Apr 102018
Mar 172018
The date to pick will be the first day that the public may drive on the bridge. The person who picked closes to that day wins the pool.
- Tom Lee – 4/6/2018
- Brent – 4/9/2018
- Dean – 4/20/2018
- Calvin – 4/20/2018
- John E – 4/20/2018
- Mike F – 4/20/2018
- Gar 4/21/2018
- Tim G 4/25/2018
- ??? 4/27/2018
- Roger 5/1/2018
- Suzanne 5/2/2108
- Leonard 11/15/2018
Mar 172018
How very exciting and fortunate we are to be getting a new bridge built on the east side of town. I have to say that Turner county not only does a nice job plowing our main road; but now they are building us a new bridge too.
Feb 202018
The Monroe snow removal squad is doing well this year. Lenny, Dave and Troy with Brad as their backup are the ones behind wheel. The plow truck was modified this year to have the sander rig in the truck. This has been a nice enhancement. They can spread sand at slippery intersections when needed. And the weight of the apparatus helps to give the plow truck more pushing power too.
That left the blue pickup available to have a dual sided fuel tank installed. This has been very helpful in the refueling procedure for the plow truck and the tractor.
The tractor has a snow blower attached to it which gives it the ability to clear those drifts that are too much for the plow to push through.
Feb 202018
This ceiling mounted furnace heats the garage portion of the community hall. It stopped working 3 weeks ago and we split a water pipe. We had a service call with Luke and the pipe was fixed and the heater got a new thermo couple. Then it was noticed again that the heater was not working; luckily no pipes froze this time. Luke cane again today and this time replaced the gas valve. The heater was working when I got home today.
Our hall actually has 2 furnaces in it. One for the main room and this hanging furnace in the garage.
Dec 222017
This is the antique fire fighting apparatus that is now sitting in the new garage. The trailer that it is sitting on has been customized and donated by Benton Visser.
Dec 222017
This new building sitting south west of the fire department is a newly built garage funded by the fire department. Its purpose is to house a few items that do not fit in the existing building. The first item is a portable light trailer that was donated from the state of South Dakota and built by inmates. It is a handy and useful piece of equipment that is just plain in the way. The next item never did fit into the hall. It is an antique fire fighting apparatus. This item has been sitting in one of Benton Visser’s barns for many years.
Many people volunteered their time and efforts to help Benton and Aaron Visser to build this garage. Troy Melloon and Kurt Weins poured the concrete slab; also had Chad (don’t know his last name but he is currently renting Tim Gamber’s house on Maple street) help on the day of the pour. James Antinucci and Cathy Beil framed the walls up. Then James had Chad Mosley’s help to set the rafters. Then James and Cathy sheeted the walls and roof. I helped Benton and Aaron install the steel. And Mike Feste will be doing the electrical wiring.
Dec 222017
We have mad a few changes with our equipment for this year. We took the sander (was in back of blue pickup) and mounted it into the back of the plow truck. In order to do this the truck was taken to Marion Machine Shop earlier this fall and an extra support brace was installed. Then Troy and I moved the control box from the blue pickup to the plow truck. The next change had to do with a dual sided fuel tank (diesel and gas) that Mark Begemen had donated to the city earlier this year. We placed that in the back of the blue pickup where the sander rig use to be.
The reason we made these changes was because of a few difficulties that we experienced last year. First the blue pickup does not seem to be able to take a large load of sand. We experienced the drivers door not opening due to this. Don Bauer readjusted the door this summer so it could open again. The next problem was refueling the tractor. The diesel fuel was stored in a tank on Ron Overson’s property. We had to run a couple of 100ft extension cords through the snow to his building in order to get the fuel out of the tank. It was a dark cold and annoying method of refueling. Refueling the plow truck was a little bit of work too. The chains must be removed from the tires so the truck could be driven to Marion. Then afterwards the chains had to be put back on the rear tires.
So now we have a refueling tank sitting in the blue truck and we plan on driving that truck into Marion to fill the tanks. And we can refuel both the plow truck and the tractor easily. And the plow truck driver can start up the sander using the control box inside the cab and flip a switch at slippery intersections to spread sand on the road. Also the heavy weight of the sander rig helps the plow truck with traction.
Dec 222017
We had our first snow yesterday for the 2017-2018 season. Troy Melloon cleaned up the streets last night using the newly upgraded plow truck. I drove around this morning and was very impressed with his work. The streets look very nice. Thanks Troy!
Oct 212017
Kurt Masterminded the concrete work for the Monroe Fire Dept’s new garage. He is seen here working the extra concrete that was dumped in front of the slab. There will be gravel poured on later to form a ramp for the garage.