Municipal Liquor $ - Thief River Falls Times & Northern Watch

Page 10 NORTHERN WATCH Saturday, April 6, 2013
Municipal Liquor $
Troy Larson from Great Lakes Gas is pictured
with one of the retired utility poles
that was recently installed. An American
(Continued from Page 1)
sale liquor store had a gross
profit of $166,250; operating
expenses of $189,464; and
operating income of a loss of
$23,214. Its net profit was a
loss of $19,291. It transferred
no money to other
funds.
• Thief River Falls’ offsale
liquor store had a gross
profit of $987,225; operating
expenses of $589,665; and
operating income of
$397,560. Its net profit was
$411,319, and it transferred
$362,835 to other funds.
• Warroad’s off-sale liquor
store had a gross profit of
$347,580; operating expenses
of $212,915; and operating
income of $134,665. It
had a net profit of $137,332,
and it transferred $85,000 to
other funds.
Minnesota municipalities
were originally authorized
to own and operate liquor
establishments as a means
of controlling the sale of
alcohol. For many communities
in Greater Minnesota,
municipal liquor operations
provide access and convenience
in areas that might be
unable to attract a privatelyrun
establishment. In addition
to these functions, profitable
municipal liquor operations
have provided another
source of revenues to supplement
traditional tax and
fee revenues.
Highlights from the
report include:
• The combined net profit
of all municipal liquor
operations totaled $23.4 million
in 2011. This represents
an increase of $1.7 million,
or 8.0 percent, over the
amount generated in 2010.
Among on-sale operations,
net profits totaled $2.6 million
in 2011, which was an
increase of $598,468, or 30.3
percent, over 2010. Total net
profits for off-sale operations
totaled $20.8 million in
2011, which was an increase
of $1.1 million, or 5.8 percent,
over 2010.
• During 2011,
Minnesota’s municipal
liquor stores transferred
$20.1 million of their profits
to other city funds. This represents
an increase of 20.8
percent over the total net
transfers made in 2010.
Transfers totaled $6.5 million
among metro area
establishments, compared to
$13.6 million for Greater
Minnesota establishments.
• During 2011,
Minnesota’s municipal
liquor operations reported a
16th consecutive year of
record sales totaling $317.2
million. Total sales generated
in 2011 increased by $3.8
million, or 1.2 percent, over
2010.
• Over the past five years,
net profits have increased
4.4 percent. Among off-sale
stores, there was a 6.5 percent
increase in net profits,
while on-sale stores showed
a decrease of 9.9 percent.
• Thirty-six Minnesota
cities reported net losses for
2011, compared to 40 cities
in 2010. All 36 cities with
losses were from Greater
Minnesota.
• Minnesota law requires
cities to hold a public hearing
on the future of their
liquor store(s) if the liquor
operation shows a net loss in
at least two of the past three
years. While this report is
based on 2011 data, an
examination of losses for the
years 2009, 2010 and 2011
shows that 30 cities should
have held hearings on or
after Nov. 17, 2011. Of the 30
cities required to hold a
hearing in 2011, 22 were on
the previous year’s list.
kestrel nesting box is attached to the pole.
(Submitted)
Agassiz Audubon recruits bird nest watchers
Before the snow started to
melt, PKM Electric
Cooperative lineworkers
spent a morning installing
three “retired” utility poles
in rural Kittson County. The
poles will hold nest boxes
designed specifically to
attract North America’s
smallest and flashiest falcons
– the American kestrel.
American kestrels, also
known as sparrow hawks,
are about the size of a blue
jay. Kestrels used to be a
common sight – perched on
power lines and poles along
roads adjacent to farm fields
and grasslands. Scientists
believe the lack of suitable
nesting cavities may be a
limiting factor for these
birds in Minnesota.
Last year, PKM installed
10 poles at the Audubon
Center near Warren. “We
had five nestlings fledge
from one of those boxes, and
students who participated in
the WAO summer camp got
to help Tim Driscoll band
them. We are grateful for
PKM’s help again this
spring,” said Heidi Hughes,
director of Agassiz
Audubon’s Community Nest
Watch Project.
The Kittson County
Community Nest Watch
project started in December,
when Wes Johnson, the shop
teacher at Kittson Central
High School, contacted
Agassiz Audubon with an
offer to build bird nest
boxes. Hughes accepted the
offer and recruited volunteers
in Kittson County to
install and monitor the
boxes. Donations from the
Kennedy Crew and the
Hallock Eagles Club covered
the cost of the wood.
Johnson’s ninth grade shop
class built more than a
dozen boxes. Then PKM
donated the poles and
offered to install them in its
service area. Ottertail Power
will be installing eight additional
poles and boxes soon.
