News

BHS presented SHREK, The Musical.

Pictured: Grace Lee, playing the role of Fiona, wonders when, if ever, her Prince Charming will come rescue her from the  castle tower.
 

Performances took place Friday, Saturday, and Sunday in the senior high gym.

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Terri Collins was elected Benson’s next mayor in a landslide getting 626 votes to challenger Anita Flodstrom’s 76. Collins currently serves as a member of the city council.

Mark Schreck received the most votes in the race for two seats on the council with incumbent Jack Evenson finishing second with 450 votes.

Collins, Schreck and Evenson will be sworn into office Jan. 2.

District 777’s operating levy won decisively with 827 votes in favor and 150 votes against. In the City of Benson, the vote was 598 to 116 while among district voters not living in the city it was 229 to 34.

Residents of the city had a separate ballot since they were also voting for a major and two council members.

Benson Mayoral Race

Candidate         Precinct 1      Precinct 2          Total

Collins              338               288                   626

Thursday evening Benson police, with support from agents of the CEE-VI Drug and Gang Task Force and Swift County Sheriff’s deputies, attempted to serve an arrest warrant on Ryan Aust at a home on 18^th Street North in Benson. Aust was wanted by the Minnesota Department of Corrections.

When officers entered the home, Aust barricaded himself in a locked bedroom and said he had a firearm.

Officers backed out of the residence, a report from the Benson Police Department released Friday said, and set up a perimeter around the house. A call was then made to the West Central SWAT team. It is made up of five area county and city law enforcement officers who receive additional training.

Swift County-Benson Health Services continues to wait to hear whether or not the United States Department of Agriculture economic development division will back its loan with Bremer Bank of Willmar.

That $7.352 million loan would provide the majority of financing needed to build an assisted living-memory care facility adjacent to SCBHS. If approved, the USDA would back 70 percent of the project financing. Its backing is essential to closing the loan with Bremer.

Bremer is only financing 80 percent of the appraised value of the project and the SCBHS assets pledged towards it. The gap between the bank loan and the project cost has to come from other sources.

The gap funding would come from Swift County, the City of Benson, equity SCBHS has invested in the project, land equity, grants from the Sonsteng Foundation and cash on its balance sheet. These sources total $2.33 million, bringing the total project cost to $9.682 million.

Next Tuesday City of Benson voters will go to the polls to elect a new mayor and two members to the council.

Current Mayor Gary Landmark, who served 24 years as a member of the city council and is completing his first two-year term as mayor, is not seeking re-election. Also not seeking re-election is Council Member Stephanie Heinzig who was elected to her first four-year term in November 2013.

Council Member Terri Collins is running for mayor and is being challenged by Anita Flodstrom.

Five candidates seeking election to the council: Incumbent Jack Evenson, Mark Schreck, Brad Johnson, Terry Flodstrom and Larry Smith.

Farmers were in the fields as snowflakes cruised through the air driven by winds gusting to 43 mph Monday. Cornhusks raced across country roads and drifted through the air.

With high temperatures in the low 30s, it looked and felt much more like late November than the last days of October.

Farmers have been working to catch up with the fall harvest that has been delayed by heavy fall rains.

Despite the weather, farmers were able to harvest nearly one-quarter of the corn for grain acreage this past week, according to USDA’s National Agricultural Statistics Service. Still, farmers are bar behind the five-year with the corn harvest.

As Swift County-Benson Health Services works to close the deal on financing that will allow it to build an assisted living and memory care facility, it is seeking backing from the City of Benson and Swift County.

It has been negotiating with Bremer Bank in Willmar to provide the majority of financing for the $10.32 million project.  Bremer’s $7.352 million loan would have to be secured by the assets of the proposed facility along with other SCBHS assets. However, an appraisal has left it about $750,000 short.

To help it cover that shortfall, SCBHS is asking for help in two ways:

First, it is asking that the City of Benson secure the $750,000 asset shortfall with its taxing authority. This would mean that if the assisted facility and memory care facility went broke, the city’s taxpayers would have to come up with the money to pay off any balance on the note.

Tuesday, Nov. 7, City of Benson voters will go to the polls to elect a new mayor and two members to the council.

Council Member Terri Collins is running for mayor along with Anita Flodstrom.

Current Mayor Gary Landmark is not seeking re-election to a second term. He served 24 years as a member of the city council and is completing his first two-year term as mayor.

There are five candidates seeking election to the council: Incumbent Jack Evenson, Mark Schreck, Brad Johnson, Terry Flodstrom and Larry Smith. Council Member Stephanie Heinzig also is not seeking re-election. Council members serve four-year terms.

There are three key points District 777’s Board of Education and administration would like to make about the upcoming operating levy vote that will take place Tuesday, Nov. 7:

First, it will not increase property taxes over their current levels since it doesn’t add a new tax, but simply maintains the current levy. In fact, taxes will actually drop by a few dollars.

Second, this levy does not apply to the vast majority of agricultural land in the county. It taxes only the house, garage and one acre of land. It also taxes residential, commercial and business properties. It is not levied on recreational property.

Third, if the levy is not approved it would mean substantial cuts in the courses and programs Benson Public Schools are able to offer its students.

Since it was formed in the late 1950s to help Loren Tyler expand his Tyler Corporation of Benson for the manufacturing of liquid and dry fertilizer spreaders, the Benson Industrial Development Corporation (BIDC) has been working to facilitate economic development.

The private corporation raised funds in 1959 by selling $100 BIDC stock certificates. Since then, its investments in facilitating land and building expansions have helped it increase its fund balance through interest payments.

Because it is a private corporation, the BIDC has been able to work behind the scenes with entrepreneurs on projects. It has worked to secure land and buildings for businesses prior to them announcing their plans publically.  It has also been able to work with the Benson Economic Development Authority on economic development projects.