News

Benson has been awarded a $638,250 Minnesota Small Cities Development Program grant from the federal Department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) to fix up business and residential properties in the downtown area of the city.

Before the grant funds will be available through the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED), the funds have to be made available to the state by HUD.

In all, the project was budgeted at $854,000, which includes administrative costs and the City of Benson’s matching funds that will go into the program.

The grant funds will help fix up 20 homes near the city’s central business district and six businesses. Applications from those interested in participating in the program were taken earlier this year. The city will be notifying the public if there are funds available for additional applications.

At its July 17 meeting, the District 17 Board of Education is to get a report on what it could cost to renovate the north end of the Benson Civic Center to be used for high school sports.

Members of the school board and Paul Youngquist, of Architects Rego + Youngquist of St. Louis Park went through the north end of the Civic Center last week to assess it possibilities for the school district.

“It is a nice sized space, 116 by 120, that makes it very useable,” Youngquist told the school board at its June 19 meeting. “That is nearly 14,000 square feet. The runway for the gymnastics fits in there. It is a nice-sized space for gymnastics, volleyball, tennis or batting cages…the dimensions are very workable and the height is very, very helpful.

“So now it is just a matter of how fancy you want to make it, meaning we could put in all new wood floor in there and be ready for basketball and volleyball,” he said.

When a chunk of the plaster from the ceiling fell into the seating in the Junior High School auditorium the District 777 Board of Education knew it was likely facing a costly fix before the building could be back in use.

At this point, the junior high auditorium, which is the home to plays, music concerts, dance recitals, physical education classes, and sporting events, is not expected to be available during the 2017-2018 school year.

At its meeting June 19, architect Paul Youngquist, of Architects Rego + Youngquist of St. Louis Park, laid out a three-tiered plan for upgrading the auditorium with costs ranging from $2.2 million to more than $5 million.

The Benson Marching Band, under the direction of Brock Duncan, leads the 30th Annual Pioneerland Band Festival, Wednesday, June 14. For the first time since 1993, the marching band was wearing new uniforms....

Pictured, top: Three performers in front are: Kyle Reese on snare, Morgan Schmidt and Madisen Wieber playing flute. 

Pictured, bottom: The KMS Marching Band performing in front of the Benson Armory.
 

More photos can be found on Pages 6-7A of the June 21, 2017 edition of the Monitor-News. To keep up on all the latest in area news and 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!
 

With CNH Industrial notifying the City of Benson that it is likely to move out of the north end of the Civic Center this fall, the possibility the space could be available for the Benson High School gymnastics program and other sports is now under discussion.

District 777’s Board of Education voted unanimously Monday night to have architect Paul Youngquist, of Architects Rego + Youngquist of St. Louis Park, do an assessment of the 14,000-square-foot space.

They want an estimate of what it would cost to renovate the space for high school athletics use and an estimate on what the annual operating cost of the building would be for the district.

School board members were faced with looking for new space for the gymnastics program this past year when Benson’s City Council announced it would likely be renovating the Armory for use as a new city hall. The gymnastics program leases the gym space in the Armory.

Swift County is considering requiring rural landowners to get a permit if they plan on demolishing a building on their property as a way to track what happens with the debris that is created. At this point, it knows that not all demolition debris is being disposed of according to the law.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, Swift County Environmental Services Director Scott Collins received “calls, complaints, concerns” about the burying of demolition debris and garbage on farmsteads.

While some people may be unlawfully burying demolition debris on their farm sites, there are contractors who are bidding to haul it to demolition sites and dispose of it lawfully, he told the Swift County Board of Commissioners at their meeting June 6.

“The concerns that some of the contractors have is whether or not all the rules are consistent, are they being applied consistently, who is the police of the rules and how is it all going to be done?” Collins said.

Should Swift County’s Board of Commissioners be the enforcing authority for buffer strips or should it turn that authority over to the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources?

That decision is likely to be made at the county board’s Tuesday, June 20, meeting set to start at 5 p.m. However, those who plan to attend need to be aware of a change in where the county board will be meeting starting with the June 20 meeting and extending for perhaps the next six months or more.

Because extensive renovation and construction work is set to start later this month at the Swift County Courthouse, county commissioners will be meeting in the Benson City Council chambers in city hall. It is just to the north of the Family Dollar store at 1410 Kansas Avenue.

Supporters of reopening the Prairie Correctional Facility in Appleton have worked doggedly at the Minnesota Legislature for the past several years in an effort to get the state to consider leasing or buying the vacant prison.

With the end up the 2017 legislative session they have won a minor, but important victory. Gov. Mark Dayton signed a bill that included language that directs the state Department of Corrections (DOC) to use an independent contractor to conduct an assessment of the prison’s readiness for use. The study will also look at what improvements would be needed before state prisoners could be housed in the 1,640-bed facility with the report due by Jan. 15, 2018.

It has sat empty since owner CoreCivic, formerly known as Corrections Corporation of America, shut it down in February 2010. CoreCivic has kept a maintenance staff at the prison to keep it ready to use and has made significant investments in improvements over the past seven years.

Swift County-Benson Health Services plans to close its Counseling Associates of West Central Minnesota operation with those services to be consolidated with Woodland Centers as of Aug. 21.

Counseling Associates currently operates out of the second floor of the hospital employing seven counselors and three support staff. In addition to providing services to the community, they meet some of the counseling needs of Benson Public Schools. It has been providing mental health services to the area for more than 30 years.

Woodland Centers is a non-profit mental health services agency that is supported by six counties, including Swift. The other counties are Kandiyohi, Lac qui Parle, Meeker, Renville, and Chippewa with the main office in Willmar. It has offices in downtown Benson.

Pioneerland Band Festival will celebrate its 30th parade in honor of Flag Day Wednesday, June 14, in Benson, starting at 6:30 p.m.

Despite all the sidewalk, curb and street work going on in the community, the parade will follow its traditional route starting out on west U.S. 12/Minnesota Avenue proceeding east to 14th Street, then going north to the Benson High School. It will travel past Do-Mat’s Family Food and Runnings on its way downtown where it will pass by the Country Inn, the Benson Armory where judging will take place, and on past Roosevelt Park.

Most of the sidewalks along the parade route have already been replaced with work continuing at a rapid pace into next week. No construction will take place along the parade route June 14.