News - March 11

Swift County Deputy John Holtz talked to the Kerkhoven City Council about a number of items and informed them to be alert for a scam that has involved two people in Swift County. He said the elderly get a call saying their grandson is in jail and they need to bail him out, then they ask for an amount of money and that it be wired to a specific place. He said it sounds very legit and apparently somebody else in Swift County has been scammed into that too.

Two policies were deleted by the New London Spicer School Board when it met this week. Supt. Paul Carlson says one was the copy write policy since they have another one in the manual they’ll be updating. The smoking in public places policy will be also deleted since they have a tobacco free environment policy. In other business. With the organization of the school calendar and school day they had a number of teacher contract days that were changed this year so they had to update their policy to reflect those changes.

The manager of the Runestone Community Center approached the Alexandria City Council with proposed bids for the new ice rink dasher board system at the center. They’re replacing the hockey boards around the ice. The low bidder was Becker Arena Products of Savage, Mn. With a bid of $109,000. The council approved the bids. The existing boards will be moved to the west rink.

The Alexandria City Council approved a request from a resident to be annexed into the city limits. City Administrator Jim Taddei says the individual wants to hook up to city water. The council will forward that request to LeGrande Township for its review and approval. The council also set a work session for March 29^th at six to review the proposed storm water management plan and ordinance.

March is Minnesota Food Share month and a big fundraising month for the food shelf according to Kristi Kurtz with the Willmar Area Food Shelf. She said they’re looking to raise 140,000 pounds and dollars during March, and that money can be matched by a grant through Minnesota Food Share. He said they’re looking for any type of donation anybody is able to provide. They’ve had over a 40 percent increase of service levels over the last two years and their neighbors in the community really rely on us and they rely on the people in the county to help them with the demand and to ensure that nobody goes hungry.

Tomorrow (Friday) Minnesota Farmers Union Vice President Gary Wertish will be in Iowa at the Department of Justice and United States Department of Agriculture’s workshop about competition and regulatory issues in agriculture. Wertish is hoping this workshop will be a first step in getting stricter restrictions on consolidation; more competition; and more price discovery for farmers and consumers.

Senator Joe Gimse says a couple pieces in the legislature are moving forward with solutions to some of the major issues. Included in those are the bonding bill and the GAMC (General Assistance Medical Care) health care coverage. They’re working on the bonding bill and have included parts of what the governor wants, especially when it comes to the Moose Lake Mental Health Facility. Gimse said he’s not convinced that it’s enough to get the governor completely on board and the fate of the bonding bill may hang in the balance yet at this point in time. That bill is still up in the air and it’s a billion dollar borrowing bill which in Gimse’s opinion is too large. He said it spends more than what they have appropriated in the budget bill.

Monday night the Litchfield School Board heard a presentation from Middle School students regarding their recent Science Fair. Supt. Bill Wold says the high school principal and several teachers also presented some information regarding some new courses for next year at the high school. In other business the Meet and Confer calendar committee gave a report. The board approved a calendar for 2010 and 2011. The board also heard a report from the Teacher assistance negotiations committee and approved an agreement.

Senator Joe Gimse says they’ll soon see a GAMC (General Assistance Medical Care) fix. Gimse says there are about 30,000 people enrolled in that program, most between the ages of 64 and 23. Gimse says a lot of them have mental illness problems or drug and alcohol related issues that keep them somewhat on that program. What the compromise will do is set up what they call coordinating care organizations, Gimse says, and Rice Memorial Hospital is one of 17 major hospitals around the state have been picked to be these coordinating care organizations. Gimse said the state will give that hospital a block grant, send them a chunk of money to cover the GAMC clients and they will have to determine how best to use that money in the treatment of these patients.

Elbow Lake Representative Torrey Westrom met last week with the Deputy Commissioner of Administration to discuss the three year debarment of Riley Brothers Construction Company. Westrom says nothing was accomplished during the meeting. Westrom has argued the decision should be modified because shutting the company out of state contracts punishes the whole company, and community, not just the individuals found guilty. Westrom says there have been over a thousand signatures in support of lessening the penalty and there are meetings in Washington, D.C. with federal officials this week. Last year, Joe and John Riley pleaded guilty in federal court to conspiracy to defraud the United States.

The Morris City Council approved advertising the East 2nd street improvement project beginning March 20th at Tuesday night's regular meeting. With no progress being made at the state level and talks still happening in Washington, the city has decided to move ahead with the project even though the Riley Brothers Company may not be able to bid on it. The bids will be presented at the April 27th council meeting.

