The cool, wet spring of 2008 is keeping Hutchinson area farmers out of the fields and delaying the planting of crops. But Hutchinson city street workers have noticed a couple of things have grown well this spring — potholes and frost boils.

Public Works Manager John Olson told the City Council Tuesday that repairing those problems was threatening to cut into the department’s planned summer seal-coating projects. He estimated repairing frost boils had already eaten $35,000 of the department’s maintenance budget.

Hutchinson’s participation in the state’s construction of a roundabout at the State Highway 15/North High Drive intersection was reconfirmed Tuesday night. But some neighboring property owners told City Council members they’ve been left out of the process.

The council passed a resolution authorizing City Engineer Kent Exner to continue preparing plans and specifications for the $300,000 worth of water, sewer and stormwater lines the city will install.

Unless the unlikely happens at the the Legislature, Hutchinson City Council members and directors will face the task of trimming about $640,000 from their proposed 2009 budget.

On Tuesday, May 13, they reviewed possible ways to achieve that reduction during a workshop led by City Administrator Gary Plotz. A majority of the cuts would be in personnel, including not filling open positions.

Streets projects involving a roundabout and frost boils are parked on the agenda of the Hutchinson City Council’s meeting Tuesday night, May 13.

City Engineer Kent Exner will present information on the upcoming construction of a roundabout at the State Highway 15/North High Drive intersection. The council will have a public hearing on the project, but the Minnesota Department of Transportation is actually administering the work and is expected to open bids Friday.

A 31-year-old Stewart woman was arrested Wednesday, May 7, following the execution of a search warrant at her home in the 300 block of Mowbray Street in Stewart.

Rhonda Marie Bombeck has been charged by McLeod County Attorney Mike Junge’s office with second-degree controlled substance crime, possession of substances to manufacture methamphetamine and storing meth paraphernalia in the presence of a child.

Kelly Paul Peterson, 40, of Kimball, the last of three defendants convicted of distributing the highly addictive and dangerous drug methamphetamine, also known as meth, was sentenced May 5.

Peterson was sentenced in Minneapolis by United States District Court Judge Donovan Frank to one year and one day in prison and three years of supervised release on one count of aiding and abetting distribution of meth.

Seat belt use among teens appears to dip during the last few months of the school year and the percentage of traffic deaths involving drinking teen drivers jumps during the same period, according to Minnesota Department of Public Safety data.

Although the prom through graduation period isn’t the deadliest period for Minnesota’s 16–19 year olds — 31 were killed 2004–2006 — traffic death data during April–June reveals that potential for tragedy is ripe as a result of seat belt non-use and drinking and driving.

What is the cost of meth addiction?

Delivering his annual report to the McLeod County Board Tuesday (May 6), County Attorney Mike Junge expressed the toll in both dollars and wasted lives.

Meth sells for about $100 per gram, and many users start taking it in quarter-gram doses. As addiction takes hold, it’s not unheard of for a $25-a-day habit to mushroom into a $700-a-day one.