Month: January 2021

On Monday, high school athletes across the state finally got to partake in their first winter sports season practices, and Crookston Pirates athletes were excited to be back with their friends, preparing for the season.

BOYS BASKETBALL
The Crookston Pirates Boys Basketball program members were the first to get to work on the new season with practice at 6:15 a.m. Monday.  After practice, Senior Easton Tangquist said it was good to be back. “It feels pretty good,” said Tangquist. “We’re pretty excited because for a while we didn’t know if we were going to have basketball. We thought we were starting a while ago, but now that we’re actually starting, we’re pumped.”  

Senior Jacob Miller said the team is ready to win. “Teams looking pretty good,” said Miller. “Everybody is pretty conditioned, and we’ll be ready to win.”

Miller added he’s looking forward to games. “Mostly, playing the games,” said Miller. “It will be nice to have our senior season. I’m sure everybody is feeling like that through all grades.”

Tangquist said it will be nice to make one last season of memories with his teammates. “I always look back on memories from past years,” said Tangquist. “I just want another year of memories with the boys, our coaches, and to win some games too.”

GIRLS BASKETBALL
The Crookston Pirates Girls Basketball team hopes to have another strong season after finishing last season 21-7. Senior Emma Boll said she’s hopeful they can play the full season. “I’m excited to be back on the court, especially with all of my friends I haven’t seen in a long time,” said Boll. “And I’m really grateful that we can play again because my volleyball season got cut short. So, I’m excited for basketball. Hoping that we can play the whole season, and I can’t wait to see how far we go this season.”

Junior Hayden Winjum said it a good first practice. “It was a lot of fun to see the girls,” said Winjum. “Haven’t seen a lot of them in a while. I think we had a really good first practice. A lot of intensity. A lot of communication and excitement for the season.”

Senior Emma Borowicz said the intensity was really high for the first practice. “It’s just good to back out here with everyone else,” said Borowicz. “It’s been a long time that we weren’t able to play together, even throughout the summer. The intensity was really high today. We’re all working hard. Probably going to be sore tomorrow and all week but feels good.”

Borowicz added the Pirates have to take advantage of the opportunity to play. “Just playing,” said Borowicz. “Being out there, that’s all we can really ask for. The opportunities are there, so we have to take them.”

Boll said she’s also looking forward to seeing how good the team can be. “I’m just looking forward to playing,” said Boll. “Being out on the court with my best friends and seeing how good we can get this season.”

Winjum also said she’s ready to have some fun this year. “I’m looking forward to a great season,” said Winjum. “I think we have a lot of potential. I’m excited and ready to have some fun. And going to make the most out of whatever we get here.”

WRESTLING
The Crookston Pirates Wrestlers are also hoping to have a strong season, even though they won’t get to wrestle in their traditional tournaments. Senior Zach Brown said the team pushed hard on the first day. “Today was definitely pretty fun,” said Brown. “We’re all gasping for our breaths, so we were definitely pushing hard, which is good. We need to push hard if we want to get to state, and that’s exactly what we all want to do.”

Senior Nolan Dans said even without tournaments, the Pirates’ Wrestlers will take what they can get for a season. “I think we’re all ready to get back in here and wrestle hard like we do every year,” said Dans. “Keep pushing ourselves every like we do every year and get better. We’re going to miss tournaments and all that, but if this is all we can get, we’ll take it.”

Senior Cade Coauette said he’s looking forward to the new schedule against non-section opponents. “I’m pretty excited for wrestling some new teams we haven’t wrestled before,” said Coauette. “It’s going to be something completely different than what we’re used to, instead of wrestling section opponents.”

Senior Cam Weiland said he’s looking forward to getting back on the mat and wrestling with some different people. “I’m looking forward to getting back out on the mat and wrestling some teams,” said Weiland. “Instead of just duals, we’re doing triangular (matches), so it’s nice to wrestle different people each time.”

BOYS HOCKEY
The Crookston Pirates Boys Hockey will look to build on a strong finish to last season that saw them win four of their final six games.  Senior Noah Dragseth said it felt good to be back on the ice. “It’s good,” said Dragseth. “It’s definitely different from the masks and everything, but it feels good to be back.”

