Meeker County Sheriff Brian Cruze announced last week that he will be running for a 4th term. With his reelection announcement, the Meeker County Sheriff outlined some goals that he’d still like to accomplish and touted successful highlights of his tenure, so far.
Prior to his first election as Sheriff, Cruze had spent years on patrol, working on the narcotics task force and working as a detective with the Meeker County Sheriff’s Office. He says ridding the community of drug crime has been a priority and in the past few years, record amounts of drug-related arrests have been made and record amounts of drugs have been taken off of the streets.
Sheriff Cruze says it would be nice to put more time and resources into mental health components which can tie in to different types of crime, and they’ve been working with Social Services on programs to try to help people and to try to make sure they don’t return to jail. He says rehabilitation is not part of their job description and when people leave jail, they are out of their control, but they try to help people get on the right track.
Sheriff Cruze says the remodeling of the Court House into the Justice Center and the improvements made to the Law Enforcement Center over the past couple of years has improved their space and security, and the upgrades to equipment have helped the overall operation. He says he’d like to thank his staff for all of their hard work during his years as sheriff.
Sheriff Cruze says he’d also like to thank his wife and kids for their support because it’s not always easy for them as he’s in the public eye. He says his record speaks for itself as community engagement has been a priority for him along with keeping up with technology, and he’s hoping to be elected to another 4-year term in November.
The Litchfield Area Mentorship Program has been busy this winter with gratitude events to recognize some of the partners who help with the program. The organization is also getting ready for the annual Ham Bingo fundraiser.
Judy Hulterstrum says Ham Bingo will be held on Friday, March 27th at the Litchfield Eagles Club at 6 p.m. with doors opening at 5 p.m. She says you can order supper and then play bingo with a chance to win a ham during each of the 20 games and raffle prizes.
Hulterstrum says LAMP handed out mugs to teachers and staff in the Litchfield School District earlier this winter on the 100th day of school to recognize them for their help with LAMP, and they had a similar event Tuesday for Meeker County staff to recognize them for their help. She says they are going to do a similar event this spring at Dassel-Cokato and if anyone has used mugs to donate, they may call 320-699-1616 because the mugs get filled with goodies that they will give to the teachers and staff.
Pie Day is coming up on Saturday at the Litchfield Opera House from 9-to-11 a.m. A variety of pies and crisps will be available for sale.
Connie Lies says if you pre-ordered pies and didn’t receive them in advance, you may pick them up at the Opera House on Saturday, preferably between 9 and 9:30 a.m. She says they will have more pies and crisps available for people who didn’t pre-order and will keep selling until 11 a.m. or until the pies and crisps are gone, and several varieties will be available.
Lies says the pies are $10 each, but since it’s the 250th anniversary of America this year, there’s a special on the apple pies – so if you buy one, you get the second one for just $5. She says the crisps are $7 each, and all of the pies and crisps have natural ingredients – no preservatives, and the crusts are homemade.
Lies says proceeds from the pie sale will go into the endowment fund at the Litchfield Opera House to help with major projects that may come up in the future such as new roofing. She says one of the current projects in the Opera House is installation of railings for the balcony.