On the horizon

The Catholic United Financial-St. James chapter in Elrosa will host a matching grant breakfast on Sunday, April 6. Everyone invited! They serve from 9 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at the Ss. Peter and Paul Catholic Church basement with an all-you-can eat menu that includes ham, scrambled eggs, homemade hash browns, cinnamon bread, fritter bread, fruit sauce, cheese, milk and coffee. Prices: $10 for adults, children ages 6 to 11 are just $5 and children ages 5 and under eat free. This event is eligible for a matching grant from Catholic United Financial of up to $1,000.

The Belgrade city council meets tonight at 6 p.m. The meeting agenda can be found at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's editor's blog by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/xd2th.

Also, there's additional activities and events coming up at the Smilin' D Arena in Colfax Township. Click over to their website to read more. They've got bike races on Thursday and Friday nights this week. A Wild Henke Kids show is on Saturday, and team penning is on Sunday.

And for Tuesday...
The B-B-E speech team travels to Kimball Area high school for the Central Minnesota Conference championships. I am not sure if I can make the drive. Grr!! I am just far too backed up from the weekend. We'll see how the day goes.

Better late than never...! I added just a photo gallery to the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper's web article featuring elementary students singing the National Anthem back on February 27. You can find the video and web article by clicking here: https://shorturl.at/qRxjZ.

Update from Belgrade with video

Here's the latest from Belgrade as of Monday night. This is very good news we can all feel good about after a very difficult day (short link): https://bit.ly/3bx09pP. A video clip is also posted with that web article. Additional information is forthcoming from the police, although it could be another day until we hear about any criminal charges stemming from what happened. *Update at 20:00...that web article was updated with an official press release from the Stearns County Sheriff's Office.

I have to shift my full attention back to sports coverage! I am in a hole looking up at the 8 ball right now.

Active situation in Belgrade (stabbing)

This is an active situation in Belgrade right now. An alleged stabbing happened on the north side of town on the far western edge in the trailer courts (not at a trailer house). That is why the town is full of police on Main Street, where they are staging the response.

A helicopter is on its way to town now to pick up the victim. *Update to that: the victim ultimately did not require use of the helicopter for medical care.

Everyone in town is advised to lock their doors and stay away from downtown Belgrade. If you have business to conduct on Main Street, call the business first before you come in. The downtown area has not been blocked off to the public, but the last thing police need is congestion down there while they are doing their job.

Again, this is an active situation, as of 12 p.m. noon.

*At 12:17 p.m., a large police presence moved to the trailer courts to re-stage. The K-9 unit has arrived. Traffic has been blocked off by a 2 to 3 block radius from the trailer courts.

**At 12:29 p.m., a team of at least 10 county SWAT police officers with long guns approached the house. I don't have a first-hand view of the home, so that's about all I can say at this point. I want to hold my position from the east and stay out of any possible direct line of fire.

**At 12:32 p.m., law enforcement hardened the perimeter at a one block radius, stopping all cars from getting closer.

**Good, great news: the victim is out and at the hospital. We should all be thankful for that!

At 13:44, I just counted 17 squad cars on Main Street.

*Here's video from downtown Belgrade on Monday afternoon at 13:38:

*Update: just shy of 2 p.m., and the police are preparing to get the perpetrator what's called a "throw phone" that's tossed into the house and used to communicate with them. Based on what I know, this could drag on for hours. Keep in mind: law enforcement's goal is to save everyone's life, including the perp. They will do everything they can to make that happen.

*Update at 14:36: here's a web link at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper website that will include more information plus video and photos. Click here: https://bit.ly/3nQtVvs.

*By 3 p.m., businesses have re-opened from their earlier locksdown. Law enforcement is still in negotiation mode, so it could be a while before they release any additional information.

That's all for this blog post.

*Monday night update: the situation has ended, and there was no loss of life. A huge win for law enforcement.

(Video) Worship service

In case you missed it!

Below is video from worship on Sunday at Trinity Lutheran church in Brooten:


I hope to see many of you at the Concert in the Park with Gig Noonan tonight in Belgrade!

