Late on Monday, Microsoft Corp confirmed that a recent change it introduced likely caused a major outage, affecting users’ access to multiple Microsoft 365 services, including Outlook.com and Microsoft Teams. The developer of Windows and Office software said it did not “observe an increase in successful connections” even after it rolled back the change to mitigate the impact.
Microsoft said on its status page, “We’re pursuing mitigation steps for this issue. In parallel, we’re rerouting traffic to alternate systems to provide further relief to the affected users.”
Microsoft also said they were working to evaluate other solutions while they investigate the root cause of the outage.
Amanda Seyfried and husband Thomas Sadoski have welcomed their second child together, a baby boy. The pair announced the news via INARA and War Child USA. “Since the birth of our daughter 3 years ago our commitment to the innocent children that are so brutally affected by conflict and war has been a driving force in our lives. With the birth of our son the work of INARA and War Child has become our North Star.”
Seyfried and Sadoski have been married since March 2017 and also share their 3-and-a-half-year-old daughter Nina.
HBO announced Monday it has renewed Real Time with Bill Maher for two more seasons, which will keep the show on air through 2022. Each episode features an opening monologue, followed by round-table discussions with guests and interviews.
Nina Rosenstein, executive vice president and HBO programming, said in a statement, “For 18 seasons, Bill Maher and the talented team at Real Time have given audiences an unparalleled platform for debate, comedy, and social discourse. We’re so happy to continue this partnership.”
Said Maher, “18 years — I can’t believe I’m turning 18 and HBO isn’t making me leave home. Thrilled to be living under their roof for another couple of years.”
The Ways & Means Committee met on Monday night. The committee had been hoping to receive an update from APG Development, the developer with whom a lack of communication resulted in a project not moving forward.
However, City of Finance Director Angel Weasner said APG Development was not ready to present an updated project to the committee as planned. Weasner said she believes they still have an interest in doing the development and having a proposal prepared prior to the Ways & Means Committee meeting on October 12. “I spoke with the developer and they are in the final stages of deciding if they’re going to move forward,” said Weasner. “They will be submitting a proposal to me so we can have a discussion and know what they’re requesting.”
A business subsidy between APG Development and the City of Crookston, as well as a purchase agreement for the land the project was originally proposed to the south of Casey’s General Store with the Crookston Housing and Economic Development Authority (CHEDA), was approved September 26, 2019. However, no one from the city or CHEDA ever contacted the developer to inform them of the progress, and the developer contacted the city in February about the project. The land use determination and variance approvals on the project are still valid, so any change requested by APG Development on the project would likely relate to the purchase agreement or business subsidy agreements.
The committee also approved a CARES Act fund purchase of $23,063.56 from HB Sound & Light for livestreaming equipment at the Valley Technology Park. Councilman Jake Fee said that anything that can be done to make open meetings appear more transparent will be good for the city. CHEDA Executive Director Craig Hoiseth said that equipment would be available for non-CHEDA community meetings as well. “Some of the appropriations for the CARES Act funding was to have virtual or remote live-streamed meetings,” said Hoiseth. “This request was simply to install that equipment in Valley Tech Park. That open space is available not only for CHEDA meetings but also for other community entities that might want to use that space and livestream to get their meetings out more transparently.”
Councilman Dylane Klatt asked if something similar could be done in the Council Chambers and Weasner said a proposal should be ready for the next meeting. “It is a city facility and we’re going to utilize CARES Act money to purchase some livestream audio and video equipment,” said Weasner. “We have been in the works of looking at that for City Hall in the Council Chambers as requested by the City Council previously. I will be sitting down with the department head responsible for that (IT Director Philip Barton) later this week. It should be able to come to the Ways & Means on October 12.”
The committee also approved the 2019 City of Crookston Audit. Normally the auditor presents the report in late August or early September, but with COVID going on the council was asked to review the audit to see if they had questions necessitating a presentation. The audit will be available on the City’s website Tuesday morning said Weasner. “We did really well,” said Weasner. “There weren’t a lot of changes this last year because we didn’t have any big items that occurred. We’d taken over the pool previously, so that wasn’t included (in changes). When we did the budget to actual (comparison) we were close to everything. All we had to do was accept the audit so it will be posted on the website tomorrow.”
