An exciting business Open House is coming to Belgrade on March 28

This is one you'll want to mark your calendars for! Last spring (2025), the flower, plant, gift and rock shop called Earthy Elements opened at The Shed in Brooten. Ashley Zimmerle, owner of Earthy Elements, expanded her business last summer after she founded it in 2022. The next step in her business journey was a recent move to Main Street Belgrade. This took place while an expansion in another business is taking place at The Shed (located on Highway 55 East in Brooten)...on the weekend of Valentine's Day, Zimmerle moved her business to 303 Washburn Avenue, Belgrade, to The Boosters building on the north end of main street.

The next step Ashley's got in store is a business open house on Saturday, March 28 from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. at her new location. The Earthy Elements open house features flower, plant and prize giveaways. Easter lilies and bulb garden plants. FREE coffee samples. To-go bracelet make and take packes for $15 also available. You're invited to stop by and see the new space in the Booster's building.

Ashley is excited for upcoming special events and holidays including Easter (just on the horizon) and also B-B-E's prom (Saturday, May 2). Soon after prom is Mother's Day, and that's soon followed by the Memorial Day weekend. Ashley got off to a great start with Early Elements expanding in Brooten, and her business will continue growing on main street Belgrade. Today, I learned she'll be able to work hand-in-hand with Mary Solbreken and Rustic Designs Flower Farm of Burbank Township. That's another terrific small business we can be proud of right in our backyard!

The business website for Earthy Elements is http://www.earthyelementsmn.com. Mary's website for Rustic Designs Flower Farm is https://www.rusticdesignsflowerfarm.com.

In sports news...
I lost track of the late-winter college basketball games. The last I was plugged in to that, Abby Berge's MSU-Moorhead Dragons team was in a tight ball game in the NSIC playoffs. Berge is a 2023 B-B-E graduate and was a junior for the Dragons.

In the Upper Midwest Athletic Conference playoffs, the University of Minnesota-Morris Cougars lost on a buzzer-beater to Bethany Lutheran in the UMAC championship game. B-B-E's Kaden Pieper, also a 2023 graduate, was a junior on that squad. He ended up as the team's second-leading scorer for UMM, who should compete for a conference title again next year. They were regular season runners-up in the UMAC this year with an 8-4 record.

As for spring sports, I know of B-B-E's Gannon Walsh (Class of 2022) playing for the University of Minnesota-Crookston men's golf team. He's currently ranked 58th in the NCAA Division II Central Region. As a team, Walsh's Golden Eagles is ranked No. 11 in the Central Region. UM-Crookston's spring season begins next Monday and Tuesday at the NSIC Preview in Smithsville, Missouri.

Here's a video featuring tip-off and the opening minute of the playoff game at Underwood:


That was two weeks ago.

Newspaper merger

Tough news out of western Minnesota...the Hancock Record has essentially bit the dust. It is being molded into the Morris Sun Tribune newspaper to form a new, merged newspaper called (it's a mouthful) the Stevens County Times, Morris Sun Tribune/Hancock Record.

You can read more about the merger and read about the problems facing their respective Hancock and Morris newspapers here: http://www.morrissuntribune.com/opinion/local-commentary/4268815-change-never-easy-it-necessary.

We are very lucky in the Bonanza Valley to have terrific business and community support that has helped the Bonanza Valley Voice basically double in size in a little over two years. While many area newspapers are suffering, the Voice has grown from around 650 subscribers to 1,242 as of today. Along the way, print advertising has grown by leaps and bounds at our newspaper. It is perplexing to hear how print ads are down at other newspapers such as the Hancock Record. Anyone who has any familiarity of Hancock knows that it is a town that offers near-unequaled school and community support.

If those two western Minnesota newspapers would have asked for my advice, and listened to my advice, I doubt this merger would be necessary. However, they are owned by the Fargo Forum corporation, and I doubt they would give me the time of day. Local ownership is a must in today's small-town newspaper world.

R.I.P., Hancock Record!

Compared to what is happening at some rural Minnesota newspapers, we have an opposite problem here at the Bonanza Valley Voice. Take this week, for example. We printed 14 pages, but we had enough content and advertising to easily go to 16 pages. The only thing holding us back from going to 16 pages was a lack of time. The last four to five issues have been bursting at the seams with local news, and each week a long, long list of local content did not get printed. That is extremely frustrating to me, but we are not currently staffed to "do everything we want to do" each week. We simply have to get by on what we have for man power, and lately it has been working out fairly well - with a few bumps and bruises along the way. *This week a section giving coverage for the varsity fastpitch team was omitted in order to print a full list of "We Love Our Moms" letters from the current B-B-E kindergarten class. Those "We Love Our Moms" letters were supposed to publish in the May 11 issue, but lack of space did not allow it. Those were not easy decisions, but just a couple examples of the "hard choices" we make each week that doesn't involve the phrase "shuttering the newspaper office."

From the bigger picture, this spring's sports coverage has not lived up to the standards I've set as the publisher. My goal is to make up for it with top-notch playoff coverage for our B-B-E varsity teams in the coming weeks.

Truth be told, behind the scenes, the Voice has had a very rocky, unstable 2017. If you have been regularly reading my publisher's column in the print edition each week, I've dropped hints at the difficult time we've had in the last two-and-a-half months. I have been hamstrung, mostly by the lack of time in each day, to implement numerous ideas to improve on our local news coverage and feature article writing.

