Darrel Smith Talks About: Santa Claus
Recently, Highway 61 sat down with Darrel Smith of Grand Marais, who has been a local friend of Santa Claus for 28 years. He helps Santa coordinate his appearances in Grand Marais during the holiday season. He shared some of what he knows about his friend from the North Pole in this interview.

A Conversation with Braidy Powers
Beginning April 1, Cook County businesses were required to collect an additional one percent in sales tax from their customers. The new tax was authorized by county voters last November and is intended to be used for local projects. The current sales tax rate in Cook County is 7.875 percent.

A Conversation with Mark Dayton
Mark Dayton comes from an earlier era of Minnesota politics, a time when the state was considered a national leader at finding effective solutions to the issues of the day and for setting a high standard to define quality of life. Now, in a time when Minnesota’s national status has diminished to mediocrity, Dayton is running for the DFL gubernatorial ticket with a campaign slogan “for a Better Minnesota.”

Conversations with Qwest and CenturyLink

The two telephone companies servicing Cook County provide high speed Internet service to many, if not all of their customers.

Qwest, which services western Cook County and Grand Marais, provides DSL high speed service to customers within three miles of its Grand Marais office and is presently adding expanded six-band service to its business customers in the Tofte-Lutsen area. The expansion doesn’t include residential customers, but company spokesperson Joanna Hjelmeland says there is future potential for residential DSL in the West End, but with no time frame.

A Conversation with Maggie Barnard