News

While Minnesota Gov. Mark Dayton has signed the Jobs & Energy bill that included language that would see the City of Benson paid $20 million between 2018 and 2021 for economic development, there is still another hurdle to clear.

Whether or not the deal proceeds depends on state Public Utilities Commission (PUC) approval for Xcel Energy to buy out the owners of Benson Power, LLC, and then proceeding to shut it down. That shut down could come as earlier as the summer of 2018.

Benson Power produces 55 megawatts of power by burning turkey litter and woodchips. It employs 45 people at the plant with another 50 to 60 people working in jobs supplying the plant with turkey litter and wood chips. Ash from the plant is conveyed to the adjacent North American Fertilizer plant incorporated into fertilizer products. It has been estimated that over 100 people’s livelihoods are tied to the plant not counting the employees who work there.

Benson Pubic Schools’ Activities Committee will be looking into the costs and a schedule for replacing scoreboards in the district’s gymnasiums and outdoor sports facilities.

Benson Public Schools’ scoreboards range in shape from barely hanging on to okay, Activities Director Shannon Schmidt told the board of education at its May 15 meeting. She told the board that she was giving it the update on the scoreboards so that it didn’t end up one day with a gym or field without a working scoreboard.

If the school district were to modernize all its scoreboards, including upgrading with digital video screens, it could cost over $100,000 based on the experiences of other school districts in the area.

The softball field scoreboard is from around 2005 and was purchased used, she said. It is in the worst shape of any of the district’s scoreboards and needs to be replaced.

6W Community Corrections is likely to need an additional agent in 2018 to handle the rapidly expanding workload agents are dealing with.

Commissioner Gary Hendrickx, District 1-Appleton, said at the Swift County Board of Commissioners meeting May 16. Hendrickx, along with Commissioner Pete Peterson, District 3-south Benson, serves as a liaison on the 6W board. It provides probation and parole supervision for Swift, Chippewa, Yellow Medicine and Lac qui Parle counties. It has 18 employees with 11 career agents.

“The workload for the agency is getting beyond the point where it can do the job with due diligence,” Hendrickx said. The 6W board voted to have the dollars in by Jan. 1, 2018, for another fulltime agent, he said.

Commissioner Joe Fox, District 4-Hegbert Township, asked what it would cost Swift County to add a fulltime agent to the 6W staff. Peterson said it would be around $17,000 a year.

It was a windy, cool morning as a small crowd made its way from the parade route to the Benson City Cemetery Monday to honor those who served and fell defending the United States.

Among those who addressed the crowd to commemorate the service of American soldiers was Benson City Council Member Lucas Olson. He was elected to the council in a special election this past January to fill the remaining three years in Jonathon Pogge-Weaver’s seat.

Olson, the machine shop foreman and a machinist at Swift Machine & Fab in Benson, served in the U.S. Marine Corps from 1995 to 1999. He is a graduate of Clinton-Graceville High School and Central Lakes College. He was deployed with the 13th Marine Expeditionary Unit to the Western Pacific and Kuwait....

Pictured, top: After 37 years of teaching in the Benson elementary schools teacher Donna Tatge is retiring. She waves goodbye as she is followed by her first grade class, which read “Mother Bruce” by Ryan T. Higgins. Paraprofessional Nettie Berens walks along with the class.

Pictured, bottom: “The Chocolate Touch” was read by Anne Duncan’s second grade class.
 

Many more photos appear in the May 31, 2017 edition of the  Swift County Monitor-News. Subscribe today to the print edition or our PDF internet edition. Call 320-843-4111 and you can get all the local news and sports delivered to you!
 

With two 3-2 votes the Swift County Board of Commissioners will move forward with creating a full-time human resources person as well as a payroll officer/administrative assistant.

While Commissioners Eric Rudningen, District 5-Kerkhoven, Pete Peterson, District 3-south Benson, and Gary Hendrickx, District 1-Appleton, agreed the county needed to add the two positions, Commissioners Ed Pederson, District 2-north Benson, and Joe Fox, District 4-Hegbert Township, disagreed.

It is estimated the HR position would have a starting salary of $53,206. The payroll officer/administrative assistant would have a salary of $35,298, though the position might not be fulltime.

However, only one new position is technically being added. Commissioners had voted last year to hire a HR director in 2017. Also, current Assistant to the Administrator Amanda Ness is likely to fill one of the positions.

Near North Branch in Chisago County 1,000 acres of land is now covered by 440,000 solar panels that are expected to generate enough electricity to power 20,000 homes.

If you are driving east on Minnesota Highway 23, you will see 100 acres of farmland that is now home to a solar panel array that will generate 15.23 megawatts of power, enough for nearly 2,500 homes. Along U.S Highway 12 near Atwater is a 37-acre solar farm. These are just three examples of the growing number of solar energy projects underway in the state.

“Minnesota had just one megawatt of solar capacity in 2009,” Minnesota Public Radio’s Elizabeth Dunbar reported earlier this month. “Now it’s 447 megawatts, or enough to power about 63,000 homes.”

The Benson area’s Memorial Day service is set for Monday, May 29, at the Benson City Cemetery. It will begin with a parade at 9:30 a.m. along the traditional route starting at the Junior High School, traveling south on 13th Street North to Idaho Avenue on the north side of Roosevelt Park, then back north on 14th Street North. The band will then proceed to the Benson City Cemetery for the service, which starts following the parade.

Memorial Day celebrates the sacrifice of those who died while serving in the United States Armed Forces. It began as  Decoration Day after the American Civil War and became an official federal holiday in 1971.

The Veterans of Foreign Wars and the American Legion will lead the memorial ceremony at the Benson Cemetery. Members of the Minnesota National Guard, city dignitaries, the Benson High School and Junior High Bands, the BHS Voice of Democracy winner and Boy’s State winner will all gather for music, brief addresses and military honors.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Publisher’s note: Early Tuesday morning Gov. Mark Dayton vetoed the bill that contained the langauge that would have provided Benson with compensation for the closing of Benson Power, LLC.
 

A 213-page omnibus jobs and energy bill passed the Republican-controlled Legislature Monday. It includes language to end the biomass mandate and compensate the City of Benson for the loss of Benson Power, LLC, and is now on its way to an uncertain future on the desk of Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton.

It passed the Senate 34-30 and the House 75-54; both votes were along party lines with few exceptions. Republicans control the Senate with a narrow 34-33 majority but have a commanding 77-57 majority in the House.

Safe at Home offers a secure space

For those who have suffered mental, physical, or sexual abuse escaping from the person who has harmed them can be a real challenge. That is especially true in small, rural communities.

But through the Office of the Minnesota Secretary of State, the Safe at Home program offers victims a way to “disappear.”

Friday Minnesota Secretary of State Steve Simon met with Christine Thompson, coordinator for the Safe Avenues and Safe At Home program in Swift County.

Simon’s stop in Benson was part of a four-county swing through western Minnesota to meet with representatives from Safe Haven, a shelter and resource center that helps victims of domestic violence, representatives of the Safe at Home address confidentiality program, and with election officials to discuss replacing Minnesota’s aging election equipment. He had stops in Swift, Meeker, Kandiyohi, and Lac qui Parle counties.