The upside: for the foreseeable future, there will be no name changes going on at our locally-owned B-B-E newspaper, nor will there be any merging going on in the Bonanza Valley! Hooray!! We are fully on track to get to 1,300 subscribers before this fall - which was an ambitious goal we set at the start of 2017. In fact, I have every expectation that we'll get to 1,300 subscribers before Bonanza Valley Days weekend (July 7, 8, 9)!!! This is at a newspaper being published in a town with a population of about 750.

We won't slow down and catch our breath until subscribers number at least 1,500 at the Bonanza Valley Voice.

Lest anyone think that because of the size of our newspaper or the size of the towns we operate in, that we will take a back seat to larger media outlets in the realm of technology...here's a link to watch the live stream video archive of the elementary band and choir concert held on May 3: http://citylinktv.com/archive/bbe-element-concert-05-03. We don't shy away from running with the big dogs and taking on new projects and implementing new strategies to deliver you the news in the Bonanza Valley.

...and if you want, you can tune in to this Sunday's B-B-E senior baccalaureate service at the Bonanza Valley Voice streaming website. Thanks to the support of our local business community, this is another service provided by our newspaper. Here's the link to watch the video player at 7 p.m. on Sunday, May 21 from St. Francis de Sales Catholic church in Belgrade: http://citylinktv.com/channel/brooten-bonanza-valley-voice.

Thanks for stopping by!

Jobs, jobs, jobs!

No shortage of need for labor in the Bonanza Valley area!!! I'll be adding more "help wanted" advertisements to this post throughout the day.

Found this interesting: agriculture careers

This was a great read in the Dairy Herd magazine...check it out!
http://www.dairyherd.com/news/8-reasons-why-ag-careers-are-needed-more-ever-1

##agriculture

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.

Sad news from Sunburg

An accidental fire completely destroyed the Sondrol Service Station, formerly known as Tollefson Oil Station, in the small northern Kandiyohi County town of Sunburg. The fire took place in the early afternoon hours of Wednesday, November 12. The owner was unharmed.

A very sad day for the town. Let's hope a rebuild is in the cards for the owner, who is a native of the Sunburg area.

B-B-E's technology initiative

It's terribly exciting to learn recently about B-B-E's technology initiative that's soon being implemented where all 5th-12th grade students will receive mobile devices (iPads or Chromebooks) as a part of their education. Currently the only nearby schools I know that have this type of idea in place are Long Prairie-Grey Eagle and West Central Area.

Did you know? Out of the 534 public school districts (which includes charter schools) in Minnesota, almost one-third of them already have a one-to-one hand held device initiative in place with their students or are asking taxpayers to vote to support such an idea.

Groundwater meeting is Wednesday

Public invited to attend Bonanza Valley Groundwater Management Area meeting in Belgrade Sept. 24

The public is invited to attend a project advisory team meeting for the Bonanza Valley Groundwater Management Area, Wednesday, Sept. 24, 9 a.m. to noon, at the VFW Soboe Leverson Post in Belgrade.
The purpose of the project advisory team is to assist the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) in developing a local plan for sustainable use of groundwater. Statewide there has been a 35 percent increase in groundwater use over the past 25 years.  The Bonanza Valley area has seen a 175 percent increase during the same period.  The area’s boundary extends from just south of Alexandria to the area around Paynesville and includes the cities of Paynesville, Brooten, Belgrade, Westport, Glenwood and Villard.

Individuals do not need to be on the project advisory team to attend the meeting.  The meetings are open for stakeholders to observe, and time is available at the end of the formal meeting to provide comments and ideas.

The Bonanza Valley Groundwater Management Area is one of three such areas around the state, established by the DNR to help communities and individuals in these areas better understand groundwater resources and plan for future development.

Questions about the Bonanza Valley project can be directed to Mark Hauck, DNR project manager, at 320-223-7846 or mark.hauck@state.mn.us.  More information is also available on the DNR website, www.mndnr.gov/groundwater.

School fundraising

I found this interesting and worth sharing. Here's a webpage at the Morris Area school website that talks about a new fundraising program they're starting for the K-6 elementary school.

Click to read more details:
http://www.morris.k12.mn.us/page/3762

This is pretty exciting (St. Martin)

Any time I hear about new jobs being created in our area, I get excited.

In reading this week's Paynesville Press this morning, I read that a business called Smart'n Recycling in St. Martin is planning a comprehensive recycling facility that would utilize such things as asphalt shingles, tires, construction debris, wood products and food byproducts. Their plan includes developing a 60-acre plot north of St. Martin and the creation of up to 100 new jobs.

Wow!

Okay it gets better than that...Roto-Chopper, also in St. Martin, is planning an expansion to their business. To top it off, Liberty Tire, a national tire recycling company, is looking to expand their business in St. Martin.

New legislative maps will be posted on Tuesday morning

Follow this link to see what the new political lines will look like locally and across the state of Minnesota:

http://www.mncourts.gov/?page=4469

Elrosa Post Office meeting

Elrosa Post Office meeting, a set on Flickr.

Held on June 21, 2011 at Sts. Peter and Paul Catholic Church in Elrosa. A crowd of nearly 100 attended the meeting, which included four representatives of the U.S. Postal Service, to talk about the potential closure of the Elrosa Post Office.