Morris City Manager Blaine Hill reminded the council Tuesday night that the city could stand to lose $500,000 of its funding if Governor Pawlenty's cuts are approved. He said that legislators aren't hearing from constituents on the possible cuts which makes it easy for them to sign the legislation. The City receives about $360,000 dollars from property taxes and $2.3 million dollars from local government aid for a $3.4 million dollar operating budget. Without local government aid, Hill said, there will be no library, no museum, no community education, no plows and the County Sheriff's department would have to take over because there wouldn't be a police department either.

Jobless numbers jumped last month in area counties. The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development reports the seasonally unadjusted unemployment rate for Stevens County in January was up one-point-five percent to six-point-five percent. Rates for other area counties include: Big Stone 7.4 percent; Grant 11.6; Pope 8.8; Swift 9.0; and Traverse 7.7.

The Stevens County Commissioners will have the County Coordinator Job Description ready to be approved at the next board meeting. At Tuesday's work session the commissioners discussed the wording of responsibilities in detail. Jim Thoreen, current coordinator, says the new person should be aware that restructuring the county government is probably in the future due to the anticipated 5 or 6 billion dollar deficit for the biennium beginning July 2011. The board plans to have the final job description ready by March 16, advertise for the position by March 20th and review and cull applicants by April 13th.

19 year old Hope Devos of Canby is in critical condition following a head-on crash on Highway 68 west of Ghent in Lyon County. Devos was a passenger in a vehicle driven by 19 year old Kathryn Arends of Canby, who was treated and released. The other driver, 46 year old Lori Skaar of Minneota suffered non-life threatening injuries. According to the Minnesota State Patrol and the Lyon County Sheriff’s Office Arends lost control of her vehicle and collided with Devos head-on.

Yesterday (Wednesday) Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad reported they were in an accident with a semi truck and trailer south of Granite Falls. The Yellow Medicine County Sheriff’s Office, Minnesota State Patrol, Upper Sioux Police Department, Granite Falls Ambulance and Hanley Falls Fire and Rescue responded. According to the Yellow Medicine County Sheriffs’ Department the train struck the back end of the trailer as it was crossing the tracks and pushed it into the ditch. The driver, Allen Stengel of Hanley Falls, was not injured.

Meeker County Sheriff Jeff Norlin reminds remaining winter anglers and others using area lakes that ice is seldom 100 percent safe, especially on rivers. Judging ice by just looking at it can be deceiving says Norlin. Check on ice conditions with a local bait shop or resort on the lake or river you’re planning to visit. Also, winter anglers need to drill holes frequently to check thickness as they move out onto the ice, since ice thickness can vary considerably from one spot to another.

About 5000 Willmar Municipal Utilities customers were without power yesterday morning (Wednesday) because of a failed terminator. The outage happened at about 6:20 in the morning with power restored in about 20 minutes.

A Pope County Jury has found 35 year old Andrew Lemcke of Appleton guilty of second degree murder in the shooting death of his wife,  Nichole in 2004. A pre-sentence investigation has been ordered and Lemcke has been remanded into custody.

Representative Andrew Falk of rural Murdock to ‘Play it Forward,’ a new effort sponsored by the Minnesota Music Educators Association to get Minnesota youngsters involved in band and orchestra. Throughout the month of April the music association will be working with local schools to collect as many gently used instruments as possible, plus you’re encouraged to donate you used instruments directly to local schools. Falk says the program is free to every school in Minnesota, but the program’s success relies on local schools and area citizens’ participation.

Representative Alice Hausman, chair of the House Capital investment Committee, says it’s good news to thousands of out-of-work Minnesotans that the governor says he will sign the bonding bill. Hausman says there is so much at state, including all those people who were hoping there would be an infusion of funds into the jobs market, the construction jobs market. Now, she said, they have to pass it on the floor of the House and the Senate and then it goes to the Governor’s office. He will be doing some line item vetoing, she says, but they hope that is less rather than more because every project that’s line itemed means one project that doesn’t hire workers. Hausman said she looks forward to bringing the bill to the House floor today (Thursday).

The Minnesota Department of Human Services has released its plan to transform the mental health system by making access to psychiatric care more equitable across Minnesota. The changes include closure of the Community Behavioral Health Hospital in Cold Spring, which has not been operating since last October; temporary conversion of community behavioral health hospitals in Willmar and Wadena to Psychiatric Extensive Recovery Treatment Services; and conversion of Child and Adolescent Behavioral Health Services in Willmar to two child and adolescent psychiatric extensive recovery treatment facilities in Willmar and Bemidji.