Month: March 2023

The Crookston School Board held its first round of interviews on Tuesday as they look to hire a new Superintendent. The School Board interviewed the following five candidates for the position.

Jason Stanoch – High School Principal at Bemidji
Randy Berquist – Superintendent at Osakis
Jill Louters – Superintendent at New Rockford-Sheyenne, ND
Kevin Wellin – Superintendent at Menagha
Nate Walbruch – High School Principal at Rochester Century

Each interview had a time slot of 90 minutes for the School Board to ask questions and discuss the position. School Board Chair Frank Fee sat in on all the interviews along with the rest of the School Board and a handful of individuals who provide their feedback. A second round of interviews was scheduled for this upcoming Monday, April 3. However, the School Board has made up their mind and is ready to make an offer to one of the candidates. “We did interview five candidates throughout today and they all did very well,” said School Board Chair Frank Fee. “After deliberation with the School Board and Community members, we were able to get the list down to one candidate and we are prepared to move forward with an offer. We will do our due diligence with the references and a background check and if that goes well we will offer the job and work on getting a contract in place for a start date of July 1, 2023.”

Fee said they will check with references Wednesday morning and if all goes well, they will make the offer to the candidate after that. We are unable to announce who the finalist for the position is as the candidates who interviewed have not been notified. As soon as a hire has been made, we will have all the information for you here at KROXAM.COM.

Pictures of the five candidates who were interviewed today are below.

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The post CROOKSTON SCHOOL BOARD CLOSING IN ON HIRING NEW SUPERINTENDENT appeared first on KROX.

The Crookston Fire Department (CFD) responded to the following calls on 3/28/2023 –

At 10:52 a.m., the CFD responded to Section 29 of Crookston Township for a report of a one-vehicle accident. Upon arrival, it was found that a vehicle had rolled over in a ditch. The CFD assisted by removing an individual from the vehicle. There were no injuries to report. The CFD then cleared the scene.

At 12:18 p.m., the CFD responded to the 300 block of S Minnesota St. for a report of smoke coming off a building. Upon arrival, it was found to be steam coming off the building. There was no danger present. The CFD then cleared the scene. 

The post ARREST/FIRE REPORT – MARCH 29, 2023 appeared first on KROX.

The Polk County Veterans Benefit Fair will be held on Friday, March 31, from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Crookston National Guard Armory.

There will be over 20 vendors at the fair, and Polk County Veterans Affairs Director Kurt Ellefson said he guarantees all veterans that come to the armory will learn something new. “We have 22 vendors that come and provide information and maybe benefits and stuff to give away for veterans,” said Ellefson. “It’s not just for veterans.  It is also for veteran advocates, family of veterans, people interested in veteran benefits, or people that want to be vendors at the event and want to connect to other vendors.  Every year you go to this, you’re going to learn something new, like learning about a benefit or something they didn’t know about by going to this event.  It is definitely important to go every year.”
Veteran benefits are always changing, and it makes attending the veteran fair even more valuable. “There are always changes to benefits,” said Ellefson. “The PACT Act just went into effect on January 1. There are a lot of changes for Thailand vets now presumed to have been exposed to agent orange and changes for Guam vets.  There are so many changes that happen all the time, so it is good to make sure you are checking up on yourself and your own benefits.  This event is perfect for that because we are all in one spot.”  

The 22 vendors that will be at the event are below-
1. Options
2. Veterans Outreach-Vet Centers (VA)
3. Senior Linkage
4. Veterans Gratitude booth
5. VA- Million Veteran Program
6. Ucare
7. Honor Flight
8. Polk County Public Health
9. Polk County Social Services
10. VA Veterans Homeless Program
11. VA Suicide Prevention
12. VA Mental Health
13. MN DEED (Department of Employment and Economic Development)
14. VA- Volunteers and Donations DEPT.
15. MN Department of Natural Resources
16. Tri-Valley
17. VFW and VFW auxiliary
18. DAV Chapter 14
19. Minnesota Department of Veterans Affairs Education Specialists
20. North Dakota Job Service
21. Lutheran Social Services
22. Northwest Minnesota County Veteran Service Officers

The fair will also serve a free lunch for the veterans and their families.
The Polk County Benefits Fair is free to the public, especially veterans and their families. If you have any questions about the event or would like to be a vendor, you can reach Kurt Ellefson and the Polk County Veterans office at 218-281-3066.