##ConquerEveryDay

(VIDEO) August Fest Tug-O-War

Here's a video clip from August 14, 2010! Quite a throw back!


The Belgrade Commercial Club has resurrected the Tug-O-War for their upcoming August Fest celebration.

(Video) Mixed Brew at August Fest

Here's video from the street dance on Saturday night during Belgrade's August Fest, featuring Mixed Brew. They were fantastic! **This is 2017 video.


Not much blogging for the next day or two...we have another huge, 16-page issue coming out at the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. If you're not a subscriber, you are missing out!

Belgrade Nursing Home open house

Check out this week's Bonanza Valley Voice that features an article on the 50-year anniversary of the Belgrade Nursing Home. Below is their advertisement that's on page 12 highlighting their open house. Plan on bringing your friends, neighbors and family to Belgrade on May 3 to celebrate this grand achievement.

I am so disappointed

John Pilger is a journalist from London. Since his early years as a correspondent in the Vietnam War, Pilger has been a strong critic of the American and British foreign policy, which he considers to be driven by an imperialist agenda. 

Tonight I am at a local drinking establishment to catch up on what's going around town. Early in one conversation I heard this:

"I heard my mom say it will cost $165,000 a year to have a police department in Brooten."

Wow.

I quickly corrected the record.  It's more like $75-80K a year, but why let that stop a good rumor from running around town suggesting that Brooten can't afford proper police coverage. Right?

So we have the council using Atwater's PD budget of 110K. Sorry, that's completely wrong. Atwater has three officers on their staff (and a fourth who clocks in about one day a month) and a total of 60 hours a week of town coverage.

Another number I heard being thrown around on the rumor mill is 127K....sorry that's Belgrade's PD budget and before humpty-dumpty fell down they had a staff of two full-time officers. Now I hear 165K on the rumor mill. I have no idea what city that's from.

Hopefully my newspaper can get out in front of this ugly and dangerous rumor mill.

I have combed through the Belgrade police department budget countless times and can't get an estimate for an annual cost for Brooten of more than $72,061!

Do the math. At the end of Officer Bjork's tenure with the Belgrade police department his salary was $19 an hour. If he was given an offer of $18 an hour, would he take it? Yeah, he would. Do the math. On a 2,080-hour contract that's $37,440. Add parts of the following to the budget, but factor in the fact that a line item such as "$1,000 for uniforms" would not be that high for a one-person department in Brooten:

Belgrade's 2015 police department budget:

$81,308 for salaries

$1,179 for FICA

$6,420 for employee insurance

$1,000 for uniforms

$2,000 for equipment

$1,200 for training and dues

$1,300 for telephone

$1,500 for supplies

$1,700 for computer-car

$2,000 for repair/maintenance (my guess is squad car)

$6,500 for motor fuel

$3,000 for a Stearns County legal contract

$4,000 for "legal fees"

$11,966 for retirement/PERA

$300 for miscellaneous

$2,000 for capital outlay (this part of the budget is meant for budgeting for squad car replacement...in 2013 that figure in Belgrade was $35,177 when they upgraded to the Chevy Tahoe)

TOTAL: $127,373.

For 2015, the city of Brooten is contracted to pay Belgrade approximately $40,560 at $39 an hour for 20 hours a week of police coverage. The B-B-E school district, from a health and safety levy that is assessed to every district taxpayer from Lake Gilchrist to the Lake Henry area to Elrosa to Padua to Sedan and everything inbetween, pays another sum of money to subsidize the Belgrade PD budget. News flash: I pay into that levy, so you can bet the farm that I will make noise if I am unhappy with how that money is being spent. Because of a bad case of "Dereliction of duty" I have not retrieved that dollar amount in recent weeks. My guess is that it is between $15,000 and $20,000 a year. Rest assured, the moment I find out what was paid on that school police liaison contract during the 2013-2014 school year, it will be posted here. **UPDATE: I was way off in my estimation. I definitely want to learn more about that. During the 2013-2014 school year, from what I read in October 2014 school board minutes in the Bonanza Valley Voice, the B-B-E school district spent only $3,200 on that contract. (The school had budgeted $6,000 for that contract.)

