APPLETON

Appleton project adds to tradition of honoring veterans

Tom Cherveny — Thu, 09 Nov 2023 12:19:00 GMT

APPLETON, Minn. — Virgil Robertson served in World War II as a top turret gunner on a B-24 bomber with the 15th Air Force in Italy and had 15 combat missions behind him when he was reported missing over the Adriatic Sea on Jan. 20, 1945.

He never returned home. He was 19 years old.

Thomas Gunderson didn’t make it home, either. He lost his life at age 21 as a machine gunner with the U.S. Army's 9th Infantry Division in operations against enemy forces north of Dau Tieng, Tay Ninh Province, Republic of Vietnam, on Aug. 18, 1970.

Robertson and Gunderson are among 36 Appleton, Minnesota, natives who have given their lives in service of country since World War II. They are remembered by their hometown in a unique way. The streets and avenues of Appleton are all named after the community’s veterans who sacrificed their lives.

This has been the practice since May 22, 1947, when the Swift County community of 2,000 residents at that time renamed all of its streets and avenues for the 26 men from the community who were killed in World War II.

Now, two artists are working to make sure this legacy continues in a way that helps people not only remember these veterans, but also to know them by more than their names.

“People have to realize what we lost,” said Kerry Kolke Bonk, an Appleton native and the artist who came up with the idea for this project.

She and fellow artist Katia Andreeva, a native of Russia, are creating individual images of each of the 36 deceased veterans. Each sepia tone image is being created in acrylics on a 4-foot by 4-foot board.

The intent is to place the 36 portraits on a grassy triangle of land alongside Highway 7/59 near the southern entrance to town, which is located just before the community’s Flags of Honor Memorial. Each image will be mounted on the poles now holding the street signs bearing their names. The city will be replacing all of its weathered street signs with new poles and signs in the coming year.

The Street Signs of Honor project is at once an art project and a memorial. The artists want all of the veterans to be remembered, and for all people to learn from their sacrifices, they explained.

Kolke Bonk grew up well-aware of her community’s legacy of honoring its veterans. Her father, Erling Kolke, a Korean War-era veteran, had written a fictional book, “Streets of Honor,” telling the stories of veterans. He had collected the real-life oral stories from the surviving family members of veterans on cassette tapes, which Kolke Bonk still keeps.

She initially applied for a Minnesota Arts Board grant for this project, and received $10,000 to create 10 images. Additional funding from the local Martinson Foundation and individual contributions are helping make it possible to do all 36 portraits. To date, the project has received about $27,000 toward an estimated $33,000 for the overall project costs.

Kolke Bonk enlisted Andreeva’s support for this work, and they are now in the early stages of creating the images. They have taken over a room in the former Pioneer TV building now known as Preserving Appleton’s Heritage. Kolke Bonk is helping lead the community effort to restore this historic building in the community.

“You see the faces,” said Andreeva. “It tells you a lot about (the) young men.”

She will be creating the portrait of Appleton’s most recent veteran to have given his life, Jesse Lhotka. He died at age 24 on Feb. 21, 2005, while serving as a team leader with the 151st Field Artillery Battalion in Baghdad, Iraq.

Along with a collection of photographs of Lhotka, Andreeva said she will be visiting with surviving family members to help her get his image just right.

It is more difficult, of course, to strive for the same accuracy in the portraits of the veterans who died in World War II due to the quality of the black and white, 1940s-era photographs. The women have had help with a computer program to provide sharper images, and they have reached out to surviving family members and others for other photos that may exist.

Both artists are well-aware there are surviving family and friends who remember these deceased veterans as people they once knew and loved.

Their hope now is that more people can know them. While working on the images, both artists said they cannot help but think about how the community might be different today had these men not lost their lives.

The city of Appleton is committed to maintaining the art and memorial once it is erected. The artists hope its prominent location along a highway will attract people to stop and visit and learn about these men.

Interim City Administrator John Olinger said he hopes it does more. By visiting the portraits, he said he hopes it reminds everyone to do more to find peaceful solutions before putting individuals in harm’s way.

It’s the artists' hope that the portraits can be placed on public display by Memorial Day 2024. Donations toward costs for the project can be sent to the city of Appleton.

