By Rin Porter

After months of talks, the

Todd County Negotiations Team
presented the county board with
six labor agreements approved
by six county bargaining units
represented by the Teamsters
and by AFSCME: Teamsters
Public and Law Enforcement
Employees Union Local 320
Courthouse Employees,
Teamsters Public and Law
Enforcement Employees Union
Local 320 Sheriff s Supervisors,
Teamsters Public and Law
Enforcement Employees Union
Local 320 Jailer/Dispatchers,
AFSCME Local 3525 Public
Works, AFSCME Local 3168
Social Services, and AFSCME
Local 3525 Public Health.
The Teamsters Public and
Law Enforcement Employees
Union Local 320 Sheriff s
Deputies unit has not reached
agreement with the county.
This group and the county will
proceed to state mediation to try
to resolve their differences.
The new labor agreements
are for 2014 only. The changes
they contain include a reduction
in the amount of compensatory
time off that an employee can
save up and be paid for when he
or she retires, Affordable Care
Act language added requiring
parties to negotiate if the county
faces any penalties or fines
under the ACA for being a
Cadillac Plan, a cap in the pay-
ment of health insurance premi-
ums for retirees hired before
2007, a 2% Cost of Living
Tue. April 22
Partly Cloudy
60/42
Wed. April 23
Rain/Wind
50/40
Thur. April 24
Showers
48/36
Fri. April 25
Showers
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Sat. April 26
Partly Cloudy
45/29
Sun. April 27
Showers
42/31
WEEKLY WEATHER REPORT
A community newspaper serving Browerville, MN and surrounding areas. USPS 067-560
Thursday, April 124, 2014
Volume 98; Number 42
www.bladepublishing.net
staff@bladepublishing.net
Todd County Deputy Sheriff,
Steve Och has announced his
candidacy to run for the position
of Todd County Sheriff.
Och is a 1989 graduate of
Criminal Justice program at
Alexandria Community College.
He has been a licensed Peace
Officer in the state of Minnesota
for 25 years; 24 years within
Todd County. Twelve years on
the city of Long Prairie Police
Department and 15 years with
the Todd County Sheriff s Office.
Steve has been married to his wife, Jackie, for 15 years. Steve
and Jackie along with their daughters; Mackenzie, 13, and
Megan,11, live in Round Prairie Township.
I will exhibit strong leadership and make certain the Sheriff s
Office remains aggressive with all drug enforcement efforts and be
fiscally responsible while providing the most effective services for
the tax payers of Todd County, stated Och.
Meth use is increasing in Central Minnesota
Clarissa Holdings LLC begins sawmill conctruction
By Rin Porter
A recent series of high-profile
arrests for methamphetamine pos-
session in Todd and Wadena
Counties has brought this drug
back to the attention of residents.
Use of meth dropped signifi-
cantly in 2007 and 2008 after laws
limiting the availability of a cold
medicine pseudoephedrine
went into effect. Pseudoephedrine
was being purchased in large
quantities as a meth ingredient by
people who were manufacturing
meth in homemade labs in Todd,
Wadena, and Morrison Counties.
But in 2009 and 2010, meth use
increased again, but not because of
meth labs. Instead, meth was
being brought into Minnesota from
northern Mexico and
California by drug
smugglers. Law
enforcement officers
discovered this when
routine traffic stops
began to reveal large
quantities of metham-
phetamine in vehi-
cles.
According to the
Drug and Violent
Crime Task Forces
2012 Annual Report,
Despite the
statewide reduction
in the manufacture of
methamphetamine, it
continues to be the
greatest concern for
many of the task force
regions in the state.
Increasingly, large
quantities of high
grade methampheta-
mine are being traf-
ficked into the area from the south-
west U.S. and Mexico. (Minnesota
Dept of Public Safety)
In 2011, 39.6% of the drug
seizures in the state involved
methamphetamine, according to
the same report.
Jane Maxwell, a senior research
scientists at the University of
Texas at Austin (UT), said in a UT
publication, We need to keep
focused on methamphetamine as a
drug that demands and needs seri-
ous treatment. She also said she
was not surprised to see meth use
rebounding, because that is the
cyclical pattern she and other sci-
entists have seen during the
decades that meth has been used.
(www.utexas.edu/news/2012/01/24/
m e t h a m p h e t a m i n e
<http://www.utexas.edu/news/2012
/01/24/methamphetamine>)
In its monthly newsletter, the
Todd County Sheriffs Department
reported in February 2014 that
drug arrests (for all drugs) fell
from 70 in 2012 to 63 in 2013.
However, according to informa-
tion supplied by Sheriff s
Department Records Supervisor
Rich Pommier on April 14, there
has already been 29 arrests for
possession or sale of meth in 2014
an enormous increase.
These figures include seven peo-
ple arrested by the Central
Minnesota Violent Offender Task
Force (CMV)TF) and the West
Central Minnesota Drug Task
Force and Todd County Sheriffs
Deputies in Hewitt on March 3;
and two people arrested early in
the morning of March 4 by
CMVOTF, Staples Police, and Todd
County Sheriffs Deputies at the
Staples Train Depot. On April 8,
agents of CMVOTF and the
Minnesota Bureau of Criminal
Apprehension (BCA) arrested a
Long Prairie man for sale of 56
grams of meth in Coborns parking
lot in Long Prairie. The man had
previously sold 185 grams of meth
to undercover agents during a long
investigation.
In addition to these arrests, the
West Central Narcotics Task
Force, the BCA, and Alexandria
police arrested five people in
Douglas County after undercover
agents bought 140.7 grams of meth
Continued on page 12.
Continued on page 12.
Clarissa Holdings LLC, owner Michael Frey, applied for a CUP to operate a sawmill from the sight of the old Todd County
Garage located just north of Browerville on US 71, including construction of a 80 x 160 ft building with attached 24 x 48 addi-
tion for offices and a 50 x 60 foot concrete slab for a loading area.
Deputy Och
announces
candidcy for
Sheriff
Todd County Deputy
Sheriff, Steve Och.
in 2009 and 2010, meth use increased
again, but not because of meth labs.
Instead, meth was being brought into
Minnesota from northern Mexico and
California by drug smugglers.
Todd Board approves one-year
labor agreements with six of
its seven bargaining units