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ST. PAUL (LEARFIELD) - Leaders at the Minnesota State High School League are trying to come up with solutions to erase a budget deficit of just over 400-thousand dollars. Executive Director Erich Mertens says the deficit, though concerning, is not having an impact at the local school level. "In terms of the running of programs and the support they get from us and the opportunities for kids, those are not being impacted at this time," said Mertens. "They're able to have their games, those are scheduled and hosted by our member schools and we are set up and ready to go [...]

ST. PAUL (KMHL) – Three airports in southwest and south central Minnesota received grants for around $1.5 million dollars. The Minnesota Department of Transportation says the grants will be used primarily to preserve pavements and complete plans to address needs at the greater Minnesota airports. The Willmar Municipal Airport received just over $907,000, the Mankato Airport received over $337,000 dollars and the Springfield Municipal Airport received $150,000 grant. The grants were approved as part of the final round of FAA funding issued in 2019.

MARSHALL (KMHL) – Curbside recycling will be back in front of the Lyon County Board of Commissioners at their meeting tomorrow. Commissioners are going to consider approving a contract with Southwest Sanitation that would set up every-other week pickup of recyclables beginning November 1st. Two weeks ago, commissioners approved a one month extension of its current contract with Southwest Sanitation. Under the new agreement, the hauler would provide curbside pickup for all homes that currently have it in Lyon County.

AUSTIN (LEARFIELD) - Minnesota's pheasant season opens tomorrow(Sat) morning. "The pheasant index is down from 2018 and down 11 percent from the 10 year average," said the DNR's Dan Ruiter. "But we're really optimistic we're going to have a good season." The one exception to that, according to Ruiter appears to be in the southwest part of the state. He says they are seeing good pheasant numbers in Brown, Yellow Medicine and Big Stone counties.

UNDATED (LEARFIELD) - This weekend parts of western Minnesota could get a blast of winter weather. MN-Dot's Anne Meyer says if it happens, they are ready to keep the roads clear thanks to an extensive readiness program that's been underway for two months. "In August and September we start doing our prep meetings, we do some training with our snow plow operators, we get all of our equipment ready and all of our materials stocked, because we don't know when that first snowfall is going to happen," said Meyer. "Because we want to make sure we're ahead of the game and [...]

SPRINGFIELD (KMHL) – The city of Springfield is getting a grant from the Department of Employment and Economic Development to demolish three grain elevators in the city. DEED awarded a grant for just over $111,000 to Springfield from the Redevelopment Grant and Demolition Program. The program helps governments tear down blighted buildings on sites that could house future development.

OLIVIA (KMHL) – A Franklin man will stand trial next month in Renville County after he withdrew his guilty plea to a charge of Criminal Vehicular Homicide. Russell Doucette, 39, is accused of running over Randy Oletzke at a farm the two shared in August 2017, and not reporting it until the next evening. Doucette pleaded guilty to one of the criminal vehicular homicide charges, while the other two were dismissed, but when he was to be sentenced in September, Doucette learned he’d likely face time in prison so he withdrew the plea. His trial is set to begin November 19.

MARSHALL (KMHL) – The Minnesota National Guard is seeking money from the state legislature in the bonding bill to renovate the Marshall National Guard Armory. Col. Sol Sukut says they’re looking to remodel the current space that was built in the 1950’s. "As we showed the legislators around on the tour we have a classroom that fits about 25 people, but we have 100 in the unit," said Sukut. "When you're here for a 2-day drill weekend to get the efficiency and training for that soldier to be able to get everything they need to get done on-time and together as [...]

MARSHALL (KMHL) – The Southwest Minnesota State University Foundation has received a $1.5 million dollar gift by an alumnus of the 1971 Charter Class. The late Mike Bjerkesett, gifted the foundation to endow a scholarship program for students majoring in SMSU’s Business programs. It is the largest single gift by an SMSU alum in the history of the institution. Bjerkesett, known as a pioneer of handicap accessible housing, died in January of 2017 at the age of 69. "Mike wanted to leave a legacy that invested in young people who were willing to use their initiative, determination and hard work to [...]

COTTONWOOD (KMHL) – A 35-year-old Cottonwood woman arrested after what authorities described as a fight on Monday night appeared in Lyon County District Court yesterday. Tammy Sparkman has been charged with two counts of second-degree assault and one count of misdemeanor domestic assault. Sparkman was arrested Monday at the Lindsay Mobile Home Court in Cottonwood after incident that involved multiple people, according to authorities. The Lyon County Sheriff's Office said it received a call of a group of people fighting that had caused multiple injuries around 5:45 p.m. Monday night. Authorities said one man was treated and released for injuries at [...]