The post THE POLK COUNTY VETERANS BENEFIT FAIR WILL BE FRIDAY, MARCH 31 appeared first on KROX.

Last night Early Childhood Family Education (ECFE) held its March Musical Madness at Highland Elementary.  Young children and their families were invited to come and enjoy an interactive concert specifically created for children (birth to 5 years). They were able to experience the sights & sounds of orchestra instruments as well as participate in sing-a-longs, rhythm, and movement activities. The 5th and 6th grade orchestra, along with Crookston High School’s Pop Strings, led by Ms. Ellis, performed songs children could sing along to. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star and BINGO were a couple of favorites! Pictures from the event are below.

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The post ECFE HOLDS MARCH MUSICAL MADNESS AT HIGHLAND ELEMENTARY appeared first on KROX.

The Polk County Board of Commissioners met this morning inside the Polk County Government Center. Commissioner Mark Holy was absent from the meeting. After the call to order, the board approved the consent agenda. The only item on the consent agenda was the meeting minutes from the March 21 meeting.

SHERIFF JAMES TADMAN

The board then heard from Polk County Sheriff James Tadman who started by running through the monthly sheriff reports. According to Sheriff Tadman, the numbers in the month of February align with a typical month. “We like to see our burglaries and assaults stay low and right now we’re seeing that,” said Sheriff Tadman. “The big ones this time of the year are with vehicles going off the road due to weather but that wasn’t a big issue this past month and all in all it was a good month with the reports.”

No action was needed from the board. Sheriff Tadman also asked for the board’s approval for three staffing changes. The changes were the addition of a patrol deputy, adding a sergeant position, and then filling a vacant patrol deputy position. “The first position I asked the board to approve was the addition of a deputy patrol position, and we are planning on filling that position from the Justice Center,” said Sheriff Tadman. “The other part with this was to look at our rotations and make sure we’re utilizing our road patrol sergeants the best way possible. By adding another sergeant position we’re making sure we have a sergeant starting with our road patrol at 5:30 a.m. We can then also have our nightshift sergeants work later into the morning as well so that our deputy patrols and crews who are younger have more support. Once we promote someone to the sergeant position, we will need to backfill the vacant deputy patrol position from the Justice Center or with an outside hire which was the third part of this.”

Sheriff Tadman was clear to the board that he does have the money in the budget to add a sergeant position and make the changes work financially. After some questions from the board and clarification, they approved all of Sheriff Tadman’s requests unanimously.

COUNTY ENGINEER RICHARD SANDERS

County Engineer Richard Sanders came before the board asking for approval to award a bid to Newman Signs of Jamestown, North Dakota, for new signage throughout Polk County. Some new signage is needed on roadways and the county received three quotes with Newman Signs being the lowest at the price of $10,566. “Every fall my sign people go out to replace signs. They inspect all of them and then come up with a list of all the signs that need to be replaced for the upcoming year,” said Sanders. “So we put together a quote for these signs, and we received three back with Newman Signs out of Jamestown being the lowest responsible quote. They will be in charge of furnishing the signs, will get them sometime in May, and then when our sign person goes out he can replace those signs.”

The board approved the request unanimously.

MERLE KOLSTAD POPLAR RIVER DRAINAGE

The meeting ended with concerns from Merle Kolstad about the Poplar River Drainage each spring. Merle Kolstad and Randy Cook who were both from Erskine came before the board to state that the culverts near where Kolstad lives are too small. Their belief is that this causes the water to back up on Kolstad’s property during the spring as the snow melts, and all of it can’t flow through the culvert. Polk County Administrator Chuck Whiting stated the board did their part by listening to the concerns from Kolstad, and it is up to him at this point as to if he would like to pursue litigation if he believes it is warranted. 

The next Polk County Board of Commissioners meeting will be on Tuesday, April 4 at 8:00 a.m. inside the Polk County Government Center.

The post POLK COUNTY BOARD OF COMMISSIONERS APPROVE STAFFING UPDATES FOR POLK COUNTY SHERRIFF’S OFFICE appeared first on KROX.