By Teri Knight, News Director
Congresswoman Angie Craig held a town hall meeting yesterday to address business issues within rural communities in her District. Randy Hanson, Farmer and President of the Rice County Farm Bureau started farming in the 1980’s. He commented, “back in the 80s crop farming wasn’t that great but the livestock industry we had hogs and dairy kind of pulled us through. But you look at the meats/ grains and everything in agriculture is really there’s no money to be made anywhere and in most places, it’s kind of like a hobby you’re paying to do it”. Steven Read, co-owner of Shepherd’s Way Farm and President of Minnesota Farmers Union in Rice County told
Craig, “at Shepherds Way, 70% of our business is restaurants and hotels and while there’s been a tremendous amount of attention paid to the food service industry, not a lot of attention has been given to those folks who bring food to the back door of those establishments”. There are many of these specialty growers in the area. He added that there’s a lot of confusion in the Ag Industry regarding these small growers and it appears they’re not eligible for the government help offered right now. Craig told him, “you should know that Colin Peterson and I have been pushing like hell to make sure that family farmers are included in the PPC program. That was certainly the Congress’s intent”. Going into this year, Read said, these farmers weren’t doing that well, so this is really having an effect. Hanson commented, “if something doesn’t change, I know I know a lot of farmers who’ve said this has been my last year farming”.
NH&C asking home sewers
With new information from the Centers for Disease Control, Northfield Hospital + Clinics is asking home-sewers to donate cotton masks, as information on COVID-19 and guidance from the CDC evolves. Their goal is 1,000 cotton masks. Community Relations Director Betsy Spethmann writes additionally, “You may have heard that NH+C is working on a separate effort with a limited number of stitchers to sew face masks made of surgical wrap (provided by NH+C) and cotton fabric liners. They’re following very strict guidelines set by surgical staff. This is not a community-wide effort. The full press release: NHC-asks-home-sewers-to-donate-cotton-face-masks
Nlfd woman raises thousands to buy surgical wrap to make masks
You likely know her from her Boomerang Bags, but Northfielder and retired librarian, Kathy Ness, immediately went into the production of making cotton masks when the coronavirus struck. Currently she has 80 sewers that have been sewing with double cotton. Note, these are not direct patient care masks that are worn by medical staff. In a separate effort, Ness held a fundraiser on Facebook recently and very quickly raised $3000 to buy the specific kind of cotton fabric that can be used by medical professionals, she said, “and this professional surgical wrap fabric is almost as good as N95″. Ness has placed an order for the surgical cotton and it could be in by tomorrow. She said, “it comes in 54 inch sheets. And with each of those we can make between, depending on how it’s cut, 24 to 30 masks”. Before wearing any of the masks they must be washed in hot water. You could also put them on the top rack of your dishwasher. Be sure to check out her facebook page HERE for more information on how you can help. ALSO CHECK the Northfield Face Mask Supply Depot.
To appeal your home valuation call your county assessor
Recently Rice County Taxpayers received their 2020 property Valuation Notices for taxes payable in 2021. Due to Covid-19, the informal Open Book meetings scheduled for April 13th are canceled. This does not affect your right to appeal, now call the Rice County Assessor’s Office at 507-332-6102. The full press release with further details is on our Updated Covid-19 Resource page. We’re updating it constantly!
