I first started at the Bemidji (Minn.) Pioneer as an intern in the summer of 1996. That would begin six years as a news reporter, sports reporter and copy editor for a small, six-day-per-week daily newspaper in northern Minnesota. I wrote a large range of stories from multiple beats, to features to sports, my favorite being the coverage of the Red Lake Reservation High School basketball team named the Warriors. Here is a collection of my stories from my time at the Pioneer.
Aug. 21, 1996
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
Mayor Doug Peterson announced Monday that the Bemidji City Council at its first budget work session last week approved more than $650,000 in cuts to funding requests.
Peterson said there were $835,000 in new budget requests submitted to the council by city division heads and private organizations for the 1997 budget. To honor all the requests, the council would have to increase Bemidji property taxes by 100 percent.
Being the council does not want to increase taxes for 1997, Peterson said it needed to cut the $835,000 from the new requests or from the former budget. He said the tax levy is 4.2 percent less in 1996 than it was in 1984, and he wanted to keep the taxes at that level.
Here are some of the budget request cuts approved:
* The council cut one of three car replacements requested by the Police Department, cutting $20,000, and cut the proposal to install television cameras in squad cars for a cut of $35,000.
* The council authorized only one of two additional firemen for the Fire Department, cutting $45,000. It denied the replacement of a 1968 pumper truck and an infrared heat senor, cutting $90,000 and $12,000 respectively.
* The council denied the Street Department replacement of a three-fourths-ton pickup, cutting $25,000, and cut $40,000 in street resurfacing.
* There was $15,000 cut from the annual park department equipment replacement fund, and the council cut a $23,000-proposal to blacktop the Cameron Park parking lot.
* From the recreation department, a $19,000 proposal to build restrooms at the city softball fields was cut, and $15,000 in lighting improvements for two of the fields was cut.
* In the city's arena, $12,000 worth of air duct work was cut, and replacement of a 1975 Zamboni, which would have cost $32,000, was denied.
* A $12,000 insulation project in the city garage was denied.
* A request for $10,000 in books for the library was denied.
* The council denied a request from the Bemidji Youth Hockey Association for a donation of $250,000.
In all, $656,000 in new requests or former budget allotments were cut from the 1997 city budget at the Aug. 15 meeting. The next budget workshop is scheduled for 6 p.m. Monday at City Hall.
Comentários