Becker County Board conducts heated debate over county administrator performance review

Detroit Lakes , MN (KDLM) – Figurative fireworks seemed to carryover from the 4th of July to the Becker County Board meeting on July 5 as members argued on whether or not give Becker County Administrator Pat Oman a six-month performance evaluation, or wait until the end of the year for his annual performance inspection.

Barry Nelson, chair of the Becker County Board, said the county has the option for a bi-annual evaluation schedule for Oman because it was included in his offer letter.

“It states in there there should be two, six-month evaluations,” said Nelson. “And we’ve only had the one at the end of the year, so I’d like to do the second one at our next meeting.”

Oman seemed to be caught off guard by the proposed performance evaluation, which was brought up during Nelson’s reports and correspondence time and not listed in the meeting’s agenda.

“This is news to me, Commissioner Nelson,” said Oman. “You guys did a one-year, annual review at the end of the year per the agreement. You guys can do reviews any time that you want, but we’re on schedule to do an annual review each year in correspondence to the county personnel policy. I just want the board to keep that in mind. The next review that’s scheduled for myself is at the end of this year. If you feel you need to do another one, have at it.”

Oman also asked Nelson if the county HR director was informed of the new six-month performance evaluation and then requested the discussion about scheduling the evaluation should be placed on next meeting.

“This should be placed on the agenda at a future meeting and you should have some discussion here,” said Oman. “And like I said, this is a little bit of a surprise and that’s not what boards should be doing.”

Richard Vareberg, commissioner for District 4, said he didn’t think another evaluation was a good use of the board’s time.

“I don’t know why we’d start looking over (Oman) twice a year when we didn’t look over the last guy twice a year,” said Vareberg. “If you want to pick on him, just say, ‘hey, I wanna pick on this guy,’ and that’s what you’re doing. And I don’t want to pick on him. He’s doing a really good job.”

Vareberg also seemed to disagree with Erica Jepson, commissioner for District 1, when she suggested nobody is picking on anybody.

“We can go ahead and waste time on evaluations and start fights instead of working for the county,” said Vareberg. “We can either do our job, work for the county, or we can fight about. I don’t know, I guess you want to fight about it … we’re having a discussion about picking on Pat, that’s what we’re doing.”

Ultimately, no six-month performance evaluation for Oman or discussion about the Oman’s performance evaluation was scheduled for any future meetings after about 10 minutes of lively debate and Nelson moved onto the next agenda item.

Body of Pengilly man recovered from Swan Lake

A northern Minnesota man died in an apparent drowning Monday.

According to the Itasca County Sheriff’s Office, on the morning of July 3, emergency dispatchers received a report of an empty boat circling the northern part of Swan Lake. 

The 911 caller said, they had seen the boat earlier with a man and a dog inside.

Upon arrival to the scene, deputies secured the boat with the dog safely, but the man — identified as 52-year-old James Kleffman, of Pengilly,  was still missing.

The county’s search and rescue team found Kleffman’s body at the bottom of the lake later that evening. 

Kleffman, the sheriff’s office stated, had left his home around 8 a.m. to fish with his dog.

County officials have not determined how Kleffman ended up in the water. 

New medical school to open in St. Cloud

Plans to open the first new medical school in Minnesota in 50 years are moving forward in St. Cloud due to a partnership between the University of Minnesota and CentraCare.  

With as many as a third of doctors in outstate Minnesota expected to retire in the next five years, Dr. Ken Holmen, CEO and president at CentraCare, said the strength of the Saint Cloud program will be those who really have an interest in rural health care.

Holmen said, quote: “We know from past experience and from the data that we collected, folks that train in a rural environment are much more likely and encouraged to stay in rural areas.”

Holmen said the students will get hands-on experience working in small-town hospitals and they are envisioning a rotation program for their more outstate clinics to reach more people.

CentraCare will be asking the state legislature for $13 million in bonding money to remodel a building which will house the program. That’s in addition to $15 million dollars lawmakers have already appropriated for the new medical school.

Holmen said the St. Cloud campus will enroll between 20 and 24 students each year.

Story by: Ryan Janke / KFGO

Two injured in Highway 10 crash in Verndale

Two people were injured in a two-vehicle crash at Highway 10 and Brown Street in Verndale on Tuesday morning.

According to the Minnesota State Patrol, on July 4 at 9:21 a.m., emergency dispatchers received a report of a car crash with possible injuries.

A 2020 Toyota Rav4, driven by 68-year-old Laurel Susan Vannyhuis of Farmington, Minn., was traveling south on Brown Street when it collided with a 2017 Chevrolet Equinnox, driven by 34-year-old Cassandra Ann Cloud, of Park Rapids, that was westbound on Highway 10.

Airbags deployed in both vehicles during the crash.

Both Vannyhuis and Cloud suffered non-life-threatening injuries and Vannyhuis was transported to Astera Health in Wadena for treatment. Cloud did not require medical transport for her injuries.

Two other vehicle occupants did not suffer any injuries during the collision.

All four vehicle occupants were wearing their seatbelts at the time of the crash and alcohol does not appear to be a factor in the incident.

UND students receive NDSU diplomas due to printing error

Some UND students received their diplomas in the mail after graduation. But the words “University of North Dakota” were not emblazoned at the top of the certificate.

Instead, the words “North Dakota State University” appeared.

In an email to graduated students, UND registrar Scott Correll said that the mistake was brought to the University’s attention on Monday.

He said the error was made by the diploma vendor, Parchment, Inc., which put the wrong school and seal on the diplomas.

In the email, Correll said: “I sincerely apologize for the inconvenience, but the vendor is working as quickly as possible to provide you with the corrected document or documents.”

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