Nancy Edmonds Hanson

What makes Moorhead a great place to live? Ask ten people at random, and chances are that nine of them will say, “It’s the people.”
The tenth will probably point to the downtown Dairy Queen.
As 2023 slides toward its close, here are a dozen who’ve stood out as the months have gone by:

Megan Krueger
As plans come together for the new regional library and community center downtown, Moorhead Public Library director Megan Krueger has been even busier, leading an institution that’s long been close to the heart of the city. Five to six hundred patrons, from moms and babies to elders, have perused its shelves and partaken of its programs every day, while the staff copes amidst cramped facilities with a legendarily leaky roof. Construction of the new center will begin in early 2024.

Scott Kostohryz
When the Minnesota American Legion named Sgt. Scott Kostohryz the state’s Police Officer of the Year, they were looking beyond his 20 years with the Moorhead Police Department to his involvement with the youth of the community. As a founder of the Police Athletic and Activities League and the department’s Explorer post and as a leader of the Department of Justice-funded summer youth mentoring program, he dedicates countless off-duty hours to building relationships between cops and kids – a role he relishes and deeply values.

Bob Grantham
Bob the Barber has trimmed the locks of three generations of Moorhead men and sharp-looking gents from neighboring locales. He has spent nearly 50 years in the Center Mall, the spot His Salon will vacate in coming weeks. The future of his shop, filled with a lifetime collection of sports memorabilia, is still uncertain – the last to negotiate its exit with Roers Development. He’s not ready to say. “I still love what I do,” he asserts, “and with the grace of God, I’m still healthy enough to do it.”

Rebecca Meyer-Larson
Moorhead High School’s winningest team doesn’t wear helmets or play with pucks. Rebecca Meyer-Larson led the speech team to its seventh consecutive state title in the Minnesota High School League’s Class AA championship. That brings the coach’s lifetime record to 34 state championships and 260 team medals, the all-time third highest total in Class AA. So far. “Coaching the Spud speech team has been my life’s work and one of my greatest joys,” she says. “Season after season, I get to watch young people discover the beauty of their voices.

Jeff Wallin
After more than 30 years as a firefighter, Jeff Wallin took the reins of the Moorhead Fire Department just a year ago. He heads the city’s crew of dedicated first responders who roll out when the city’s residents call for help, as they did almost 5,000 times this year. The firefighters deal with flames, of course, but do much more, from heeding medical calls (all are trained as EMTs) to dealing with hazardous material spills and even the occasional pleas to rescue cats from trees. “Fighting fires is a vital part of what we do,” he says, “but it’s not even close to the total service we provide to the people in our community.”

Jess Malvin
The Freez – known as Tastee Freez for most of its 60-plus-year history – will open again this spring, says co-owner Jess Malvin, unless a buyer can be found who’ll commit to keeping the soft-serve cones coming. Though she and her partner listed it for sale earlier this year, the only offers to date have been from developers who’ like to tear it down and rebuild on the spot. “This is such a long part of Moorhead’s history – of my history,” says the woman who started working there at the age of 15. “I’ve watched some of our customers grow up and come back with kids of their own. I love them, and our employees. We’re like a family.”

Lori Van Beek
She’s been steering Moorhead’s city bus program for more than 30 years. As the director of Moorhead’s MATBUS operations, Lori Van Beek manages bus routes that have provided about 350,000 rides to city residents in the past 12 months. During her tenure, riders have gone from paying their fares in cash and coins to electronic fare boxes and mobile tickets on their phones, planning trips through Google, and watching buses’ progress with a real-time tracking program. It’s an essential service for the license-less and car-less, including older riders and people with disabilities, not to mention the area’s tens of thousands of students.

Bob Zimmerman
“Doctor Bob,” as he’s known around City Hall, has shaped the physical side of Moorhead since he was in college 40 years ago. From fighting floods to improving sewers, from quieting the toots of ever-present trains to finding ways to channel motorists around the tracks, Moorhead’s city engineer has left an indelible mark on the city’s infrastructure. “At the end of the day, it’s gratifying to think of how the city benefits from the work we have done,” he says. “That’s the thing about working and living in Moorhead. We do a project … and then we get to live with it, too.”

Carrie Brimhall
M State has just been named the best community college in Minnesota, but that’s not what Dr. Carrie Brimhall brings up first when asked what makes the four-campus community and technical college special. Named to the top job four years ago, she’s now Fargo-Moorhead’s longest-tenured college president, dividing her time between the local campus and counterparts in Fergus Falls, Detroit Lakes and Wadena. “We don’t give up on our students, not even when they may be on the verge of giving up on themselves,” she says. “That’s what makes M State unique … and when it comes to the cost of an education, we win every time.”

Henrik LaPoint
2023 was a big year for 6-year-old Henrik LaPoint. He wrapped up kindergarten … and won the U.S. Kids Golf Association’s Midwest State Invitational tournament. It was the first, but certainly not the last, for the Moorhead boy. Though he’s never had formal lessons, Henrik has been coached by Moorhead County Club pro Chris Howell, as well as his parents Derrick and Lauryn LaPoint. His father emphasizes that having fun is the family’s central goal for their young champion: “It’s not about us. We’re not going to push.”

Colt Neidhardt
After 20 years under the leadership of Carrie Wintersteen, Colt Neidhardt was chosen to head Fargo-Moorhead’s only professional theatre company in 2023. The western North Dakota native says he was drawn to the Moorhead-based ensemble group by its founders’ and members’ deep belief that professional theatre is essential to this community, and that it can grow. “We need to recognize the value of artists and stop the brain drain,” he says. “Paying artists, however much we can afford, validates their talents and their hard work.”

Brandon Lunak
Moorhead’s educational landscape has been transformed since Dr. Brandon Lunak joined the local school district in 2014. With the approval of two major bond issues for school construction – $78 million in 2015 and $110 million in 2019 – he has overseen development of Horizon Middle School and Dorothy Dodds Elementary, the renewal of Probstfield Elementary’s educational role, and now Moorhead High School. The vision for ninth- through twelfth-grade education has been taking shape since the Moorhead Career Academy opened in 2021; now students will move into the first phase of the 21st century Moorhead High when they return from winter break. “It has been like putting together the pieces of a complex jigsaw puzzle,” he told the Extra two years ago. “But we’re getting close. When everything is done, this is going to be something to see.” And now it is.