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Appleton, Atwater offroading parks open to visitors looking to get dirty

West Central Tribune staff report — Thu, 01 Jun 2023 16:00:00 GMT

Summer is a great time to do any recreational outdoor activity. While off-road state trails are great, those looking for more thrills or simply wanting to get muddy can head to some dedicated off-road sites in Minnesota.

Area sites include Freedom Ridge in Atwater and the Appleton Area Regional park. The Meeker County OHV park will be closed until spring 2024, according to the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources. Be sure to check the DNR's trail closures list before planning your visit.

Appleton Area Recreational Park

Located off of U.S. Highway 59 about two miles northeast of Appleton is 330 acres of park for ATVs, dirtbikes, and most any off-road vehicles. In what used to be an old gravel mine now lies 20 miles of trail with varying degrees of difficulty. The park also boasts two motocross practice tracks for beginners and more experienced riders.

The Appleton park remains open year-round from sunrise to sunset. Admission is free, but all off-road vehicles must be registered.

The city of Appleton does have a license free of charge that allows visitors to drive their ATVs on city streets. Information needed to obtain this license includes name, address, telephone number, a DNR license number for the vehicle, and a signature.

To get to the park, from Appleton, go 1 mile east on Highway 59. The park will be on the left. Parking is available within the recreational park.

Freedom Ridge

Address: 1130 195th St. SE, Atwater.

Located directly south of Atwater, Freedom Ridge offers a campground and live music venue in addition to a mix of trails, rock crawls, and a mud hole open from mid- to late summer.

According to its website, all vehicles with a wheel — and able to pass inspection — are welcome at Freedom Ridge. ATVs and dirt bikes aren't allowed at this time within the park.

Drivers must be at least 15 years old, and not be impaired by alcohol or drugs.

Past events at the park include the Rubicon Rendezvous and mud races. Visit freedomridgerocks.com for updates on upcoming events.

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Semi driver dies in west-central Minnesota crash

Shelby Lindrud — Mon, 07 Mar 2022 22:18:40 GMT

APPLETON, Minn. — A semi driver from Ortonville, Minnesota, was killed Saturday evening in a one-vehicle crash on U.S. Highway 59 near Appleton.

Harry Lawrence Drinnin, 59, was reported deceased after being taken to the Appleton Area Health emergency room, according to the Minnesota State Patrol. The crash occurred around 7:23 p.m. Saturday on Highway 59 near 120th Street Southwest. The 2006 Kenworth semitractor was headed southbound on the highway, when it left the roadway at the intersection, the State Patrol said.

Drinnin was wearing his seat belt and road conditions were reported dry at the time. Alcohol was not a factor.

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Minnesota turkey hunter fends off attack by two South Dakota toms

Tom Cherveny — Tue, 20 Apr 2021 18:25:55 GMT

APPLETON, Minn. -- Turkey hunter Curt Vacek had an experience on the opening day of the South Dakota archery season for turkey that he jokes would be perfect for a video accompanied by "Yakety Sax," the TV theme music of English comedian Benny Hill.

Only this was not so funny as it was exciting. Two tom turkeys came rushing to attack the strutting decoy he carried.

“Nothing I could do, but drop to my knees as the two toms rushed in and attacked,” Vacek posted on Facebook in describing the event.

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Vacek is a wildlife manager with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources in Appleton. An avid hunter and archer, he took advantage of South Dakota’s earlier turkey season and ventured out last Friday with an archery tag. He narrowed down the location of where he was ambushed in the neighboring state to somewhere near East River.

He was carrying both his blind and the strutting decoy when the toms came rushing up a ridge to attack. He was caught off guard.

As he physically fought off the attacking birds, he struggled intellectually with the ethics of the situation. He didn’t feel it would be fair sport to just jab one of the toms with an arrow or grab its neck.

As the birds realized the futility of their attack and backed off, Vacek stuck his decoy into the ground and readied an arrow to fire. He wrote that he clipped on his release, rose up, drew his bow and twisted all in one motion while trying to spot a pin on the tom. “And ... I miss,” he wrote.

Too much adrenaline, he concluded.

This was the second time that something of this sort happened to him. On another occasion, he was hiding behind his decoy when just like this time, two toms came up a ridge to go after his decoy. He missed on that occasion too.

