News

True Concord Voices & Orchestra, under the direction of Benson High School graduate Eric Holtan, has produced a new Christmas CD that was released Friday.

“True Concord: Carols in the American Voice” is inspired by True Concord’s annual Lessons & Carols by Candlelight concerts performed in the Tucson, AZ, area. It contains familiar carols in musical settings by American composers that are new or not widely known.

In 2015, True Concord released Far in the Heavens: Choral Music of Stephen Paulus, for which it received a Grammy nomination for Best Choral Performance.

 “The focus is on sacred Christmas carols,” Holtan, a 1989 Benson High School graduate, said.  “Even in their simplest form, carols evoke emotionally powerful memories of personal and family experiences that enrich and enliven annual holiday celebrations.

Monday the Benson area broke the record for the coldest high temperature for Nov. 11 when it only reached 12 degrees. By long-term weather standards you could say it shattered the record, besting it by 9 degrees. The old record was 21 degrees from 2014.

Monday also saw windchills remain below zero for the entire day. Windchills ranged from a minus 3 degrees to a minus 13 degrees from the early morning into the evening. Winter’s bite this late fall is a reminder the children need to be properly dressed if they are walking to and from school, or from where a bus picks them up and drops them off...

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

Swift County will raise its garbage tipping fee from $80 per ton to $100 per ton effective Jan. 1. The 25 percent increase is the first raise in rates since 1982.

 “We were at $68 a ton and we went to $80,” Environmental Services Director Scott Collins told the board of commissioners at the Nov. 5 meeting. “Now it is 2020. I think it is time to increase our tipping fee to $100 a ton.”

Chippewa County is at $80, Stevens and Pope counties are at $80.04, and Kandiyohi County is $95. Kandiyohi County’s rate is for out-of-county garbage. There is a lower rate for in-county residents and business, he said.

Collins is hoping that the increase in rates will handle the increased costs of handling garbage, the significant loss of recycling income, and, perhaps, deter some out-of-county garbage from being hauled into his facility...

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Twenty homeowners of northwest Benson met at the golf club last Wednesday night with the Benson City Council to discuss options for preventing floodwaters from flowing in their neighborhood.

Residents and city officials left the meeting acknowledging that considerable discussion about the impact of the proposed work was still needed. The residents were seeing the proposed project for the first time and its impact on some homeowners opposed to it based on the impact it would have on their property.

Anxiety over the potential flooding of their homes heightened this past spring as the Chippewa River overflowed its banks, then spread out across the Benson Golf Course Sunday, March 24. The flood waters rose rapidly as large ice floes collected at the BNSF railroad bridge, creating a dam blocking the surging spring runoff...

The Community Legion Post 62 and VFW Post 1403 Veterans Day Program, also hosted by the BHS Student Council, is scheduled for 1 p.m., Monday Nov. 11 in the Benson High School senior high gym.

The speaker for this year’s Veteran’s Day program is Retired Major Donald Brehmer, a longtime coach and teacher at Benson Schools, who also retired from teaching last spring.

After the Advancement of Colors by members of the Benson VFW and American Legion, the BHS Concert Choir will sing “The Star Spangled Banner”, and Steve Ricard will give a welcome and introduction of guests.

In addition, there will be a reading by Legion Boy Stater Jacob Wolter and a speech by the 2018-19 Voice of Democracy essay winner Morgan Schmidt.

The public is welcome.  Included in the program will be other selections by the BHS choir and band...

Last week some people may have noticed a few pedestrians in the community who repeatedly crossed the street. They weren’t just aimlessly wandering around – they were raising awareness of Minnesota’s crosswalk law.

Motor vehicle crashes have killed 33 pedestrians so far this year. According to crash facts from the Department of Public Safety, 45 pedestrians died and 987 were injured in crashes with vehicles in 2018 and 42 pedestrian deaths and 1,053 injuries happened in 2017.

Fall is a particularly bad time for pedestrian accidents. With shorter days and more hours of darkness there is an increase in the number of crashes between people driving and walking...

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

One potential hurdle for renovation of the north end of Benson Civic Center for use by the Benson Public Schools for gymnastics and other programs has been overcome.

As it pursued renovation of the building for gymnastics, the school and civic center boards sought bids for the project. Kranz Construction of Milan said it could do the project for $493,000.

Though it has been more than a year since Kranz gave the school district its bid, it has agreed to honor it if work begins soon on the facility, School Board Member Bill McGeary told fellow board members at their Oct. 21 meeting.

“The civic center has done its part. The city has done its part. Whether or not this project goes forward is now at this table,” McGeary said.

Unopposed on the ballot, Benson Mayor Terri Collins was reelected to the city council for a second two-year term Tuesday.

Local voters also reelected the two incumbents on the council to four-year terms. Lucas Olson and Jon Buyck were the top two vote getters in the four-way race for the two open seats.

Incumbents Mark Schreck and Jack Evenson have two years remaining in their current four-year terms.

Benson City Council Election

By Reed Anfinson

Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Benson Mayor Terri Collins is running for a second two-year term and faces no opposition. However, Benson’s two incumbent council members up for election will face two opponents when city voters go to the polls Tuesday, Nov. 5.

Incumbent Council Members Lucas Olson and Jon Buyck have filed for re-election to four-year terms on the council and will face Larry Smith and Nathan Sullivan on the ballot.

Collins became Benson’s first woman mayor when she won last election in a landslide in the November 2017 election getting 626 votes to challenger Anita Flodstrom’s 76. Collins was serving as a member of the council at the time.

Olson won a seat on the city council in a special election Jan. 10, 2017, to complete the three years left in Jonathon Pogge-Weaver’s term. Pogge-Weaver had left Benson to move to Iowa.

By Reed Anfinson

Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

Benson Public Schools sold $3.07 million in Long Term Facilities Maintenance (LTFM) bonds Oct. 21 to finance heating, air conditioning and ventilation work at the high school.

 LTFM bonds do not require a vote of the district’s residents. The bonds will be paid off in 15 years.

Three bids were submitted to the district with the low bidder Northland Securities out of Minneapolis at 2.07 percent, Matt Hammer of Ehlers told the school board. During the presale discussions, Ehlers and the district were looking at 2.46 percent interest rate.

That is nearly 40 basis points lower than what the district was looking at in August, “which is really good,” Hammer told school board members at their Oct. 21 meeting. That translates into about $114,000 less in interest payments that the district was looking at earlier, he said...