With winter’s coldest temperatures arriving, the Minnesota Department of Commerce reminds Minnesotans to apply to the state’s Energy Assistance Program for help paying their heating bills.
For those who have not already applied for help this heating season, there is still time. Households with young children, people with disabilities, veterans, seniors and those experiencing unemployment or financial hardship as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic are especially encouraged to apply. Both renters and homeowners can qualify to get energy assistance.
“We are concerned more Minnesotans than ever are having difficulty paying heating bills because of the impacts of the COVID-19 pandemic,” said Commerce Department Temporary Commissioner Grace Arnold. “Last year we granted an average of $500 to eligible households to help with heating bills.”
Stimulus payments from the federal government and pandemic-related unemployment insurance payments are not counted as income when determining if a household is eligible for energy assistance.
The Energy Assistance Program serves households that earn less than $54,357 for a household of four or $28,266 for a household of one. It helps income-qualifying homeowners and renters with heating bills through grant money paid directly to utility companies or heating fuel vendors. The program can also help households pay past-due bills, get reconnected, or prevent energy disconnection, get delivered fuel, learn about energy efficiency and safety, and repair or replace homeowners’ broken heating systems.
In November 2020, Minnesota received more than $106 million in federal Low-Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LIHEAP) funds for this year’s Energy Assistance Program.
 
Average annual grant is about $500
Last year the Energy Assistance Program served nearly 118,000 Minnesota households, with an average grant of about $500. These households included nearly 57,000 seniors, almost 35,000 young children, more than 57,000 people with disabilities and roughly 7,500 veterans.
 
How to apply for Energy Assistance Program
New applicants have until May 31, 2021, to apply; however, funding is limited and administered on a first-come, first-served basis. The Minnesota Commerce Department administers the program in partnership with 29 local service providers throughout the state. Local service providers are situated across Minnesota and cover every corner of the state.
Households apply for assistance with the local service provider in their area. Call 800-657-3710, and press “1” or visit the Commerce Department’s Energy Assistance Program webpage: www.mn.gov/commerce

Dogs, cats, horses and humans were all under the same roof Saturday morning when Tracy Area Animal Rescue hosted a “meet and greet” at Rock Ranch in Hills.
Visitors met adoptable pets from the animal rescue organization as well as the horses of Rock Ranch. Also, several families who adopted through TAAR were there with their “alumni” pets.
Among them was Baxter, the mid-size dog of Rock Ranch founders Dan and Marie LaRock, who offered their indoor heated arena on the sub-zero winter day.
The 80-by-200-foot building, completed last fall, was well-suited for excited dogs who, once familiar with each other, enjoyed zooming around in the spacious arena.
The event took in more than $700 for TAAR, which is hoping to match a $20,000 donation from the Tufty family by March 13.
“That means any donation made will be doubled, giving us the needed funds to continue saving animals in need,” said TAAR volunteer Beth Capistran, Luverne.
She said Tracy Area Animal Rescue has saved over 3,000 animals since 2006.
“We are 100-percent volunteer and all animals are kept in volunteers’ homes,” she said. “We receive no public funding and are able to continue our work thanks to generous donations.”
She said the organization spent over $100,000 on veterinary services for animals in its care.
“We can't do it without our amazing supporters and volunteers,” Capistran said.
Donations are accepted at tracyareaanimalrescue.com/donate.
Refreshments Saturday were provided by “Oh My Cupcakes,” and professional photographer Val Meinerts captured images of pets and their companions.
Founded in 2016, Rock Ranch provides riding lessons for children, equine experiences for seniors and Eagala certified mental health care.  More information is at riderockranch.org

The city of Hills became the first municipality outside of Luverne to pledge support to the Rock County Food Shelf’s new location and renovation project.
Hills Council members pledged $1,000 per year over the next five years at their Feb. 9 meeting.
The Food Shelf capital campaign seeks to raise $225,000 to complete the project.
Food shelf volunteers sent letters to each of the county’s small communities whose residents also use the food shelf to lessen food insecurity in their households each month.
The suggested contribution was $1,000.
According to information released by the food shelf, residents with Luverne addresses more frequently take advantage of the 900 pounds of food distributed weekly each Thursday.
Following Luverne are residents with Magnolia, Hills, Beaver Creek, Hardwick, Steen, Kanaranzi and Kenneth addresses.
The food shelf is currently located in the basement of the United Methodist Church on Main Street Luverne.
In collaboration with the city of Luverne, the food shelf will move to a former dental office located at 208 West Maple Street in Luverne.
The 2,000-square-foot facility will be remodeled to increase food storage space, add refrigerator and freezer options and provide a ground floor distribution area.
Renovations have already begun on the new food shelf facility.
 