The experience on April 9 was followed by a better outcome the next day. Vacek returned to the field on Saturday afternoon with a jake decoy instead of the strutting decoy. Saturday was the opening of the firearm turkey season in South Dakota, so he wanted to play it safe. He was set up conventionally with a blind and the decoy planted yards away when “this long beard came spittin’ and drummin’ wanting to kick Jake’s butt … ,” he wrote.

“I was still as excited as I was that spring day I shot my first tom decades ago. And no misses this time.”

He’s ready for more excitement by heading to the field for the Minnesota turkey season. He plans to set up conventionally in a blind, he added.

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Cool start, but hot prospects for Minnesota turkey hunt

Tom Cherveny — Mon, 19 Apr 2021 20:35:30 GMT

WILLMAR, Minn. -- “Four hens, six jakes and five deer,” Tom Kalahar whispered into his phone.

The noon-time call to Kalahar was made on Wednesday, the opening day of Minnesota’s 2021 turkey season. It found him still hunkered down in his blind like an undercover agent on a stakeout. That was his tally of sightings from the blind at midday as he hosted a friend from Cotton, Minn., on a turkey hunt in the Minnesota River Valley.

By all measures, Kalahar, of Olivia, ranks as one of the region’s most passionate turkey hunters. A call placed one week earlier had found him in the field with binoculars in his hands as a steady, cold rain fell. He reasoned that the cold rain would flush the turkeys out into the open and allow him to get a better feel for the number of birds out there. He wasn’t disappointed.

“I see plenty of turkeys around,” he said. “It’s just a matter of getting that nice weather,” he said from his blind that day.

Our call ended abruptly. “I see a bird.”

It's anybody's guess today how many other hunters have said the same since the start of the first of six shotgun seasons that will continue to May 31. Prospects for the 2021 turkey season in our area are good. Cory Netland, wildlife manager with the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources, New London, shares Kalahar’s optimism for the 2021 season.

“As far as outlook, I expect a season similar to last year,” said Netland.

That's saying something: Last year, a record number of hunters chased turkeys during the COVID pandemic and harvested a record number of birds, 13,996, according to the Minnesota DNR. That beats the 13,467 registered in 2010, and above the 10-year average of 11,400.

Netland believes that Kalahar made a good choice in hunting the Minnesota River Valley. Its mix of farm fields and woodlands provides good habitat and consequently good numbers of birds.

But. Netland doesn’t have to go far from his home near New London to find good numbers either. He spotted a tom strutting just a half mile from New London when he took to the road Wednesday morning.

RELATED: Read more hunting stories in Northland Outdoors

He said turkey numbers in both Kandiyohi and Meeker counties look good this year. He gives the edge to Meeker County.

The cold start to the season on Wednesday probably made the opener slower than some would have liked, according to Curt Vacek, wildlife manager for the DNR in the Appleton area.

“I’m sure it will impact it,” said Vacek when asked what he thought the cool weather would mean for hunters. “The birds won’t be quite as feisty. Hunters won’t be as comfortable.” He noted that cold temperatures probably effect hunters more than the birds, and pointed out that temperatures were in the low teens when the season opened one year ago.

Hunting will only get better as the weather warms. “It can turn around in a hurry,” said Vacek of hunter success.

As of the mid-week, plenty of turkeys were still grouped up. Hunters who did their scouting should do well, Vacek said.

Netland agrees: Plenty of toms are still roaming around together, he said. “They haven’t completely duked it out and separated and everything to this point just yet,” he explained.

Vacek said he expects a decent enough harvest this year, but he has some concerns about overall numbers of birds in the region he manages. There are no surveys or hard data, but turkey numbers do not appear to be as high as they once were in the western area, he said.

Turkey numbers exploded when the birds were first released in the area, and flocks established themselves in all sorts of nooks and crannies. Now, he’s seeing signs that the numbers are down in some of the prime habitat. Small flocks have disappeared in some of the nooks and crannies where they were once found, although sometimes a flock will pop up in a new area, he said.

We’ll know more as the season progresses, but this much is clear. Hunter interest remains strong, although license sales at this point are behind last year's record pace. As of the opening day, the Minnesota DNR reported a total of 27,639 license sales of all types, including 13,770 resident firearm turkey, 7,351 archery and 3,655 youth. That's 11 percent behind last year on opening day, when there were a total of 31,360 licenses of all types including 14,268 resident firearm turkey, 9,039 archery and 4,782 youth.

