Archive - Jun 27, 2018

This is my last week with McLeod Publishing. After nearly 35 years in the newspaper business — 31 of that career with McLeod Publishing — I’ve decided it’s time for a change.
I started my journalism career with the Byron Review, spent a brief time with my hometown newspaper, the Pine Island Record, and was hired in 1986 as the editor of the Brownton Bulletin by then-publisher Bob Moulton. When Bill Ramige bought the Bulletin in 1987, I became part of the McLeod Publishing.

The McLeod County Board of Commissioners amended its recently adopted buffer ordinance to comply with the Minnesota Board of Water and Soil Resources (BOWSR) at its Tuesday, June 19, meeting.
Ryan Freitag of the McLeod Soil and Water Conservation District said BOWSR “did not agree with the administrative penalty” portion of the county’s ordinance. When the County Board approved its ordinance in October 2017, it had agreed to a sliding scale of fines, which it could adapt to the severity of violations or the progress, or lack of progress, in complying with the ordinance.

The Trailblazer Transit Joint Powers Board had two closed sessions — once in April and one in May — to evaluate the job performance of Executive Director Gary Ludwig. The question some board members had at its June meeting, held Thursday, is what comes next?
According to the minutes from the board’s May meeting, Ludwig “received an evaluation of meets expectations and goals have been set for the future.”
However, Sibley County Commissioner Jim Swanson said he feels the evaluation wasn’t quite finished in that there didn’t seem to be “clarity on how to meet expectations for the next year.”

Graphic artist Janey Oberg is launching her own design business with help from Southwest Initiative Foundation’s (SWIF) Microenterprise Loan Program. Designs by Jane will offer sign, print, promotional and logo designs — “business cards to billboards and everything in between.”
Oberg, who makes her home in Stewart, has an associates degrees in design and marketing and multimedia design technology. She’s built a portfolio of work spanning 14 years, including design positions with the Hutchinson Leader and Herald Journal newspapers as well as Greater Minnesota Printing and Data Management.

A South Dakota woman was injured late Saturday afternoon in a two-vehicle crash on Highway 212 near Brownton.
According to the Minnesota State Patrol, Mary Oleen Malo, 71, of Brookings, South Dakota, was eastbound on Highway 212 in a 2017 Toyota Rav4 when her vehicle crossed the center line and struck a trailer being towed by a 2004 Chevrolet Silverado being driven by Nicholas Jerome Kotten, 34, of Hutchinson.