Let's use $15K as the figure for the school/police payment. That would mean over $55,000 of Belgrade's police department budget is paid by "OPM" a phrase you should Google. So we're looking at $43K to $45K or so of the Belgrade police department paid for by OPM.

Please refer to another update posted on Sunday:

http://bbejaguars.blogspot.com/2015/02/schoolpolice-contract.html

This will get straightened out next week. If anyone believes they can pull the wool over my eyes, they're sadly mistaken. I was built for this. I can find my way around a school or city budget as well as anyone. If I have to pull back the curtain to see whether or not the emperor has any clothes you can bet I will do just that.

B-B-E schools had an excellent anti-bullying program going under Officer Bjork that I was very proud of along with every other parent in the district. That is no more. The thing about bullying is, those evil seeds are planted at a young age. We all know that children need a good "gardener" to tend to them (parents, teachers, clergy...and yes, cops) in order to lead them on the right path and to help raise them into good people who help others and not hurt them. Well we had that and it got chewed up and spit out by pure, unadulterated small town arrogance. When kids heard Officer Bjork talk about how wrong it is to bully others, THEY LISTENED. Did it stop all bullying? Of course not, just like when you weed your garden...it doesn't keep future weeds from growing. But it helps. Any gardener or farmer knows that weeds are constant in life. You keep fighting and fighting and fighting in order to get your crops to grow.

Officer Bjork taught us one lesson when he resigned: sometimes you have to let the bully win. It's a difficult pill to swallow. It takes a wise person to know when to fight and when to retreat.

Because the Belgrade police department has been severely understaffed since December 1, I have seen no game coverage by the terms of the school police liaison between the Belgrade PD and the school district. No anti-bullying program going in the classroom with Office Bjork leading it.

I'm finally putting the whole picture together. I am ashamed in myself that it's taken me two months to do this.

We're not in a good situation. The school is missing a very important piece: a full-fledged school police liaison that was in place until last November. Ask yourself: is having a police officer who every student in the two school buildings respects and listens to important? Is it important to have someone like that leading anti-bullying forums at both schools?

See what one parent said last November that echoed what every other parent I have talked to since then:

"My children know him from school and are not scared to speak with him. They know that if anything was wrong they could go to him." 

Here's what a father said just last week: "(child's name) has come home from school all excited because Officer Derrick was at school today and talked about bullying. I think these guys are role models that have the respect and appreciation that can't be replaced by just anybody. Let's not let our kids down."

My two cents: we are letting our kids down. Shame on us. It's time we fight back.

*Update on Tuesday morning, February 3: http://bbejaguars.blogspot.com/2015/02/game-notes.html

Police update

In case you were wondering, currently two applications have been turned in for the position of the Belgrade Chief of Police for their police department. They have been seeking applicants since the first week of December, 2014.

Also, there is some confusion right now whether or not just one or both of the applicants they have are qualified for the job.

Hmm...

##curiousminds

Are you surprised? I can't imagine why they only have two applicants for the position after having it advertised and posted for close to two months. Two applicants for perhaps one of the most important positions in town! Personally I'd rate the chief of police as the most important position in town.

Why the lack of interest?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0usI6H4zxhY

Shifting gears...
We in small town newspapers don't do our jobs to make it easier for local government officials (school board, council, etc.)....we are not here to hurt them or demean their positions or badmouth them. To do such things is unfair and not right.

But at the same time, we have a job to do and the U.S. Constitution gives us a certain level of protections that allows us to carry out our business with rights that make newspapers a valuable part of our democracy. It is anything but easy. It's nothing that allows you to go months on end without a single sleepless night. That's anything but the truth.

##sleeplessnights

Cafe grand opening in Belgrade

Shined up and ready for the Grand Opening.

Best of luck to Michelle and her staff as they gear up for an exciting day on Friday.