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Candidate's frustration over politicized pandemic response turns personal with loss of mother

Tom Cherveny — Wed, 02 Dec 2020 13:00:00 GMT

APPLETON, Minn. — The call came on election night.

As the votes being counted showed that Ben Dolan's first-ever bid to win a state legislative seat was not going well, the call came Nov. 3 to inform him that his mother’s health had taken what would be the final downturn.

Dolan called incumbent Rep. Tim Miller that night to concede the election for the District 17A state House seat. Nine days later Dolan held his mother’s hands in an intensive care unit in St. Cloud as she took her last breath.

“She was there for me my whole life. It’s unbelievable that she’s gone,” he said.

Joy Dolan died Nov. 12 at age 66. Her death came about a month after she was diagnosed with COVID-19.

Ben tested positive at the same time and recovered after a short bout with a fever.

Until her diagnosis with COVID-19, Joy Dolan was the “workhorse” behind her son’s campaign for office. Not able to knock on doors due to the pandemic, Dolan said his campaign made more than 8,000 campaign phone calls, making it the first or second overall in terms of that effort among DFL candidates. The campaign also was one of the party’s top fundraisers in rural Minnesota.

Joy spent long hours on the phone calling for her son’s campaign, sometimes chatting for as long as 20 minutes with some prospective voters.

“She did so much for me. Like my best friend, the person I’d talk to about it,” Dolan said of the campaign. “She didn’t know much about politics, but she knew people.”

Dolan said he believes the federal government and local state legislators have not provided the leadership needed for this pandemic either.

Campaigning against Miller while his mother succumbed to COVID-19 was especially frustrating, Dolan said. He considers the lawmaker’s lawsuits challenging the constitutionality of Gov. Tim Walz’s emergency powers to be “frivolous.”

Dolan said he is disappointed too by how many people in his hometown and surrounding communities are not wearing masks in social places. He’s been in businesses where employees are not wearing masks, he said.

Disinformation and the belief by some that the virus is nothing are frustrating, Dolan said. He pointed to the more than 3,500 Minnesotans who have already lost their lives to COVID-19, and the more than 260,000 across the nation. That many families, like his own, will be mourning the loss of a loved one this holiday season, he said.

“We can’t blame anybody for the actual disease, but we can blame the reaction of how we played politics with masks,” he said. We all appreciate American individualism, he said, but this is a time when we need to make sacrifices as a team to control the spread of this virus.

His mother was working for the Catholic Area Family of Churches in Ortonville, Minn., until she became ill with COVID-19. Dolan believes that his mother may have contracted the virus due to her work so close to the border of South Dakota, where there is no statewide mandate on COVID-19 protocols.

Family members did not know of any pre-existing conditions that would make her more vulnerable, Dolan said.

“The world lost a great person,” he said. Spry, energetic and a passionate Catholic is how he described his mother. Dolan said he and his siblings — two brothers and a sister — grew up in a household in Appleton in which his mother lived the message of the New Testament: Love others and do good things for those less fortunate. She filled the house with items she collected for the food shelf and the Toys for Tots program in Swift County.

Joy married her husband, Tim, in 1976 when they were 22 years old. They kept a very strong Catholic faith, according to her son. She worked for the Prairie Five Head Start program as a family advocate for more than 20 years.

At his mother’s funeral service, Dolan offered a eulogy in which he emphasized the importance of people getting it together.

Disappointed by all that he has experienced as a candidate while his mother struggled and died, Dolan vowed: “I don’t give up. I don’t quit.” The pandemic only convinced him how important leadership is. He said his goal remains to someday serve in St. Paul in some capacity as an elected leader.

“We need to do good things. We must help people who need it,” Dolan said in an email to Forum News Service. “That is my mother’s legacy.”

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Five years after treating its first patient, Mayo Clinic leads the world in proton beam treatment

Sat, 28 Nov 2020 13:13:00 GMT

ROCHESTER, Minn. -- Five years after the launch of its $188 million program, Mayo Clinic is the world leader in proton beam cancer treatment and its proponents are looking to build a second center in Rochester.

