News

Swift County’s Board of Commissioners set the overall final gross levy increase at 3.75 percent for 2019 bringing the total levy to $10,788,827. That is an increase of $389,957 over the 2018 net levy of $10,398,870.

Since 2016, when the county’s net levy was $9,773,657, it has risen by just over $1 million.

The proposed 2019 budget contains revenues of $23,997,524 and expenditures of $24,710,324, for a deficit budget of $712,800.

Taxes make up 47 percent of the county’s revenues while payments from federal and state sources make up 41 percent. Another 11 percent comes from charges for services while 1 percent comes from miscellaneous sources....

Budgeting a year-long process

“Someone is going to listen to this recording and say that the county budget, the RDA budget and the HRA budget were approved with no discussion and a unanimous vote,” Rudningen said after the county levies and budgets were approved.

Metro area dominates DFL, state House

When Minnesota Legislature convenes next Tuesday, Jan. 8, Republican District 17A Rep. Tim Miller, Prinsburg, will start his third two-term in office. District 17 Republican Sen. Andrew Lang, Olivia, will start the third year of his first four-year term.

District 17A includes all of Swift and Chippewa counties, all but two townships in Renville County, and the four southern Kandiyohi townships of Edwards, Holland, Roseland and Lake Lillian.

Senate District 17 includes House Districts 17A and 17B. House District 17B includes the cities of Willmar, Spicer, New London and the remaining townships of Kandiyohi County not part of 17A.

13 inches of snow falls  between Wednesday and Friday

Unofficially, Benson had 13 inches of snow from last week’s three-day winter storm. It’s hard to say exactly how much is falling when winds gusting to nearly 40 mph are blowing it around.

Winter’s first real storm came with a large low-pressure system winding its way toward the northern plains with the National Weather Services warning Minnesotans of its impending arrival. By Tuesday, Dec. 24, the NWS had issued a Winter Storm Warning for all of western and southern Minnesota for Wednesday through Friday morning.

A warning is issued when severe winter weather conditions are occurring or are imminent. Most warnings are issued for heavy snow and wind, but may also be issued for ice and sleet storms.

In the Nov. 6 mid-term elections, Minnesota was number one in the nation for voter turnout with 64.25 percent of eligible voters casting ballots.

Swift County was among the top counties in a state that is perennially near the top, or number one, in voter turnout each election cycle.

Swift County had a voter turnout of 70 percent. There were 5,615 voters registered as of 7 a.m., Nov. 6, with another 203 registering at the polls. Of those registered in the county, 4,077 voted. “Very nice turnout,” Swift County Auditor Kim Saterbak said of the county’s voter participation.

“It’s now official: For the second election in a row, Minnesota’s voter participation was the best in America,” Secretary of State Steve Simon said. The total number of voters was 2,611,365. That means 64.25 percent of eligible Minnesotans participated in the 2018 election, surpassing the next closest state, Colorado, by more than a full percentage point.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News
 

Benson Mayor Terri Collins has sent a letter to the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) restating the city’s support for Brightmark Energy’s proposed biogas facility at the former Benson Power biomass electric generation site.

The letter was sent to counter BioPro Power’s (BPP) requesting that the PUC slow the process down through which Brightmark will be purchasing the site from Xcel Energy. It wants time for a proposed project of its own, which would create steam from corn stove to be considered. However, it has come to the process very late.

Xcel Energy, which owns the Benson Power site and buildings, took bids Oct. 4 from Brightmark (BME) and BPP. Brightmark was interested in the fuel hall building, the administration building, the truck washing facilities, scale and road infrastructure.

The 15th annual Meander Upper Minnesota River Art Crawl had strong attendance and was well regarded by its many visitors, continuing a strong tradition in the five-county area of the Upper Minnesota River Valley.

Artists at Meander studios and galleries reported hosting between 120 and 1,500 customers during the three-day event. Art sales during the Meander totaled just over $108,000 with average sales at the studios and galleries up nearly eight percent over last year. Meander customers, traveling in groups that averaged 2.5 people, spent an average of $103 on Meander art and visited an average of 11 studios and galleries during the event.

Thirty-eight percent of those surveyed during the 2018 Meander were first-time participants, and 81 percent of those surveyed said they would return next year. Seventy-five percent said the quality of the art was excellent and 76 percent said their overall experience of the Meander was excellent...

School-industry collaboration and city beautification also important

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher Swift County Monitor-News

Editor’s note: This is the first part of a two-part story on Doug Griffith’s two days in Benson. Next week’s story will get more into who the community seeks to bring here and what shapes a community they find attractive.

Through his two days of meetings with students, senior citizens, business people, young adults, and local government leaders Doug Griffiths was always seeking an answer to a two-part question: What is the most important thing to the future of your community and what assets do you have that will help you ensure your future is bright?

Young families moving to Benson was the first answer and excellent, affordable and readily available daycare the second.

Two firms seek to use small part of Benson Power site for steam generation
 

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News
 

Benson Power, Inc.’s, Foster Wheeler combustor and other assets of the plant represent the potential for tremendous economic development for the Benson area.

That was the message representatives of the Chippewa Valley Ethanol Company (CVEC) and BioPro Power (BPP) gave the Benson City Council Monday night. However, they said, they need to be given time to research the feasibility of the project and get the financing in line to move forward.

The problem is that CVEC and BPP are coming to the discussions about the future of the Benson Power site very late. They began exploring how the two could work together to repurpose part of the biomass power plant facilities to generate steam in late August.

Eric Peterson won the two-year term on the District 777 Board of Education beating his nearest competitor Chad Payne by 389 votes. Payne is the current chair of the school board. There was only one two-year term on the ballot. It was to fill the vacancy left by an earlier resignation.

Two-year term

Candidate                     Vote

*Eric Peterson                 897

Chad Payne                    508

Sunday morning at 2 a.m. clocks will fall back an hour giving Minnesotans an extra hour of sleep as Daylight Saving Time ends.

This coming Saturday morning the sun will rise at 8:04, but Sunday morning it rises at 7:08.

But with the earlier morning sunlight it means it will be getting darker an hour earlier in the evening.  Saturday the sun will set at 6:07, but Sunday the sunset comes at 5:06.

An easy way to remember how DST affects our clocks and daily lives is the little saying, “Spring ahead, Fall behind.”

As we move toward the winter solstice Dec. 21, the days keep getting continually shorter. We are still losing about 3 minutes of sunlight a day, nearly 20 minutes a week. Through the month of November the area loses 1 hour and 6 minutes of daylight. However, the rate of loss slows in December as we approach the winter solstice and the shortest day of the year.