Redwood County
Super Bowl grant pays for first-ever lacrosse field
The Minnesota Super Bowl Host Committee Legacy Fund has granted $100,000 to the Lower Sioux Indian Community for a new lacrosse field.
The project is part of a broader effort by American Indians in Minnesota to revive old-style lacrosse, the "Creator's game," for health and tradition. The grant will also pay for a new canning kitchen, resurfacing of a gym floor and new equipment for an exercise room for the tribe, which has 1,200 members.
The $4 million Legacy Fund is backed by $1 million from the NFL. The rest comes from businesses, foundations and community groups across the state. The money is doled out in grants ranging from $10,000 to $100,000 leading up to next month's big game and focuses on reducing health disparities — from St. Paul to northern Minnesota.
The Lower Sioux reservation is located in Morton, about two hours southwest of the Twin Cities in the Minnesota River Valley.
Kelly Smith
Finland
Bees, hive and beekeeping equipment are on the way
The Wolf Ridge Environmental Learning Center in Finland is one of 80 groups nationwide to win honeybees, a beehive and beekeeping equipment from the Honeybee Conservancy's national Sponsor-A-Hive program.
The center has a pollinators class at its school farm, where some 13,000 K-12 students visit annually for stays lasting up to five days. The bees will arrive this spring.
A second Minnesota school, the Oshki Ogimaag Charter School in Grand Portage for students in kindergarten through sixth grade, will receive dozens of solitary bees such as leafcutters, masons and carpenters for their garden. The bees are expected to pollinate fruits and vegetables and improve the garden's yield. These solitary bee species make their own nests in the ground and rarely sting.
The Honeybee Conservancy has created 165 bee sanctuaries nationwide since 2015.
Matt McKinney
St. Cloud
City Council approves resolution on tobacco age
The St. Cloud City Council wants state lawmakers to restrict tobacco sales to people who are 21 or older.
The recommendation, on a 4-3 vote last month, comes after a packed November meeting in which the council voted 4-3 to raise the city's tobacco sales age from 18 to 21 — making St. Cloud the first city outside the Twin Cities to pass such a measure.
Mayor Dave Kleis quickly vetoed the ordinance over concerns it wasn't the city's role to implement the change. The council failed to get enough votes — five of seven — to override the veto. A major concern of some city leaders and residents was that the tobacco sales age is a state — rather than city — issue and should be consistent across all cities.
The resolution, which was supported by Council Members George Hontos, Steve Laraway, Dave Masters and Carol Lewis and opposed by Jeff Johnson, Jeff Goerger and John Libert, will be shared with legislators. Last year, a similar bill introduced at the Legislature didn't get off the ground.
Kelly Smith
