By Tucker Henderson Reporter The Otter Trail Riders Snowmobile Club is hosting their annual members and landowners picnic on Thursday, Aug. 10 at the VFW Club in New York Mills. Members, landowners and those who’d like to join the club are invited to attend. Social hour starts at 5 p.m. prior to the meal. The Snowmobile Club… Read More

By Chad Koenen Publisher Everything seems to be a little bit bigger in Ottertail and the annual OtterFest celebration will be no different this weekend.  OtterFest will officially kick off on Friday night with the annual demo derby. The event will begin at 7 p.m. at the demo derby pit near the water tower in Ottertail.  The celebration… Read More

WCI serves nine counties in west central Minnesota By Tom Hintgen Otter Tail County Correspondent From 1972 until 1982, the nine-county region of west central Minnesota, including Otter Tail County, was served by a Regional Development Commission (RDC). The RDC was dissolved in 1982.   The absence of an RDC meant the region was not eligible to apply for federal… Read More

Employees see challenges of living in poverty Could you survive a month in poverty? That is the question that was posed to Otter Tail County employees participating in the Community Action Partnership’s Poverty Simulation sponsored by MAHUBE-OTWA. County staff, state representatives, and members of local organizations, including schools, cities, and businesses, were invited to walk… Read More

Organization seeks to assist businesses, governments By Tom Hintgen Otter Tail County Correspondent   West Central Initiative (WCI) is a community foundation and regional development organization serving west central Minnesota. Counties served include Otter Tail, Becker, Clay, Douglas, Grant, Pope, Stevens, Traverse and Wilkin. “Town to town, county to county, organization to organization, and certainly person to person,… Read More

The University of Minnesota Farm Family Recognition Program honors farm families from throughout Minnesota for their significant contributions to the agriculture industry and their local communities. The Farm Family Recognition Program has honored Minnesota farmers since 1979. It is coordinated by University of Minnesota Extension, the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences and the… Read More

A BNSF Railway train derailed in Otter Tail County Thursday, Aug. 3, between Perham and Frazee. The Otter Tail County Sheriff’s Office reported the derailment of 13 cars happened at 11:59 p.m., near the intersection of U.S. Highway 10 and County Highway 60 in Gorman Township. The rail cars are designed to carry motor vehicles and most… Read More

Performances set for Aug. 18-19 at corn feed, Finn Creek Festival The New York Mills Regional Cultural Center has announced its 14th annual Kalevala Puppet Pageant, a large-scale community street theater experience taking place in NY Mills from August 7-19.   All are invited to the two culminating performances on Friday, Aug. 18 at 7 p.m. at… Read More

Becker’s Hospital Review—a news publication that assembles best practices for healthcare leaders and decision makers—has compiled a list of the best hospitals for nurse communication in each state using Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) data from CMS. CMS shares 10 HCAHPS star ratings based on publicly reported HCAHPS measures. The nurse communication star rating… Read More

Meeting to be held Aug. 17 in Ottertail Darren Newville, District Manager of the East Otter Tail Soil & Water Conservation District (SWCD) will be the Featured Speaker at the OTC COLA Annual Meeting.  The event will be held Thursday, Aug. 17, at the Ottertail Community Center, located at 93 Lake Avenue South. The meeting will start… Read More