Coverage costs money

There is something inherently unfair about the relationship between county sheriff's departments and small towns. By law, sheriff's departments must provide police coverage for villages that do not provide their own. This puts small towns in the driver's seat, forcing sheriff's offices to expend time and money with no guarantee of compensation.

This is the situation in Faribault County, where Frost is balking at paying $1,000 per month - a bargain - for coverage. The county could end up stuck with the bill.

We hope state lawmakers take note and rewrite the law to allow sheriff's departments to bill for their services.

Merger is good idea

We believe Fairmont Area and Martin County West schools should move ahead promptly with talks and efforts aimed at combining the two schools' gymnastics programs.

The merger obviously would benefit Fairmont more, given a program that has been dwindling in the past 10 years. But Martin County West would gain some talent and depth.

In addition, coaching relationships between the two schools already have been established. This would help ease the transition.

UHD bids excellent

We congratulate United Hospital District in Blue Earth for a very successful bidding competition on the hospital's $15 million expansion project. Bids came in this week about 10 percent under the project estimate, meaning the major project is already paying dividends for UHD.

The project will involve creating more room for medical practitioners to do their jobs, while offering patients more comfort. Kudos and good luck to UHD.

Welcome picked as site

Congratulations also are in order for Welcome, where a Gaylord-based bioenergy company announced plans this week to build a plant.

The bioenergy park would be built over the next five to seven years in five phases. It would produce renewable energy for electricity and natural gas by using anaerobic digestion and combustion technology. Among other things, hog manure - plentiful in Martin County - would be used to make gases, such as methane.

Midwest BioGas says the facility would employ 50 people.