The committee also discussed the possible purchase of the Golf Terrace Motel by John Bridgeford. Councilman Tom Vedbraaten said he’s received an email from Bridgeford that he was interested in turning the motel into apartments. The committee expressed a desire to not drag out the possible approval as they discussed that the current zoning for the area was commercial and any zoning change or conditional use would need to go through the Planning Commission. Mayor Dale Stainbrook said Building Official Greg Hefta is currently researching the options available to the city and Bridgeford. “I know he is working with Greg to get this to Planning,” said Stainbrook. “They would have to make the recommendation which way to go. It does sit in a commercial place. He is looking to make apartments out there rather than short or long-term stays with the motel. I think listening to the feedback the Council is okay moving forward with this, we just have to change some zoning out there in the commercial area.”
Street projects were also brought up at the end of the meeting including that there would be a proposal from the Downtown Crookston Development Partnership for bridge lighting at the next meeting. Fee also asked when the 2021 street improvements, including a possible bridge upgrade, would be proposed, and Public Works Director Pat Kelly said he usually meets with the City Administrator on his proposal in early October and then brings it the committee, saying that would likely also occur on October 12.
MnDOT will also be making a presentation to the committee for a downtown street project that includes the downtown sidewalks at the next meeting according to Weasner. “There is going to be a meeting on October 12 with MnDOT,” said Weasner. “We will be discussing the sidewalks downtown and reconstruction of the roads. We are working in conjunction together and we will be discussing that night whether the city is interested in putting some dollars toward a preliminary design so we can have discussions in the future.”
The proposal from MnDOT builds off a downtown Crookston traffic calming discussion held in Crookston on October 30, 2018 (here). Weasner said that the presentation will be a plan to move forward with one of the designs from that meeting.
The Crookston School Board met Monday evening in the Crookston High School choir/orchestra room. There was a wide variety of topics discussed.
PROPERTY TAX LEVY – The board approved the preliminary property tax levy at a 3.5% increase. They can lower the levy, but cannot raise the levy higher than the 3.5 percent they will send to the county. “This includes our new bus garage and also the absence of the pool, which is now under the city’s ownership which we are very happy to agree with,” said Crookston School District Finance Director Laura Lyczewski. “Other than that everything else is pretty normal. The board can take another look at everything in December when they finalize it.”
The board set the Truth in Taxation hearing for December 14 at 6:00 p.m.
MSHSL EXTRA PAYMENT-
The school board reluctantly approved a COVID payment to the Minnesota State High School League (MSHSL). The MSHSL has sent bills to all the participating school districts asking them to help cover a five-million-dollar deficit. Crookston School District is being asked to send a $3,500 payment by the end of November and another $3,500 payment later in the school year for a total of $7,000. School board members Frank Fee, Mike Theis, and Dave Davidson said they were against it, but the district had no choice. Superintendent Jeremy Olson said no area superintendents were in favor of the new MSHSL fee, but you have to do what is best for the kids, and participating in activities is good for the kids. “That’s what it boils down to,” said Superintendent Olson. “As a superintendent, I am not happy with the extra bill, but I am supportive of the high school league. I am not real excited with how and the lack of communication. The bottom line is at the end of the day we are going to provide activities for the kids.”
Board Chair Frank Fee made a motion to pay the fee and Adrianne Winger seconded and the board gave unanimous approval.
TECHNOLOGY JOB ADDED
The board heard of the need for an additional technology position after they lost a part-time technology employee from last year. The district is dealing with more technology than ever before with distance learning/hybrid learning, white boards, and everything else because of COVID. “We are trying to supplement our technology with support. Our second tech person didn’t come back to the district this year,” said Superintendent Olson. “We went from a device on a cart to a 1-to-1 device initiative with a lot of technology use and the teachers are using it more than ever before.” The technology position would be based out of Highland School and some of the money to fund the position would be from the part-time position that didn’t come back and using CARES Act funding to cover the rest of the $33,000 salary.
SCHOOL BUS GARAGE FUELING STATION QUOTE-
The district received good news when the quote for the new bus garage fueling station came back lower than budgeted. The board approved up to $214,500 for the project, but the bid came back at $189,000. “After we received the quotes we were happy,” said Superintendent Olson. “Our current tanks need about $10,000 worth of work to give us one or two more years and I didn’t think that would be a good way to go, so it will be nice to have a new station at our bus garage.”
