Homecoming comes early to Tri-County this year
Homecoming Week is coming early to Tri-County this year, bringing a full week of school spirit, competition, athletics, and fun for students and the community. The festivities kick off on Monday, September 14, with a Junior High/JV football game at 4:00 p.m. in Newfolden, as the Freeze take on Win-E-Mac. Monday evening, one of Tri-County’s favorite Homecoming traditions returns with the annual Homecoming Coronation and Lip Sync Contest at 6:30 p.m. Students will take the stage to crown this year’s Homecoming royalty and entertain the crowd with their lip sync performances. The fun continues on Tuesday, September 15, when the Freeze volleyball teams travel to Newfolden to take on Red Lake Falls. On Wednesday, September 16, at 6:30 p.m., it’s time for the annual Powder Puff games! The Junior Class will take on the Senior Class — and friends — in boys volleyball and girls football under the lights. The event is put on by the Junior Class parents, with free-will donations accepted for admission. Come out and cheer on the students for what is always an entertaining night! Freeze volleyball returns home on Thursday, as Tri-County hosts Stephen-Argyle Central. Homecoming Week wraps up with a busy Friday. The Wildcat Olympics begin at 1:00 p.m. during the school day, with each class competing for bragging rights in a variety of relay races and challenges. Then all eyes turn to the football field Friday evening. At 7:00 p.m., the Freeze will take the field at Tri-County for the Homecoming football game against Warren-Alvarado-Oslo. Students, families, alumni, and community members are encouraged to fill the stands and show their Freeze pride! Following the game, Tri-County students will finish off the week with the Homecoming Dance at Tri-County School. With coronation, lip sync, Powder Puff, volleyball, football, the Wildcat Olympics, and the Homecoming Dance all packed into one week, Homecoming 2026 promises to be a fun and spirited start to the school year at Tri-County!
Montana man charged with burglary after Karlstad garage inbreak-in
Julie Bergman
julie@wiktel.com
A Big Timber, Montana, man is facing felony charges after authorities say he broke into a detached garage in Karlstad early in the morning of Sept. 5, according to a criminal complaint filed in Kittson County District Court. Ian Skyler Cox, 25, is charged with one count of burglary in the third degree and one count of attempt to commit burglary in the third degree, both felonies under Minnesota Statute 609.582.3(a). The burglary count carries a maximum penalty of five years in prison and a $10,000 fine; the attempt count carries a maximum of two and a half years and a $5,000 fine. According to the complaint, a Karlstad woman called 911 at about 1:42 a.m. Sept. 5 to report a break-in at her residence. Responding Kittson County sheriff’s deputies spoke with her husband, who said he had confronted someone inside his detached garage and that the person fled south. He described the suspect as a white male wearing shorts, a T-shirt and a dark baseball cap, and showed deputies battery-operated hand tools on the garage floor that he said had been moved by the intruder. A deputy using a thermal optic located a man matching that description walking along Lincoln Avenue, out of breath, sweating, missing one shoe and smelling of alcohol. The man, later identified as Cox by his Montana driver’s license, initially told the deputy he had not been in anyone’s garage, but the homeowner positively identified him after he was detained, the complaint states. A second deputy who interviewed the homeowners said they had been awakened by a loud bang and rattling sound outside, and that the husband saw a man run from the garage across a neighboring yard when he went to investigate. Inside the garage, they found a cordless electric hand saw, a battery charger and a battery on the floor that they said should have been on a shelf along the wall, according to the complaint. After being taken into custody, Cox was read his Miranda rights, which he waived, and admitted to going into the garage and to running after being confronted, the complaint states. He denied trying to steal anything and said he did not remember moving the tools. A deputy later found Cox’s cell phone and a missing shoe in nearby yards on the same block. Kittson County District Judge Tamara Yon signed the complaint and ordered Cox detained pending further proceedings, since he was already in custody. Cox made a first appearance in Kittson County District Court on Sept. 8. An initial appearance under Rule 8 is scheduled for Sept. 30 at 9 a.m. Charges are merely accusations, and the defendant is presumed innocent unless and until proven guilty.
