Spring forward March 12, 2023
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Wednesday, March 8, 2023
Freeport officials talk with Nature Energy about potential biogas plant location Denmark company among the world’s largest producer of biogas BY CAROL MOORMAN STAFF WRITER
Freeport city officials met March 2 with representatives from Denmark-based Nature Energy, among the world’s largest producer of biogas. Nature Energy is looking to expand to the U.S. Last year, they opened their first United States office in St. Paul. They are looking to build a plant or plants in Stearns County, Jon Nelson, Freeport clerk-treasurer, told council members during their Feb. 28 monthly meeting at Freeport City Hall. Freeport, with Interstate-94 and agriculture connections, has been selected by Nature Energy as a desirable area to be one of the first operations in the U.S. Freeport Mayor Mike Eveslage, on March 3, said the Thursday meeting he and city staff had with five Nature Energy representatives was informative and productive.
400 Block update
Number 10 • Volume 134
Great moment for
Albany family Melrose researching policing options ... pg. 3 Hiltner happy to carry on legacy ... pg. 7 ‘A Team’ has first baby boy in 2017 ... pg. 16 Gymnasts scoring with the best ... pg. 10
Belford becomes U.S. citizen BY CAROL MOORMAN | STAFF WRITER
ATKINSON TO TALK ABOUT SPACE MISSIONS BOOK AT MELROSE LIBRARY
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t was a special day for the Belford family of rural Albany Feb. 16. Mother Doris became a U.S. citizen. Her family – husband David and their children Joyce, 11, and Abraham, 5, and mother-in-law Joyce Belford – watched Doris take the Oath of Allegiance at the St. Paul RiverCenter in St. Paul, along with 1,000 naturalized citizens from 96 countries, in the morning session with another 1,000 people in the afternoon session affirming their allegiance and faith to the United States. “I’m so happy, proud of myself. I feel amazing,” Doris said Feb. 21 standing inside their family business in Albany, formerly Barbacoa American & Mexican Food and now Barbacoa Smokehouse & Deli. David said his wife worked hard to become a U.S. citizen, not just the year-long learning process. Her journey to the U.S. began 15 years ago, when Doris left her native country, El Salvador, Central America, because “the economy was not very good and there was not much opportunity,” she said. She lived with her parents and brother in the mountainous village of Los Planes, El Salvador, in a small house, with no plumbing or electricity. Doris said they were “very poor,” and they washed clothes pushing rocks across clothes on a board. In their kitchen they had wood-fired clay/dirt oven with a flat top to cook on. David saw this firsthand when he visited her family in Los Planes. He said what they lacked in material things, they made up for in hospitality. “The place is full of the most humble and wonderful people you have ever met,” he said.
COMMUNITY COVERAGE 127 YEARS
Belford page 4 PHOTO SUBMITTED
Doris Belford (middle, right) displays her U.S. citizenship documentation surrounded by her family, (clockwise, from front) son Abraham, daughter AsNature the sunEnergy was starting Commercial Joyce, husband David and mother-in-law Joyce Belford, Feb. 16 at the St. Paul RiverCentre in St. Paul. Doris was among 1,000 naturalized citizens from pageto 3 rise Monday, Contractors Company workers from Melrose who werecompleted in96 countries their U.S. citizenship during the morning ceremony, with another 1,000 sworn in in the afternoon.
side the Lisa’s On Main building working on securing the west wall. PHOTO BY CAROL MOORMAN
Kettler follows in father’s footsteps
Albany City Council selects new solid waste hauler West Central Sanitation awarded three-year contract
Darkhouse banquet draws generations of spearing, fishing enthusiasts
BY TIM HENNAGIR | STAFF WRITER
BY CAROL MOORMAN STAFF WRITER
It was the 19th annual Heartland Chapter of the Minnesota Darkhouse & Angling Association Banquet Feb. 4, and Ben Kettler was in his usual spot – volunteering in the northern pike dart tournament booth on the north side of the Freeport Community Center in Freeport. It’s a booth his dad, Ron Kettler, had worked in and had a hand in. Ron Kettler made the Styrofoam northern pike target competitors took aim at. “Ten years on the other side of this fish, and then we flipped it, and now it’s been five years on this side of the fish,” Ben Kettler said. Ron Kettler, who was an avid ice fisherman and spearer, passed away May 25, 2016, at his Melrose home. So continuing this dart throwing target tradition is a must for his son. “It’s original artwork, a Ron Kettler special,” Ben Kettler said. “It’s cool.”
