Year In Review...

August 11, 2021

Eric Reinbold was apprehended in Red Lake County for homicide of his wife in Pennington County.

It has been a long process which started a number of years ago, when the County was approached by the Minnesota Department of Transportation about transferring Highway 222 to the County and is now in RLC 5-Year Highway plan.

On Saturday, August 7th, the Oklee Fire Department was called out to fight a fire that had started in a field. The field was a hay field and had been prepared for baling. The person baling the hay had just got started and noticed that the baler had caught on fire. He left the field immediately but it was too late. 

Everyone’s sick of the smoke and sunless days. However, it hasn’t been too hot. Winter will take care of this problem. It sure would be nice to get a soaking rain.

August 18, 2021

East Polk County now in Drought Warning stage. Drought is defined as a period of abnormally dry and/ or unusually hot weather sufficiently prolonged for the corresponding deficiency of water to cause a serious hydrologic imbalance. When a serious hydrologic imbalance occurs, soil moisture reserves, groundwater supplies, lake levels and stream flows are negatively impacted. With 79 percent of Minnesota now experiencing severe drought and 35 percent experiencing extreme drought, the state is in drought warning phase. With this designation, the DNR and others are taking additional steps.

The tarring of the county roads through Oklee are completed, though there is some small pieces of the project to still be done, but the major portion is done and people can now walk and drive downtown without issue.

Well, no rain again this past week. There was a hope one night while watching the weather on television that a front was coming our way from North Dakota. It sounded to us like we may get about an inch of rain. As it turned out it went north of us. The rain did come down, and Thief River Falls, got 2.50 inches Euclid got 2.95 inches and Red Lake Falls got .70 of an inch. We got just a skim of water in the bottom of the gauge, and that was not even up to a tenth. We are extremely dry in our area. 

August 25, 2021

Oklee Market Day was held on August 14, 2021. It was a hot but beautiful day in Oklee. The Hero Hustle 5K had over 50 racers and it was a perfect morning to run/walk. were also 48 virtual racers. Hero Hustle 5K 1st place winners were: Ashlyn Nelson, Char Gagner, Maureen Bartlet, Holly Spong, Eli Nelson, Adam Kortan, Casey Weidenman, Bob Melby, Owen Chervestad, and Mia Carriere.

Rick and Debbie want to retire. And the residents of Oklee and the surrounding area have been sitting on pins & needles waiting to hear what is going to happen to their grocery store. No one wants to see the grocery store close. The news is that there is a buyer, waiting for the powers that be, to approve the sale of D & R Grocery. But as of this printing nothing final has been heard that the sale is complete. 

The Chip Shot event was new this year. Matthew Genova (left) donated the prize money. 1st place Chris Menezes, from South Africa, is working at the Jeff Bachand farm under the H2A Program. 2nd place went to Nick Keuter of Grand Forks, ND. 3rd place winner was Joe Larson.

The Market Day Softball game was held in the afternoon and it was the current Oklee Lumber team against past players (Alumni) of the Oklee Lumber team. The current Oklee Lumber Team won the contest.

September 1, 2021

The Red Lake County Central Public School announced it will continue to offer in-person learning to all students, as it did for the entire 2020-2021 school year.

Zion Lutheran Church was serving burgers and bars for a fund raiser at the Oklee Market Day on August 14th. Old fashioned games were played like the shoe kick. Corn Hole (or bean bag toss) is a very popular game nowadays. There was quite a few playing in the tournament at Oklee's Market Day. And the Oklee Market Day car show is a always a good show and has a nice variety of cars.

4-H youth demonstrated community service and creativity while visiting local residents at Hillcrest Nursing Home. Emma Knott, 4-H youth leader, decided she wanted to serve her community in new ways. After seeing a need in local nursing homes for companionship and entertainment, Knott decided to plan a rock painting session for local seniors. 

Mother Nature has graced us with rain. Not just spits but with about an inch and a half in the last week. It was so nice to see wet ground again, and grass is greening up really nice. The last bit of rain came early Sunday morning and we netted about a half of an inch. With the rain the grass has been starting to grow. Mowing season right now looks short but it is welcome by most of us, as our mowers have been retired for so long. We saved gas all summer but now we may have to gas up and get busy once again.

 

Continued next week.....