March 2022

Upper Sioux Community Police Department Phillips, Erica Shantea, Granite Falls; Offense date 12/12/21 Trespass - Return to Property Within One Year (Misdemeanor); Plea 2/22/22 Guilty; Disposition 2/22/22 Convicted; Court Decision 2/22/22 Sentenced Local Confinement *30 Days, Stay 0 Yr 0 Mo 30 Days For 1 Yr), $25 Fine. Granite Falls Police Department Brown, Shannon Javon, Granite Falls; Offense date 12/26/21 Fourth Degree Driving While Impaired (Misdemeanor); Plea 2/28/22 Guilty; Disposition 2/28/22 Convicted; Court Decision 2/28/22 Sentenced Local Confinement (90 Days, Stay 0 Yr 0 Mo 90 Days for 1 Yr); $400 Fine.

At the regular monthly meeting of the Granite Falls City Council, one of the topics of discussion included a review of the report from the Granite Falls Park Board meeting held on February 23rd. In the report, it was noted that the Yellow Medicine East School is exploring options for a crow’s nest and adjusting fence down the third baseline to improve spectator sightlines at the City Softball Field. It was noted that backstop padding has been purchased and received. There was also discussion at that meeting about the participation at Open gym, noting that there has been an average of about twenty-five people who utilized the opportunity to get exercise indoors during the Open Gym hours each Sunday. Last Sunday was the last day of Open Gym hours for the season. The Granite Falls Park Board additionally discussed the phase IV project for Memorial Park. The completion of trails in Memorial Park is expected to be completed in 2023, and the fourth phase of the project also includes purchasing picnic tables and entrance piers. Signage to be placed at entrances is also a topic being discussed by the Granite Falls Park Board.

The Living at Home/Block Nurse program has been working to organize an upcoming opportunity for those aged 65 and older to participate in a series of three workshops under a program called Literary Post that will provide a space to work on writing their memoirs, poems, or anything they’d like to write with the assistance of an editor.

When the Minnesota State Legislature recently announced a Minnesota Main Street Economic Revitalization Program, that will offer $80 million statewide for economic redevelopment that will award grants designed to establish programs in communities that will fund economic development and redevelopment in commercial corridors, the program was designed specifically to work through non-profits, rather than through City governmental agencies. Thus, the Southwest Initiative Foundation (SWIF), based out of Hutchinson, but serving a broad area of the Southwestern portion of the state, stepped in to facilitate partnering communities with the program. “We put in an application for three communities – Granite Falls, Litchfield and Worthington in the first round and it was funded,” says Scott Marquardt, Senior Vice President of the Southwest Minnesota Initiative Foundation.