Despite the thin layer of snow on the ground and the expectation of more this weekend, the Brainerd lakes area has fallen into a drought.

So little accumulation has fallen since September that area firefighters have been called to grass fires in January and February, a rarity according to Mark Mortensen, DNR program forester in Brainerd.

Cass County is up and running on its new 800-megahertz radio system, allowing police, fire and emergency service personnel to communicate on any number of channels across the county, region and even the state.

Kerry Swenson, Cass County emergency management director, said the $5.5 million system, mandated by the federal government, is a couple of radio towers short of being complete but is being used by all agencies in the county. In a week to 10 days, Swenson expects the system to be finished.

For the third year the College Drive Reconstruction project remained a controversial topic for the city of Brainerd.

In 2011 the council, by a narrow margin, approved increasing the project from $6.9 million to about $9.4 million. More than $4.335 million in federal finding has been received for the project. The majority of the remaining costs will be funded with the city’s state aid money.

It was downright spring-like in Brainerd on Monday afternoon, with the thermometer topping out at a record-breaking 46 degrees.

The previous daily record for Dec. 16 was 44 degrees, set in 1999. The normal maximum temperature for this time of year in Brainerd is 21 degrees, according to records kept by the National Weather Service in Duluth.

The unseasonably high temperature across the state set some new daily records in Duluth, the Twin Cities and St. Cloud, too.