November 2022

UPCOMING EVENTS

Friday, November 11th: Veteran’s Day program at Fagen Fighters WWII Museum. Friday, November 11th & Saturday, November 12th: Yellow Medicine East Presents Anastasia in the YME Auditorium at 7 p.m.

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City Council approves second reading of Edibles Zoning Ordinance

One of the topics of discussion at Monday evening’s meeting of the Granite Falls City Council was the results of the recent meeting of the Utility Commission. The discussion from the commission included an update on the turbine #3 project of the hydroelectric facility. Turbine parts are scheduled to be installed into the pit December 1st with a generator to be installed shortly after, while the draft tube and building of the generator floor are underway now. The company installing the updated parts, Canyon Hydro, is asking the City to accept a proposed completion date change from February 1st of 2023 to April 1st, 2023. The council approved the recommendation to move the date. The council also heard a requst by the Baseball Association to waive building permit fees for the construction work happening at Richter Field. It was also noted that if the council were to approve waiving the permit fees for Richter Field, they should consider waiving the permit fees for the improvements soon to be made at the Softball field. The council approved waiving the permit fees for both projects.

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Brooklyn musician to perform in Granite Falls next week

Jon Dell is performing live music at Bluenose Gopher Public House on Wednesday, November 16th starting at 6 pm. The performance will be his first time being featured at Bluenose. Dell grew up in Nebraska. He attended college there, studying theater and music. Dell stayed around the Lincoln, Neb. area for a few years after graduating college, playing bass with a couple of local bands. He now currently resides in Brooklyn, New York after following his sweetheart there about eight years ago. Though he has never been to Granite Falls specifically, Dell has been through Minnesota a few times with various bands. Mankato was about as far into Minnesota as he’s been so far. When asked how he ended up with Granite Falls on his tour roster, Dell said, “Luke [Hendrickson] reached out to me through this network of singer-songwriters that we’ve kind of built all over the country. He set up several shows for me in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and one of the places that he said I should definitely go play was Bluenose Gopher Public House. So, Luke set up the show for me, but through looking at the website, I’ve seen several people that I know who have also played there. It must be a good spot. I’m looking forward to it.” Dell’s favorite part of creating music is connecting with the people listening. “The thing I love most about it is finding things that I connect with people all over the country. Being a folk singer, it’s a pretty stripped down show. It’s just me on an acoustic guitar singing my songs and telling the stories of how I came up with them. If I’m in a loud, noisy bar I like to find the one person who’s paying attention and just try to connect with them,” Dell said. He also explained that once he starts getting a couple of people engaged that he’s connecting with, usually other people then start following along.

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Community members invited to attend Yellowstone Trail Master Plan presentation Thursday

Community leaders, tourism advocates and cultural-heritage enthusiasts are invited to attend a public presentation unveiling the Yellowstone Trail Cultural Heritage Tourism Master Plan on Thursday, Nov. 17 at the Montevideo Public Library at 2 p.m.. “There’s been a lot of work put into this by stakeholders all across the Yellowstone Trail in Minnesota,” said Chippewa County Historical Society Director Celeste Suter. “We hope individuals will come out and check out the plan to learn about how our communities can leverage this historic, unique brand.” Last year the Renville County Historical Society, in partnership eith the Yellowstone Trail Alliance of Western Minnesota, received a Cultural Heritage Partnership (Legacy) grant from the Minnesota Historical Society to develop a state-wide Yellowstone Trail Master Plan. The $54,000 grant arrived on April 26, 2021, one day after the 100th anniversary of death of southwest Minnesota legacy and trail champion, Michael J. Dowling. Stakeholders elected to hire historian and museum consultant, Jim Roe, to facilitate the plan, which began development last fall. With the completion of the plan over the summer, the plan is ready to be presented to the public. Interested individuals are invited to see the plan, which will be presented at three different locations along the trail, including Montevideo, Bird Island and a yet to be determined location in either Glencoe or Norwood Young America.

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Annual Soil Health field day discusses regenerative agriculture

“Can farmers be happier and more profitable working with, instead of against, Mother Nature, or as I prefer to call it: God’s creation?” This was the question asked by rural Sacred Heart farmer Phil Smith, who’s family farm served as the host site for last month’s annual Soil Health Field Day organized by the Renville County Soil and Water Conservation District’s (SWCD) .

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Kilowatt Community Center News

Healthy Tip of the Week: Physical activity is defined as any bodily movement produced by skeletal muscles that requires energy expenditure. This includes exercise and activities undertaken while working, playing, carrying out household chores, traveling, and engaging in recreational pursuits.

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5th grade students at BRE participate in project with kindness and empathy lessons

Recently, students in the 5th grade class at Bert Raney Elementary participated in a project that provided a lesson on kindness and empathy during their Social-Emotional Learning time. The “Kindness Rocks” program began when teacher Jamie Golberg was invited to a Minnesota River Rocks group on Facebook over the summer. “There, people in the community were posting their painted rocks with all of these fun designs on them and others were then posting the rocks they had found in the community. My son’s daycare often would find rocks on their walks during the day and post their rock finds on this page too. One summer day my family and my nephews walked to the school park and on our way the kids found some rocks. They were so excited to find and then re-hide for someone else to find. I thought to myself this would be really fun to bring this to school and do a student project in the Fall,” Golberg says.

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