Based in the Richard O. Jacobson Building in downtown Rochester, Mayo Clinic’s program has treated 4,142 patients as of August. That far surpasses the original goal of treating 3,200 in that time, according to Dr. Robert Foote.

Foote was the chairman of Mayo Clinic's radiation oncology department and director of the proton beam program when it started treating patients in June 2015.

He acknowledges that Mayo Clinic’s proton beam treatment facility “was extremely controversial” when it was first proposed.

“It was a huge amount of money,” Foote said.

Five years later, Foote and others are confident that the impact on patient care has justified the expense.

While the number of competing U.S. proton beam centers has grown to 34, including Mayo Clinic’s Arizona treatment center, Mayo Clinic’s Rochester facility, with its four treatment rooms, is still often busy from before 6 a.m. until midnight, according to Foote.

The pandemic has not made a significant change, as the treatments are considered essential. Patients still are traveling long distances to be treated for life-threatening cancers.

“Mayo has experience that really draws a lot of patients here, even if there are other proton centers closer to them,” Foote said. “We get sent the most complex cases from all over the world that no one else … can treat.”

About 85 percent of Mayo Clinic's proton beam patients come from the Midwest. Nine percent come from the rest of the U.S., and about 6 percent are international patients.

‘Yay. My brain didn’t explode …’

The first patient to undergo the treatment at Mayo Clinic’s brand new facility in 2015 was then 21-year-old Jessica Brenholt Johnson, though she didn’t know she was the first.

Johnson remembers walking into the empty lobby of the Jacobson Building at 8 on a stormy morning on her way to her first treatment for a pituitary gland tumor in her skull that was pressing against her optic nerve. Three surgeries had not resolved it.

She donned her custom-made protective face mask and was secured by herself in the treatment room.

“When it was all over, I was kind of surprised to hear a crowd of people clapping. I was still strapped down. I kind of joined in with the clapping,” remembered Johnson. “I said, ‘Yay. My brain didn’t explode ... so that’s cool.’”

That was the first of six weeks of daily treatments for her, which were ultimately successful.

“It wasn’t painful. It was kind of weirdly relaxing ... weirdly comfortable,” she said. “Except for the table. They call it a couch, but it’s definitely not a couch.”

Johnson was the first of many adults getting proton beam treatment for a brain tumor. Adult patients with brain tumors account for 10 to 12 percent of the people Mayo Clinic has treated in its proton beam facility in the past five years.

A more precise treatment

Proton beam therapy delivers radiation treatment via a “pencil” beam to specific areas of the body much more precisely and with more power than traditional photon radiation treatment. That means other organs are not unintentionally exposed, reducing negative patient side effects and the occurrence of secondary cancers. Mayo Clinic is conducting research about patient impacts from proton beam versus photon treatment. Due to the cost of the treatment centers, research has been limited.

Dr. Nadia Laack, chairwoman of Mayo Clinic’s Department of Radiation Oncology, explained that the precision of proton beam treatment compares very favorably to traditional photon radiation treatment.

“Less radiation is good, when it comes to long-term outcomes,” she said. “Why would you have 20,000 dental X-rays done, when you only need one?”

The amount of radiation that proton treatment spares an average patient is equivalent to 5 million dental X-rays, 50,000 mammograms, or 5,000 chest CT scans, according to Laack.

That's a particular benefit for pediatric patients. About 10 percent of the patients treated with proton beam radiation are children.

The catch is the cost

The catch with proton beam treatment is the cost, which is usually at least double the price of photon treatment for a patient. That fact, coupled with limited research about proton beam treatment, causes many experts to be critical of hospitals investing so much to offer it.

The machines and the buildings needed to house them are considered the most expensive medical equipment available. That’s a health care investment that could have been spent on more traditional treatments.

Building centers in Rochester and Phoenix cost Mayo Clinic an estimated $370 million. A new center on Mayo Clinic’s Florida campus is expected to cost about $233 million.

Mayo leaders are well aware of the criticisms aimed at proton beam therapy, mostly centered around cost.

“If there were no financial differences, there would be proton access at every medical center in the U.S.,” said Laack.

