Month: August 2020

The Crookston Ways & Means Committee will meet Monday, August 31 at 7 p.m..

The committee will review the City of Crookston’s revenues for the 2021 budget.  The committee will also discuss the preliminary tax levy which will be set at the Crookston City Council meeting on September 14.

The preliminary levy is the maximum levy amount for the city. Once set, it can’t be raised, but cuts can be made to lower the levy.  

The Minnesota Department of Transportation (MnDOT) is hosting a virtual listening session on Thursday, September 3 from noon to 1:30 p.m. to discuss potential transportation-specific climate actions. 

To prevent further spread of COVID-19, MnDOT is only hosting virtual public meetings at this time. During this virtual listening session, agency staff will discuss potential transportation climate actions that have been identified through the Minnesota Climate Change Subcabinet efforts and invite feedback. 

To join the virtual meeting, visit https://bit.ly/mntatls. Those without internet access can call 1-855-282-6330 to join the meeting. The meeting access code is 146 946 9424.

For those unable to attend, comments can be submitted through an open comment form on the MnDOT Office of Sustainability and Public Health’s website:MnDOT.gov/sustainability.

The Walz-Flanagan administration and all state agencies are working to reduce the worst impacts of climate change and help Minnesota communities prepare for the climate change impacts that can’t be avoided. This fall, the Minnesota Climate Change Subcabinet will review and finalize a set of potential actions we can take in Minnesota to combat the climate crisis. The transportation-specific climate actions discussed during the listening session were identified by Minnesotans in recent state-led planning processes.

The Minnesota Department of Health reported 1,966 positive COVID-19 tests and six deaths over the weekend.  They conducted 34,619 tests with a 5.6 percent positive rate.  Polk, Red Lake, Pennington, and Norman counties all reported at least one positive case over the weekend.  The Sunday numbers are below.

Updated August 30, 2020
Updated daily at 11 a.m., with data current as of 4 p.m. the previous day.

Data is for cases that were tested and returned positive. All data is preliminary and may change as cases are investigated. Many data points are collected during case interviews. Data presented below is for all cases, regardless of interview status. Data for cases pending interview may be listed as “unknown/missing.”

Not all suspected cases of COVID-19 are tested, so this data is not representative of the total number of people in Minnesota who have or had COVID-19. Cumulative numbers are since Jan. 20, 2020.

Other Statistics

• Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Children (MIS-C) Statistics
• Minnesota COVID-19 Public Dashboard
• Minnesota’s COVID-19 Response and Preparation Capacity
• CDC: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Cases in the U.S.
• Minnesota COVID-19 Modeling

In early August, Altru Health System announced it would be closing its Fertile location on September 30. RiverView Health CEO Carrie Michalski said RiverView wants to reassure residents in the Fertile area that they will continue to provide services.

“First and foremost, we want to assure the community and surrounding area around Fertile that RiverView isn’t going anywhere,” said Michalski. “In a smaller community having that access to providers and a clinic is just an amazing amenity and asset. And so important to the community’s health and vibrancy. We’ve been here since 1898, and we were founded by 13 regional communities. Those included Fertile, Gary, and Ada, all communities that utilize our services in Fertile. That’s the first thing to make sure they understand RiverView will be there to stay on Main Street in Fertile.”

Not only is RiverView around to stay, but Michalski said RiverView would expand from a half-day on Friday to a full day of clinic services. “We have four providers that spend time at the Fertile Clinic every week, and we’re open Monday through Friday,” said Michalski. “One thing that we’re doing is we’ve had a half-day of the clinic on Fridays. We’ll be going to full-days of clinic Monday through Friday to make sure we have enough accessibility for our patients to get in and be seen without any delays.”

Michalski said lab test processing would also be added to the Fertile Clinic to get patients results faster. “Like all Main Street businesses and local communities, we have enjoyed excellent support from our patients from that Fertile, Beltrami, Gary, Erskine, Ada, that support that clinic,” said Michalski. “The more we use local and stay local in the community, the greater our ability to support expansions and additional services. Another example of an investment we are making with COVID, cold and flu season, and the symptoms being similar. So, one of the things we will be doing to enhance the services at the Fertile Clinic will be to bring more lab testing to Fertile. We could always do influenza testing, strep testing, but those were transported to Crookston for processing. We are working to get equipment situated so we’ll be able to take that right in Fertile and get those answers to patients faster.”

