Deb Maertens offered our invocation. Guy Olson was introduced as our visiting Rotarian and Laly Parent was also with us, having just moved to her third home. Dean Monke introduced our three Student Guests from Hillcrest, all seniors. Evelyn Frobish, daughter of Luke and Lauren, grew up in Iowa but her family has moved to Fergus and her mother works at Hillcrest and her father is graduating from its seminary. She played soccer, managed the boy's basketball team, is the NHS secretary, just returned from the choir trip out East and will work at Inspiration Peak this summer before attending a bible institute in Chicago next fall. Annelise Anderson's parents are Karsten and Dawn and she is from New Salem, North Dakota. She managed both girl's volleyball and basketball, will be playing softball this spring and will attend Bismarck State College next fall. Nikolas Olson's parents are John and Caristy; he was born in Taiwan and has lived in North Dakota, Minnesota and most recently Lake Mills, Iowa. He will be going out for track and will also work at Inspiration Peak this summer and as an intern there next school year.
Left to right: Annelise Anderson, Evelyn Frobish and Nikolas Olson
Keith Olson started the bragging, thanking Dean Monke for getting the students that day as Keith was expecting to be out in Montana but that trip was cancelled. He also reported that he, Guy and spouses will be visiting Croatia in the coming weeks. Mark Bring paid for missing last week's meeting but used that time to get some medical concerns addressed. Hal Leland paid for missing both last and next week. Steve Leitte was back from a motorcycle trip to Utah, New Mexico, Colorado, Arizona, including visits to the Four Corners and Death Valley. Guy Olson told us he was looking forward to the trip to Croatia and also indicated the Sunrise Club (of which he is serving as President) would be interested in doing a joint fundraiser with us to support a grant application to our Rotary District for a Rotary Foundation Grant for the upcoming Pioneer Home - Habitat for Humanity daycare build. This writer also said that Guy's club is also looking for sponsors for its Radio Days and said he had heard Rotary public service announcements that Sunrise Rotarian Doug Gray was regularly running on KBRF. Wally Cole pointed out that this writer was wrong in reporting in last week's Rounds that Wally had changed his e-mail address after he was hacked -- that is one thing he did not have to change.
Katie Johnson introduced Mayor Anthony Hicks and Clara Beck, Community Development Director for the City. Clara spoke to us about the grant application the City has made to construct a multi-use recreational facility at the golf course. It would replace the current structure and include a restaurant, locker rooms, pro shop, space for community gatherings and rental space. A ski trail would also be a part of the project, to be established on the course's 143 acres, with as little disruption to the golf layout as possible. The application was made to the Greater Minnesota Regional Park and Trails Commission for a grant set up by the legislature to support outdoor recreational projects. The golf course has committed to raising $1.5 million and the grant application was for an additional $2 million. Mayor Hicks said that Fergus Falls has a reputation for getting funding and taking too long to use it or getting estimates for the projects that are too low. That is one of the reasons the City has brought on Moore Engineering to help it when seeking funding.
The Mayor went on to talk about street projects on deck for this summer, including mill and overlay on Pebble Lake, work on Friberg around the school (with the aid of a one million dollar federal grant), the construction of two grit chambers to capture runoff from the state hospital south to Lake Alice, with Cavour, Cleveland and Douglas also getting redone. The alleyway behind the businesses on the north side of downtown Lincoln Avenue will also be finished and, just the prior Monday, the City Council approved additional work there to hopefully deal with the water problem those businesses have in their basements. The City parking lots will also be improved. Next year the plan is to do street work on South Union. Also on tap for this year is to build another waste cell at the city's landfill. There will also be seal coating in Ward Four south of Cascade.
Exit 54 will be a site of a major project to demolish the northern bridge and create three roundabouts. A new bridge will be constructed and it will handle traffic going both west and east. The work will entail closing the on-off ramps at that exit for the summer. The funding the City obtained to construct two railroad crossings to the dairy property will expire December 31st and the City is negotiating with the railroad to get plans approved for that work; if something can't be agreed upon, that land will be landlocked. Once the issue is resolved, it is hoped the area will become the Gulf Coast of Fergus Falls.
As to economic development, since the City hired Dr. James Leiman as Economic Development Director, an effort has been made to reach out to manufacturers to see what assistance the City can offer to them. A piece of land is being acquired by Quality Circuits for expansion. What was Pizza Ranch will become an Italian restaurant and Quick Trip will start its construction of a gas station across from John Deere in the spring of 2027. Fergus Falls will host its second ever air show this summer, with three aeronautical acts already booked. The Mayor and Clara are working on a downtown event in Fergus for July 25th, something like a Christmas in July. Mayor Hicks said there is a lot of diversity in Fergus Falls that a lot of people may not realize. In the question and answer period, John MacFarlane pointed out that both Anthony and Clara were dressed in all black and wondered if there was any significance to that. Earlier the Mayor had said that after one year in that position he can get frustrated how long things can take to decide, so maybe that explains it.