Money from donors gives nonprofits such as Mayo Clinic an advantage over for-profit institutions when trying to foot the bill. Richard O. Jacobson, an Iowa businessman, donated $100 million to help finance the construction of Mayo Clinic's proton beam cancer therapy program. The result is Mayo Clinic doesn’t need to recoup as much of an investment as a medical center that had to pay the entire bill.

That means Mayo Clinic can charge the same price for proton beam therapy as it does for intensity modulated photon radiotherapy. The per-treatment cost of proton beam treatment, according to Mayo Clinic’s online cost estimator, is $5,904.

Plus, Mayo Clinic has notably not increased the price for the treatment in the past five years, in order to keep the treatment accessible.

“We think this is important enough for our patients’ health and wellbeing to operate at a lower margin,” said Foote.

Laack estimated that Mayo's competitors charge "at least double" what Mayo does. But some are even higher, "four to five times higher."

Quality of life

When it comes to insurance, cost is a key factor in getting the treatment covered.

Most insurance plans do not automatically cover proton treatment. Mayo Clinic is required to make a special request for each patient. Since the price tag is the same as the covered photon treatment, Laack said about 95 percent of insurance requests are approved.

In addition to its effectiveness, proton beam therapy is believed to be better for a patient's quality of life, with reports of fewer side effects and a shorter series of treatments.

Prostate cancer patients, who make up about 18 percent of proton beam patients, can typically be treated in five days. That’s compared to a traditional radiation treatment that can take up to 42 days, according to Laack.

Foote points out that reducing treatment by weeks is much more convenient for patients -- it gets them back to their normal lives sooner and it cuts overall costs.

For breast cancer patients, particularly those with tumors on their left side, proton beam treatment seems to reduce long-term complications, such as lung problems and heart attacks.

One of the challenges with proton beam treatment is that due to the extreme costs involved, there is not as much documented medical research into its effectiveness and patient impact as there is for alternative treatments.

To better understand proton beam treatment, Mayo Clinic has 70 clinical trials underway.

Shannon Brownlee, the author of “Overtreated: Why Too Much Medicine is Making Us Sicker and Poorer,” points to the push for research now as evidence that Mayo Clinic may have embraced proton beam therapy too quickly.

“We’ve been led down this primrose path of medicine before. Where’s the data? Where are the randomized controlled trials?” said Brownlee, who is a leader of the national health care advocacy nonprofit Lown Institute. “You started building before you had the data.”

Proton radiotherapy has been used to treat more than 200,000 patients worldwide in the past 30 years and has been used to treat patients with benign brain tumors since 1957, according to Laack.

“Thus, this is not a new or experimental therapy," Laack said. "The problem is the machines are expensive and thus the Catch 22 – you can’t build/justify new and expensive machines without data, but you can’t treat enough patients to do ‘large’ studies to convince people of the benefit because there aren’t enough machines,” she responded. “By charging the same price for protons and IMRT we have tried to address this issue to facilitate trial enrollment.”

Foote explained that when the decision to build the proton beam center was made in 2010, it was not based on one or even a few of the hundreds of scientific manuscripts his team reviewed.

“It was the sum total. Any one by itself was not enough. But all together, the message was consistent and compelling enough to move us forward, lower dose to normal organs, less side effects and complications, better quality of life and function, especially in the young,” he said.

Brownlee countered that she believes the answer to the question of why Mayo Clinic rushed to embrace the expensive proton beam process is more about competition in the medical marketplace.

“Mayo clearly has confidence in this machine. They want to get ahead of the game and they want to command market share,” she said. “There are so many ways $100 million could have been spent, if they cared about the health of their community.”

What’s next?

After five years of treating patients in Rochester and Arizona and soon in Florida, what is next for Mayo Clinic’s proton beam treatment program?

All of Mayo Clinic’s treatment rooms are running at maximum capacity today, but Foote said the demand for proton beam treatment is only increasing.

“Our cancer numbers are not going down in this country. Incidents are going up,” said Laack. “While deaths are going down, it’s more important than ever that we improve recovery and reduce side effects.”

Laack explained that only about 1 or 2 percent of radiation patients receive proton treatment now.

“The realistic number of those that we believe can benefit from proton beam treatment is 10 to 30 times more than that,” she said

Due to steady growth in demand, the Mayo Clinic team is thinking about building more proton beam treatment capacity in Rochester.

