Latest news with #BemidjiCityCouncil
Yahoo
05-05-2025
- Business
- Yahoo
Bemidji City Council to hear municipal liquor store report, host 3 public hearings
May 5—BEMIDJI — The Bemidji City Council will host three public hearings and hear a report from Financial Director Donna Coe regarding the 2023 municipal liquor store report during tonight's regular meeting. Public hearings will be held for a stormwater pollution prevention program, a liquor license for outdoor dining and a permit for a street/sidewalk cafe at Keg N'Cork, and the second reading of an ordinance amending the zoning map adopted in Chapter 28 of the Bemidji City Code, entitled "Development Code." The city does not have any new or old business on the agenda and will likely spend a bulk of its time discussing the municipal liquor store report. Bemidji ranked eighth out of 176 cities in highest operating revenues per amount of sales, seventh in highest gross profit and ninth in highest operating income. Coe lists that the city ranked 59th out of 176 in highest net profit as a percent of revenue, 7.6%, as one spot Bemidji could improve upon. The meeting will take place at 6 p.m. tonight, May 5, at City Hall. The meeting can also be viewed at
Yahoo
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Bemidji City Council to hear from Fire Chief Justin Sherwood on 'critical staffing needs'
Mar. 24—BEMIDJI — The Bemidji City Council will welcome Fire Chief Justin Sherwood to tonight's work session to discuss "critical staffing needs" within the Bemidji Fire Department. Sherwood reports that the Bemidji department cannot meet national standards which recommends a minimum of four firefighters respond to each call. The Bemidji station, comprised of nine career and 48 on-call firefighters, can only guarantee one career firefighter per call. Sherwood hopes to change this to stay in lockstep with the rising demand for services. "Increasing the number of career firefighters at the Bemidji Fire Department is not just about meeting standards; it is about ensuring firefighter safety, reducing response times, improving operational readiness and strengthening community risk reduction efforts," Sherwood wrote in his proposal to the council. "As emergency calls, inspections and fire prevention needs continue to rise, an increased career staff will enhance service reliability, provide a safer working environment and ensure the department is fully equipped to meet the growing demands of the community." During the work session, he will present a comprehensive overview of the department's challenges and offer three potential choices the council could follow to help alleviate this issue in the future. The first asks the council to apply for the Staffing for Adequate Fire and Emergency Response (SAFER) grant. Sherwood recommends the council ask for over $1.4 million to hire four firefighters. The second is to adopt a three-year plan that would shift available funds around to address the issue immediately. Year one would hire two firefighters while years two and three would add one additional firefighter respectively. The third is to change the staffing model from a 48-hour schedule to a 56-hour schedule. This adds 416 hours of duty to each firefighter's plate throughout the year but only requires the hiring of two new full-time firefighters. The council will mull these options during tonight's meeting which will begin at 5:30 p.m., March 24, at City Hall. No action can be taken by the council during a work session. All city council meetings can be viewed online at
Yahoo
15-02-2025
- General
- Yahoo
From the Archives: Feb. 15 in the Pioneer
Feb. 15—February 15, 2015 — Bemidji's iconic Paul and Babe statues may soon have a rival, as officials in Bangor, Maine, plan to add a Babe the Blue Ox statue next to its existing 31-foot-tall Paul Bunyan statue. Although the Bangor statue is taller than Bemidji's 18-foot Paul, Bemidji's lumberjack is more than 20 years older, built in 1937. February 15, 2000 — Bemidji business owners and residents may see a long-overdue increase in their utility bills, Bemidji city officials told the Bemidji City Council at a recent work session. The rates have not been adjusted since 1993 and now, councilors say, they could increase an average of 10 percent. February 15, 1975 — John and Bob Falk, from rural Nebish, have been voted Beltrami County's Outstanding Dairymen for 1974 by the Red River Valley Dairymen's Association. The brothers operate a Class A dairy farm east of Nebish with approximately 70 head of Holstein cattle. In addition to dairying, the Falks have 150 Black Angus beef cattle. February 15, 1925 — John Paul Kruger, a former employee of the Bemidji exchange of the Northwester Bell Telephone Co., was presented the Theodor Vail public service medal at a program by the Masonic Temple at Moose Lake. He earned the medal for successfully reviving a man who fell from a railroad trestle.
