Rosen votes to end Walz’s powers

ST. PAUL – For the third time overall, state Sen. Julie Rosen, R-Vernon Center, and the Minnesota Senate voted this week to end Gov. Tim Walz’s peacetime emergency powers relative to the COVID pandemic.

The state is in the midst of its longest peacetime emergency in history. Walz first put the state under emergency powers on March 13.

“The impact the virus has had on Greater Minnesota is completely different than the metro,” Rosen said. “Unfortunately, the governor continues to treat the entire state the same, without listening to the concerns and the feedback from those of us in rural Minnesota. It’s time for the governor to give up his powers and work with the Legislature, so that we can address the unique needs of our individual districts and speed up the recovery process.”

The vote to end the governor’s peacetime emergency powers was 36-31, with one Democrat joining all 35 Republicans supporting the resolution.

Federated hosts annual meeting

JACKSON — Federated Rural Electric members recently turned out for the 85th annual meeting, which featured drive-thru voting due to the COVID-19 pandemic.

“We are very happy with the turnout for our annual meeting this year,” said Scott Reimer, Federated’s general manager. “It was the largest crowd since 2000. We had 529 members register; 315 members registered at the Martin County Fairgrounds over the lunch hour, while 214 registered after work at the Jackson County Fairgrounds.

Members voted 463 in favor of the bylaw amendments, while 28 voted against. Besides allowing for mail-in or online ballots in the future, the amendments added gender neutral language, cleaned up language on membership certificates and clarified payments on wholesale power capital credits. In addition, the amendments added language that clarified that membership is determined by the home address for director candidates, and allows ballots cast to count toward a quorum.

Members also voted on directors: David A. Hansen, Jackson, was re-elected for District 3. Meanwhile, Scott Thiesse of Welcome was re-elected in District 4. On the nominating committee, Mark Runge of Lakefield was elected for District 1. For District 2 nominating committee, Drew Wedebrand of Jackson was elected.

Federated is a Touchstone Energy cooperative serving 6,800 electric members in Jackson and Martin counties.