Tue.

April 29
Rain/Wind/Snow
41/32
Wed. April 30
Rain/Snow
39/35
Thur. May 1
Showers
42/34
Fri. May 2
Cloudy
47/34
Sat. May 3
Cloudy/Sunny
52/36
Sun. May 4
Partly Cloudy
52/32
WEEKLY WEATHER REPORT
A community newspaper serving Browerville, MN and surrounding areas. USPS 067-560
Thursday, May 1, 2014
Volume 98; Number 43
www.bladepublishing.net
staff@bladepublishing.net
By Rin Porter
Jackie Och, Todd Countys
new Health and Human Services
(HHS) Director, attended her
first county board meeting on
April 22, accompanied by
Interim HHS Director Emily
Steinert. She was introduced to
the board by Steinert.
Och began her county service
on April 21, after resigning from
her previous position in Little Falls where she served as the Clinical
Services Manager at Unity Family Healthcare, Family Medical
Center in Little Falls, a position she has held for more than six
years.
Och is a registered nurse and holds a masters degree in business
administration from the Minnesota School of Business. She has
served in several management positions in the health care field.
Och will manage the Human Services and Public Health
Departments at Todd County. She will be paid a salary of $86,000
annually.
Board Chair Gary Kneisl thanked Steinert for her nearly four
months of service as Interim HHS Director.
Steinert introduced three more new county employees, all filling
vacant positions due to retirements and resignations. Lisa
Grossinger and Molly Burke are new Child Protection Services
workers. Kesha Weiss is a new Adult Mental Health worker.
Another resignation took place recently. Beth Shell resigned as
Child Support Enforcement manager. The work of Shells position
involves collecting back child support owed by parents. Lisa Chapin
presented a proposal to the board that would partner with Morrison
County to provide Child Support Enforcement program supervision.
Instead of hiring a full-time worker to replace Shell, the countys
Personnel Committee approved a proposal for Morrison County
Social Services to provide up to 12 hours per week in program super-
vision to Todd County Social Services.
Commissioners Randy Neumann and Rod Erickson immediately
spoke in opposition to the proposal, suggesting instead that someone
be hired part-time to replace Shell, or that some current employee
take on another 12 hours of work per week in addition to his or her
existing 40-hour per week job.
They said, Why do we want another county to be supervising our
workers?
Steinert and Chapin explained that finding a qualified person to
do this work part-time would be difficult if not impossible, and that
piling the 12 hours of additional work on a current full-time employ-
ee would raise immediate red flags with the AFSCME union because
of work rules. Chapin emphasized that Morrison County would not
be providing supervision of workers, but only of program procedures
and Child Support Enforcement rules.
Commissioner Dave Kircher then explained the rationale of the
Personnel Committee, on which he sits. He said the Morrison
County supervision proposal would save Todd County a lot of money,
and also serve as a trial of the sharing concept.
Kircher reminded board members that Morrison and Todd
Counties already cooperate in the area of sharing a Public Health
food inspection worker, and work together with Wadena County on
the Tri-County Health Board.
Neumann opposed the idea because, he said, it would affect
Assistant County Attorney Mike Schneider, who works closely with
Child Support Enforcement. Chapin replied she had already met
with Schneider, and he felt comfortable with the proposal.
A vote was taken on the proposal, and it was approved 3 votes to
1, with Neumann opposing. The
trial period will last until Dec. 31,
Hormel Foods Donation Helps Fight Hunger
in Browerville and Long Prairie
Brichacek and Couchey
earn trip to Nationals
Dans Prize, the local sub-
sidiary owned by Hormel Foods
Corporation (NYSE:HRL),
announced that it will donate a
total of $20,000 to local organi-
zations to fight hunger in the
community. This donation is
part of the Hormel Foods Plant
Community Donations Program,
which gives employees the
opportunity to assist local
hunger relief organizations and
strengthen the communities
where they live and work.
The donations will go to the
Browerville Area Food Shelf, the
Long Prairie Emergency Food
Pantry and the Eagle Bend
Senior Citizens Center Inc.
(Meals on Wheels).
We are thrilled to support
these organizations and con-
tribute to their efforts to feed the
families in need in our area,
said Mark E. Morey, president
and chief executive officer at
Dans Prize. Our employees
and the company are excited to
continue fighting hunger in our
community.
For the fourth consecutive
year, Hormel Foods is giving
funds to U.S. manufacturing
facilities to share with nonprof-
its in their respective communi-
ties to fight hunger. In 2013,
Hormel Foods donated more
than $220,000 to local hunger
relief organizations in more than
20 U.S. communities where it
has manufacturing facilities. In
Continued on page 12.
Continued on page 12.
Regions - did that! State - we dominated! Nationals - they
only hope to contain us! BPA members Andy Brichacek and
Grace Couchey.
photo by Brandon Host
New HHS
Director
Jackie Och
joins county
staff
Jackie Och.
Back row L-R Vern Noland, Doug Kloth, Josh Spieker, Paullie Buechner.
Front row L-R Pat Uhlenkamp, Brittany Anderson, Florence Rickbeil, Kathy Kuhnke, Lou
Thielen
By Advisor Dan Custer
BPA or Business Professionals
of America is one of Browerville
High Schools academic clubs
activities and has been very suc-
cessful this year.
To start the BPA competitions,
sixteen students from our BPA
chapter went to Region competi-
tion in January and were success-
ful with a number of top 100 fin-
ishes. Among the top students,
Grace Couchey and Andy
Brichacek took first and second
place in payroll accounting, which
started a friendly rivalry between
the two Although Andy has taken
an accounting class and Grace has
not, Grace powered her way to the
top by placing first over top gun,
Andy.
With those two amazing per-
formances, the stage was set for
Continued on page 12.