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Ambush Park provides a great backdrop for the Benson Kid Day Car Show, which has also taken place at the Northside Rec Area and Benson Bowler.

There were a total of 71 entries at this year’s Kid Day Car Show.  The event was scheduled for 4-7 p.m., but because of bad weather, it was closed down early at 6 p.m. and the Kid Day car cruise through Benson was cancelled.

The following entries were among the winners of the 2016 Benson Kid Day Car Show, held Saturday afternoon at Ambush Park in Benson.

The annual Hospice Motorcyle Ride event took place Sunday afternoon.  The motorcycles were lined up at Roosevelt Park prior to the start of the 100-mile ride.
 

Pictured, the group of about 50 motorcyles get ready for their 100-mile motorcycle ride starting at 1 p.m. from Roosevelt Park.

Adequate daycare is seen as essential to bringing young families to the area to fill the jobs employers have open. It is seen as necessary to keeping young families enrolling their children in local school districts and keeping them there.

A lack of daycare options also keeps some people out of the labor force who could otherwise be employed.

The challenge of finding daycare is particularly hard for parents of newborns to two-year-olds. It is also a challenge for those who do shift work who need daycare services outside the 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. time period as well as for those who need weekend daycare.

To address the shortage of daycare and lack of flexible hours in the area, a group of government, local foundation, and area schools representatives met at the end of June to discuss options for providing daycare services in Swift County.

Just a week ago concerns were growing about spreading drought conditions in western Minnesota. But a series of heavy thunderstorms over the past seven days have emphatically brought an end to those worries.

The Benson area received 6.37 inches of rain between July 5 and July 11. Some areas around Benson have seen more than 8 inches of rain.

July 2016 is now the 10th wettest on record with 6.37 inches of rain and there are still 18 days left in the month. The month’s record is 9.57 inches in 1994. July averages 3.56 inches of rain.

Saturday was a day for members of the Shamrock-Hest Riding Club, young and old, to participate in a club competition. It is the oldest riding club in the state.

Pictured, top: Jake Goff and niece Adisyn wait their turn to participate in Saturday’s Shamrock-Hest Riding Club’s events.

Pictured, bottom: Miranda Nelson rides her horse around a barrel as she tries to set the winning time.

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Benson is set to celebrate its 86th annual Kid Day Saturday and Sunday, July 16-17 with a number of activities also taking place in the days leading up to Kid Day weekend.  The theme of this year’s Kid Day is “All Aboard!”.

Kid Day buttons now on sale -- 2016 Kid Day buttons are now on sale for $2 each at Lewis Drug, Breen’s Drug, Bank of the West, and First Security State Bank.  In addition, several 7th graders are selling buttons to earn money for their Washington, D.C. trip.  If others are interested in selling buttons, they can e-mail Roger Ebnet at bensonkidday@gmail.com. They feature the 2015 outgoing Kid Day King and Queen Tyler Kent and Abbey Brown.
 

June is typically the wettest month of the year, but not this time. The month ended with just 1.92 inches of rain, 2.47 inches below the month’s average of 4.39 inches.

The month also saw slightly above average temperatures with five days seeing temperatures between 90 and 94 degrees. The months highs averaged 80.8 degrees, 1.9 degrees above average while lows averaged 56.7 degrees, right on their average.

Already the combination of warm temperatures and a shortage of rain are showing on the landscape. A drive through the countryside shows that every field with an irrigator is pumping water onto crops. Lawns are turning brown.

While many areas of the state saw substantial June rainfall as thunderstorms passed through Minnesota, west central counties were consistently missed. As a result, drought conditions are spreading.

Swift County-Benson Hospital is now live with its telemedicine link to Avera McKennan Hospital & University Health Center’s eCare services in Sioux Falls, S.D.

Last Tuesday, the hospital conducted training for all its medical providers and nursing staff on how the system works, SCBH Director of Nursing Mellissa McGinty-Thompson told the governing board at its meeting Monday night. Hospital governing board members got a demonstration on how the system works during the meeting.

Last September, SCBH was notified that it had been awarded a $510,000 Helmsley grant to facilitate implementing the telemedicine service. Since then, cameras, microphones and screens have been mounted in its emergency room and its intensive care unit, which serves as its trauma 3 bed.

A citizen’s committee is hoping the school board will reconsider its decision in May to close the Benson indoor swimming pool.

Committee members met informally, Thursday, with Dennis Laumeyer, Superintendent of Benson Schools, and several school board members to express their interest in keeping the indoor swimming pool open, according to Dan Enderson, a member of the committee.  Enderson also said the group offered to take on the two challenges which are the main focus of the indoor pool issue; coming up with additional funding sources for the pool, and find ways to promote additional utilization of the pool.

The District 777 Board of Education voted to close the pool at its May 16 meet.  The board pointed to concerns about the costs of maintaining the pool, which was originally opened in 1976, and the limited use of the pool.

Benson High School’s Marching Band led the 29th annual Pioneerland Band Festival Flag Day Parade on June 14. Despite threatening weather that persisted through much of the day, weather that caused two bands to decide to not make the trip, the band festival started on schedule as the weather began to clear. Pictured above in the front row are flutists Hannah Hanson, Emma Heinzig, Madison Ziegler, Danielle Sondag and Grace Lee. Behind them are Olivia Hughes, Jenna Smith and Madisen Wieber. More photos can be found on Pages 6 and 7, and Page 12 (of this week's Monitor-News.)

These are just a few of the photos from the parade. To see more, and to get all the local news and sports delivered to you, subscribe to the Swift County Monitor-News print edition or our PDF internet edition. Call 320-843-4111 today!