In other business, the Hills council:
•kept the fire protection contracts for the city of Steen and Clinton Township at the same rates. Steen will pay $5,000 and Clinton Township will pay $500 per section.
•approved the 2022 budget for the Hills Fire Department at $53,840, an increase of $3,565.
•approved 2022 stipends for the fire chief and department secretary at $800 and $550 respectively. Currently fire chief Jared Rozeboom receives $675 and secretary Justin VanMaanen receives $510.

Coronavirus pandemic aid from federal, state and local sources helped Hills-Beaver Creek School District erase a portion of its deficit from seven months ago.
School Board members accepted a preliminary 2020-21 budget in June 2020 that projected a general fund deficit of $105,922.
At the Feb. 8 School Board meeting, Superintendent Todd Holthaus said he and business manager Amanda Rozeboom went through each line item and revised the 2020-21 general budget to deficit of $86,324.
“This is a really good snapshot of the district,” Holthaus said.
H-BC is projected to spend $4.919 million during the current school year.
Overspending this school year was due to the purchase of a new school bus and an upgraded phone system for the district.
Holthaus anticipated increased expenditures due to added pandemic mandates involving more cleaning, personal protection equipment and distancing requirements within the bus routes.
H-BC received $213,000 in aid to offset the added costs, which included $26,000 in coronavirus aid from Rock County and the cities of Hills and Beaver Creek.
The district will also receive an additional $32,000 for a higher-than-projected enrollment.
Positive balances are also projected for the food service and community education funds under the approved revised budget.
Earlier H-BC anticipated a deficit of $14,475 in food service during the school year.
However, meals are currently free through a federal coronavirus program, and the district will receive $65,185 more than the earlier projections for revenues of $212,389 for this school year.
Holthaus said the federal food program is expected to continue through the end of the current school year.
In a three-year plan to spend down the food service budget to breakeven levels, H-BC will invest in upgraded food service equipment to lower the food service balance.
A positive balance was also projected for community education, although the cancelations of youth and adult enrichment classes to lessen the spread of COVID-19 reduced revenues.
Revenues for this fiscal year are $119,765, down from projections of $125,680.
The reduction also comes from reduced preschool tuition to allow more preparation time for its teachers.
Instead of a positive $44,709, Community Education is projected to end the 2020-21 school year with a positive balance of $30,875.

Thumbs up to local electric utility workers for their round-the-clock work at Luverne’s power plant to man the back-up generator that was called into service.
Thumbs up also to Luverne city leaders who had the foresight to maintain an independent power source for the community.
Thumbs down to climate change deniers. Our Arctic cap is melting, it’s snowing on the beaches of the Gulf, and our entire West Coast is either on fire or in chronic drought. But OK. Climate change is a hoax.
Thumbs down to the party that called 911 as a possible joke. It’s no joke that dozens of firemen, first responders and law enforcement personnel dropped everything Friday to search for snowmobile accident victims that didn’t exist. It’s a crime to misuse 911 and we hope the perpetrators are prosecuted.
Thumbs up to the first responders and medical professionals who played a role in 3-year-old accident victim Nora Matthiesen’s recovery. It’s a relief to follow up this bad news story with a good news feature about a remarkable and somewhat miraculous recovery.
Thumbs down to political signage in boulevards and along highways. The election is over (for those who believe in free and fair elections) and it’s time to move on. Plus, it’s the law. They were supposed to be gone Nov. 13.
Thumbs up to city staff for displaying American flags on Presidents Day. It must have been a frigid job to put them up that day, but Old Glory looked wonderful lining the street under sunshine and blue skies. It’s uplifting to be part of a community that takes pride in patriotism.
Thumbs up to the water departments whose crews fixed broken water mains caused by the recent stint of high temperatures in the negatives.

