Fergus Falls Forum

Resurfacing and replacement of culverts of Highway 108 will begin July 6th according to a news release from the Minnesota Department of Transportation in Detroit Lakes. The project, costing $3 million, will last until mid-September. Traffic will be detoured on Otter Tail County Roads 41 and 24 and Highway 59. The main entrance to Maplewood State Park will remain open during construction and will be accessible from either the east or west depending on the progression of the project.

A second resurfacing project is scheduled for later this summer between Otter Tail County Road 41 south and Highway 78. That project will be completed under traffic and will not require a detour.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation urges motorists to always drive with caution, slow down in work zones and never enter a roadway that has been blocked with barriers or cones.

A prominent downtown business in Perham will be closing its doors after serving the area for 40 years. The Pines, which opened in the mid-1960′s, carries everything from furniture to jewelry. The liquidation sale begins today, however, a public announcement wont be made for another 7 days. During The Pine’s liquidation sale, the gift shop will have special hours. They will be open 9:00AM to 6:00PM on weekdays, 9:00AM to 6:00PM on Saturday, and 12:00PM to 4:00PM on Sunday. The Pines Gift Shop is located at 101 West Main in downtown Perham.

Roughly $16 million has been awarded in grants by the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development (DEED). 39 grants, in total, were awarded and will help fund housing, commercial, and infrastructure improvements in Greater Minnesota. Ashby has been awarded $351,600 to rehabilitate 15 owner-occupied houses. Glenwood will also receive funds, totaling $505,570, which will also help rehabilitate 15 owner-occupied houses. In addition to rehabilitation of owner-occupied houses, the funds Glenwood receives will also rehabilitate 10 rental units as well as 8 commercial buildings. Communities in West Central Minnesota were not the only ones that received funding. Cities such as Crookston, Brainerd, Willmar, Mankato, as well as dozens of others, also received funding. Unfortunately, Fergus Falls wasn’t one of the communities to receive DEED funding.

Minnesota employers cut 1,600 jobs in May, which caused the state’s unemployment rate rise to 8.2%. According to the Department of Employment and Economic Development, the unemployment rate rose 0.2% — from April’s rate of 8.0%. Even though the state saw more job losses in May, it was the smallest loss since last August. In a Star Tribune report, Minnesota has lost 96,000 jobs since last May. Even though the Minnesota unemployment rate is now 8.2%; it’s lower than the nationwide average of 9.4%.

If you didn’t get enough rain Tuesday night, then you should be ready for tonight. According to the National Weather Service, there will be strong thunderstorms, which will be capable of producing large hail, and heavy rain for the Fergus Falls area tonight. However, there is light at the end of the tunnel. Dry and warm weather will return to the area on Saturday and Sunday, but the nice weather is short-lived. The National Weather Service suspects that another major weather system will move into the area Sunday night and last through the day on Monday.

The lightning strike that caused damaged to the Kirkbride Tower at the Regional Treatment Center will not affect the Campus Development Group’s proposed international business college at the facility says Richard Anderson, a partner of the Campus Development Group. The Campus Development Group will fund fixing the roof of the tower after Tuesday night’s lightning strike. In 2008, the Kilbourne Group of Fargo spent $11,000 to protect the roof of the nurses cottage from future water damage, and the Campus Development Group plans to do the same to the Kirkbride Tower.

Anderson, who is currently in Hong Kong, says “The academic meetings with the universities are going very well and we are making progress for the 2010 classes and already discussing the 2011 additional programs.”

A fire caused damage to the Kirkbride Tower at the Regional Treatment Center in Fergus Falls at around 7:00PM on Tuesday night. According to residents living near the Regional Treatment Center campus, a lightning strike caused the fire.

The Fergus Falls Fire Department responded to the scene shortly after the fire started, and were unable to get inside the Kirkbride Tower from the outside of the tower. To put the fire out, they ran a hose from the entrance to the top of the tower. According to Fire Chief Mark Hovland, the top four to six feet of the tower will need to be replaced; in addition, roof tiles that fell from the building will also need to be replaced. Unfortunately, during the mission to extinguish the blaze, a firefighter was injured when a tile fell on his shoulder while working inside of the structure. To be safe, the Fire Department has made a decision to keep the fire hose inside the tower through the night incase the fire came back.

Members of Fergus Forum’s online community forum were first to break this story on the World Wide Web. At roughly 7:25PM, the first pictures of the incident were posted — just over a half hour from when the lightning strike occurred. Fergus Forum members also took advantage of the online video-sharing service, YouTube, to upload video footage of the Fergus Falls Fire Department extinguishing the fire.

Photos curtsey of Travis Tommerdahl, used with permission.

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Motorists may experience delays due to the closure of both Interstate 94 westbound lanes at Otter Tail County Road 1 near Fergus Falls on Wednesday, June 17, beginning at 5 a.m. Motorists will be detoured onto the exit ramp and entrance ramp of the overpass while crews replace a culvert beneath the Otter Tail County Road 1 bridge.

The culvert replacement is scheduled to be completed by the end of the day.

The work is part of a concrete rehabilitation project that began May 11. Crews will work Monday through Saturday through October this year. The project is scheduled to be completed by June 2010.

The Minnesota Department of Transportation urges motorists to always drive with caution, slow down in work zones and never enter a roadway that has been blocked with barriers or cones.

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Shoulder maintenance project in west central Minnesota begins this week

Location
● Highway 75 between Wilkin County Road 155 and Wilkin County Road 184
● Highway 34 between Interstate 94 and Highway 59
● Highway 9 between Highway 75 and Highway 55
● Highway 59 between Interstate 94 and Elbow Lake

Time frame
June 15 through mid-July

Traffic impact
Temporary lane closures will require flaggers to guide motorists through the work zone.

Project information
Crews will repair aggregate shoulders along the highways.

Customers who prefer Target over other stores have a reason to be happy… Target Corporation, with headquarters in the Twin Cities, has announced its returning its price-matching program to all Minnesota stores. For the past several quarters, Wal-Mart has beat Target when it comes to same-store sales; which is one of the reasons the price-matching program has returned. According to Target spokeswoman, Delia McLinden, Target doesn’t want price to be a barrier for customers. Some of the restrictions in Target’s price-matching program are that customers must bring the whole advertisement in (from another store) and the product the customer is trying to price-match must match the exact product being advertised at the where the price is lower. In addition, customers wanting to do a price-match must do so at the customer service counter rather than at the checkouts as the program allowed so in the past. This is part of the price-matching program policy to make check out lines faster and more efficient.

A Minnesota law requiring seat belts, which passed in last month’s legislative session, is now in effect. Starting Tuesday, drivers in Minnesota can now be pulled over if any passenger in their car is not buckled up – and incur a $25.00 fine. Currently, roughly 87% of Minnesotans buckle up upon entering a motor vehicle, however the Department of Transpiration expects that this will increase to between 92 and 95 percent after the new law goes into effect. In addition, the Minnesota Seat Belt Coalition has estimated that this new law will help save 30 motor-vehicle-related deaths annually. Compared to other states, Minnesota is ahead of the game in terms of seat-belt usage; however the state is not at the top. The nation-wide average in seat belt usage is at 83%.  Minnesota ranks 22 on a list of 50 states, plus the District of Columbia, for seat belt usage.