SHEILA MCCOY Morrison County Record
On Tuesday, Feb. 11, Swanville residents will vote whether they are in favor of the referendum the Swanville School District is proposing. The District is asking for the referendum not to exceed $ 13.375 million.
To give the residents a clearer view what the referendum is all about and why it is being sought, the District held two presentations, with the most recent on Jan. 14. About a dozen or so residents attended that presentation.
Starting off with giving the latest updates, Superintendent Travis Hensch said that the District is nearly done with phase I, which focused on improving the
JEFFREY HAGE Morrison County Record
There are a lot of historic milestones that happened in 1978.
Grease, Close Encounters of the Third Kind, and Animal House were the top movies on the big screen. The Bee Gees were feeding the disco craze with Staying Alive and Night Fever on the radio. The Eagles’ Hotel California was album of the year.
In the news, Pope Paul VI died, followed Pope John I dying just 34 days after being selected as Paul Vi’ s successor. President Jimmy Carter brokered a peace accord with Egypt’ s President Anwar Sadat and Israeli Premier Menachem Begin. Sony introduce the first portable stereo— the Walkman.
Little Falls had its own epic milestone in 1978: Jerome
320-632-2345 • LITTLE FALLS, MN • www. mcrecord. com
long overdue indoor air quality needs in the district.
“ We intentionally have done this in a certain time frame where it did not impact your taxes at all. At the end of this month, we have an operating levy that’ s being completely paid off and so when that completely disappeared, the School Board chose to go out and address a lot of the infrastructure in the district here, specifically the heating elements in our district,” he said.“ We went out this past summer and we addressed all of the ventilation issues that we had in our district that have been festering for decades here and the payments with that are going to coincide with that other debt that’ s falling off our books.”
Hensch said while phase I was ongoing,
Valentine and Kimberly LeBlanc started working at the Little Falls Coborn’ s grocery store, which was just a year old at the time and the company’ s sixth store. Today, Coborn’ s operates a total of over 135 retail locations in Minnesota, North Dakota, South Dakota, Wisconsin, Michigan, and Illinois.
As the saying goes, all good things must come to an end. That’ s the case with both Valentine and LeBlanc. Jerome is retiring at the end of January, followed by Kim in May.
The two have made many friends working for Coborn’ s, where they became familiar faces to generations of Coborn’ s shoppers.
Jerome spent his first four months at the store working in general grocery before transitioning to dairy. Jerome eventually moved to the frozen food department. Jerome inherited the frozen food department’ s managerial role when then-department manager Greg Zylka was promoted to store manager.
“ Greg moved up and I moved in,” Jerome said. It’ s where the longtime Coborn’ s employee chose to stay.
Kim began her Coborn’ s career in the deli before moving to the meat department. After another transition, she became a mainstay as the scanning manager. She coordinates the store’ s scanning program to this day.
Jerome and Kim took very different routes to their Coborn’ s employment.
“ I knew there was an opening and needed a job,” Jerome recalled.
Still in high school, Jerome
Auctions........................................... C2-4 Business............................................... A3 Courts / Crime..................................... A9
Travis Hencsch, superintendent
the district had a staff ideation session where the Administration met with the staff and asked what some of their greatest needs are that they see in the building. The outcomes from the session included updated aesthetic, flexible learning / breakout spaces, safe and secure entry, improved programming in Career and Technical Education( CTE) and Science, Technology, Engineering and
JEFFREY HAGE / MORRISON COUNTY RECORD Jerome Valentine, left, and Kim LeBlanc are pictured with Coborn’ s store director Jordan Haukos at the Little Falls grocery store. Jerome and Kim will be retiring in 2025 after 47 years on the job.
A retirement party will be held for Jerome Valentine. All are welcome.
Date: Saturday, Feb. 1 Time: 2-6 p. m. Location: Little Falls VFW skipped school for two days in order to begin his Coborn’ s career.
“ But I couldn’ t skip school for three days, because I was on the football team and wouldn’ t be allowed to play in the upcoming game,” he said.
Those two days of work led to a 47-year career and Coborn’ s became the only employer Jerome would ever have.
Like Jerome, Kim’ s route to Coborn’ s began in her high school days. She had been working at Country Kitchen when she decided to transition to the grocery store.
