Yellow Medicine County commissioners approved a technological purchase of aerial oblique imagery that will take Geographic Information System (GIS) software to, literally, a whole new dimension.
As a refresher, the county’s GIS system is a relatively new tool that incorporates county department data into a digital map of Yellow Medicine County that is accessible through the web.
Using a series of “buttons,” location-based data can be activated to provide information on properties, roads, ditches, etc. numerical, pictorial and otherwise.

A Montevideo woman was the victim of a fatal assault in the parking lot of the Montevideo Pizza Ranch Friday night after being stabbed with a knife by a co-worker with whom she worked at the restaurant.
Vinessa Victoria Lozano, 18, died at Chippewa County-Montevideo Hospital after being stabbed more than 30 times, allegedly by Darek Jon Nelson, 24, also of Montevideo.
The fatal assault occurred at approximately 8:45 p.m. on Friday. Montevideo Police Officer Angela Kveene was the first to respond to a dispatcher’s call. She was just a few blocks away and quickly reached the scene, where she found Nelson standing over Lozano’s body holding a hunting knife.

A 79-year-old Clarkfield man was taken by ambulance to Granite Falls Hospital for treatment of injuries sustained in a motor vehicle crash around 10:30 a.m. this morning west of Clarkfield.

It’s a move the county has been wanting to make for the past few years –– putting the Sheriff’s Department in charge of Emergency Management responsibilities just makes sense, says Yellow Medicine County Administrator Ryan Krosch.
Prior to commissioner action during Tuesday’s YMC board meeting, Yellow Medicine was one of the few counties in the state where county Emergency Management duties remain that of the Veterans Service Office.

A two car crash at the intersection of 240th Ave. and 560 St., located off of Highway 274 approximately one mile south of the Prairie’s Edge Casino Resort, resulted in injuries for each of the automobile’s singular occupants.

If an individual is in need of the services of the Granite Falls Ambulance, chances are good they won’t be in a position to articulate the vital health information required to receive optimal care.
Hence, the Vial of Life.

“They love it,” said Clarkfield Emergency Medical Services President Stan Kaatz about his crew’s reaction to their newly remounted  ambulance. “They really do. We completely re-did the inside and all the controls. They call it a remount, but it’s really like a completely new ambulance. Our old patient compartment is the same but they re-did everything in it and they rolled a completely new chassis under neath it.”
Kaatz said that the ambulance crew has already made a couple of runs with the newly remounted 12-year-old rig and already the crew has been impressed by the new updates and features.

One day after stealing hundreds of dollars from his work place in Granite Falls, a Wood Lake man has been apprehended, admitted guilt and awaits sentencing.
Steven Jackson, 24, was taken into custody by Granite Falls Police shortly after entering the safe of his – now former – employer, Hardee’s, and removing $700.

Early this week, two adults accused of robbing Korthuis Jewelry and Gifts in Granite Falls received additional charges for a related burglary perpetrated in Sacred Heart.
Marcos Trevino, 21, of Blomkest and Allison Roschild, 18, of Renville, were each charged in Yellow Medicine County (YMC) two weeks ago with felony second degree burglary stemming from the pair’s alleged role in the Korthuis break-in.

It's the season for evaluation in Clarkfield. The city council recently completed evaluations for city employees and voted at their last regular meeting to remove the six month probation tag from the title of City Administrator Scott Weske. In this vein, the council also conducted an evaluation of Police Chief Ian Hodge and his first year operating as a one man police department.

A $3.94 sale of Grizzly long-cut smokeless tobacco will cost Granite Falls SuperAmerica a $250 fine and $7,000 to $10,000 in sales, business owner, Kevin Thoma, told Granite Falls City Council members during a tobacco compliance check hearing on Monday.
On August 23, the gas station and convenience store was cited for its third tobacco violation over a 24-month period which, in accordance with city statutes, resulted in the fine and a seven-day suspension of the business’ tobacco license.

Two adults and two juveniles have been charged in connection with the robbery of Korthuis Jewelry and Gifts in downtown Granite Falls in the early morning hours of Saturday, November 5.
Marcos Trevino, 21, of Blomkest and Allison Roschild, 18, of Renville, each received felony second degree burglary charges. Information regarding the two juveniles, 13 and 14, is unavailable due to confidentiality laws, though one of the youth is said to have ties to the local area.

Local bars were more than an hour from last call when an unknown number of individuals burglarized a downtown Granite Falls jewelry store and made off with what is estimated to be thousands of dollars worth of merchandise Saturday morning.
It was approximately 12:45 a.m., when a large rock, roughly the diameter of a laptop, was used to gain entry into Korthuis Jewelry by shattering the dual-pane glass of the Prentice street front door.

At approximately 12:45 p.m. Monday, a sideswipe type collision occurred on Highway 23 near Yellow Medicine County Road 2. Two vehicles were involved in the collision - a 2001 Chevy Blazer driven by Janet Reed, 43, of Taunton and a 2000 Ford Super Duty driven by Keith Chapman, 29, of Carlos.

Authorities are still on the hunt for a Granite Falls man who allegedly assaulted a local resident with a baseball bat as retribution for the theft of his son’s video game console.

Fire engulfed the home of Rachel Crowsbreast-Amos at the Upper Sioux Community Sunday, destroying the home and it’s contents while Crowsbreast and another occupant where able to evacuate unharmed.

 Motorists will continue using a detour for Highway 23 from Clara City to Highway 212 near Granite Falls through mid-October. The concrete repair project is scheduled to be complete by Saturday, Oct. 22, but the detour may be lifted one to two weeks earlier.

Local, Jeff Schwartz, stood across the street from Lynae’s Bar & Grill and noted that it wasn’t even 12 hours before that a crowd of 70 had occupied the bar following a full day of activities a part of the town’s annual celebration, Echo Days.
Now, it was a little after 1:00 p.m. Sunday afternoon and firefighters were holding down flames that had already gutted the inside of the cafe and bar and threatened the Echo Community Center next door.
“What do you say,” asked owner Lynae Marotzke, of Vesta, rhetorically. “I’ve been there ten years and my whole life is gone.”

Come September, crews will begin  construction of a flood barrier base in association with the Prentice Street Flood Protection Project.
On Monday council members accepted a $167,505 bid from Schoep Contracting, of Montevideo, which arrived approximately $35,000 under engineering estimates.
The project will construct and create access to an earthen levee-base that runs along the backyards of Prentice Street homes within a 30 foot easement obtained from residents.

The family of Thomas Stich received closure when the 50-year-old Harris man’s body was discovered below the Xcel Energy owned Minnesota Falls Dam just before noon on Friday.
Stich was removing debris atop the dam, located one-third of a mile southeast of Granite Falls, with a coworker when he fell into the waters below at approximately 1:00 p.m. Wednesday. Shortly after, his life jacket was recovered 100 yards downstream.