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.
Jan. 9, 2000
By Devlyn Brooks
The first woman ever elected to the Cass County Board of Commissioners has now become the first woman ever to serve as its vice chair.
Commissioner Joanne Pels was elevated to vice chair at Tuesday's county board meeting, the same time Commissioner Jim Demgen moved into the board chair position.
The vice chair position, although mostly ceremonial, most importantly means that Pels would assume the board chair reins next year -- should she be elected.
"For me, it was a procedural thing. I had forgotten it was my turn to be vice chair," Pels said. "I don't feel it was a milestone."
What Pels is referring to is how the Cass County board chair and vice chair take their positions, basically through seniority. The two positions alternate annually. So, the person with the most seniority and who hasn't served as chair yet, assumes the position. If everybody on the board has served as chair, it goes to the person who hasn't served for the longest amount of time, according to Cass County Administrator Bob Yochum.
So, for 2000, Demgen and Pels were the next on the seniority list. Following them in succession are Commissioners John Stranne, Glen Witham and Virgil Foster, who was 1999's chair.
Pels said she is a little blasé about being vice chair because she didn't do anything to earn the position. More importantly, she said, would be earning the board chair position next year, because to do that, she will have to be elected again this fall.
So, is she running?
"I'm leaning more toward running than not running," she said. But, a little later she added, "If I had to decide today, I would run."
The first-term commissioner, who serves the central part of Cass County around Walker and Remer, says a second term would be enough though.
First, the so-called part-time job consumes so much time and energy it is basically a full-time job. And second, she said, she wants to open the seat so more people can get involved.
"Other people need to have these experiences," she said. "And working people can be involved and do both. I did it. My boss was very flexible about it."
Pels, who started serving in January 1997, said she originally ran just because she cares and not to be the first woman elected to the board in its 103-year-old history.
"Nobody even believes you when you say you run just because you care," she said.
After serving three years, Pels said she is proudest of the board completing the land use management plan, beginning the process of strategic planning once a year and establishing this fall's historic meeting with the Leech Lake Band of Ojibwe.
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