From a Red Wagon to a Roadside Stand
Nelson Sweet Corn Marks Decades of Family Tradition
Julie Bergman, Editor
For more than 50 years, a Nelson family member has been selling sweet corn on the streets of East Grand Forks — and it all started with an 8-year-old boy and a little red Radio Flyer wagon. Brian Nelson, of Nelson Sweet Corn, still remembers those early days on the north end of town, where both sets of his grandparents lived just a block apart, off 11th and 10th streets. "This is probably 1970," Nelson said. "I figure I started about 8 years old. I would take a wagon and go up and down the blocks and sell cucumbers, tomatoes, sweet corn, potatoes — maybe beans or peas, whatever I could fit in the wagon." There was no advertising, no bell to announce his arrival — just familiarity built door to door. "I just pulled that wagon. I went up and knocked on the door. They knew I was coming," Nelson said, recalling customers like the Thompsons, Skybergs, Swanbergs, Millers and others. "They had the correct change most of the time." Prices were simple back then: a nickel for a cucumber, three tomatoes for a dime, a cob of sweet corn for a nickel. Nelson kept his earnings in a small football-shaped rubber coin purse — he didn't yet have anything closer to a proper change belt. "I was 8 years old, and if I had 4 or 5 dollars, I was the richest kid in East Grand Forks," he said. A family business takes root What began as door-to-door vegetable sales eventually grew into a sweet corn operation run with his brothers through the 1980s and '90s. The Nelson family farm sits along the Grand Marais Creek northeast of East Grand Forks, land that belonged to Brian's parents, William and Carol Nelson. "With farming and everything else, and everybody having jobs, it was just easier to sell sweet corn instead of all the vegetables," Nelson said. "So we switched to kind of sweet corn only." He remembers selling sweet corn for $1.25 a dozen in the early years. Today, with rising seed, fertilizer and chemical costs, it runs closer to $9 a dozen — still less than some other areas charge, Nelson noted, pointing out that corn can sell for $10 to $12 a dozen elsewhere. Even so, this year the family was running a special last week: $7 a dozen for orders of two dozen or more, since there was ample corn left in the field. Over the years, the Nelsons have sold from several familiar area spots — the Charlie Brown's parking lot on Gateway Drive for 25 years, in front of the old Mexican Village on South Washington, near Pop's Liquor, by the Legion, and even next to a Ford dealership one summer when a road detour sent extra foot traffic their way. These days, you'll typically find them at L&M Meats, where owner Jeff Novak and his family have hosted the Nelsons' stand. "What a fantastic opportunity for us to sit in their parking lot," Nelson said. "People come there and say, 'You got the best sweet corn in town again?' And I say, well, thank you." Three generations of work ethic The lessons Nelson learned as a boy — handling money, dealing with customers, taking responsibility for a crop from planting to sale — were ones he made sure to pass down. He and his wife, Michelle, raised a blended family of six kids, and the sweet corn stand became a rite of passage for many of them. Two of the couple's daughters, Jenna and Jalen, are especially remembered by longtime customers from their years selling at L&M Meats. "Jalen and Jenna started selling sweet corn as soon as they could walk," Nelson said. Now grown, Jalen has her own business in Fargo, and Jenna works at Simplot — both funded their share of the way through with corn-stand earnings. "I had people today walk up to me and leave me a tip because they know it's going to go for college funds." Nelson's son Jeremy, was featured in the Grand Forks Herald many years ago, photographed selling corn in front of Pop's Liquor with his ears sticking out from under his cap — "All Ears," the caption read. "We always instilled that we will work right alongside you just as hard," Nelson said. "The kids bought vehicles with their money. It was a way to understand how life works — when you handle money, deal with customers, and you work." Brian's brother Bob has helped sell corn for the past 10 to 15 years since retiring, and his sister pitched in for a single, memorable shift before deciding standing on hot pavement for eight hours wasn't for her. Now grandchildren are getting a taste of the family tradition, too — helping weed the patch when they visit from the Twin Cities, Grand Forks and La Crosse, Wis., even if they're not quite old enough yet to work the stand during the height of selling season. No pesticides, no shortcuts The Nelsons grow their sweet corn on three-and-a-half to four acres at their home place, using the same corn planter — now pulled by a side-by-side rather than a tractor — that the family has relied on for 50 years. This year brought its share of challenges. An early-August windstorm knocked down roughly 40% of the crop, and an earworm problem — the first the Nelsons say they've dealt with — meant checking every ear before it went out for sale. "We don't spray pesticide on the food that we sell," Nelson said. Deer, skunks and raccoons remain a persistent challenge along the creek bottom where the corn grows, Nelson added with a laugh, though he keeps their numbers in check. Still going, for now Asked whether decades of hauling, selling and weeding sweet corn is starting to wear on him, Nelson didn't hesitate. "We're getting tired," he admitted. But with the season winding down and customers still stopping by, he's not ready to call it quits. "Thank you to everybody who's ever bought corn from Nelson Sweet Corn," he said. "We really appreciate the support from the community." Nelson Sweet Corn can be reached at 218-230-4364 or by email at brianlnelson@outlook.com.