Another birthday came and went for me this week.
While it wasn’t a “significant” birthday, it provided me with a reminder that I am, indeed, getting older.
I’ve long passed birthdays that allowed me to drive, vote, or drink legally. I’ve even been eligible to run for president for a few years now.
While the number might not matter as much these days, I’m definitely noticing the years passing by. I catch myself acting in ways that I used to consider middle-aged.
One of those ways is giving back financially to my community. I have given regularly to my church since I started working, but I guess I’ve thought giving to other community causes was for “older” people. People with settled careers, a higher income, and their student loans paid in full.
While I’m not sure I can check all of those boxes, I’m happy to report I decided to commit to giving to the Luverne 2184 Campaign (2184 is Luverne’s school district number.)
And I think you should do the same.
If you haven’t heard about it, the Luverne 2184 Campaign is a fundraising campaign begun by the Luverne Education Legacy Fund (formerly the Luverne School Foundation).
In short, funds raised will be used to finish and enhance aspects of the current LHS building project that are over and above what local taxpayers are funding.
The target audience for the campaign is LHS alumni, supporters and businesses that want the finished project to truly be a source of pride for the whole community.
The “Wow!” factor, as Superintendent Oftedahl calls it.
Features such as digital signage, a grand piano in the new performing arts center, enhancements to athletic facilities and an outdoor classroom are all possible.
There will also be an alumni area that highlights the accomplishments of LHS graduates and recognizes all donors who give $2,184 or more to this once-in-a-lifetime project.
While that recognition is not the reason I’ve committed to donating $61 per month for three years, it will feel good to have my name forever on that donor board.
There I go again … sounding older.
And while it has been my pleasure to serve on the campaign planning committee, even that’s not the reason I’ve decided to commit to the cause.
It might just be because I’m getting older.
I’m now interested in giving back to a school that did so much for me as a student and continues to provide so much to me as an employee.
I’m proud to be from Luverne and to be a member of the Class of 1997, and I want to demonstrate that pride in a way that will benefit current and future students.
And I hope you do, too.
Please visit luverneeducationlegacyfund.org for more information or to sign up to join me in giving back to our community.
No matter how old you are.

Kracht: 'We need to call out our government' officials
To the Editor:
After reading our local newspaper’s half page ad with out mayor praising our governor’s budget proposal, I decided to look into what it all entailed.
I read through the proposed budget plan several times, only to find some things that would be horrible for our local economy.
Some of the things in this proposal are appropriating $150 million for rebuilding Minneapolis after the riots, defunding the reinsurance program, raising taxes on corporations, and raising taxes to pay for summer school, among other things.
I am going to address the problems with these things. $150 million for rebuilding Minneapolis. Governor Walz let Minneapolis burn for four days, and some Minnesotans will have to pay for his incompetence for the rest of their lives. He was offered assistance to stop this from the federal government, but refused. Wouldn’t 25,000 armed troops have been a good plan for that? We don’t seem to have a problem with it at the capitol buildings.
Walz also says he would only raise taxes on the wealthiest Minnesotans, but in reality, it is corporations and businesses that were not affected by his Covid shutdowns. Raising taxes on corporations would be a lot of farming operations and small businesses in our area. Raising taxes on businesses deemed essential to pay for his decision to close other businesses is Governor Walz’s plan to cover his rear end on another bad decision!
Raising taxes to pay for summer school. The closing of school was probably the dumbest decision I have ever heard of! The children didn’t learn a thing doing distance learning. It was the most disorganized mess I have ever seen. Then they went to school two or three partial days per week. Now they go to school until 2:30. Does Covid start at 2:30 or on certain days in the week?
Governor Walz and the teachers union made the decision to shut down our schools. The people had no say in this. They didn’t shut down our taxes. We had to pay during that time. Now they are asking us to bail them out.
This budget proposal will raise Minnesotans’ taxes on most of the families in our area. It makes MN the third highest tax rate and the second highest business tax rate in the nation. No wonder businesses are moving out of state to our neighbors to the west! We need to call out our government from the federal to the local level on all of this wasteful spending and taxing the people to pay for it!
Marlin (Mert) Kracht
Luverne
 
 
Meinerts: 'We need to unite'
To the Editor:
In response to Mr. Green’s letter to the editor in the Jan. 28 edition of The Star Herald: I wholeheartedly agree that we need to unite. Unite against abortion, foreign interference in our government, dependency on foreign oil, the assault on the First and Second Amendments, the tyrannical government lockdowns that have stranglehold on small businesses, the huge injustice against our kids with distance/hybrid learning, and the assault on the gathering to worship.
We need to unite against the fear that is perpetrated by the media and our government, and be allowed to live free like our constitution says. The disregard of our flag and nation as a whole is disgraceful and embarrassing.
As far as “uniting with the powers that be,” I think we will follow the example set by the last four years and a month.
God bless America!
Todd Meinerts
Luverne
 

March 15 is deadline for signup for 2021 Agriculture Risk Coverage, Price Loss Coverage programs
 