SCHOOL BOARD, PRINCIPALS, AND SUPERINTENDENT GIVE KUDOS TO DISTRICT STAFF The Crookston School Board, school principals, and Superintendent Olson all praised the work the school district staff and teachers have done so far to make the start of the school year as successful as possible. “Everyone wants the same thing. They want to provide the very best education for kids,” said Superintendent Olson. “To see the staff has been incredible. They are incredible with the way they service students, they are caring and compassionate. They are working their tales off. The custodians are tired at the end of their shift and we have offered overtime for them with all the cleaning they have to do. We are fortunate to have great teachers and staff.”
ENROLLMENT –
The Crookston School District enrollment is currently 1,116 students compared to 1,140 at this time last year. The current number of students is 10 less than projected, but more than the school budgeted.
ACTIVITIES DIRECTOR GREG GARMEN PRESENTATION- Crookston High School Activities Director Greg Garmen gave a presentation to the board on a new Touch Pro system that was purchased through Crookston Pirate Booster Funds. The Touch Pro system will be a television monitor in the Crookston High School commons that will have old photos, sports records, old yearbooks dating all the way back to 1907, some old Pepster newspapers, and more. They are working on loading all the information.
Garmen gave an update on work that has been done since the summer and he thanked the custodial staff for their hard work. The list of items is below –
– New LED lights in the high school gymnasium.
– Repainted the wood panels on the bleachers in the gymnasium.
– Put up shot clocks in the gym
– Got everything out of the weight room, painted the room, put new flooring in, and have put some equipment in the weight room and are waiting for the rest to arrive.
Fall sports numbers –
Girls tennis – 40
Boys Soccer – 41
Girls Soccer – 27
Swimming – 11
FOOTBALL GAME ATTENDANCE –
There is a limit of 250 fans allowed at high school football games this fall and Activities Director Greg Garmen gave an update on how they will handle the ticket situation.
He said on Saturday, October 3, they are giving 50 tickets for Roseau fans. They will give each player and coach two tickets each and whatever is left over will be sold to the public. When and where you can get the tickets will be available Wednesday morning through KROX.
THANK YOU’S AND CONGRATULATIONS-
Highland School Principal Chris Trostad thanked the Brian Christensen family for their work and the use of equipment to clean up the nature center. He also thanked all the volunteers that helped. 100 loads were brought to the transfer station for disposal.
Trostad also thanked Nate Lubarski for the donation of LED lights.
Washington School Principal Denice Oliver thanked Food Services Director Anna Brekken for getting a free fruit and vegetable grant so they can offer free snacks two times a week. The free snacks will start in early October.
Superintendent Jeremy Olson thanked Polk County Public Health for everything they have done for the district during the pandemic.
Olson also congratulated Crookston School District Orchestra teacher Haley Ellis on getting her Master’s Degree.
CONSENT AGENDA APPROVED-
Consent agenda items were all approved unanimouslyincluding – employment of Kylie Brekke as a Paraprofessional at Highland, Brooke Van Overbeke as Instructional Aide at Washington, Stephanie Neisen as Paraprofessional at Highland, Toni Langved-Kelley as Instructional Assistant at Highland, Rochelle Chaput as Instructional Assistant at Highland, Ben Trostad as After School Care Aide at Highland, JoElle Boucher as Instructional Aide at Highland, Heather Visness as Instructional Aide at Crookston High School, Allie Love as Instructional Aide at Crookston High School, and Wyatt Erickson as a part-time custodian at Highland.
The board approved a one-year leave of absence request from Tammy Warcken as an instructional aide at Washington, a resignation letter from Ann Pahlen as a paraprofessional at Highland, a resignation letter from Penny Halstad as a paraprofessional at Highland, a resignation from Don Edlund as Junior High baseball coach, and Herlinda Cisneros as an instructional assistant at Washington school.
Also, in the consent agenda is the approval of the 2020 Football and Volleyball coaching staff and the board will set a date for the Truth and Taxation hearing.
The next Crookston School Board meeting will be Monday, October 26 at 5:00 p.m.
Greg Garmen shows the board the Moorhead High School Touch Pro site
The Crookston City Council met on Monday night in the council chambers at City Hall. The only item on the regular agenda was approving the recommended small business grant recipients from the City of Crookston’s CARES Act funding.
