LOCAL

Small businesses add flavor to our area. There is a sense of adventure when you explore a small business. You never know what beauties you’ll uncover or what scrumptiousness awaits. Sadly, that’s also why a lot of people choose to patronize chains. With chains they know exactly what they’ll get and there’s a lot of comfort in that.

The Polk County Sheriff’s Office – Emergency Management Division is participating in the state-wide Winter Hazard Awareness Week campaign, which will take place November 14th – 18th, 2022. Winter Hazard Awareness Week is promoted by the Minnesota Department of Public Safety’s Division of Homeland Security Emergency Management. This week allows Minnesotan’s an opportunity to familiarize themselves with the hazards we face each winter season. These hazards include dangers from winter weather, dangers from heating sources, and ventilation issues, just to name a few.

Polk County Public Health and Norman-Mahnomen Public Health Statewide Health Improvement Partnership (SHIP) begin the Workplace Well-being Collaborative this week The 2022-2023 Workplace Well-being Collaborative kicks off this week for its first session in a six-session in-person and virtual series. Workplace partners from the three-county area including Polk, Norman, and Mahnomen counties are still invited to join. The first session will be held at Garden Valley Technologies Community Room in Erskine from 9:00am – 11:30am. Participants are invited to join for a light breakfast, coffee, and tea beginning at 8:45am. The collaborative will focus on well-being as workplaces rethink and reprioritize employee health and wellness as a result of the COVID-19 pandemic. We will discuss ways to reconnect and build workplaces that put employee well-being at the forefront. The COVID-19 pandemic intensified preexisting workplace stress and burnout, and now is a great time to analyze current policies to help reshape workplace well-being for your changing workforce. Dynamic wellness programs are an excellent way to build, demonstrate, and support employee well-being and retain and recruit great people to your organization. Additional dates and topic areas for both the in-person and virtual sessions are below. If you would like to join, contact Amanda Lien at Polk County Public Health at amanda.lien@co.polk.mn.us or Kim Myers at kimberly.myers@co.norman. mn.us at Norman-Mahnomen Public Health.

With sage advice, mentorship, and training by an experienced artist with an emphasis in murals, artists will gain tools, expand their learning, and implement their training through a series of projects. Thomasina Topbear, We Are Still Here mural artist mentor shares, “I am excited to be working with this all-Native Artist cohort. Community is very important to me and has played a key role in my upbringing. I feel that being a part of any Indigenous community is sharing your resources and knowledge for the betterment of the whole. I am honored to have been asked by All My Relations Arts Gallery and Hennepin Theatre Trust to be a mentor and share my skill sets with those wanting to learn.”

U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) Rural Development State Director Colleen Landkamer today announced that the Department is provides $16.1 million to bring high-speed internet access to people living and working across rural Minnesota. Today’s investments provides a historic $65 billion to expand reliable, affordable, highspeed internet to all communities across the U.S.