Brooten city council meeting is July 8

The Brooten city council meets in regular session on Monday, July 8 at 7 p.m. with a light agenda as follows.

7:00   Mark Torkelson – FEMA Grant, Firefighter Retirement & Dismissal

  7:15   Building Permit – Joe Carson, 121 Prairie Avenue South for a lean-to shed

  7:30   Approval of June Minutes

  7:45   Approval of Bills - 

            Brooten Auto bills approval

  8:00   Approval of Interim Bills   - $59,935.67

  8:15   Other   

Small business grant program

Here's a grant program for small businesses in Minnesota who have been impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic:
https://mn.gov/deed/business/financing-business/deed-programs/relief.

This is a great program that local businesses should apply to!

A million dollar rain

The Bonanza Valley area received a "million dollar" rain on Tuesday and Tuesday night into early Wednesday morning. When people woke up Wednesday morning in Brooten, the rain gauges showed about 1.1 inches of rainfall came in the previous 24-hour period.

For agriculture, the rainfall would be hard to put into dollars, but for farmers, it was worth millions of dollars throughout our area.

(HD video) Mini-Dazzlers dance performance

At August Fest on August 8 in Belgrade:

Bonanza Valley Days is underway!

A huge turnout of people from the area have descended on Brooten today. We're having a fabulous time at Bonanza Valley Days 2015. Hope you can join us!

Valentine's Day at the Padua Pub

Wanted: more input, more subscribers

Every week a puzzle is assembled in the office: that week's newspaper.

What do you want to read about in the Bonanza Valley Voice? Or what do you think people you know who don't read the newspaper would like to see in the Bonanza Valley Voice?

Our subscriber base has increased by leaps and bounds in the month of January, and we want to keep that momentum going. It can't happen without the input of the people from Brooten and the surrounding area. We now have 90 new subscribers since the first week of January. It's rather incredible in the newspaper world.

Whether you live in the nearby areas of Padua, Sedan, Elrosa, Grove Lake, Terrace or Sunburg or in the city of Brooten or in the rural areas between those towns, the Bonanza Valley Voice needs to hear from the people of the area about what should be in the newspaper. We desperately depend on getting local news into the paper each week.

What do you like? What don't you like? What's missing that you want to see? What do you want to read more about? What should receive less ink? They are the questions to answer.

We have received input by some paid subscribers that they want to read more news and see less sports. Other pieces of input suggests seeing less news about the city of Brooten and more about the surrounding area. Those are not changes we plan on doing unless it becomes a steady, loud chorus. From my perspective as a publisher, I believe many of our subscribers get the newspaper because of school news and school sports coverage. In fact, in the coming weeks we will make greater efforts to include more school-related news in the newspaper.

It is important that you share your opinion with us! Here's the e-mail: bonanzavalvoice@tds.net.
As always, your opinions will remain confidential unless you write a "Letter to the editor" and ask in writing for it to be published in the newspaper.

Groundwater Management meeting announcement

The Bonanza Valley Groundwater Management Area Project Advisory Team meeting planned for Wednesday, Jan. 28, has been rescheduled for Wednesday, Feb. 25.  The new date will allow the team ample time to review the revised sections of the Bonanza Valley Groundwater Management Area draft plan.

The Feb. 25 meeting will be 9 a.m. to noon, at Saboe Leverson VFW Post in Belgrade. This meeting is open to the public and time is provided for attendees to offer comments and ideas.

Questions about the Bonanza Valley project can be directed to Mark Hauck, DNR project manager, at 320-223-7846  or mark.hauck@state.mn.us.  More information is also available on the DNR website, www.mndnr.gov/groundwater.

My small town

No small town is perfect. But we can all do our part to make our little corners of the world a better place!

Small town businesses

Without the support of small town businesses like Jim Fischer's auto repair shop, the Bonanza Valley Voice would be unable to last into the modern digital age. We will carefully attempt to bridge the divide between the traditional ways of operating a small town newspaper and the 21st-century media techniques of the digital age.

Thank you to all area businesses for your support!

Subscribing!!

It will be a fantastic journey as we move through 2015 watching all that gets packed into the Bonanza Valley Voice newspaper. I already have visions of summertime when Elrosa Saints and Stearns County League baseball coverage gets into full swing.

How to subscribe? Here's the best way right now. (Credit card payments will be an option but probably not until February):

Checks to:
Bonanza Valley Voice

Mailed to:
PO Box 280 (new PO Box is 250)
Brooten, MN 56316

e-mail with any questions is:
lifeinbonanzavalley@gmail.com

Or, of course, cash payments at the office in Brooten.

For subscribers in Swift, Pope, Kandiyohi or Stearns counties: $18 a year

All others: $20 a year anywhere else in the U.S.

Right now you can take advantage of a subscription special that's featured in this week's Jan. 1 issue of the Bonanza Valley Voice. I'll post more information on that later.

Have a great, safe New Year's Eve!

Working on updates

I'm currently trying to update our Bonanza Valley Voice Google-plus page. It's a work in progress! I'm currently having trouble with my Gmail account.

Interesting news for small businesses

Read about it at the National Small Business Association website:
http://www.nsba.biz/?p=8955

The Bonanza Valley region is rich with small businesses and industry who would benefit by provisions in the bill that's referenced in this web article.

"Tax Increase Prevention Act of 2014 (H.R. 5771)"

What a terrific place to live!

Members of the Brooten Community Band are shown performing during the 2014 Bonanza Valley Days grand parade on July 13.

The Realtors, four of the earliest graduates of Belgrade-Brooten-Elrosa school, perform their memorable songs during Bonanza Valley Days on July 14, 2013.

Jayden Miller throws a pitch for the Belgrade-Brooten 5th-6th grade Summer Rec team during the Bonanza Valley Days youth baseball tournament on July 12, 2012.

And who can forget the memorable performance by The Realtors at Bonanza Valley Days in 2013!


Call me biased, as I grew up on the far southern reaches of the Bonanza Valley in central Minnesota, but I can't help but share my excitement and gratitude for being able to work here.

This blog will highlight all that is terrific about the Brooten / Terrace / Sedan / Sunburg / Padua / Elrosa / Grove Lake areas of central Minnesota.

Thank you for visiting!