City Councilman Jake Fee said the committee and city staff put a lot of time and effort into the process. And noted that there is $173,343.98 remaining for the second wave of grants. Councilman Tom Vedbraaten said it was good to see business apply and he hopes the funds help them. The council passed the resolution approving $547,356.02 in grants with another $29,300 still pending some extra documentation by a vote of 6-0. Fee abstained as the Crookston Eagles, which he manages was a recipient of one of the grants. Councilman Steve Erickson also abstained from the vote as his business, Erickson Embroidery/2nd Street Boutique, was also receiving a grant.
The grants were approved for the following businesses and organizations.
Crookston Sports Fitness LLC
$25,891.90
Service Pro Parts Inc.
$10,000
Healing Hands Therapeutic
$3,500
United Way of Crookston Inc
$10,610
L & C Stahlecker & Sons
$41,000
Joyful Heart Photography
$3,000
Real Good Bath & Body
$19,700
Thrivent Financial
$18,000
Irishman’s Shanty
$11,200
El Gordito Market
$15,000
Advanced Tire & Auto Service
$15,000
Sweetlight Gallery
$16,000
RBJ’s Restaurant
$40,000
Red River Valley Shows, Inc.
$10,000
Erickson Embroidery/2nd St. Boutique
$25,000
Crookston Hotel Group Cobblestone
$5,000
Drafts Sports Bar & Grill
$41,000
NA Ultrahigh LLC
$4,728.62
Crookston Hospitality Group AmericInn
$27,935
Crookston Youth Foundation
$10,000
Moon Child Massage
$5,000
The Dude’s Custom Seat Cover
$5,000
Minakwa Golf Course
$41,675
American Family Insurance
$1,491.32
Willow & Ivy
$4,542
M.P.T Partnership (Mugoo’s Pizza)
$17,000
Golden Link Seniors Association
$3,000
Fraternal Order of the Eagle’s 873
$35,653.15
Crookston Area Chamber
$10,000
NAPA Crookston Welding
$41,429.03
Moore Family Theater
$30,000
Mayor Dale Stainbrook said he was pleased to see Crookston’s businesses getting needed assistance. “A lot of dollars went out and I think it’s going to help the community a lot,” said Stainbrook. “I know there is a few more business coming to the plate now that haven’t applied. But I think the IRP (Development, Policy & Review) Committee are doing a fantastic job of going through the applications and getting this money out to the businesses that need it.”
The second round of small business grant applications is due October 6 and will be reviewed by the Development, Policy & Review Committee on October 7-9.
On the consent agenda, the approval of election judges was pulled from the consent agenda by Vedbraaten who questioned whether Paulette Melbye could serve as an election judge with her husband Wayne running for the City Council. City of Crookston Finance Director/Interim City Administrator Angel Weasner said that the main list had been an extension from the primaries in August, with four names added and that Melbye had already been informed she couldn’t be called for the general election. “Back in July we had approved our election judge list and this spouse of the person that is on the ballot this fall was an election judge,” said Weasner. “We added four election judge names to our list and just copied and pasted. The person that is in question will not be called to be an election judge in November. They were informed immediately that they would not be eligible to be an election judge in November.”
The City Council then voted unanimously to approve the election judges. They also passed the remaining items on the consent agenda unanimously. The City Council had one person speak during the Crookston Forum. James Leiman introduced himself as the Director for the Veden Center for Rural Economic Development and thanked the City Council for its support of the Small Business Development Center, which falls under his umbrella.
The past couple of years the Sugarbeet Harvest has dealt with several weather-related challenges from snow and freezing conditions to record rainfall. However, Crookston Factory Manager Ryan Wall said those types of challenges don’t appear present this season as the harvest is set to kick off Tuesday night. “It’s looking really good,” said Wall. “The forecast the next 7-10 days looks very favorable. We’re coming into harvest with pretty dry conditions, so hoping for a nice, calm harvest.”
The pre-pile also went smoothly and the sugarbeets being processed have looked good thus far said Wall. “Pre-piles went great,” said Wall. “Operation in the factory has been excellent. The new extraction plant we’ve put in has been performing really well. We’ve had really good throughput rates, good recovery numbers. Beet quality coming in has been excellent so far, so overall pre-pile has been a success.”
