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. 27, 1996
By Devlyn Brooks
Staff Writer
The Bemidji Downtown Development Authority is not opposed to the proposed human services collaborative building being studied by the Beltrami County Board. However, the organization is concerned with the more than 100 jobs that would leave the downtown area if the building were built on the old fairgrounds near Target, said Craig Knutson, DDA president.
The DDA will take its concerns to the Sept. 3 City Council meeting to see if the city can do anything to help the county construct the collaborative building downtown. Knutson said, in a letter to City Manager Phil Shealy, the DDA feels the "economic impact of losing jobs and customers from downtown is unacceptable."
In his letter, Knutson said the DDA believes the county's plan of co-locating the varied entities and services makes "solid economic sense" for the city and county taxpayers, but the DDA is studying several sites in the downtown area that it feels would make more economic sense for the downtown. He said he did not want to disclose the sites yet, but the DDA might disclose them letter this week.
"We believe keeping this facility downtown will create an economic boost to the city as a whole," Knutson's letter states. "Whereas re-locating the facility to the old fairgrounds location will create an economic burden to the city."
"It would be more of an expansion of the downtown (if it were to be built there)," he said Monday, "not a detriment."
Shealy and County Administrator Greg Lewis were not available for comment Monday.
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