RiverView will also host a community appreciation event at the Fertile Clinic on Monday, August 31.  Michalski said RiverView would provide a free loaded brisket potato to everyone from Erickson’s Smokehouse. “It’s hard for us to have events, and we’ve had a lot fewer events during COVID, but food trucks with social distancing have been something people have continued to enjoy,” said Michalski. “We’ve got the great food of Erickson’s Smokehouse, another Fertile business. We’ve asked them to come, and we will be providing a free meal on Monday from 4-6 p.m. It’s a community appreciation, so our current patients or prospective patients and their families are most welcome to join us. I believe we have loaded brisket potatoes on the menu. So, if there are folks that don’t eat brisket, and kids that would prefer just a plain loaded potato that’s an option as well, but I think there are very few people that don’t enjoy getting ahold of some Erickson’s Smokehouse brisket.”

Grand Forks Mayor Brandon Bochenski has issued an emergency declaration temporarily modifying hours  of all classed liquor license holders, to include bars, bar/restaurants and offsale to close daily at 11:00 PM. This action goes into effect this evening, Saturday, August 29, 2020 at 11 PM. 

The Mayor has been in the communication with North Dakota Governor Doug Burgum and Dr. Deborah Birx, the White House Coronavirus Response Coordinator, regarding the measures to mitigate against the spread of the virus. 

“With the exponential increase in positive COVID-19 cases in the last two weeks among the 20-29 age population, this is a necessary action,” said Mayor Bochenski. 

“I’ve always been and always will be a champion for business, individual freedom and personal responsibility. However, the recent spike has gotten us to the point where limiting the opportunities for mass congregations of people in close quarters has become necessary,” said Mayor Bochenski.

“This is a decision that is being made with the long term health and well-being of our community in mind,” says Mayor Bochenski. “These high case numbers are alarming and we can’t let this get out of hand. Protecting our hospital system and our most vulnerable populations is critical and this is something we will need to do for the short term future to meet those ends.” 

“This is not the only thing we can do as a Grand Forks population. All of our mitigation efforts have always been important and they are even more important now; washing your hands, physical distancing, wearing a mask when appropriate, and sanitizing frequently used surfaces. We need to be intentional and focus on doing these things. This will help us slow the spread and get us back.”

Information about COVID-19 is available atwww.grandforksgov.com/coronavirus  and https://www.health.nd.gov/diseases-conditions/coronavirus. 

If you believe you may be experiencing symptoms or have questions about screening for COVID-19 testing, please do not go to your health care provider but call the Altru hotline at (701) 780-5863.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation is thanking thousands of Adopt a Highway volunteers across the state – and encouraging others to sign up to clean a section of roadway – in celebration of the program’s 30th anniversary.

More than 3,800 volunteer groups, ranging from four to 25 people, spent an estimated 272,000 hours cleaning roadway ditches in 2019, picking up 40,000 bags of trash across Minnesota. This translates into an estimated $7 million in realized benefit for the state. Of the current roster of volunteers, 475 groups have been with the program all 30 years.

“The Adopt a Highway program is proof that Minnesotans care about their state. Volunteers picking up litter along our roadways also allows our MnDOT crews to focus on other work, like repairing guardrail, mowing and keeping highways safe,” said Ann McLellan, statewide Adopt a Highway manager. “It is a win-win situation for all involved.”

Volunteers are asked to commit to the program for at least two years and pick up litter on both sides of the roadway a minimum of twice a year. The average length of an adopted roadway is two miles.

MnDOT provides volunteers with safety training, including new COVID-19 guidelines, as well as trash bags and safety vests. The agency also picks up the filled bags of litter, and posts signs along the adopted segments of roads with the names of the volunteer groups.

“We still have more than 630 segments available for adoption. Most of those areas are in Greater Minnesota, but we also have many open sections in the Twin Cities as well,” said McLellan.

The Adopt a Highway program began in 1990 after then-Governor Rudy Perpich visited Texas to speak with Lady Bird Johnson about the state’s anti-litter campaign called “Don’t Mess with Texas.” For more information about MnDOT’s program, visit www.mndot.gov/adopt/.