According to Wall some acres, called at-risk acres, will be held back from the harvest until the total tonnage from the harvest is calculated. “At this time, there is always the at-risk acres,” said Wall. “We want to make sure we’re able to store and process them all. There will be a percentage we’ll wait until the end to decide whether or not we’ll harvest. On a normal day, valley-wide, not just this district, the ag department can put down one million tons a day when things are going really well. As far as the length of harvest, it’s all weather dependent but with the way the forecast is looking, I think we should have a pretty good harvest. There are always those at-risk acres at the end that they’ll release once we know what the total tonnage will be in the valley.”
Wall said they are still not where they’d like to be for staffing in the factory, but the ag department is sufficiently staffed. “I think the harvest staffing is looking pretty good,” said Wall. “I visited with the ag department this morning and they seem to be pretty confident they have enough people. Staffing in the factory continues to be a slight challenge. We’re not seeing the number of applicants coming in the building we typically would see this time of year. And I don’t know what that’s attributed to but it’s definitely not where it should be with staffing in the factory.”
With fewer factory employees Wall said there is an increase in burnout and pressure on the factory staff. “What it means is running short at times which puts a lot of pressure on the other employees,” said Wall. “It also means a lot of overtime opportunities for people, which can wear people out. That’s the two negative impacts of not having staff.”
The Beet Beat will also return to KROX Tuesday at midnight with Jake and Karl.
The Polk County Sheriff’s Office has received numerous reports of people receiving calls claiming there is fraud involving their Social Security number in Texas. The calls are being placed to look like they are coming from local numbers. These calls are scams, the callers are asked to continue on with the phone call and typically the person on the line threatens criminal action if they don’t comply with the instructions. Neither the IRS nor Law Enforcement conducts business this way.
If you receive a call and believe it to be a scam, report it to your local law enforcement agency.
On Monday, September 28, at approximately 3:23 a.m., officers of the Grand Forks Police Department located a 2000 Dodge Dakota with ND Plates at 1220 University Avenue. The driver was identified as being Shawn Bjerke (10/2/68). Bjerke was known at the time of stop to be a suspended driver.
Bjerke drove to the 300 block of N. 12th Street and stopped when officers initiated their overhead lights. Bjerke exited the vehicle and was addressed by officers. At this time, Bjerke returned to the driver seat and fled northbound. Bjerke continued to flee until a PIT maneuver was utilized on the 1000 block of 15th Avenue South at approximately 3:27 a.m. The PIT maneuver was successful, and officers were able to detain Bjerke.
Altru Paramedics were called to the scene to evaluate Bjerke for complaints of neck pain. Bjerke was subsequently transported to Altru Hospital via ambulance for evaluation.
Bjerke will be charged with fleeing in a motor vehicle, reckless endangerment, driving under the influence, driving under suspension, possession of Methamphetamine, possession of Methamphetamine paraphernalia, Possession of LSD, and possession of Marijuana.
Altru Paramedics assisted the Grand Forks Police Department on scene. If anyone has any additional information on the above matter, please contact the Grand Forks Police Department at 701-787-8000.
The Crookston Music Trip Parents Organization has announced the postponement of the Crookston High School music trip to Florida, scheduled for late March of 2021, has been postponed to the summer.
The decision was made after the group talked with Bergan Travel and Disney. “We reached out to Bergan Travel and asked their thoughts on what we should do and they contacted Disney and said they strongly encouraged us to postpone,” said CMTP Board President Chris Fee. “Usually by this time we have everything booked and ready to go, but this year we haven’t been able to book the plane, hotels, or anything because of COVID-19 and the lack of people taking reservations with so many unknowns.”
Fee said the unlikelihood of going in March was also a deciding factor. “In all honesty, it doesn’t look like we would be going in March no matter what because of COVID,” said Fee. “This will buy us more time to hopefully be able to go.”
The group is looking at a mid-June to late June date now and with not being able to hold large meetings, it has caused problems for the group to reach out to the affected families for their thoughts. “It has been difficult because normally we would have a parent meeting to include the parents and kids in the decision and get their input,” said Fee. “Everything has been different and difficult since March and we are hoping we will be able to go this summer. The decision will be up to the group, the parents and kids, and the final say lies with the school board and administration.”
If parents/guardians have any questions, contact Chris Fee at 218-280-4021.
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