Agassiz Audubon is looking
for volunteers to help
watch the nest boxes in the
following locations in northwestern
Minnesota:
• Kennedy: the ball
field, the Kennedy water
tower
• Hallock: 12th Street
South, the fairgrounds,
Kittson Central High School
• Hampden Township:
Orleans Grain Elevator
(312th Street)
• Clow Township:
Great Lakes Gas
Transmission station, North
Kittson Rural Water Tower
and Viking Gas
Transmission Humboldt
Compressor Station
• Lancaster: Lancaster
Public School Practice Field
• Norway Township:
Carlson Prairie Seeds
• Brislet Township:
Audubon Center and
Agassiz Valley Project
(impoundment)
• Viking Township:
Enbridge Energy
• Angus: Viking Gas
Transmission
• Lincoln Township:
420th Street
Agassiz Audubon Society
is recruiting nest box sponsors
and volunteers. To participate
– or to learn more
about these birds – Agassiz
Audubon will present programs
in April and May at
libraries in Hallock,
Greenbush, Roseau,
Warroad, Warren, Thief
River Falls, Red Lake Falls
and East Grand Forks.
For more information,
call 218-745-5663, email
AgassizAudubon@gmail.com
and take a look at the
Agassiz Audubon Facebook
page: at www.facebook.
com/AgassizAudubon.
This is an American kestrel
chick. Nest boxes have
been installed in the area
for American kestrels.
(Submitted)
The Badger High School robotics team
recently competed in Duluth. Team members
included (front row) Madi Trucinski,
Katie Coltom, Emily Hamann, Katie Rhen,
Kellie Parnow; (middle row) Alex Burkel,
Cody Madoll, Alex Trucinski, Riley Sovde,
Tyler Klegstad, Robby Davy; (back row)
Kasey Wojciechowski, Jacob Randall,
Christian Kilbride, Cole Hamann, Seth
Christenson, Tanner Creviston and Logan
Klegstad. (Submitted)
Badger robotics team competes in Duluth
by Tanner Creviston and
Seth Christenson
On Wednesday, March 6,
nearly 100 teams took over
the Duluth Entertainment
Convention Center to show
off what six weeks of preparation
had produced. Teams
came from all over
Minnesota and the surrounding
states. Among the
teams was the Badger High
School robotics team, which
placed 24 out of the 45 teams
competing.
The challenge was
launching and/or dumping
Frisbees into a variety of
goals and then climbing a
steel-pipe pyramid. Each
match consisted of two
teams of three who would
try to out-score their opponents
to bring their
“alliance” a victory. Teams
also had to be aware of illegal
actions such as hitting a
robot in the safe zone
because the opposite team
would then be awarded foul
points.
Friday and Saturday
qualification rounds determined
what seed each team
would be going into
Saturday afternoon. The top
eight teams advanced automatically
to the finals. The
top eight teams also draft
two additional teams to be
on their “alliance.” This
allows more than just the
top eight teams to keep competing.
After the alliances
are formed they compete
until the competition is
down to two alliances.
The Badger team was
comprised of 20 students in
grades 9 through 12, which
is about 25 percent of the
high school student body.
Over the past three years,
the number of robotics team
numbers has been rising
slowly. Because of the constant
encouragement to try
new things, the outlook for
the robotics team is looking
good. The team goal this
year was to build a robot
that could consistently score
around 20 points per round.
After a few failed attempts
to create a robot that would
successfully shoot the
Frisbees, we stumbled upon
what would later become our
robot.
One of our team captains,
Seth Christenson, jokingly
said, “We should just make a
dump truck.”
Little did he know that
the majority of us took him
seriously, so we started putting
together a dump truck.
We went with the basic twolevel
rectangular frame; our
drive system was powered
by belts with two motors on
each side. For the first time
in Gator history, we used
pneumatics (compressed air)
to power our gate on the
dump box to adjust the tilt
on our dump box and to
power the lifter, so the robot
could hook the pyramid. The
robot was completed with
the addition of a diamondplate
truck cab that covered
our electrical components.
At the competition, we
were ready for the practice
rounds, and the robot was
performing how we envisioned
with only a few problems.
The first problem was
the hooks were set too high
to touch the bottom of the
pyramid because the pyramids
were shorter than we
had thought. We solved the
problem by shortening the
hooks. The only other serious
problem we encountered
was that one of the controllers
quit working, so we
had to break out the spare.
Throughout the competition,
we performed very consistently,
placing 24 out of the
45 teams.
This was the best placement
that we have had in
our three seasons, but it
wasn’t enough to be picked
into one of the final
alliances. Even though our
team didn’t win or be picked
to a winning team, we still
met or exceeded the goals we
had set for ourselves, which
is just about as good as a
win.
Team morale has been
high post-season, and plans
are already being made for
improvements to the robot.
All of the excitement created
could not have been accomplished
without the support
of the Badger community
and sponsors, and the hard
work by the students.
Here is the robot designed by the Badger High School
robotics team. The team recently competed in Duluth.
(Submitted)
PKM Electric recently installed three retired
utility poles in rural Kittson County. The
poles feature American kestrel nesting
boxes. (Submitted)
Wes Johnson’s ninth grade shop class at
Kittson Central High School built more than
a dozen American kestrel nesting boxes
that have been installed in the area.
(Submitted)