Chamber to sponsor candidate forum
The Luverne Chamber of Commerce will again sponsor a candidate's forum.
The forum will include candidates for state, county and Luverne city offices.
The forum will be at 7 p.m. Monday, Oct. 14, in the City Council Chamber.
If you are unable to attend, the forum will be broadcast on both McLeod and Mediacom cable services.
The state Senate and House candidates will start the process with candidates for county and city to follow.
Invited candidates include Jim Vickerman (DFL) and Alex Frick (I-R) for the state Senate race, Ted Winter (DFL) and Doug Magnus (IR) for the state House, Ron McClure and Mike Winkels for county sheriff, Gloria Rolfs and Lisa DeBoer for county auditor/treasurer and Glen Gust and Keith Erickson for the mayor's position.
Bob Kaczrowski and Pat Baustian have also been invited to participate, although they are running for separate City Council seats and are both unopposed.
The final portion of the program will be the eight candidates for the four School Board positions that are up this year.
School Board candidates include: Bill Stegemann, Becky Walgrave, Dan Kopp, Cary Radisewitz, Bruce Baartman, Greg Aubert, Colleen Nath and Tim Burns.
Volunteers needed for Bookin' Buddies program
Big Buddies Coordinator Julie Wynia is again trying to put together a Bookin' Buddies program at Luverne Elementary School.
The program will need 11 full-time readers to make sure each child scheduled for the program during the first semester will have a reading buddy.
The program started yesterday, Oct. 9, and runs each Wednesday from 12:30 to 1 p.m.
The program meets in the Elementary School library each week.
If you do not feel you can commit to a weekly rotation, bi-weekly rotations as well as substitute readers are also needed.
You also have the option of reading for one semester or for the whole year, and people of all ages are encouraged to participate.
For more information contact Julie Wynia at 283-8685. ext. 4.
Debate dates set for state candidates
Pioneer Public TV has set times and dates for statewide candidate debates.
For District 22, the day will be Sunday, Nov. 3.
The first debate will be between the incumbent DFL Senatorial candidate Jim Vickerman and his Republican challenger, Alex Frick.
The debate will last for one hour, beginning at 1 p.m.
That debate will be followed at 2 p.m. with a one-hour debate between Minnesota House of Representatives DFL incumbent Ted Winter and his Republican challenger, Doug Magnus.
The League of Women Voters will assist Pioneer Public Television with the legislative debates.
You can participate in the debates by calling in or e-mailing your questions. The call-in phone number is 800-726-3178 or e-mail at debates@pioneer.org.
Two gubernatorial debates will also be aired on Pioneer Public TV. The first will be from 7 to 8:30 p.m. Oct. 20.
The second will be a joint appearance on Almanac, at its usual time, 9 p.m. Friday, Nov. 1.
Minnegasco changes name again
Our local natural gas distributor has changed its name again.
Minnegasco became Reliant Energy Minnegasco a few years ago when the company was purchased by Texas-based Reliant Energy.
The company is now undergoing a transformation.
Reliant Energy has now been split into two separate businesses.
The Reliant name will be used by the power generation and trading businesses based in Houston.
According to the company, Minnegasco is one of three gas distribution companies that will be part of CenterPoint Energy and will be called CenterPoint Minnegasco
CenterPoint's business focus will be energy delivery.
Publisher Roger Tollefson can be contacted by e-mail at
tolly@star-herald.com