will be the straw that breaks the camel's back."

"The best thing to do for our children is to vote this thing down," he said.

"Our plan increased the financial likelihood that our district will survive and not have the financial problems they have in other districts and sets a good financial example for children that they don't need to borrow and spend just because someone will lend them the money."

"Paul Dorr is not the issue. He can take care of himself," Fossey concluded.

The opponents of the Lyle referendum have been organized for about a month.

Fossey said he believes the Concerned Citizens committee is in an "underdog" position at this time, but as far as accusations go that the community of Lyle is being polarized, Fossey said that happened one, two or three referendums ago.

"This community has been divided over this issue. This will be the fourth vote and how many times do we have to say 'No?'" said Fossey, a Lyle native and Lyle High School graduate.

Fossey's solution to Lyle's school building woes: "Keep what we got and fix it up and clean it up and repair what needs to be repaired."