News

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Negotiations on a lease agreement that would make Swift County-Benson Health Services part of CentraCare Health of St. Cloud and its subsidiary Carris Health are moving steadily forward.

Carris Health is based in Willmar. CentraCare sees Carris becoming a southern hub for its outreach to rural community hospitals. It would serve central and west central Minnesota hospitals.

While SCBHS would be branded as Carris Health-Benson as of Jan. 1 if the lease agreement is signed, it will be under the umbrella of CentraCare...

For more on this story, and to keep up on all the latest in area sports, subscribe to the Swift County Monitor-News print edition or our PDF internet edition. Call 320-843-4111 and you can get all the local news and sports delivered to you!

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

A decision on where the Benson-Kerkhoven-Murdock-Sunburg (BKMS) gymnastics program home will be could be decided at the Monday night District 777 Board of Education meeting.

At that meeting, the school board should have costs estimates for constructing a building that is currently estimated at $1.5 million. Several school board members have said that cost could be closer to $1.2 million. The cost would be financed over 10 or 15 years.

At its Dec. 2 meeting, the school board voted 6-1 to not sign a 10-year lease agreement with the City of Benson for the north end of the civic center.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

No plans are yet being developed to address what the Swift County Board of Commissioners know are pressing space needs in some of its buildings and security issues for employees.

At the Tuesday, Dec. 3, board meeting Commission Chair Gary Hendrickx, District 1-Appleton, said that the building committee had met seeking input from department heads.

Based on discussions with its staff and the input of the Citizens Perspective Committee, the county board is focusing on the basement of the Law Enforcement Center...

For more on this story, and to keep up on all the latest in area sports, subscribe to the Swift County Monitor-News print edition or our PDF internet edition. Call 320-843-4111 and you can get all the local news and sports delivered to you!

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

At the start of each Swift County Board of Commissioners meeting, each of the five commissioners gives a report about their service on the other boards and commissions they serve on.

Those reports can deal with Swift County-Benson Health Services, 6W Community Corrections, Swift County Human Services, Countryside Public Health, watershed and joint ditch meetings, and other boards with which the county has a working relationship. Those boards representing services the county gets, programs it supports, and water issues that can span multiple counties.

 “It is only right for us to do that to communicate to the public, so they hopefully learn something,” Commissioner Pete Peterson, District 3-South Benson and Torning Township, said of the reports. Peterson also pointed out that Administrator Kelsey Baker gives her report as well at each county board meeting...

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Is your car parked across a sidewalk forcing people to walk around it? That inconsideration will now get you a ticket.

Is your vehicle parked on the grass, or now snow, in the front yard? Don’t be surprised if you get a ticket, or a call from the Benson Police Department telling you to move it.

Parking on your boulevard will also get you a ticket.

Amendments to the City of Benson’s parking laws that were adopted in late October are now law. The amendments were published in the city’s legal newspaper, the Swift County Monitor-News Oct. 28, and 30 days later became law...

For more on this story, and to keep up on all the latest in area sports, subscribe to the Swift County Monitor-News print edition or our PDF internet edition. Call 320-843-4111 and you can get all the local news and sports delivered to you!

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

A motion to have the Benson Public Schools sign a 10-year lease agreement with the City of Benson for the north end of the civic center was defeated Monday night on a 6 to 1 vote.

Going into Monday night’s meeting the board of education was faced with a Dec. 16 deadline set by the city to make a decision on whether or not it would agree to lease the civic center as a new home for Benson High School gymnastics.

Council Member Jack Evenson cited the interest of a couple of businesses in paying to rent the 13,000-square-foot space as the reasoning for setting the deadline. The area is basically a metal shell with a concrete floor at this point.

School board members who voted against the motion wanted to know more about the costs of putting up a new building on the east side of the Benson High Schools’ new east gym. Estimates of costs have ranged from $1.2 million to $1.9 million...

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Escaping with their three grandchildren and the clothes they were wearing the afternoon of Oct. 5, Randy and LuJean Thielke watched their home and a lifetime of memories go up in flames. It was heartbreaking.

Then the bills started coming in from the fire departments that had been called to fight the blaze. In all, they totaled over $21,000 with none more stunning that the $15,500 bill from the Appleton Fire Department.

Last Tuesday the Thielkes showed up at the Swift County Board of Commissioners meeting along with members of the Fairfield Township board of supervisors to challenge the bill. Also, at the meeting was George Duckwitz, a Fairfield Township farmer who lost a barn to a fire Nov. 12.

What Duckwitz had in common with the Thielkes is the confusion surrounding the 911 calls they made and who the responding fire department should have been.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Just over a month after dispatching confusion left Randy and LuJean Thielke of Fairfield Township with a $15,500 Appleton Fire Department bill another fire call in the western Swift County township pointed to continuing problems.

George and Diane Duckwitz’s farm sits two miles west of U.S Highway 59 in Section 20 of Fairfield Township. November 12 one of Duckwtiz’s barns caught fire and burned to the ground.

 “When the fire erupted, I yelled to my brother and wife, ‘Somebody call 911!’” Duckwitz told Swift County’s Board of Commissioners at the Nov. 19 meeting. His wife ran to their house and called 911, contacting Swift County dispatch and giving it their address. The dispatcher told her that the Morris Fire Department was to be called. “As far as I know, that was the end of the discussion. I don’t know if the Swift County dispatch called the Morris Fire Department, or not.”

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

“DHS made the top of the front page again,” Swift County Human Services Director Catie Lee told the board of commissioners at their meeting Nov. 19. “It’s like the tenth week in a row.”

Minnesota’s Department of Human Services isn’t getting front page headlines because of good things happening at the state agency. Rather, those headlines are about substantial financial errors that are going to cost counties a lot of money.

 “Counties will pay for some of growing financial failures at Minnesota DHS’ Lee said, quoting the headline in last week’s Star Tribune. “I think we are seeing the tip of the iceberg...”

For more on this story, and to keep up on all the latest in area sports, subscribe to the Swift County Monitor-News print edition or our PDF internet edition. Call 320-843-4111 and you can get all the local news and sports delivered to you!

Reed Anfinson; Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Benson’s City Council received an updated estimate of the cost to renovate the Benson Amory into a new city hall with the prices ranging from $2.2 million to $2.8 million.

The cost estimate was provided by Widseth, Smith and Nolting (WSN) of Alexandria and presented to the council at its meeting Monday night. The plan is basically the same one presented two years ago to the council with some modifications. No action was taken and WSN letter with the projected cost only briefly discussed.

Built in 1927, the Armory has unused office space on the main floor at the front of the building with a large gymnasium behind it. At some point after its construction, a garage space was added on the north side of the building. There is an upper floor at the front of the building that once served as the mess hall for the National Guard...