The Tim Orth Memorial Foundation Basketball Jamboree will be held tomorrow at Glencoe-Silver Lake High School in Glencoe – with doors opening at 3:30. The girl’s game starts at 5:30, followed by the boy’s game to help raise funds for local children with medical expenses.
Julie Dengerud says Tim Orth had a brain tumor and after he passed away, his friends started a basketball event in Bird Island to help other children with medical needs. She says she contacts seniors from about 20 area high schools to participate in the basketball games and there will be all kinds of entertainment between each of the quarters.
Dengerud says freewill donations are accepted to get in to the Jamboree, and there’s a silent auction and concessions, and she still has raffle tickets to sell if anyone is interested. She says this year’s recipients will be recognized between the girl’s and boy’s basketball games and there is a recipient from Litchfield – Maiv Garland. To donate online or for more information about the March 28th Jamboree, go to timorthfoundation.org.
One of Willmar’s two ill-fated wind turbines – on the north side of town – came down Thursday morning. Demolition crews from Veit Construction went to work with a goal of bringing down the two wind turbines which have not been operating since the fall of 2024.
Explosive charges were detonated at the base of the turbine towers. The south tower came down, but not the north one. Kevin Marti of Willmar Municipal Utilities says some of the explosives on the tower still standing were faulty. In the meantime, crews began dismantling and recycling the debris from the south tower.
The land will eventually be returned to the Willmar School Distrct. The wind turbines were put up in 2008 north of Willmar High School in an effort to reduce the utility’s carbon footprint. However, they were purchased from a German company that soon was sold to other companies and Willmar Municipal Utilities lost their technical support.
The turbines were plagued with mechanical problems over their lifespan, forcing utility crews to be creative in finding parts to keep them running. They were finally shut down in the fall of 2024. Marti says while they didn’t get the expected 20 years of use out of the turbines, he’s happy with what they were able to get out of them, and is proud of the efforts of utility crews to keep them running despite the challenges.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation will conduct aerial mapping in southwest Minnesota this spring. The mapping will create a record of existing infrastructure and landscape along, and adjacent to, MnDOT right of way for transportation planning and highway design.
The work is conducted when there is no snow and before trees leaf out. Weather permitting, work will begin in late March and conclude early in May at several locations. One of them will be on Highway 15 – 1500-feet south of County-State-Aid-Highway 27 to 500-feet north of County-State-Aid-Highway 27 in Kingston. The public is asked to not disturb temporary targets.
To obtain accurate aerial mapping, MnDOT crews paint large white “X” targets on paved surfaces, and place plastic or fabric “X” targets on unpaved surfaces. A survey crew then records the coordinate position and elevation of the temporary targets for the aerial photography company. The plastic and fabric targets are temporary and will be removed by MnDOT when the photography is completed.
Landowners in the areas that will have targets placed on or near their property will be contacted directly. MnDOT asks that landowners and others who come across targets not remove or disturb the targets. If a target must be moved, contact the District 8 Willmar Office at 320-231-5195 and ask for assistance from Surveys.
Each day a business will be featured as “Business of the Day” and every time their commercial is aired be the 7th caller and win a chance to receive KLFD Bucks to be spent at our “Business of the Day” locations.
Monday thru Friday, at 4 pm we will draw out a winner to be put into our final drawing to be held sometime later in April. Once your name has been drawn out daily and put into the final drawing, you are no longer qualified to call in. Otherwise, you can keep calling in once a day to qualify.