 Agricultural producers who have not yet enrolled in the Agriculture Risk Coverage (ARC) or Price Loss Coverage (PLC) programs for 2021 must do so by March 15.
Producers who have not yet signed a 2021 enrollment contract or who want to make an election change should contact their local USDA Farm Service Agency (FSA) office to make an appointment.
Program enrollment for 2021 is required in order to participate in the programs, but elections for the 2021 crop year are optional and otherwise remain the same as elections made for 2020.
ARC and PLC provide income support to farmers from substantial drops in crop prices or revenues and are vital economic safety nets for most American farms.
Although 1,033,310 contracts have been completed to date, this represents less than 59 percent of the more than 1.7 million contracts anticipated by the agency By enrolling soon, producers can beat the rush as the deadline nears.
Producers who do not complete enrollment by close of business local time on Monday, March 15, will not be enrolled in ARC or PLC for the 2021 crop year and will be ineligible to receive a payment, should one trigger for an eligible crop.
ARC and PLC contracts can be emailed, faxed or physically signed and mailed back to FSA. Producers with level 2 e-authentication access can electronically sign contracts. Service Center staff can also work with producers to sign and securely transmit contracts electronically through two commercially available tools: Box and OneSpan. You can learn more about these solutions at farmers.gov/mydocs. Producers may also make arrangements to drop off signed contracts at the FSA county office. Please call ahead for local mailing or drop-off information and options for submitting signed contracts electronically.
Producers are eligible to enroll farms with base acres for barley, canola, large and small chickpeas, corn, crambe, flaxseed, grain sorghum, lentils, mustard seed, oats, peanuts, dry peas, rapeseed, long grain rice, medium- and short-grain rice, safflower seed, seed cotton, sesame, soybeans, sunflower seed and wheat.
 
Yield data and web-based decision tools available
FSA recently updated the annual and benchmark yields for ARC/PLC program years 2019, 2020 and 2021. This data is useful to producers in choosing to participate in either ARC or PLC.
For added assistance with ARC and PLC decisions, USDA partnered with the University of Illinois and Texas A&M University to offer web-based decision tools to assist producers in making informed, educated decisions using crop data specific to their respective farming operations. Tools include:
•Gardner-farmdoc Payment Calculator, the University of Illinois tool that offers farmers the ability to run payment estimate modeling for their farms and counties for ARC-County and PLC.
•ARC and PLC Decision Tool, the Texas A&M tool that allows producers to analyze payment yield updates and expected payments for 2019 and 2020. Producers who have used the tool in the past should see their username, and much of their farm data will already be available in the system.
 
Crop insurance considerations
Producers are reminded that enrolling in ARC or PLC programs can impact eligibility for some crop insurance products. Producers who elect and enroll in PLC also have the option of purchasing Supplemental Coverage Option (SCO) through their approved insurance provider. Producers of covered commodities who elect ARC are ineligible for SCO on their planted acres.
Unlike SCO, RMA’s Enhanced Coverage Option (ECO) is unaffected by participating in ARC for the same crop, on the same acres. You may elect ECO regardless of your farm program election.
 
More information
For more information on ARC and PLC including web-based decision tools, visit farmers.gov/arc-plc; to find location and contact information for the nearest FSA county office, visit farmers.gov/service-center-locator.

Dispatch report
Feb. 5
•Complainant on 91st Street reported mailboxes knocked down.
•Complainant on W. Mead Court reported theft and breach of lease.
•Deputy conducted extra patrol in the city of Kenneth.
•Complainant on N. Freeman Avenue reported a disorderly.
Feb. 6
•Complainant on N. Freeman Avenue reported a disturbance.
•Complainant on S. Kniss Avenue reported property damage.
•Complainant requested to speak to a deputy concerning a prior incident.
•Complainant reported dangerous snowmobile activity at the school softball diamonds.
Feb. 7
•Complainant on W. Warren Street reported a found item at location.
•Complainant on E. Warren Street reported harassing communications from previous renters.
•Complainant on N. Estey Street reported an issue with private sale of a vehicle.
•Complainant eastbound on Interstate 90, mile marker 8, Beaver Creek, reported suspicious activity.
Feb. 8
•Subject in Nobles County was arrested on Rock County warrant.
•Complainant reported a scam phone call.
•Suspicious activity was reported at location on N. Blue Mound Avenue.
Feb. 9
•Complainant on W. Interstate Drive reported suspicious vehicle.
•Complainant on S. Estey Street reported vandalism.
Feb. 10
•Complainant on S. Broadway Street, Magnolia, reported an attempted break-in.
•Complainant on S. Kniss Avenue reported a fire hazard at location.
•Complainant at the Transfer Station reported garbage dumped in ditch.
Feb. 11
•Complainant on E. Luverne Street reported loud music at location.
 
In addition, officers responded to 2 motor vehicle accidents, 7 escorts, 11 ambulance runs, 8 parking violations, 3 paper services, 5 animal complaints, 5 fingerprint requests, 6 burn permits, 2 background checks, 3 alarms, 1 drug test, 15 purchase and carry permits, 3 stalled vehicles, 5 traffic stops, 6 abandoned 911 calls, 1 welfare check, 2 reports of cattle out, 1 OFP and 1 follow-up.