News

State health officials say three more children have died of complications of the flu, bringing the number of Minnesota children who have died of influenza this season to four.

The number of Minnesotans hospitalized with flu symptoms has topped 4,200. That’s the highest number since the Minnesota Department of Health began tracking flu hospitalizations in 2008.

Preliminary figures released Thursday suggest this year’s flu vaccine is 36 percent effective overall, and only 25 percent effective against this season’s most dominant strain, Type A H3N2.

While the flu epidemic appeared to be easy a couple weeks ago, some spikes in new cases have been reported. It is unknown how long the flu outbreak will last, but as the winter weather continues to force people to congregate inside, attending sporting events, meetings, and socializing in public places, the chances for the spread of the flu remain high.

Twenty-four residents of the Benson, Kerkhoven, Murdock and Sunburg areas returned Feb. 2 from a five-day leadership retreat, the first segment of an intense eight-day training provided by the Blandin Community Leadership Program (BCLP). The team also will participate in three follow-up workshops.

The goal of the Blandin Community Leadership Program is to develop and train a broad base of local leaders to build healthy communities. Topics covered during the retreat included: identifying and describing community issues and opportunities through the lens of the 9 dimensions of a healthy community, effective interpersonal communication, building social capital, appreciating personality differences, managing interpersonal conflict, understanding community power, mobilizing community resources, and goal setting.

Nearly 5,000 Swift County citizens voted in the presidential election in 2016. Total county turnout for last Tuesday’s precinct caucuses was 56.

The county’s Democratic-Farmer-Labor (DFL) Party saw 31 people attend caucuses in Benson, Kerkhoven and Appleton while Republicans saw 25 people attend their three county caucuses.

DFLers chose District 1 U.S. Rep. Tim Walz of southern Minnesota as their top choice for governor in the straw poll that was conducted during its caucus. Walz received 10 votes to State Auditor Deb Otto’s seven. State Representatives Paul Thissen and Tina Liebling each received three votes and Rep. Erin Murphy got two.

Among the Republican candidates, Hennepin County Commissioner Jeff Johnson received 17 votes with the second place finisher Keith Downey far behind with just four votes.

Vote sets stage for Xcel Energy to buy, close biomass power plant

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher, Swift County Monitor-News

Arguing that closing the Benson Power, LLC, biomass electric generation plant would adversely affect the environment and state economy, and violate guaranteed state contractual obligations, multiple petitioners are seeking to keep the facility open.

North American Fertilizer/Beaver Creek Transport, the Minnesota Timber Association, and the Minnesota Turkey Growers Association, are asking the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) to reverse its order allowing Xcel Energy to proceed with the purchase and closing of Benson Power.

North American Fertilizer (NAF) is the company adjacent to Benson Power that processes the ash from the plant’s burning a mix of wood chips and turkey into fertilizer.

Swift County earned $170,000 in interest income on its investments in 2017. The earnings are due to a combination of more funds to invest and interest rates that are starting to creep up.

In all, the county had $20,141,095 invested at the end of 2017. But not all of that is made up of funds the county has sitting in reserves for general operations.

Nearly $5.2 million of the investment funds were just added this past year in the form of a bond sale to pay for renovations at the Swift County courthouse and at Countryside Public Health in Benson. Those monies are already being paid out to contractors. Another $1 million in funds are in a reserve that has been built up over the past several years from the county’s self-insurance health plan. There is $3.3 million in the road and bridge fund.

There is $5.09 million in the general revenue fund reserve. Other investment funds are tied to economic development and human services.

There will be a Community Meeting to further discuss the issues regarding Benson High School sports that parents brought before the school board in November.

The meeting is Monday, February 19th at 6:30 pm at the Fire Hall meeting room.

This is an open meeting and we encourage all school staff, community members, parents and school administration to attend. 

Spread the word - we hope to see you there!!

A water line break on 10th Street South in Benson early this morning led to the city issuing a Code Red alert for a water emergency. It asked citizens to limit water use until 9:30 a.m. With the emergency now over, the city is working to repair the line. It is hoped that more water line breaks aren't in store this coming spring due to a lack of snowcover allowing frost levels to sink deep into the ground.

The leak was discovered about 4:15 a.m. by Benson police who then contacted the Public Works Department, which was on the job 15 mintues later. The water flow was fast enough and long enough from the leak that it caused the level in the Benson water tower to drop. The city suspects there was substantial damage done to the road that will likely require it being rebuilt this spring or summer.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

When Minnesota’s Legislature passed the law last spring allowing for the shutdown of Benson Power, LLC, it also directed the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development to study the consequences of its closing.

The Legislature set aside $150,000 for the study and directed DEED’s commissioner “to examine the economic impact of the closure of a biomass facility located in the city of Benson that uses poultry litter to generate electricity.”

“In conducting the study, the commissioner must analyze the impact of the closure of the biomass facility on employment and income in the local economy, including impacts on ancillary providers of goods and services to the biomass facility,” the Legislature directed DEED.

Costs range from $22 to $29 million, but tax impact said to be reasonable
 

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News

In late January, Benson Public Schools brought together three groups of District 777 residents to give it input on where its priorities should focus for building improvements.

Results of the meetings were presented at a special school board meeting at noon last Thursday in the superintendent’s office at BHS. School staff and school board members were pleasantly surprised by the support they found among the groups for the significant upgrades that are needed.

Farmers/landowners, school district staff, and business owners/community members met in their individual groups Jan. 29, 30 and 31 to review the current condition of the district’s building and educational needs of its student now and into the coming years. Forty-five people participated in the meetings.

By Reed Anfinson
Publisher
Swift County Monitor-News
 

At a special District 777 Board of Education meeting Thursday noon, a $695,600 north civic center renovation project was unanimously approved.

It will focus on creating a new space for the Benson High School gymnastics program to replace the cramped quarters it currently uses in the Benson Armory. Funds will come from a building account set aside earlier by the board.

There are also concerns the City of Benson will revisit its plans to convert the armory into a new city hall eliminating the gymnastics space. Last April, the council put those plans on hold as the price tag appeared it could near $1 million and as it worked on building a new police station. Still, it is an option that remains on the table.