On Monday afternoon at 12:37, the Meeker County Sheriff’s Office received a report of a pedestrian being struck by a train. The location was at the railroad crossing on Meeker County Road 1 in Litchfield Township. Meeker County Deputies responded and found the victim was deceased. Deputies learned the train was westbound and the victim had been walking on the tracks when she was struck. The victim was identified as 35-year-old Raihna Mathews of Cosmos. The Sheriff’s Office was assisted by the BNSF Police, MN DNR, MN State Patrol, Litchfield Police and Litchfield Rescue.
The Litchfield School Board held its truth-in-taxation hearing last night with a detailed report given by Business Manager Jesse Johnson. The Board certified the levy at $6,629,247.16.
Johnson says 80% of the funding comes from the state and the school funding is highly regulated by the state. He says the District has five funds – general, food service, community service, building construction and debt service and 73.5% of the general fund is for wages and benefits. The levy was a decrease from the amount of the previous year of $51,645.04 or .77%.
No one from the public attended the hearing, but prior to the hearing, Greg Langmo spoke to the Board about his concerns regarding the District’s reading scores for 3rd graders and the test result for the state as a whole. He challenged the Board to try to do something different to make improvements. Judy Jones also spoke to the Board and recognized that their hands are tied in many ways by state regulations. Student Council representative Kalla Ziegler spoke to the Board about the great participation they had last Saturday with their co-ed volleyball tournament.
The Litchfield School Board approved of the 2025-27 custodial contract; approved of the annual report for the 2024-25 World’s Best Workforce which will be published on the Litchfield School District website; and decided to hold a second meeting in December – on the 22nd at 6 p.m. Board member Marcia Provencher spoke about last Saturday evening’s Holiday Showcase which she says will probably be the final one.
Also last night, the Litchfield School Board approved of a resolution accepting several donations including: $5,188 from the Litchfield Gymnastic Booster Club for the Gymnastics program for a competition landing mat; $10,000 from Lee Hollaar for the High School for 3D printing supplies; $5,000 from Lee Hollaar for Litchfield Schools photography equipment; $15,000 from Lee Hollaar for Litchfield Schools for future projects; $300 from the Women’s Study Club Lake Ripley School for boards for the wax museum; $269 from Barb Piepenburg for Lake Ripley School for boards for the wax museum; $298.48 from Central Counties Cooperative for the Litchfield High School FFA; $4,000 from the LDC Hockey Boosters for the High School for HUDL for Boys Hockey; and $1,000 from the Litchfield Eagles Club for the High School for the dance program.
On Friday, December 5th, at 7:02 A.M., the Renville County Sheriff’s Office received a 911 call reporting that a woman had suffered an accidental gunshot wound to the leg. The incident was reported to have occurred in a parking lot at Southern MN Beet Sugar Cooperative in Renville.
The caller reported that the victim was in a vehicle near Renville and was being driven to the Olivia Hospital. Law enforcement officers, along with the Olivia Ambulance Service, were dispatched to intercept the vehicle.
The vehicle, and subsequently the victim – a passenger in the vehicle, a 31-year-old woman from Olivia, were located outside of Olivia. She was found to have a non-life threatening gunshot wound to her leg. Medical care was administered at the scene and she was transported to the Olivia Hospital by ambulance. She was later transferred to the St. Cloud Hospital for further treatment, but remained in stable condition and is expected to make a complete recovery.
Officers located and recovered a handgun from within the vehicle. The Renville County Sheriff’s Office is continuing its investigation into the circumstances surrounding the incident.
The Meeker County Sheriff’s Office is implementing a new mass notification system for Meeker County to ensure residents and businesses will continue to receive timely and accurate emergency notifications during emergencies. The new system, RAVE, will replace the current system, CodeRed by OnSolve, beginning in January of 2026.
The CodeRed by OnSolve Emergency Notification System previously used by Meeker County has been decommissioned following a cyberattack and data breach at the vendor level. OnSolve customers lost access to the platform on November 10, 2025. Agencies that relied on the platform have also had access to FEMA’s Integrated Public Alert and Warning System (IPAWS) revoked, limiting the ability to quickly send out emergency notifications. If you created a CodeRed account and used the same username and password elsewhere, the Sheriff’s Office strongly recommends updating those passwords immediately.
If you receive any alerts or messages claiming to be from CodeRed on behalf of Meeker County or Meeker County Sheriff’s Office staff, do not engage and terminate the communication. Meeker County accessed CodeRed through a web-based application, and no other county infrastructure has been compromised.
Additional information, including enrollment instructions for RAVE, will be shared in the coming weeks through the Meeker County Sheriff’s Office website, Facebook page, and a news release. Meeker County residents are encouraged to watch for future updates as the transition to RAVE moves forward.
The Meeker County Holiday Project is into its final week. Toys and cash are being collected through next Monday at Center Bank in Litchfield.
Rochelle Brummond says she can also take donations at her office at 409 North Sibley Avenue in Litchfield. She says a group of volunteers will be setting up a temporary store on December 15th and then the families in the program will be able to pick out toys for their children on December 16th and 17th.
Brummond says there are over 300 children signed up for the Meeker County Holiday Project this year and if there are families who need help or if someone still would like to make a referral, they may call her at 320-693-7911, extension 1401. She says they are so grateful for all of the people who make donations towards the project.
Brummond says they also put together food baskets for elderly residents around Meeker County who may need some help and the Knights of Columbus will deliver those on December 18th. She says, for the 9th year in a row, a gold coin was placed in one of the Salvation Army red kettles in Litchfield the weekend after Thanksgiving.