Sarah Smith
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Sarah Smith is the outdoors editor. She covers courts, business and breaking news in addition to outdoors events.
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SSmith@parkrapidsenterprise.com
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- Member for
- 1 year 11 months
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A Bemidji man has been charged in a Molotov cocktail incident involving a Park Rapids business. Leon Jenkauski, 59, faces a charge of arson in the incident in May in which a burning bottle was thrown through a side window of the business on Highway 34. It was unclear this weekend if he had been charged in a similar incident at a Walker business almost two years ago. Jenkauski has been involved in at least three legal incidents with Belle Taine Glass, one as a defendant and two as a plaintiff suing the company he formerly worked at.
Hubbard County commissioners voted Wednesday to spend $35,000 annually in a program that would seek matching state and federal funds to raise the salaries of Heritage Living Center employees. The Equitable Cost Sharing for Publicly Owned Nursing Facilities bill passed by the 2010 Minnesota Legislature begins Jan. 1, 2011 and runs 57 months. It would match a county share of funds once with state monies and again with federal funds. Seventy-five percent of the tripled funds are to be spent for employee wages and benefits. The remainder would go toward operation of the care center.
A partisan crowd listened to a Minnesota District 2/2B senate and house forum Tuesday evening, cheering and heckling the candidates. The fair-haired candidate, judging from the applause, was District 2B GOP challenger Dave Hancock, a one-time schoolteacher and a business owner in Bemidji. The not-so-fair haired candidates, by the same measure, were DFL Sen. Rod Skoe of Clearbrook and DFL Rep.
A standing room only crowd packed the Hubbard County boardroom Tuesday to better acquaint themselves with candidates running for key county offices. As the race for sheriff and county attorney heat up, incumbents and challengers are working hard to distinguish themselves from each other - and their predecessors. And as it did in the first League of Women Voters forum last week, it essentially boils down to youthful energy versus experience. n County Attorney candidate Nathaniel Welte hammered hard on incumbent Don Dearstyne's record, claiming the office is pleading down or dismissing too
An administrative law judge presiding over a hearing on a proposed high voltage power line got an earful of complaints Wednesday night against the project from concerned Hubbard County residents. County Road 18 homeowners don't want a pristine stretch of the county spoiled by the monstrous poles that will only carry 34.5 kV of energy until Great River Energy and Itasca-Mantrap Co-op Electrical Association determine they will need the full capacity of 115 kV. That could be decades. Two proposed routes, called A and B, would carry lines from the Potato Lake substation to be built on U.S.
Landfills throughout Minnesota have closed and waste merchants are becoming scarce, so Hubbard County recently engaged in what commissioners called a futile effort. They set the price of what taxpayers will fork out to ship off our garbage. Mixed municipal solid waste will fetch a market price of $69.86 per ton. That was the price solid waste superintendent Vern Massie recommended. But that only sparked the beginning of a debate about monopolization, taxes and the state of Minnesota. Hubbard County pays tax rates of 9.75 percent for residential garbage and 17 percent per ton of comme
A Park Rapids native who was looking for a job to move back to Minnesota was murdered Sunday in his Tampa, Florida suburb following a neighborhood dispute. David James, 41, a 1987 graduate of Park Rapids Area High School, was shot in a neighborhood park while playing basketball with his 8-year-old daughter Danielle. The shooting took place in a suburb called Valrico. Witnesses say James, who was known as "DJ," tried to intervene in a neighborhood dispute with Trevor Dooley, 69, a school bus driver who lived on the street. James allegedly lunged at Dooley, who was threatening skateboard
Hubbard County commissioners voted Wednesday to spend $35,000 annually in a program that would seek matching state and federal funds to raise the salaries of Heritage Living Center employees. The Equitable Cost Sharing for Publicly Owned Nursing Facilities passed by the 2010 Minnesota Legislature will run for 57 months. If no matching funds are available after that, Hubbard County will fund the lion's share of those raises.
A Park Rapids native who was looking for a job to move back to Minnesota was murdered Sunday in his Tampa, Florida suburb following a neighborhood dispute. David James, 41, a 1987 graduate of Park Rapids Area High School, was shot in a neighborhood park while playing basketball with his 8-year-old daughter Danielle. The shooting took place in a suburb called Valrico. Witnesses say James lunged at a neighbor who was allegedly threatening skateboarders in the neighborhood when the gun discharged, killing James instantly. Read more in Wednesday's Park Rapids Enterprise.