News

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Swift County is backing the purchase and renovation of the Gra-Mar Apartments in Kerkhoven to provide much-needed income assistance rent properties to county residents.

Between the purchase, and the renovation of the building, more than $1.1 million will be invested in the project. Not all those funds are coming from the county.

Swift County’s Housing and Redevelopment Authority is purchasing the building for $650,000...

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

As is the story with the COVID-19 vaccine across America, Swift County-Benson Health Services has a much higher demand for it than it has doses available.

SCBHS has administered 162 doses of the COVID-19 vaccine with that number including second doses for its employees and other health care workers in the community. All but three of the SCBHS employees have been vaccinated, Melissa McGinty-Thompson, Chief Nursing Officer and Co-CEO, said at the SCBHS Governing Board meeting Monday night.

Others who are being vaccinated include staff at dental offices, pharmacies, and group homes. It also includes staff at funeral homes, chiropractic offices, eye doctors’ offices and home health agencies...

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

There is still time for businesses whose saw significant loss in business due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic to apply for funds through Swift County.

The county $256,250 in state funds to help businesses. Those funds must be spent by March 15 or they go back to the state. The application deadline is Feb. 15.

The application form for the funds is now available on the Swift County Rural Development Authority’s (RDA) web site - www.swiftcounty.com/crfp. There is a link on the bottom of the page...

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

In memory of one of their own and to meet pressing needs at the Swift County Fairgrounds, the fair board is proposing a building project that will also honor Scott “Montana” Smith.

“Montana’s hard work helped keep our fairgrounds looking great and he spoke often that the next project we needed to tackle was a new office,” Fair Board President Eric Turnquist said. “Because of his untimely death, the Swift County Fair Board would like to honor Montana and carry out his dream.”

Smith, 50, died from injuries suffered in a car accident Oct. 24. It is proposed the new addition be called “Montana’s West Wing.”

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

As high school sports get underway in the state, school boards are having to make decisions on who will be allowed to attend the events.

At the District 777 Board of Education’s Jan. 11 meeting, Benson High School Activities Director Garrett Schmidt outlined the proposed policies and what other school districts were implementing. The BHS Activities Committee had met earlier to discuss how it would allocate home tickets to students and fans.

“The big thing we came away with is that we will follow the guidelines,” he said. Those guidelines have been set down by the Minnesota Department of Health and the Minnesota State High School League. They allow only 25 percent of a building’s maximum capacity or a maximum of 150 spectators...

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Businesses whose finances were significantly reduced due to the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic may be eligible for funds through Swift County.

Swift County received $256,250 in state funds to help businesses. Those funds must be spent by March 15 or they go back to the state.

The application form for the funds is now available on the Swift County Rural Development Authority’s (RDA) web site at https://share.hsforms.com/1-oDLa6jdQIGs8Rwa-oe_Tg3xudw...

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!

Hoar frost has painted the landscape in the area a brilliant white on several days in the past week. It forms on cold clear nights when trees, bushes, metal objects, and other things become colder than the surrounding air.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

At their first meeting of the new year, Swift County’s Board of Commissioners take numerous actions from setting their meeting schedule, to approving salaries for elected officials, to setting the gopher bounty.
At their Jan. 5 meeting, commissioners took the following actions:

Baker salary and closed meeting

At their Dec. 31 year-end meeting, commissioners went into a closed session to conduct a performance review of Administrator Kelsey Baker. When they came out of the session then Chair Gary Hendrickx, District 1-Appleton, immediately asked for a motion to approve a resolution for a salary increase for Baker.

No comments were made about the performance and the resolution was not among the public documents required to be available to the public under the Minnesota Open Meeting Law.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Just as Minnesota has opened its bars, restaurants and bowling alleys to indoor service again, the new more highly infectious strain of the coronavirus has been confirmed in the state.  It’s been here since December.

The Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) announced Sunday that the new variant strain of the coronavirus first detected in the United Kingdom was identified in five residents of four different counties in the Twin Cities metro area. Four of the cases were identified by genomic testing through the MDH Public Health Laboratory, and one was identified through the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).

The results were confirmed on Saturday, Jan. 9. The cases range in age from 15 to 37 years and their illness onsets range from Dec. 16 to Dec. 31. None have been hospitalized, to MDH’s knowledge...

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Swift County will soon be taking applications from businesses whose finances have been damaged due to the COVID-19 pandemic. It has $256,250 in state funds that have to be spent by March 15 or they go back to the state.

The county is looking at awarding grants ranging from $2,000 to $7,000 to businesses whose bottom lines have been hit hard by the pandemic.

Bars and restaurants, required to shut down indoor service in the spring and then again in the fall and early winter, have been hit the hardest. Bowling alleys and theatres are in this group, too, having seen their income eliminated due to the mandated shutdown of their businesses...