“ I had an interview, and after being hired, my first job was in the deli,” Kim recalled.“ I then moved to meat where I worked for 20 years and after that the price team.”
The two are proud that despite the multiple remodels the store has had, they were part of teams that kept the store from closing
See RETIRE | PAGE 12
Crossword / Sudoku....................... A16 Education............................................. B5 Obituaries............................................ B3
Public Notices................................. B8-9 Public Safety...................................... A10 Religion.............................................. B10
Sunday, January 26, 2025
Mathematics( STEM).
During the presentation Hensch identified the areas of security and safety concerns, some of which are major. However, due to the sensitive nature and to keep anyone from potentially acting on those, this writer has opted not to include them.
A community engagement group was also established.
“ They actually put their heads together as outsiders that don’ t live and breathe day-to-day what the school is and they started to look at our facility. They spent months and months under the guidance of Mr. Overton over here, as well as me, and they came to a conclusion and made a recommendation to the School Board,”
JEFFREY HAGE Morrison County Record
See SWANVILLE | PAGE 14
The clubhouse at the Little Falls Golf Course could be home to an Ultimate Sports Bar & Grill by April if lease talks continue to successfully proceed.
That’ s the word from Little Falls City Manager Alex Smith, who said Tuesday, Jan. 21 that a Jan. 13 meeting between city staff and Ultimate owner Tom Frerichs produced positive results. As a matter of fact, lease negotiations could wrap up the last week of January with a lease agreement coming before the City Council at its next meeting, Monday, Feb. 3, Smith said.
“ Right off the bat, Tom did tell us he is 95 % in, so it was really great to start off that conversation with a good note,” Smith told members of the Little Falls City Council during a Jan. 21 council workshop.
Frerichs believes he can have the bar and grill open by April.
“ He did say that he would ideally like to be opening in April. It looks like he does have contractors who can get things in by then, should we get the lease signed and everything,” Smith said of Frerichs.
The proposed lease terms include a three to five-year term, with initial lease payments of $ 2,000 per month for the first year followed by future lease payments of $ 3,000 and a 3 % increase annually, Smith told the council.
Under terms of the proposed lease as it stood Tuesday, Jan. 21, the city and Ultimate Sports would split utility costs 70 / 30, with Ultimate Sports responsible for 70 percent of the clubhouse utility costs while also maintaining the clubhouse and its amenities, Smith said.
As negations on a lease at the golf course clubhouse have progressed, Frerichs also requested the city install a walk-in cooler, 10 tap lines and additional electrical outlets, as these would be elements that would stay with the building if he were to leave, Smith said. The electrical outlets would accommodate additional televisions that would presumably be broadcasting sports programing under the Ultimate’ s“ sports bar” theme.
In December, Frerichs estimated that the conversion of the clubhouse into his Ultimate Sports Bar & Grill concept would cost him about $ 150,000 out of pocket. That figure has now grown to an estimated $ 250,000 as Frerichs has moved further along in planning the buildout,
See LEASE | PAGE 12
Society / Arts......................................... B4 Sports.......................................... A16-20 Viewpoint........................................ A4-5
The Ripley Reporter • Morrison County Record • www. mcrecord. com • April 27, 2025 • 3
Air National Guard conducts arctic training
BY AUDRA FLANAGAN 148TH FIGHTER WING
Seventy Air National Guard airmen gathered at Camp Ripley Training Center, Minn., from Jan. 27 to Feb. 8, to train and conduct mission-essential tasks in extremely cold temperatures, during the Air National Guard’ s Cold Weather Operations Course( CWOC).
The class comprised of mostly security forces personnel from 37 wings representing 27 states, also hosted a maintenance group commander, medical personnel, a cyber communications specialist, and a public affairs specialist. Two participants and one instructor from the 3rd Canadian Division’ s Lake Superior Scottish Regiment, 38th Brigade Group also attended the course.
Class participants spent the first phase of the course in a classroom where they studied troop movements, risk management, cold weather injury care, and specialized equipment use.
The second phase sent students outdoors to practice over snow movement, Ahkio sled hauling techniques, land navigation, and thermal structure building.
The final phase was a six-day, five-night field training exercise where students traversed snow-covered terrain, reacted to leadership challenges, established a patrol base, constructed and slept in thermal or arctic shelters, and provided hypothermia care while enduring Minnesota’ s winter weather.