Senior Gavin Anderson said, “I’m glad to back out here with the boys.”

Anderson added, “I’m looking forward to everybody working hard and putting in their best effort.”

Dragseth said he was also excited, “to be able to play. Being able to get out of the house and do something finally.”

GIRLS HOCKEY
The Pirates Girls Hockey team is also looking to build off of last season. Senior Kenze Epema said the first practice was different than they’ve been before. “It was definitely really different with all of this mask stuff,” said Epema. “And having to be six feet apart. It’s not like any of our other sports like soccer this season. But the masks just really…they’ ain’t fun.”

Senior Catherine Tiedemann said it was nice to be back on the ice. “It was different for sure,” said Tiedemann. “But at least we’re still able to get on the ice and play. We scrimmaged the whole practice, just getting back out there.”

Tiedemann said she’s looking forward to just having a season. “I guess just the fact we have a season,” said Tiedemann. “There was a chance we wouldn’t have one at all. So, being able to have almost a full schedule, practicing every day, that’s mostly what I’m looking forward to.”

Epema said she was looking forward to one last year playing alongside her best friend. “Definitely being able to play like Cat said,” said Epema. “And then, just being able to have my best friend next to my side one last year.”

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The Polk County Commissioners held their first meeting of the new year on Tuesday morning, where three commissioners took their Oaths of Office, including new commissioner Mark Holy (Fifth District). The Commissioners also allocated funding for Business Relief Grants approved by the Minnesota Legislature and signed by Governor Tim Walz in December.

According to the legislation, a business must demonstrate a significant revenue loss since March 15, 2020, and have been impacted by an executive order from Governor Walz related to the COVID-19 pandemic. Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting said the application process will work similarly to the CARES Act applications, with the county’s three largest cities collecting applications. “We received $622,000 of state money to process, similar to how we did the CARES money,” said Whiting. “It’s not exactly the same, but that’s state funds to get out to local businesses affected by the pandemic. Like we did with CARES, we divided the monies between the Cities of East Grand Forks, Crookston, and Fosston with a pool left over for the businesses in the rural county areas.”

Whiting said the application should be finalized and published in the coming days. “People interested should watch the county’s website or one of the three cities’ (websites), depending on which one they are closes to,” said Whiting. “You’ll be able to download an application. Put in the appropriate information and contact information. And submit it to one of the three cities. The application will tell you which one to apply to. You’ll have to state how the pandemic has adversely affected your business. The deadline will be sometime towards the end of the month or the first week of February.”

Just as with the previous CARES Act funding, each city will recommend the grant allocations to the County Board, who will then hold a vote to approve those grants. “The staff will review it with their governing bodies (in the three cities) and get it back to me,” said Whiting. “Then, the hope is the County Board will act on grants to be awarded in February. The applications are still being worked on, but we’ll post it just like we did with the CARES money once we’ve got it. The easiest place to go is to start with the County’s website, but if you’re familiar with the East Grand Forks, Crookston, or Fosston websites, it will be posted there as well.”

The $622,143.05 was approved to be distributed with $200,000 each to businesses in the Cities of Crookston and East Grand Forks, $120,000 for businesses in the City of Fosston, and $100,000 for businesses in rural Polk County. An additional $2,143.05 remains to be determined as needed.

OATH OF OFFICE/NEW OFFICERS
The Oath of Office was administered by Ninth Judicial District Court Judge Corey Harbott to new Commissioner Mark Holy and returning Commissioners Gerald Jacobson (First District) and Gary Willhite (Third District), who won reelection in November.

Holy won the Fifth District race over former State Representative Tim Finseth, replacing Don Diedrich, who retired after serving four terms (16 years) as the Fifth District Commissioner. Holy said he’s thankful to be elected and interested in dealing with water issues in the county. “I’m thankful to be involved,” said Holy. “It will be interesting, and a lot of education needs to happen here, but I’m willing to take on the task and go forward. Water is an issue for me on both sides. We’ll work through that process. I farm, so drainage is a concern, and also DNR type stuff – wetlands and safety of our public waters – is also very important to me.”

