Becker County Fair comes to a close with tractor parade, barrel races and demo derby
Detroit Lakes, Minn. (KDLM) – The 2023 Becker County Fair came to a close on Saturday, but not before attendees were treated to cooler temperatures, nearly 80 tractors parading into the fairgrounds and the fair’s annual barrel races and demolition derby.
On Friday night, more than 15 automotive barrel racers took to the cement half-walled racing pit to the applause and cheers of a full grandstand of onlookers.
18-year-old Logan Strandberg, of Audubon, said, if the mud wasn’t too deep in the arena, he thinks his 1986 Ford F-150 will do quite well.
He also had some advice for drivers who might want race against the barrels and stopwatch in the future.
“Keep your momentum,” said Strandberg. “And don’t let the thing get the best of you.”
Music under the big tent on Friday featured the band Slapping Skeeters, which was largely made up by members of the Splonskowski family.
Saturday was Family Day at the Becker County Fair and featured the 14th annual tractor parade.
Nearly 80 tractors were entered into this year’s parade, which highlighted the different eras of John Deere tractors.
Lowell Schlauderaff of Detroit Lakes drove his grandfather’s 1939 John Deere Styled B tractor in the parade and said the tractor is now in its third generation of ownership and represents a link to their farming past.
“They bought it brand new in the fall of 1938, and brought it out to the farm, the first tractor on the farm” said Schlauderaff. “It was $900, split three ways.”
He said he also feels a familial responsibility to keep it in good working order and presentable for anyone who would want to see the 84-year-old machine.
“Being a family tractor, it was important for me and all of my siblings and my dad to keep it up and keep it around as long as we could,” he said. “I’ve restored it … but it’s a family tractor and I just love to have it around.”
Schlauderaff also thought the John Deere theme was good idea because they were just as popular decades ago as they are today.
“I think that John Deeres are one of the most popular back then, and still today” said Schlauderaff. “Probably not the cheapest, but they are a standard in the industry, according to John Deere guys anyway.”
The fair closed on Saturday night with their annual demolition derby and Mike Hokanson under the big tent.
Moorhead man arrested on arson charges stemming from apartment fire
Police say a Moorhead man has been arrested on arson charges.
Moorhead firefighters were called at around 7:10 p.m. Thursday, July 27, to a fire in an apartment building on the 1300 block of 27th Ave. South.
Crews arrived to find smoke in the building and were able to locate the origin of the smoke to a single apartment.
Moorhead Police Capt. Deric Swenson said 43-year-old Terrance Gehrig rented the apartment where the fire broke out.
He also said the fire was located in multiple locations within Gehrig’s apartment.
Gehrig is being held on first-degree arson charges.
No injuries were reported during the incident and tenants were allowed to return to their apartments later in the evening.
White Earth approves recreational cannabis sales during Friday vote
Following a White Earth Tribal Council vote on Friday afternoon, the White Earth Nation will begin selling legalized adult-use recreational cannabis sometime in the first half of August.
According to the resolution, both tribal members and non-tribal adults 21 years and older would be able to purchase from a White Earth dispensary.
However, in an interview with MPR, White Earth Chairman Michael Fairbanks said White Earth opening their dispensary for sale of medical cannabis will take priority next week. Adding, White Earth Nation citizens voted to legalize the use of medical marijuana on reservation in 2020.
The new medical dispensary will be open to both tribal and non-tribal members.
The decision by the White Earth Tribal Council on recreational cannabis follows a recent vote by Red Lake Nation to legalize adult-use cannabis at a dispensary on the reservation.
White Earth Nation and Red Lake Nation will be the first to open dispensaries in Minnesota able to sell recreational use marijuana with non-tribal dispensaries having to wait at least another year before they can be licensed by the state office of cannabis management.
Fairbanks also said White Earth may soon enter into agreements with other tribal nations across the state to supply them with cannabis products for retail.
Fairbanks also confirmed to MPR that White Earth, along with other tribal nations in Minnesota, are currently in discussions with the state that would allow tribes to operate dispensaries off-reservation.