The class was divided into six teams who navigated the field training as a group. The teams rucked long distances, while pulling Ahkio sleds filled with equipment, the first two days, then built self-sustaining camps, and slept in a10-man arctic tents with a small stove for heat.
Thermal shelters were constructed on the third and fourth nights using only supplies in an airmen’ s pack or found in nature. While some teams created two or three-person“ lean to” or A-frame style thermal structures, other teams created 10-person shelters to capitalize on body heat. Class attendees used fire as their only heat source while temperatures dipped below zero and wind gusts reached 30-miles per hour. It also snowed on the days they slept in thermal shelters.
Despite the challenging conditions, most of the class expressed building and sleeping in thermal shelters was their favorite part of the field training exercise.“ Students enjoy thermal shelters because it tests their resilience, mental fortitude, and newly learned skills,” said course planner, 148th Security Forces Squadron Master Sgt. Heath Parks.“ Sleeping in a thermal shelter in negative temperatures after days of exhausting ruck movements is not for the faint-hearted. Completing multiple nights in extreme field conditions demonstrates our airmen can do anything they put their
Air National Guard Airmen conduct a six-mile ruck, carrying packs, as part of the Air National Guard’ s Cold Weather Operations Course at Camp Ripley Training Center, Minn., on Feb. 4, 2025. Seventy class participants representing 37 wings from 27 states traveled on foot in subzero temperatures, to build thermal shelters made from materials found in nature. Students were mostly Security Forces specialists, but also included a Maintenance Group Commander, Physician Assistant, Cyber Communications Specialist, and a Public Affairs Specialist. The 2-week course featured a six-day, five-night field training exercise, taught service members to conduct mission-essential tasking in extreme cold environments.( U. S. Air National Guard photo by Audra Flanagan)
minds to.”
The final day of the field training consisted of one last ruck to Lake Farrell. Upon arriving, teams set up and heated their 10-man arctic tents then participated in a cold-water immersion supervised by the United States Coast Guard’ s Training and Rescue Station from Duluth, Minn.
During the cold-water immersion, one individual from each team was transported after his or her jump, via Ahkio sled, to their arctic shelter to allow teams to conduct thermal rescue techniques and prevent hypothermia.
During the field training, airmen ate arctic versions of Meals Ready to Eat( MRE). Many of the students experienced bumps, bruises, and blisters commonly found when navigating rough terrain. Students were supported by three Aerospace Medical Services Technicians from the 148th Fighter Wing.
“ Training courses like the CWOC enhance lethality and increase our airmen’ s combat capabilities,” said Lt. Col. Ronald Rios, Chief, Air National Guard Security Forces Operations Branch, who participated as a student in the course.“ The CWOC allows personnel to employ these skills in extreme weather conditions so they can secure and defend U. S. national interests and support our allies and partners anytime, anywhere, around the world.”
This was the second annual CWOC planned and hosted by the Minnesota National Guard’ s 148th Fighter Wing. Camp Ripley is a 53,000-acrew regional training center located near Little Falls, Minn., which features diverse landscapes from heavily forested areas to prairies to lakes and ponds.
Your Area News and Advertising Source... also find us online at
RECORD
MORRISON COUNTY www. mcrecord. com
Win a $ 1,000 Shopping Spree Register at participating businesses
Jan. 11th thru Feb. 19th( See ad in this week’ s paper)
MORRISON COUNTY
RECORD
Volume 56 • No. 48 $ 2
Swanville to vote on $ 13.375M school referendum
We intentionally have done this in a certain time frame where it did not impact your taxes at all.
FOR 47 YEARS JEROME VALENTINE AND KIM LEBLANC HAVE CALLED A LOCAL GROCERY STORE THEIR SECOND HOME.
LITTLE FALLS GOLF COURSE
Clubhouse lease nearing final stretch
Nearly a half century at Coborn’ s
Two long-time employees eye retirement in 2025
Index
Jerome’ s retirement party
Ultimate Sports Bar & Grill eyes an April opening.
Publication of ECM Publishers, Inc. 216 S. E. 1st Street, Little Falls, MN 56345( 320) 632-2345
MORRISON COUNTY
RECORD www. mcrecord. com • mcr @ apgecm. com