The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will begin temporarily closing some roads and trails in state forests, state parks, recreation areas, and wildlife management areas as the spring thaw impacts road conditions. Seasonal melting makes these roads and trails too soft to support vehicle traffic without damage. Depending on weather and local site conditions, the temporary closures could remain in effect until sometime in May.

A Minnesota Department of Transportation project to resurface Highway 212 and reconstruct through Sacred Heart gets underway Monday, April 24. Crews will begin working at Highway 212 and Renville County Road 6 under traffic for two weeks. During this time, drivers may encounter temporary lane closures and are asked to be alert for equipment entering and exiting the roadway.

highways in the order listed. • Highway 40 from Kandiyohi County Road 5 to the Minnesota River • Highway 29 from Montevideo to Highway 40 • Highway 9 from Highway 23 to Highway 104 • Highway 71 from Highway 23 to Morton • Highway 68 from the South Dakota border to Marshall and from Highway 19 to Morgan Traffic impacts The signing crew is a moving operation.

com At last week’s meeting of the Yellow Medicine County Board of Commissioners, Dan Moravetz, of the county’s Highway Department was in attendance to give a report on the monthly activities. Moravetz noted that the engineering department has been working a number of projects including bridge work, required training and construction certification, wrapping up plans for CSAH 30, plans for CSAH 4, and working on the design of Bridge 7933 in Florida Township.

com At Monday evening’s meeting of the Granite Falls City Council, Police Chief Brian Struffert submitted a monthly report, much of which discussed last week’s police standoff that resulted in an officer from the CEE VI Drug and Gang Task force receiving an injury from a bullet. (That incident outlined in a separate story in this week’s edition.) Chief Struffert described the incident, noting in his report that he estimates that there were 50 or more officers from departments around the area that showed up when reinforcements were called, including members of the Kandiyohi/Meeker County SWAT team.

com At last Tuesday’s meeting of the Yellow Medicine County Board of Commissioners, Yellow Medicine County Restorative Justice Coordinator Sharon Hendrichs presented a report on the Restorative Justice Department’s previous year. Hendrichs noted that the program includes Circle Sentencing, Family & Community Circle, Circle of Hope, Shift Circle, Transition Circle, and Family Safety Planning Meeting/ Parallel Protection Process.