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Publications The newspaper of today is the history of tomorrow.
PHOTOS BY CAROL MOORMAN
Ben Kettler stands in front of the northern pike dart throwing board Feb. 4 during the Heartland Chapter of the Minnesota Darkhouse & Angling Association Banquet at the Freeport Community Center in Freeport. Years ago his dad, Ron Kettler, who was an avid spearfisherman, made the Styrofoam northern pike target, which competitors continue to take aim at year after year. Cousins Cora and Conner Kotzer display decoys Dennis Bertram (back) carved and distributed Feb. 4 during the Heartland Chapter of the Minnesota Darkhouse & Angling Association Banquet at the Freeport Community Center in Freeport. Conner, of Albany, has been spearing, while Cora, of Groton, South Dakota, has not but now has a reason to spear.
There were many cool things at the banquet. Longtime spearer and decoy carver Dennis Bertram was in his usual spot, display-
ing his homemade decoys, riences, showing he doesn’t known for their big lips. His spear every fish he spots. decoys are tried and tested by him. Bertram has a video Kettler page 3 of one of his spearing expe-
PUBLIC NOTICES • Mortgage Foreclosures (2) - pg. 6 • Albany Area Schools Agenda - pg. 6 • City of Albany Notice of Drainage and Utility Easement Vacation • Milwood Township Notice of Annual Election and Meeting - pg. 6 - pg. 6 • Oak Township Notice of Election - pg. 7 • Assumed Name - Rubber Ducky Marine and Outdoors - pg. 7 • Oak Township Notice of Annual Meeting - pg. 7 • Melrose Area Public Schools Minutes, Jan. 23 - pg. 6 • Avon Township Notice of Special Meeting - pg. 7 • Melrose Area Public Schools Special Minutes, Feb. 24 - pg. 6 • Holdingford Public School Minutes, March 1 - pg. 7 • Avon Township Notice of Annual Qualification/Organizational • Two Rivers Lake Aquatic Invasive Species Treatment Notice - pg. 7 Meeting - pg. 6 • City of New Munich Notice of Hearing on Improvement - pg. 6 • Albany Area Schools Work Session - pg. 6
Willmar-based West Central Sanitation will become Albany’s new solid waste hauler in early April. Clerk and administrator Tom Schneider said the city is also moving to every other week recycling. “There will be mailings coming out in the next two weeks that will alert residents,” Schneider said. The last day of pick-up from Waste Management, Inc., will be March 27. The first pick-up from West Central will be April 3. West Central is planning to deliver new collection carts to properties prior to April 3, Schneider said. Waste Management, the current hauler, had the solid waste contract for five years, Schneider said. “West Central will be providing calendars to residents that show every other week recycling,” he added. Schneider reported during the council’s March 1 meeting that City Attorney Susan Dege had prepared a draft agreement with West Central that included terms and conditions for residential refuse, recycling and yard waste services. He asked council members for their preference regarding every other week versus weekly recycling during last week’s meeting. Every other week collection would produce customer savings and cause less wear and tear to residential streets and alleys, Schneider said. He also addressed volume-based collection rate or pricing structures. West Central Sanitation Owner Don Williamson told city leaders state and county regulatory precedence creates waste reduction incentives. West Central provides lower pricing for lower volume, including a lower-level refuse collection option of a 35-gallon cart every other week or a $2 monthly reduction.
Hauler page 3 BIRTHS page 3 Emry Joseph Myers Laken Tracy Quinn
$1.50