The Elks National Foundation approved a $2,500 grant for the local Elks Lodge 1599 to give to the Koochiching County Senior Center for the Meals on Wheels program. Accepting the donation is, from the left, Star Keep, Peggy Ridgeway, TJ Coulombe, Elks 1599 exalted ruler, and Guy Johnson. CONTRIBUTED PHOTO
Thursday, the House Taxes Committee held a remote hearing on legislation authored by Rep. Rob Ecklund (DFL – International Falls) to increase Payments in Lieu of Taxes (PILT) for natural resources land administered by counties and the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR). The bill also creates additional PILT payment amounts for counties with high proportions of PILT eligible lands to help improve equity within the program itself.
Rep. Rob Ecklund (DFL – International Falls) has announced his plans to seek re-election to the Minnesota House of Representatives this fall. Currently serving his fourth term, Ecklund will run to represent the newly drawn District 3A spanning the Canadian border from Koochiching County east to Grand Portage.
March 18 15 years ago The Rainy Lake Community Orchestra will present an informal concert at 3 p.m. in The Dungeon at Backus.
Sometimes people ask me how I stay ahead of the news. Well, I have many trusted sources, but I’ve been reading one publication in particular for longer than all the others. The periodical both informs and entertains. Its prose is simple and clear, but not without style. Their news stories cut to the chase. There is a focus on the natural world. And their puzzles keep me razor sharp. That’s why I still read Highlights magazine.
Once summer passed Violets family hunting and trapping became their life. Floyd and his brothers Wes and Orrah Jr. spent the winters with their father learning the finer points of trapping and hunting, Floyd eleven, Wes fourteen and Orrah Jr. thirteen when they started trapping. According to Floyd ammunition was scarce so they had to make every shot count and he attributed that to him becoming an expert marksman and skilled hunter by his early teenage years, By the time Floyd was eleven and when Spring approached and the rivers opened his dad taught him the art of running rapids and helped him build a flat-bottomed skiff made of two and half inch thick White Pine, it was twelve inches deep, thirty six inches wide and pointed on both ends like a canoe. The bottom had a keel down center and if he hit rocks or stepped on it wrong it would spring a leak so to reinforce the bottom they put two keels on each side of the main keel and referred to it as “twin keels”. They were made of one-inch by one-inch Spruce, Jack Pine or Ash without knots, if a piece of wood with a large knot was used the keel would break at the location of the knot. This resolved the leak issue however if it were left out of the water it would dry out and the leaking resumed, naturally the solution was to keep it wet. It was the first boat he used to “run the rapids” and because the sides were straight and not rounded he had to be careful that it would not tip over, he used it for three years. The boys became expert canoeists and learned from their Dad how to “read the rapids” and by the time Floyd was twelve he started to run the rapids of the Pipestone River by himself and by mid-1950’s started guiding for the Namakan Narrows Lodge.
On Tuesday, March 1, members of the International Falls Area Chamber of Commerce met to vote on a resolution passed by the Board of Directors on Feb. 7 to dissolve the Chamber. The motion to dissolve was voted on and passed by a majority vote of 17-12.
February members have been added to the Birthday Bookshelf Club to assist the book fund at Falls Elementary School. In the group photo are new members, back row, left to right, Claire Whitman, Callie Wise, Ada Schafer, Emmitt LaVigne, Jaedyn Joslyn, Braden Sheridan, Ruby Ness; center row, Bo Amerud, IIyana Saari, Conner Sobczynski, Paris Demars; front row, Caitlyn Smith, Gabriel Kostiuk, Hannah Lucca. Also included are Willow Schaak, Harper LaVigne. Members join the Birthday Bookshelf Club by donating $5 for new books at FES Library, and then they are recognized on their birthday. CONTRIBUTED PHOTOS
St. Thomas Aquinas Catholic School raised more than $10,000 in just six weeks in another successful Catholic Schools Raffle at St.
It is the middle of March and that means it is time to start seeds indoors that you want to transplant into a garden bed in late May or early June. The library has again ordered seeds to share with the community. If you would like to plant just a small garden with a few seeds of a variety of plants then the library can help. Stop by and fill out a form indicating which seeds you’d like to plant and a staff member will pull together a couple of seeds of each item selected. We are also planning to start our own starts and hopefully be able to share those as well depending on how they grow.