Tour Da Lakes bike ride set to kick off July 8 from City Park in Detroit Lakes

Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – The inaugural Tour Da Lakes bike ride will get underway July 8 from City Park in Detroit Lakes.

The bike ride is replacing the Mid-Summer Bike Tour, which was a typical fixture of the city’s Northwest Water Carnival set to begin the following weekend.

The Tour Da Lakes bike ride will include four separate distance categories from 12 miles all the way up to 40 miles, depending on the rider’s preferences. 

The different tours will be made up of round-trips around four area lakes, including: Detroit Lake, Acorn Lake, Lake Sallie and Lake Melissa.

Mark Knutson, event organizer for the Tour Da Lakes, said the event is going to give riders an incredibly scenic view of lakes country and is open to everyone from novice bikers to daily cyclists.

“I love cycling around here,” said Knutson. “They asked me about taking over that Mid-Summer Bike Tour event the community center had done and I was like, ‘yeah, absolutely, I’ll do it.'”

Knutson also said: “I wanted to make something that’s really user friendly, and that’s why I put different distances, like you can go 12 miles, 20 miles, 30 miles or 40 miles. It doesn’t really matter. You can go fast, slow, whatever, you can either soak it in and enjoy it, or, if you want to go hammer it and see how fast you can do it, I don’t care. It’s gonna be fun.”

So far, Knutson said, about 40 riders have registered for the event already and he’s hoping to have over 100 riders on the courses once Saturday morning rolls around.

Registration information for the inaugural Tour Da Lakes bike ride can be found at: TourDaLakes.com, and on the Tour Da Lakes Facebook page.

Once person already registered for the event is KDLM Sports Director Zeke Fuhrman. 

Fuhrman said he decided he was going to join the inaugural Tour Da Lakes event and use his ride to raise money for Health Resources, a nonprofit focused on providing services and resources to new and expectant mothers.

Fuhrman said: “I saw the Tour Da Lakes pop up, and I saw the 40-mile segment, and I was like, ‘how can I turn a 40-mile bike ride into something that is going to beneficial for somebody else.’ Because I’ve seen it online all the time, somebody, a novice runs a marathon and raises money for it and I can do something similar to that. And 40 miles on a bike? Maybe I’m in denial here about how difficult that is actually going to be. But I think I can do 40 miles on a bike. We’ll find out on (July 8).”

Fuhrman said community events like the Tour Da Lakes and the Dick Beardsley Races are what sets Detroit Lakes apart as a place that brings folks together for great outdoor recreational opportunities and fellowship.

If you would like to make a donation to Zeke’s 40-mile ride for Health Resources, visit the WAVE 104 Facebook page, or check for the story on our webpage and the Lakes Area Radio App.

Fuhrman and the rest of the Tour Da Lakes riders will depart City Park in Detroit Lakes at 8 a.m. on Saturday morning.

LB Video Productions creates aquatic invasive species PSAs for Greater MN counties

LB Video Productions, a Detroit Lakes-based video content division of Leighton Broadcasting, released a series of public service announcements aimed at curbing the spread of aquatic invasive species.

The initiative was presented by Minnesota Lakes and Rivers Advocates and funded by more than a dozen Minnesota counties, who are all trying to stop invasive species from entering area waterways.

Jeff Forester, executive director for MN Lakes and Rivers Advocates, said: “ Clean lakes and rivers are our identity and economy as a state. AIS are one of the most serious threats. The good news is that this is threat can be mitigated with behavior change. That is why public education on AIS is so critically important and so incredibly effective.”

To see all three Aquatic Invasive Species PSAs, titled: Pontoon Dancers, Jet Ski Dancer and Dancing Fishermen, check them out on YouTube.

Minnesota E-Bike Outlet opens in Detroit Lakes on June 30

An e-bike and hunting blind retailer has opened its doors on Highway 10, east of Detroit Lakes.

On June 30, members of the Detroit Lakes Regional Chamber of Commerce and the owner/operators of Minnesota E-Bikes Outlet, cut the ribbon on their new showroom at 28420 Highway 10.

Gabe Reller, co-owner of Minnesota E-Bikes Outlet with his father Tony, said they were selling custom hunting blinds and when they were approached by one of their vendors that a lot of people were turning to heavy duty e-bikes as a way to get deeper into hunting trails without making much noise.

“Right away, we were selling the deer stands and I was a part in that, I paint them, I get them ready,” said Reller. “So we had Fission, which is one of the bike brands come to us … to see if we wanted to try and take them on and try to sell them.”

Reller also said they have bikes for the more casual rider, who may just want to sightsee around town, but their customers are usually outdoor recreation types that love hunting.

“We have bikes for your everyday, but we want to focus on hunting because that’s what we love to do,” said Reller. “That’s kind of our crowd and they come out for our deer stands and now we give them the option, ‘well, do you want to walk to your deer stand or do you want to get there silently?'”

Gabe’s father, Tony, is also a co-owner of the new e-bike business and said his son is responsible and works extremely hard, so he thinks the business will do quite well with his leadership.

“Gabe and I, we really respect each other and he’s always helped me on the deer stands,” said Tony Reller. “And he’s a hard worker. He’ll go help everybody. He’s always helping his kids, so he’s really responsible. And I’m proud of him.”

The e-bikes for sale at their new location include fat tires for rugged terrain, trolley attachments and industrial strength frames. The cost of an e-bike can range between $1,000 to $2,000 to well over $7,000 depending on the model and accessories.

For more information, visit the Minnesota E-Bike Facebook page or their website at: mnebikeoutlet.com.

DEED and Career Force launch ‘Follow Your Heart to a Caring Career’ initiative aimed at recruiting nursing, residential and home care workers

The Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and the state human services department are launching a new career initiative called, “Follow Your Heart to a Caring Career,” aimed at driving more people into the nursing, residential and home care industries as those providers struggle to find workers following the COVID-19 pandemic.

According to a news release from the state employment agency, more than 45,000 positions are currently open across the state in health care and through social assistance providers tailored provide health care services to people in their home.

Jason Pangiarella, workforce development representative at Career Force, said Minnesota is continuing to get older, which means more health care needs.

“We are older as a state,” said Pangiarella. “Our state demographer has been quite clear on our demographic trends, but also in the post-pandemic period, there have been a lot of transitions as people have changed jobs and professions, so we’re still catching up in this field. Part of Follow Your Heart to a Caring Career’s overall thrust is to try a publicize the opportunities that are available in those professional pathways.”

According to DEED, the median age of a Minnesotan has risen from 30 years old in 1980 to 38.9 in 2022. The agency also states, even though hospital staffs have finally rebounded to pre-pandemic employment levels, nursing and residential care jobs are still down 4.5% and home health care jobs are down 7.8% from early 2020.

Pangiarella also said, with the craze around artificial intelligence replacing people in their jobs in the future, the home care and health care industries are positions that can’t be replaced by artificial programs.

“These are professions that no artificial intelligence programs will ever be able to replace,” said Pangiarella. “You are going to be in-demand from day one through every day you do this job because these are super important and they cannot be substituted by a computer program, a drone, a robot, we need caring people in these professions, so they are quite stable. And, a lot of there just require a high school diploma.”

For more information on the Following Your Heart to a Caring Career campaign and a list of nursing and home care openings in the lakes area, visit the Minnesota Department of Employment and Economic Development and Career Force website.

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