“This is what we think we need, as soon as possible, because of our demand. We have not gotten any formal approval yet. Just the approval to start planning,” she said. “We’re envisioning another two rooms. With improvements in technology, the two rooms will probably be able to treat 70 percent of what we treat now in four rooms.”

The timeline for such a project, like everything else in late 2020, is up in the air. However, it does look like Mayo Clinic will not lose its place as the top provider of proton beam treatment anytime soon.

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With Lions looming, Vikings thin at cornerback again

Dane Mizutani and Chris Tomasson/ St. Paul Pioneer Press — Fri, 06 Nov 2020 01:17:59 GMT

EAGAN, Minn. -- For the second straight day, the Minnesota Vikings were without cornerbacks Cameron Dantzler, Holton Hill, and Mark Fields II in practice. While coach Mike Zimmer would likely say otherwise, it’s looking less and less likely that any of those players will be available for Sunday’s game against the Detroit Lions at U.S. Bank Stadium.

It shouldn’t come as a surprise that Dantzler is not practicing; he was taken off the field on a stretcher in last Sunday’s win over the Green Bay Packers at Lambeau Field and diagnosed with a concussion. The same can be said about Hill, who has missed the past three games with a foot injury and Fields, who according to his father, suffered a punctured lung against the Packers.

Meanwhile, fellow cornerback Mike Hughes is on injured reserve with a neck injury, leaving the Vikings without a veteran cornerback in the starting lineup.

If neither Dantzler, Hill nor Fields can suit up this weekend, the Vikings will be forced to rely on rookie Jeff Gladney, the inexperienced Kris Boyd, and rookie Harrison Hand against the Lions.

It was a similar story for the Vikings last week against the Packers, though they managed to escape with a 28-22 victory despite a seemingly constant string of injuries.

“It was stressful during the game, for sure, because we had so many guys at corner go down and we had to work (safety) Anthony Harris in at the nickel,” co-defensive coordinator Adam Zimmer said. “It shows a lot of character from our guys that are willing to step in and play at any position they need on game day. Obviously, it feels a lot better after a win that we were able to pull it off.”

On Thursday evening, the Vikings plucked cornerback Dylan Mabin off the Las Vegas Raiders’ practice squad and plan to add him to the 53-man roster, his agent, John Andrew Maghamez, said. Mabin, however, isn’t expected to be active for Sunday’s game.

Undrafted out of Fordham in 2019, Mabin has played in one NFL regular-season game, getting eight special-teams snaps for the Raiders on Oct. 25 against Tampa Bay. His agent said Mabin was in the Twin Cities on Thursday going through coronavirus testing.

“He ran a similar system in Vegas, so he knows the playbook well,” Maghamez said. “And he’s a good special teams contributor, as well. I think the Vikings will really take to him.”

Cleveland impresses

It sounds as if rookie Ezra Cleveland could once again start at right guard this weekend with usual starter Pat Eflein still recovering from a thumb injury.

If that’s the case, offensive coordinator Gary Kubiak seems comfortable with it. He was thrilled with how Cleveland performed against the Packers last week.

“It’s fun to watch a guy when they get a chance to play and they go on the field and they continue the process that says, ‘I belong out here,’ ” Kubiak said. “We are very encouraged by what he’s done up to this point.”

Stafford update

Lions coach Matt Patricia had no comment on Thursday when asked whether quarterback Matthew Stafford has a chance to play against the Vikings. The update, or lack thereof, comes in response to Stafford being placed on the reserve/COVID-19 list on Wednesday after coming in close contact with someone that tested positive.

That close contact, according to ESPN, occurred on Monday, meaning Stafford would be eligible to play against the Vikings on Sunday if he continues to test negative throughout the week. He would have to catch a private flight to travel to the Twin Cities on Saturday due to the mandatory isolation period.

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Expectations high for Saturday's pheasant opener in Minnesota

Tom Cherveny — Fri, 09 Oct 2020 20:43:02 GMT

WILLMAR, Minn. — Expect to see a lot more hunters taking to the fields this weekend for the 2020 Minnesota pheasant opener than in previous years.

