The Maple Creek Courier

Maple Creek, Wis. When the Maple Creek Lions light the charcoal Saturday morning for the Firemen's Picnic, it will mark 60 years since the club first sold a bratwurst off a borrowed grill at the 1966 county fair. The stand has moved twice, burned once, and outlived every other food vendor on the grounds. One thing has not changed: Elmer "Bud" Steckbauer, 84, will be working the grill.

Steckbauer joined the Lions in 1965 and took over the tongs two years later when the club's first grillman, the late Harold Pfeiffer, was called away mid-shift to fight a barn fire. He has held the post ever since, through six grills and, by his own arithmetic, something north of 200,000 brats. "People ask when I'm going to hand over the tongs," he said Monday, seasoning the new grate in his driveway. "I tell them the same thing every year. The day I burn one."

Proceeds from the stand have bought eyeglasses for schoolchildren, two sets of rescue tools for the fire district, and the scoreboard at the Legion field. Club president Diane Ott said the Lions will mark the anniversary Saturday by selling brats at the 1966 price, 35 cents, for the first hour. "After that," Ott said, "Bud's prices apply."

Marshfield, Wis. The Maple Creek Middle School robotics team qualified for the state tournament Saturday, placing second of 31 teams at the regional in Marshfield and earning the school's first state berth in the program's nine years. The team of six seventh and eighth graders will compete in La Crosse on Aug. 15.

The qualifying run nearly did not happen. The robot's lifting arm failed during the semifinal round, and the team rebuilt its gear linkage in the hallway between matches. "These kids debugged that arm on the floor of a middle school hallway with five minutes on the clock," said coach Melissa Trantow, who teaches science at the school. "I have watched grown engineers handle less with more panic."

Team captain Owen Zickert, 13, credited the fix to spare parts donated last fall by Maple Creek Machine. The school board voted Monday to cover the team's travel costs, and the Lions Club has pledged the entry fee. A send-off is planned at the school Aug. 13.

Athens, Wis. Maple Creek Post 214 let a late lead slip in the opener and never found one in the nightcap Sunday, falling 4 to 2 and 8 to 5 to Athens in Legion baseball. The losses drop Post 214 to 9 and 7 with two weeks left before the district tournament.

In game one, starter Mitch Dorner carried a 2 to 1 lead into the sixth before two errors and a wind-blown double let in three unearned runs. Dorner went the distance, striking out seven and walking one. Tanner Kowalski had three of Maple Creek's six hits, including a double off the fence in left that scored both runs. "Mitch deserved better," said manager Phil Servais. "We kicked it around behind him and that is the whole story of that game."

The nightcap got away early. Athens hung five runs on reliever Cade Bruesewitz in the second, and Maple Creek's rally in the seventh, capped by Kowalski's two-run single, came up three short. Post 214 hosts Edgar at 7 p.m. Thursday at the Legion field. The Lions stand will be open.

Maple Creek, Wis. The village board voted 5 to 1 Tuesday to drill a third municipal well on village-owned land off Sanitorium Road, ending two years of study and putting a number on what it will cost: about $38 a year on the average home's tax bill, plus $4.75 a month on the water portion of the utility bill starting in January.

The $2.1 million project will be financed over 20 years. Board president Larry Schueller said the board looked hard at cheaper options and did not find one that held up. "Nobody up here enjoys raising your water bill," Schueller said. "But Well No. 1 is 71 years old, and when it goes down we are one pump failure away from a boil order. That is not a place a village should sit."

Trustee Ken Bloedorn cast the lone no vote, saying he wanted the question put to referendum. Drilling is expected to begin in October, with the well online by next summer. The full ordinance adopting the new rates appears in the legal notices in this issue.

Maple Creek, Wis. A young black bear ambled across the elementary school playground about 6:40 a.m. Friday, crossed Birch Street, and was last seen headed west along the creek, according to the Marathon County Sheriff's Office. No children were on the grounds at that hour, and summer school opened on schedule.

DNR wildlife biologist Sarah Kuklinski said the bear is likely a yearling pushed out to find its own territory, and that it showed no interest in people. "This is normal dispersal behavior for late June and July," Kuklinski said in a statement. Residents are asked to secure bird feeders, again, along with garbage cans and grill grease trays, until the bear clears the area.