News

Thanks to a community effort led by the Benson Women of Today, the Santa truck was able to visit several communities in the Benson area.  Mrs. Claus and Santa visit with a young girl at the Santa Truck event, Saturday night at the Benson Fire Hall.  Santa visited with over 100 area youth in Benson alone, listening to their Christmas wishes and giving each a bag full of treats.  The Santa Truck also visited GLC-Meadow Lane, Clontarf, Danvers, and DeGraff.

Swift County will contribute $13,333 toward the cost of constructing a helipad two blocks west of the Swift County-Benson Hospital.
The site is a vacant lot just to the east of the Civic Center and north of Swift County Human Services building. It is projected that constructing the helipad will cost $20,000, but planning costs will also be another $20,000. The City of Benson is picking up one-third of the  $40,000 cost with SCBH paying for the other one-third.
The city will also have to bury power lines at a cost of $75,000 to $80,000. Benson owns the land the helipad is to be constructed on and is donating for the project.
The helipad will include a 42-square foot concrete landing pad, lighting and a windsock. The city has engaged Landteam, Inc., of Alexandria to do the engineering for the site.

Work to convert the former Kinder-Morgan propane tank facility from one that once supplied by pipeline to one supplied by rail has received critical funding through Agralite Electric Cooperative of Benson.
Alliance Midstream LLC, which was developed to keep the terminal operational, has received a $500,000 loan through Agralite to facilitate the acquisition of the longtime propane delivery terminal just west of Benson along U.S. Highway 12. Funds will also help with construction of the rail car offloading facility.
“We’re extremely pleased to be able to help Alliance Midstream keep what has long been an extremely critical propane terminal operating in our area,” Agralite Electric General Manager Kory Johnson said. “Agralite Electric members depend on this resource and it’s been an important piece of our community for decades.”

The Lady Storm ran into some tough teams at the Willmar Invitational, Friday and Saturday as MBA fell to Long Prairie-Grey Eagle-WDC in the first game, Friday, 5-0, and then lost to Austin in the third place game, Saturday, 9-1.
Willmar went on to win the four-team title, beating Austin in the semifinals and LPGE-WDC in the championship game.
MBA fell to 1-4 overall with the two losses and is 1-0 in the Southwest Conference after a 5-2 win over Worthington the previous weekend.
MBA is set to host Park Rapids, Thursday, Dec. 4 in Morris before hosting Litchfield-DC, Tuesday, Dec. 9 in Benson.  After that, the Lady Storm will play LPGE-WDC for the third time this season when they travel up north, Thursday, Dec. 11.

Photo:  Lady Storm in action.

Benson High School was awarded $25,000 from State Farm through the “Celebrate My Drive” contest.  In the picture above Mark Frank (back row, third from left) presented a check for $25,000 to BHS.  Ten percent of the money is designated toward safe driving, but the rest of the money will be divided among many different BHS organizations.  In the front row of the picture from left to right are Adam Foslien, Jonas Grossman, Trevor Berreau, Kathy Ahrndt, Shannon Schmidt, Kali Geyer, and Nicole Berens.  In back are Andrew Falk, Mayor Paul Kittelson, Mark Frank, Roger Ebnet, Scott Gonnerman, Brock Duncan, Barb Schwarz, Kendra Razink and Roger Lindahl.

February will see an international snowmobile race pass through northwestern Swift County as participants near the end of a 500-mile trek that takes them from Winnipeg, Canada, to Willmar.
Racers in the 2015 Seven Clans I-500 will enter the U.S. at Pembina, ND, crossing into Minnesota in the far northwestern corner of the state near Humbolt. They then travel southeast toward Karlstad, Thief River Falls, and Bemidji. From Bemidji racers head south and a little west toward Alexandria.
From Alexandria they go by Lowry, Starbuck and Swift Falls, where there will be a fuel stop for racers as they head to the finish line in Willmar at Robins Island.
Northern Lights Trail Snowmobile Club President Brent Hill, of Benson, said that the local club will be working with the race organizers and racers to ensure their trek through Swift County goes well.

As part of an extensive renovation and expansion project at Benson Public Schools, the board of education is proposing to construct a new gymnasium on the north side of the school.
That new gym will be needed as the district turns what was the old junior high auditorium into a facility dedicated to the arts. There would no longer be any sports played on the raised floor in the building.
Further, the district is looking at eliminating the indoor swimming pool and repurposing it to house the school’s gymnastics program. The room could also be used for indoor tennis, batting practice with cages for both softball and baseball, and golf practice.
The Monitor-News will publish a more detailed story on the full scope of the project that the school board is contemplating in next week’s newspaper.

Author Aurora Whittet grew up in Benson “as a wild red-haired child in Minnesota dreaming up stories for her friends to read.” Now with the release of her second novel, she is reaching a far wider audience and providing her readers with a strong message about taking on the challenges in life.
Whittet’s first book, Bloodmark, came out in November 2013. Her second book in the series, Bloodrealms, was released last Friday and is now available on Amazon.
To get a flavor of what her books are about, you only need to read her first book’s teaser on Amazon:
“Sixteen-year-old werewolf princess Ashling Boru is different from other wolves - she was able to shift to a wolf at birth. Rather than bringing pride to her family, it brings fear, and she is sent to live in Ireland’s secluded countryside.

Voters went to the polls tuesday in Benson and throughout the state to cast ballots for local and statewide candidates.

As of 3:30 p.m. there were nearly 500 voters recorded from Benson and Benson Township.

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ELECTION RESULTS:

Swift County Sheriff       Votes                Percent

John Holtz                    2,387                58.9

Chris Joyce                   1,664                41.0

Write-in                       4                      0.1

County Attorney            Votes                Percent

Robin Finke                  1,285                32.3

Danielle Olson               2,688                67.6

Write-in                       4                      0.1

Swift County Treasurer   Votes                Percent

Ron Vadnais                 3,778                99.6

Write-in                       14                     0.4

With only a few days to go, Benson Schools is in the top 10 of the Celebrate My Drive contest, sponsored by State Farm.  The contest encourages safe driving with a chance to win big.  Benson Schools was in the top 50 schools last year and won $25,000, this time, Benson Schools is hoping to get into the top five.
Cascade High School, of Iowa, was the No. 1 school in the small schools’ division as of Tuesday morning, while Benson Schools was ranked 10th.
Benson Schools staff and students are committed to keeping teens safe on the road and because of that, they are asking  everyone 14 and older to go to www.celebratemydrive.com once a day, every day, and vote from Oct. 15 to Oct. 24.