jschramm@minotdailynews.com
Jill Schramm/MDN
Minotâs Main Street businesses are among those in the city looking for ways to navigate a pandemic, and some have relied on the federal Paycheck Protection Program to retain their employees in 2020 during the economic slowdown.
Minot employers are taking a close look at a second round of a federal Paycheck Protection Program that already has released about $144 million locally to preserve jobs.
“It certainly helped us to keep the three employees we have at the shop here employed,” Artmain owner Beth Kjelson said. “There’s no question in my mind that we probably wouldn’t have made it if we hadn’t had it.”
OPI’s Arntzen Touts Bill Resolving Inequity in Public Education
Superintendent of Public Instruction Elsie Arntzen said on Tuesday that she testified in support of HB 25, a bill that would rectify decades of unequal education services for students in residential psychiatric treatment facilities.
Due to the unintended consequences of a poorly written law years ago, Montana youth receiving Medicaid placed at Montana facilities such Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch and Shodair were barred from receiving funding from the Office of Public Instruction for educational services.
“We are talking about close to $700,000 annually being spent on education for these children right now,” said Arntzen. “If they are in a day treatment program, their education services are being paid by the state. If they go out of state and they are still a resident of Montana, the state follows with those dollars but for some reason with the Department of Health and Human Services, they did not want to p
jschramm@minotdailynews.com
A new association for North Dakota horse enthusiasts is planning its first big event as it looks to promote public education about “everything equus.”
Kaycee Wilen, who initiated the founding of the North Dakota Equine Association last March, said the nonprofit’s first North Dakota Horse Expo in Minot in June will be an opportunity for horse-related groups to come together and advertise their own events.
“I want to see them benefit, obviously, but I want to see people benefit from coming and learning. You never stop learning with horses. There’s always something new to learn,” said Wilen, a horse therapist from Max.
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Michael Chavers has worked as CEO of Yellowstone Boys and Girls Ranch, which provides mental healthcare to children, for four years. When schools closed this fall, and children lost the familiar structures and support so many rely on, Chavers and his team began reaching out in unprecedented ways. It really has been through texting and the ability to reach out. Previously that was, well, kind of frowned upon prior to the pandemic because of the lack of security in the communication, Chavers said.
Chavers says relaxation of Medicaid requirements allowed therapists to work with kids by text when they didn’t feel safe or mentally well. And Chavers saw higher enrollment numbers than ever at YBGR this September.
Obituary - Charles Emmett Manuel
Charles Manuel
Charles Emmett Manuel passed away in his home surrounded by loved ones Thursday, December 10, 2020. He was 87 years old. His life began in a similar way at his family s home where he was born November 16, 1933. Because home births were common in those days, his official birthdate wasn t recorded until the next day, November 17th. It is for this reason that Charles would always strongly suggest that he was entitled to celebrate two birthdays each year. Born as the eighth child out of 11, Charles grew up on the family homestead South of Havre, which eventually became the launching pad for his life s work and home base for his decades of being a devoted husband to his wife and father to his own five children. In a world that could scarcely be imagined by most of us today, his years growing up were spent being taught by his mother how to make a large family survive at times on nothing more than a milk cow and a garden.