By the way, tonight's B-B-E Jaguars girls' basketball game at Eden Valley-Watkins will be aired on 106.5 FM the Train of Norway Lake/Sunburg. Pass the word!

This advertisement appeared on page eight of the Bonanza Valley Voice. The new owner of the business is from Brooten. Good luck, Michelle!

Kids get early Christmas

There were a lot of happy children who enjoyed a stop at the Belgrade Municipal Hall tonight.

I want to commend the Belgrade Commercial Club for sponsoring this wonderful event. Attendance has always been overwhelming in the years I've gone to it.

Here's a glimpse of an early Christmas for Belgrade kids, courtesy of the Belgrade Commercial Club:


Bob Mathison did an outstanding job running the show during what felt like a circus at times because of the heavy turnout. And that's a good thing!

I'll be taking most of Saturday "off" for some R and R! It's been a hectic week.

If you get bored, feel free to browse this "Life in the Bonanza Valley" blog:
http://lifeinbonanzavalley.blogspot.com

Local bank branches' Christmas open house information

Click on the graphic above for best viewing.

Our local banks are an extremely important part of our B-B-E community. This time of year I hope you are able to take a moment to relax in the warm atmosphere of the banks' Christmas/Holiday open house celebrations. I am hopeful to hit all four of our local locations between this week and next week!

Every day this week, North American State Bank is having a celebration in the Belgrade branch, and on Friday they will have an open house in Elrosa. (See above)

The Central Minnesota Credit Union is having a Christmas/Holiday open house on Friday, Dec. 19 at their Belgrade branch. Also that Friday (12-19-14), Bonanza Valley State Bank is having a Christmas/Holiday open house as well. Advertising for the CMCU and BVSB open houses will be posted next week.

Small Business Saturday!!!

Let's face it: our small towns that make up the community I commonly refer to as B-B-E Jaguar Country would not exist without the hundreds of small businesses we have across our school district. We're in this together. In my opinion, every day is "Small Business Day", and we all need to make a concerted effort to promote and support what we have in our small towns.

Today is Small Business Saturday across the U.S.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Small_Business_Saturday

You can't miss the sight and feel of Christmas when you walk into the Belgrade Hardware Store.

After taking in part of today's early morning basketball practice at the high school, I stopped at the Belgrade Hardware Store, where they are kicking off their Christmas season sale. Later this morning I'll be stopping by Jana Mae's in Brooten, where they're also celebrating Small Business Saturday. There's also an event this morning at the Brooten Lanes featuring a local Pampered Chef dealer.

Local proprietor Jana Zenner and company were excited about promoting Small Business Saturday at Jana Mae's and Mudslingers Cafe this morning in downtown Brooten.

In downtown Belgrade this morning, reindeer rides and photos with Santa were held at Greater Visions Photography.

So much to do, so little time! Glad the sun is shining.

Police chief resigns

Earlier this afternoon, Police Chief Derrick Bjork resigned from his position with the Belgrade police department. His resignation was accepted in writing by Belgrade mayor Rick Tschida. This comes on the heels of the Belgrade city council meeting held last night.

Because of threats to my safety, I cannot comment on what is happening or share further details. I can do nothing else but report what I know.

This man

Proudly holding a special Minnesota Twins bats given out to long-time regular season ticket holders.

To many of you George Borgerding needs no introduction. He is quite the guy and a very special part of Jaguar Country. He is without a doubt one of the friendliest and warmest bankers I've ever known. He should be known more than just a banker and part of the North American State Bank family. He has been a special father, grandfather, husband, mayor of Belgrade, community member, Jaguar supporter and just a great man in general to those who know him.

Don't miss out on Saturday's big celebration of the bank's 125th anniversary this weekend (May 24) at the North American State Bank branch in Belgrade. http://www.nasbank.com

And then a car accident that could have been much worse

Right as it appeared that the downed power line in Brooten was being buttoned up, a bad, bad accident took place at the intersection of Highway 55 and Highway 71 in Belgrade.