Expectations for this year’s opener are high. The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources reported last month that its annual roadside counts showed a 42% increase in the state pheasant index from 2019 and a 37% increase over the 10-year average. The report included what the agency described as an “eyebrow-raising 146% increase over last year in southwestern Minnesota.”

Adding to the enthusiasm for this weekend is the early and rapid progress on harvesting corn and soybeans, along with a forecast for sunny skies and warm temperatures.

With participation in outdoor activities already at elevated levels in this year of the pandemic, area wildlife managers with the DNR are expecting larger numbers of hunters than on openers in recent years.

On public lands, hunters better be ready to claim a spot early come Saturday morning, advises Cory Netland, wildlife manager in the New London office.

Those who do will be rewarded. Roadside counts of pheasants in the area managed by his office are up, with 97 birds per 100 miles driven in Kandiyohi County and up to 126 birds per 100 miles in Chippewa County. That compares to a statewide index this year of 53.5 birds.

There’s plenty of options, too. Netland noted that bird numbers definitely increase to the west, but that Kandiyohi County has much to offer. The southern half of the county and the Atwater area in particular should be very productive. Hunters traversing the rolling hills of northern Kandiyohi County should find plenty of success too.

Plenty of hunters will be starting the season in western Minnesota. Curt Vacek, wildlife manager in the Appleton area, said he expects public lands in the area to be “very busy and even crowded.” He recommends that some hunters consider starting with a late afternoon hunt on Saturday after the “traffic has cleared out, and the pheasants are moving back to grasslands to roost.”

The pheasant population in the Upper Minnesota River area has been increasing since the severe winter of 2011-12.

While the prospects are good, the wildlife managers also pointed out that the numbers of birds this year are no match for what was experienced in the years 2005-2007. In the Appleton area those years, Vacek said the pheasant count was over two birds per mile. This year the count is just under one bird per mile.

Expectations high for Saturday's pheasant opener in Minnesota

Expect to find plenty of company in the outdoors this Saturday, as expectations for the 2020 pheasant opener are high and many are expected to take to the fields of west central Minnesota. West Central Tribune file photo

Hunters spend $725 million each year in Minnesota in direct hunting-related expenditures like equipment, food and lodging — an average of $1,412 per hunter. Photo courtesy of Minnesota DNR

Expectations high for Saturday's pheasant opener in Minnesota

Hunters spend $725 million each year in Minnesota in direct hunting-related expenditures like equipment, food and lodging — an average of $1,412 per hunter. Photo courtesy of Minnesota DNR

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Montevideo man to serve 68 months for fatal crash

Tom Cherveny — Tue, 22 Sep 2020 22:34:34 GMT

MONTEVIDEO, Minn. — Braxton Monte Anderson, 35, of Montevideo, will serve a 68-month sentence for his conviction of criminal vehicular homicide in the crash that took the life of his passenger, Brittany Lynn Schulz, 20, of Appleton.

Judge Dwayne Knutsen on Tuesday, Sept. 22, in Chippewa County District Court in Montevideo sentenced Anderson to the presumptive sentence of 68 months.

He ordered Anderson to serve a minimum of 45 and one-third months of the time in confinement, and allowed the remainder to be served under supervised release provided he commits no disciplinary offenses in prison. Knutsen also ordered Anderson to make restitution, which is yet to be determined. He credited the defendant for 253 days served in jail since his arrest.

A Chippewa County jury on Aug. 6 found Anderson guilty of the offense. Anderson was driving a 1995 Saturn at 5:46 p.m. Aug. 6, 2019, when he made a left turn in front of a 2007 Cadillac Escalade at the parking lot to the Goose Bar in Watson. He was under the influence of a controlled substance at the time, according to the criminal complaint.

The victim’s mother, Rose Schulz, told the court before sentencing that her daughter’s death was like a “horrible, horrible dream” that never ended. “I lost someone special. You took my daughter’s choice for life away forever,” she told Anderson.

Anderson told the judge before sentencing that he was “truly sorry for what happened.” He said he was under the influence of methamphetamine at the time, and has committed himself to a life of sobriety and found Jesus. He asked the judge for mercy in sentencing.

Prosecutors asked for the maximum 80-month sentence that sentencing guidelines allow for the offense if committed by an offender with a previous drug possession conviction.

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