Month: November 2022

On the morning after the election, neighbor/friend Allen Love and I went out with his pickup to pick up my campaign signs. Besides the more than 50 smaller signs, there were four larger signs that were held up by fence posts. A Handyman jack was required to get those posts out of the very dry, hard ground.

With the load of signs, we headed right for the East Grand Forks City Shop. There, the whole load went into the dumpster. Nothing was saved for another time. Just as I had said in campaign material, the 2022 election was the last run for me.

Going through an election is a humbling experience. I’ve gone through a few of them in my time and need no more humbling. Like President Richard Nixon said, “You won’t have Nixon to kick around anymore because, gentlemen, this is my last press conference.”

That Nixon quote was supposed to be a joke. If it didn’t come out that way, sorry. I was never kicked around. But in an election, you are humbled.

Not everyone likes you or thinks that you should be elected/re-elected. There are times when the votes that you thought would go your way go instead to your challenger. There is the opposite, too, which amounts to some humbling for the challenger. The sign war tells you a lot, too.

About the placing of signs: It has become more difficult than it was a few years ago. You can’t just go to the phone book and start calling friends and neighbors to ask for permission because there aren’t many names that are still in the book. If you don’t have the number for that person in your cell phone directory, you need to find some other way to ask for permission to place the sign. I’m not good at ringing doorbells to make that request. Just don’t like door-to-door campaigning. Some do, not me.

My campaign involved a mass mailing effort. There was a problem with that, too, in that the areas covered by mail routes don’t match those of commissioner districts. To try to cover a commissioner district, you had to send your material to areas/people who couldn’t vote for you. As a result, a lot of people outside of Commissioner District 2 received my postcard. Sorry for that, too.

Should you want to make a run for an office like that of commissioner, which takes significant time, I refer you to this thought: You should either be self- employed or unemployed.

Unemployed? That means either wealthy or retired… in no need of a job. There may be some employers, but certainly not many, who will put up with having someone gone as much as the commissioner job requires. Bless those who might be willing to put up with all the absences.

If you are self-employed, your career/business/farm will suffer. But know this that serving a time in office is worth it.

In an election, not winning will be much more humbling for the incumbent than for the challenger. For the incumbent, losing means that there will be some big life changes. For the challenger, life pretty much goes on as before just minus the election effort.

In their campaigns, some challengers have been known to say that they will cut your taxes. That’s just baloney. It just isn’t going to happen. If, for example, they were successful in reducing some expenditures, that would have very little effect on the total of the tax bill. Probably just a few cents. And then, the projects or services that were eliminated would have just been pushed down the road. They would be back in budget discussions the next year. Really, nothing would have been gained.

Some things just have to get done. Planning for the way to pay for them with the least effect on that tax bill is key. Keeping taxes from increasing beyond the rate of inflation is the most realistic goal. Inflation this year is reported to be 8% or more. The final levy increase for Polk County will be less than half of that.

The average of levy increases in the County over the past 15 years has been 2.76%. That’s an accomplishment of which the Polk County Commission and administration can be very proud. There aren’t many government units, if any, that can match that record.

Anyway, enough on this. The campaign signs went into the dumpster. Just be thankful that there are those who are willing to be a candidate for office… to be humbled, if you will.

Thoughts for the day:

• Time ticks on and we all tick with it. — Jessie Veeder, newspaper columnist
• It isn’t necessary to see a good tackle. You can hear it. — Knute Rockne, Notre Dame

Disclaimer: Thoughts expressed in this column are those of the author and are not necessarily a reflection of the opinions of the other members of the Polk County Board.

The post THE COUNTY LINE-BY POLK COUNTY COMMISSINOER WARREN STRANDELL appeared first on KROX.

The Crookston Area Chamber of Commerce is celebrating local businesses in the community with its Chamber Celebration and Awards on Friday, December 2, in the Crookston Eagles Club. This year’s theme will be Night of Stars, and it will be the first time in two years that the event will be done in person. “This is the first time we’re doing it in person after a couple of years off. We’ve been doing a virtual presentation of awards for the past few years,” Chamber Executive Director Mark Landa explained. “This is a night to celebrate Crookston, another good year for the Chamber and the business community, and to celebrate some of the businesses and individuals that make up the business community here in Crookston.”

The event will begin at 6:00 p.m. with a Social Hour, where the Club will serve appetizers and have the bar open for people to enjoy drinks, network, and converse. Along with appetizers, there will be a Red Carpet Photo Booth, raffles, and a silent auction with large prizes, such as a Designer Purse, a birthday party with the Crookston Fire Department, and even a trip to Florida. “We’re calling it a “Night of Stars” and making it more of an Oscars or Emmy’s-type celebration, so we’ll have a big banner that is a big backdrop for photos and a red carpet to walk to make it a fun evening,” Mark Landa explained. “People can get as dressed up as they like, they can come in business casual, or they can get dressed up to the nines.” After the Social Hour, the Awards will begin at 7:00 p.m. where the Chamber will first recognize its Leadership Crookston Class, where the graduates will receive Certificates of Completion for completing the 16-week course (these students include small business employees sent by their employers who are preparing to take or have started leadership positions in their business to explore different segments of the economy and explore Crookston). After the “graduation,” the Chamber will begin handing out awards to businesses that were nominated by the public three weeks earlier. After the awards are given out, and events like the silent auction are finished, the Night will end with a comedy show by comedian Jessi Campbell.

The award categories for the Night include:

• Large Business of the Year
• Small Business of the Year (both of which include for and nonprofit businesses),
• Lifetime Achievement: an award given to an individual or business that has been in business for 25+ years
• Entrepreneur of the Year: an award given to an individual who is new to the business and trying to do good work or something different
• The Chamber Champ: an award given to an individual who is very supportive of the Crookston Chamber of Commerce
• Volunteer of the Year: an award given to an individual or group that has done the most work volunteering

Each award has its own special criteria that the Chamber looks for in the nominated businesses to see if they deserve the award. “For the Small and Large Business awards, it’s trying and setting up new programs and doing new things or bringing in new technology. Those that are making a difference or improvements in their businesses. The Lifetime Achievement is for businesses that have been here for a long time and keeps improving and working hard,” Mark Landa explained. “The Entrepreneurs of the Year award is for those folks that are doing something new or different that we notice because there are always a lot of brand-new small businesses, and some of them don’t make it. We want to recognize the ones that are successful, doing something different, or trying something new.”

The event is open to the public, with tickets costing $35 per individual or $60 for couples. Businesses can also purchase tables of eight for $240. Tickets can be purchased at the Crookston Area Chamber Office at 103 S Broadway, Crookston, or by contacting any of the Chamber’s board members.

A flyer of the event can be found below-

The post CROOKSTON AREA CHAMBER IS CELEBRATING BUSINESSES WITH NIGHT OF STARS ON FRIDAY appeared first on KROX.

The Northwest Regional Corrections Center reported the following arrests.

Lopez Lebron Luciano, 47, of Crookston, for Receiving Stolen Property

Andrew Paul Cymbaluk, 35, of Crookston, for Domestic Assault

Andy Joseph Hedlund, 42, of McIntosh, for Harassment

The post ARREST/FIRE REPORT-NOVEMBER 27, 2022 appeared first on KROX.