State law allows for compacts between the governor and 11 tribal governments around medical cannabis and adult-use recreational cannabis.
Tribes may operate their own cannabis operations regardless of whether the state and tribes enter into an agreement.
Story by Melissa Olson / MPR News
Sanford Health and Fairview Health Services call-off merger
The proposed merger between Minnesota’s Fairview Health Services and South Dakota’s Sanford Health has been called off.
Both companies confirmed the merger was off on Thursday, with both also claimed credit for ending the process.
In his statement, Fairview CEO James Hereford said that the company felt it was in its best interests to discontinue the merger due to the lack of support for it “from certain stakeholders.”
Sanford Health CEO Bill Gassen was more explicit in his statement, saying the company felt it best to end the merger due to the lack of support “from certain Minnesota stakeholders.”
The abandonment of the merger follows months of pushback in Minnesota, with students at the Fairview-owned University of Minnesota Medical School expressing concerns over the impact it would have on the University of Minnesota’s teaching hospitals.
In response, the University of Minnesota lobbied the Legislature for $950 million so it could buy back its teaching hospitals, though the funding ultimately didn’t make it into the legislature’s final budget bills.
Story by Adam Uren / Bring Me The News
Fourth aquifer breach reported at Line 3 pipeline site
A fourth aquifer breach has been confirmed in northern Minnesota stemming from Enbridge Energy’s Line 3 oil pipeline replacement project.
Officials with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources and Enbridge Energy confirmed that the breach occurred near Moose Lake in Aitkin County.
Officials said Enbridge is working to fix the rupture, in which the layer of earth above an aquifer is punctured, causing the water to leak to the surface and possibly introducing pollutants.
It’s the fourth confirmed breach along the Line 3 pipeline route, which started operating in the fall of 2021 and generated fierce opposition from environmental activists and Native American tribes.
Last October, state regulators announced that Enbridge would pay more than $11 million for water quality violations and the three previous aquifer breaches.
An aquifer is a natural underground reserve of fresh water capable of being tapped by wells. Environmentalists say such groundwater reserves face a multitude of threats from human populations, including depletion from overuse, pollution from agriculture and septic systems and contamination from pipeline construction and spills.
Groundwater at the Moose Lake breach is flowing to the surface at about 10 to 15 gallons per minute, department officials said. That’s “considerably lower” than the rate at which groundwater initially flowed from the other three breaks, the agency said.
In a statement, Enbridge Spokeswoman Juli Kellner said the company will submit a plan to correct the Moose Lake area damage and will implement it when it’s approved. She added the aquifer breaches don’t involve the pipe itself, but that it stems from sheet-metal that is driven into the ground and used to reinforce the trenches that crews work in.
Osage man charged with check forgery
An Osage man was charged in Becker Count District Court with felony check forgery after $1,450 in funds were reported as unauthorized by the account holder.
According to the Detroit Lakes Tribune, on May 22, an investigator for the Becker County Sheriff’s Office discovered three checks made out to 33-year-old Casey Michael Wheeler were indeed suspicious after the account holder signed an affidavit to the check forgeries.
The investigator also noticed the signature on the checks were similar to signature Wheeler provided to the Becker County Jail during a previous incident.
Surveillance video was also obtained relating to the forgeries that appears to show Wheeler going through a bank drive-thru in a white vehicle.
Wheeler’s next court appearance is scheduled for Aug. 10.
139 pounds of cocaine seized at Canada-North Dakota boarder station
Authorities with the Canada Border Services Agency are reporting their largest narcotics seizure at any Manitoba port of entry in the last five years.
On July 14, agency officers seized nearly 139 pounds of suspected cocaine from a commercial truck at the Emerson port of entry, just across the border from Pembina (ND).
The drugs have an approximate street value of $6 million dollars in Canadian funds ( or $4.5 million dollars in U-S funds).
The 31-year-old truck driver, Varinder Kaushik of Winnipeg, was arrested on drug charges by border agents, and taken into custody by the Manitoba Royal Canadian Mounted Police.
Kaushik appeared in a Winnipeg Federal Court on July 19 and was released with conditions imposed by the court.
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