The board also elected Gerald Jacobson as the Board Chair for 2021 and Joan Lee (Fourth District) as the Vice-Chair. Jacobson said it has been a while since he’s been the chair, but the board will get back in a groove with the new year. “It’s kind of a new challenge for me now,” said Jacobson. “I haven’t been the chair now for probably seven years. We have our agendas and things that come up that are very interesting – talking about the COVID and possible money coming out. We’re back in the groove, and we’ll be setting our plan forward as we go forward, I guess.”

The Commissioners also reviewed their committee assignments, explained Jacobson. “Don retired, of course, and Mark Holy took most of his assignments,” said Jacobson. “For the most part, that went very smooth.”

It was also noted that the long-awaited replacement of the outdated and sometimes out-of-commission elevator at the Polk County Government Center was completed Tuesday morning and now operational for those needing to conduct business at the facility.

On January 5, 2021, at approximately 10 a.m., officers of the Grand Forks Police Department were dispatched to the Loaf and Jug Gas Station located on the 4300 block of Gateway Drive for a physical altercation involving a stolen vehicle. 

According to the reporting party, he recognized a vehicle belonging to his employer while in the area of the gas station.  The reporting party attempted to block in the stolen vehicle to prevent it from leaving the area; a physical altercation ensued involving the reporting party and the suspect driver.  The suspect ultimately fled from the parking lot and was last seen running Northeast from Loaf and Jug. 

A perimeter was established, and Officers searched the immediate area but were unsuccessful in apprehending the suspect who was described as: white male, with no shirt, multiple tattoos, and wearing black Carhartt style coveralls.  The vehicle which was stolen out of Traill County was released to the owner. 

No arrests have been made currently and this is an on-going investigation.  Assisting the Police Department was UND PD and Grand Forks Sheriff’s Office.

Anyone with information on this, or any related, incident, is encouraged to contact the Grand Forks Police Department by one of the following methods:

Call:                       701-787-8000
Online:                 Submit a tip via the GFPD’s Facebook or website
App:                     Submit a tip via the Tip411 app

Representative Deb Kiel, R-Crookston, was sworn in Tuesday for her sixth term as the State Representative for House District 1B. Kiel, a farmer, lives in Crookston with her husband, Lonn. 

“It is an honor to serve a sixth term as State Representative for District 1B,” said Kiel. “This session will look different, but I look forward to buckling down to work on the important issues we face this year. I hope to hear from the people of District 1B about the priorities and concerns of our area during the upcoming session.” 

Kiel was also named to three House committees: Health Finance and Policy, Human Services Finance and Policy, and Industrial Education and Economic Development Finance and Policy. She was named the Republican Lead member on the Industrial Education and Economic Development Finance and Policy.

The Minnesota Department of Health is reporting 1,441 new confirmed cases of COVID-19, 171 probable cases from antigen testing, and 18 deaths. The confirmed cases were the result of 14,553 completed tests for a positive rate of 9.9 percent.

There were no new confirmed cases in Polk County. Roseau County had 3 confirmed cases, Pennington County-3 cases, and Red Lake County-1 case.

Updated January 5, 2021
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.”

Positive PCR test results are considered confirmed cases. Positive antigen test results are considered probable cases.

All probable cases get the same public health follow up and recommendations as cases confirmed by PCR tests.

Other Statistics

• Minnesota COVID-19 Public Dashboard
  • Response and Preparation Capacity
  • Public Health Risk Measures (Dial Back Dashboard)
  • Minnesota COVID-19 Modeling
• CDC: Coronavirus Disease 2019 (COVID-19) Cases in the U.S.
• Multisystem Inflammatory Syndrome In Children (MIS-C) Statistics
• COVID-19 Vaccine Data

Data in the data tables is current as of 11 a.m. daily. Dynamic images and maps will update shortly after 11 a.m. daily and will not work if your browser is in compatibility mode.