I'm not going to report the makes/models of the cars (pending notification of families affected by the accident)...I will report this:

* two ambulances carried victims in the accident west out of Belgrade on Highway 55, which leads me to believe they were heading to Glenwood. The two left Belgrade within 5 minutes of one another, and the second one left Belgrade at about 10:35pm.

* I counted two cars in the accident - it looks like a broadside or head-on type of accident.

* the damaged cars are being towed away at 11:00pm.

* it appeared to me that one car pulled out off of Highway 71 (heading northwest) while an east-bound car on Highway 55 met them in the accident at that intersection. (With the split of Highway 71 as it meets Highway 55, it's not easy to explain.)

That's all I know as of 11:00pm, and it's bed time. Big day tomorrow with the Elrosa Saints opening up the state tournamet!! (See more on the fan bus below)

*UPDATE: the two cars involved in the crash that happened at about 10:00pm were a Pontiac G6 4-door and a 4-door Nissan Altima. The G6 was driven by 2012 B-B-E graduate Alysa Leedahl of Brooten, who was alone in her car at the time. The Nissan had 3 teenagers in it from Fargo/Moorhead.

All four were transported to Glacial Ridge Health Systems in Glenwood.

A view of the accident scene in Belgrade from the south...the Nissan Altima is facing sideways across Highway 55. It appeared that it pulled out in front of the G6 at that intersection (of Hwy 71). The G6 is sitting on Highway 71 facing eastbound, perpendicular to the Altima.

The father of the B-B-E girl driving the Pontiac posted this to Facebook:
"Last night was one of those that every parent dreads...Alysa was in a car accident and spent the night in the hospital. Thankfully she is ok, as are the passengers in the other vehicle. She has a pretty nasty gash on her head and lots of bruises but will come home today. Thanks for the prayers and please go hug your kids."

After seeing the accident scene first hand I have to say, air bags and seat belts saved four lives in this case.

Gruber named Miss Belgrade

Becca Gruber won the Miss Belgrade crown tonight.

Below is the final 17 minutes of the program. About six minutes into the clip, the coronation part of the program begins. The first part of the video shows the 2012-13 Miss Belgrade Royalty saying their formal good-byes.


Thank you to everyone who attended the program. It's very important to keep these parts of the town celebrations going. Also, a huge thank you to the four families who had their daughter enter the Miss Belgrade program. Hats off to you.

Region 15C scores: Spring Hill 4, Richmond 2 and both teams advance to the state tournament. Earlier elimination games: Richmond 11, New London-Spicer 8. Spring Hill 11, New Munich 2.

This sets up a classic Battle for the Keg! Spring Hill squares off with Elrosa at 11:00am on Sunday in Farming. The loser gets the #3 seed to state, while the winner advances to the Region 15C championship game. To get first place, the winner of the 11:00am game has to beat Lake Henry two times.

(Video) Concert in the Park in Belgrade tonight

A glimpse of the final Concert in the Park sponsored by the Belrade Economic Development Commission:

Photo album from Santa's visit on Saturday

Santa Claus and his reindeer in Belgrade... http://saukherald.mycapture.com/mycapture/folder.asp?event=1573002&CategoryID=69413&ListSubAlbums=0

 By the way, who's ready for some basketball?

A group of B-B-E students shown during the Class A state quarterfinal game last March at the Barn.

B-B-E's wrestling team and both basketball squads open their seasons this Friday!

FYI - tip off for the boys' basketball season opener is 7:30 on Friday night against the West Central Area Knights. WCA is a fellow member of Sub-Section 6A-South and finished 7-18 overall last year (4-12 Prairie Conference) and return three of their top six guys from that team. Their top player is a very talented junior, Dakotah Kashmark, who averaged 15 points per game in 2011-12.

The home wrestling tournament on Friday starts at 2:30pm at the high school. 

saukheraldreporter@gmail.com

Santa Claus spotted in Belgrade

Reindeer/sleigh rides in Belgrade today...

 ....and more memories from the fall sports season at B-B-E...

Fans at a volleyball match against Holdingford in September.

Trevor Schlangen running the ball at Willmar in September during a Youth Tackle football game.