Travis Grimler
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travis.grimler@pineandlakes.com
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- Member for
- 4 years 6 months
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The Jenkins City Council on Monday, July 10, approved a contract for $10,600 with American Engineering Testing to test road materials for the city service road, according to a summary given by telephone by city clerk Krista Okerman. The council had been considering a previous bid for services by Braun Innertec for $18,912. The council asked for at least one more bid, believing the first bid appeared high. The council then was presented with American Engineering Testing's bid.
Business was the topic of choice at the Tuesday, July 11, Pine River City Council meeting, with approvals granted for a manufacturing company and a seasonal coffee shop.
Under the guidance of a former employee, Ole and Lena's Sweet Revenge in Pine River has reopened under the name Ole and Lena's Eats and Treats. Sarah Barnum of Nimrod worked at the restaurant last year under Deb Oliver, and even before the closure, Sarah and her husband Matthew Barnum had occasionally asked Oliver about possibly taking the business over.
David Kennedy's Boardwalk Scoops in Pequot Lakes has been replaced by It's a Wingding Thing, Sharon and Kevin Thorson's wine crafting shop. The shop is a special service usually found in California, Seattle, Vancouver and large cities. The Thorsons, of Breezy Point, visited such locations all over the continent before bringing it home. "We thought it would be a really good fit for this area and really wanted to be in Pequot because we live in Breezy, but I really wanted to help the town of Pequot and bring more business and try to liven things up a little," Sharon said.
The Pine River-Backus School Board decided to offer Chris Halverson, Staples-Motley Middle School Principal, the position of high school principal for Pine River-Backus during the Monday, July 17 meeting. The board approved a contract with a salary of $94,000 for 2017-18, and $96,000 for 2018-19 with an $8,000 annual contribution to school sponsored group health insurance, $2,500 annual 403(b) match and 222 duty days. Other benefits were determined according to the PR-B Principals' Association Master Agreement.
The Backus City Council made an amendment to one grant for the municipal airport and approved a planning agreement for runway lighting during its Monday, July 10, meeting. The council determined that its projected $62,000 cost for installation of fuel tanks at the airport was lower than the actual cost of $65,289. The council decided to amend the grant agreement to apply the 60/40 matching grant to the full price. The fuel tank project is estimated to be completed in July.
Many people want to do the right thing when it comes to recycling, but they don't necessarily know the latest guidelines. So, what can you recycle, where and how? Some of the biggest changes to recycling happen within plastic recycling. Some local transfer stations have only been accepting plastics within recent memory.
Families looking for help feeding their families healthy foods have options in the Pine River area. Since 2016, representatives from Happy Dancing Turtle, Head Start, the Pine River-Backus Family Center and the University of Minnesota Extension Service have been attempting to solve food insecurity issues locally through education.
We deal with news releases on a daily basis. They are a vital part of the newspaper. If you notice the many short items in our publication that do not have a "byline" (e.g. "By Travis Grimler"), almost every one of those resulted from a submitted news release. As you can see, there are a lot of them.
Hackensack community members are meeting to discuss ways to enhance the community's offerings and marketability. During their first meeting June 22, members discussed community assets that could be promoted to attract more people and businesses. The effort is part of the Initiative Foundation's Thriving Communities Initiative, a program that instructs community leaders in community development, leadership development and local philanthropy.
