Local briefs

The Brainerd City Council will meet in a closed session at 5:30 p.m. today for a union negotiation strategy meeting.

Wallin proclamations

Brainerd Mayor James Wallin named Nov. 23-30 as Bible Week and Nov. 23-29 as Festival of Trees week in the city of Brainerd.

Safe and Sober patrols net seven

Brainerd State Patrol troopers made 39 stops and arrested seven impaired drivers as part of its Safe and Sober October Fest-Halloween enhanced enforcement project.

"I think that we probably prevented some serious crashes by taking drunk drivers off the roads," said Brainerd State Patrol Lt. Amy Stanfield in a news release.

The State Patrol credits the success of the enforcement projects to the media for getting the message out and to the motoring public for their cooperation in making good decisions about drinking and driving.

ID kits give to classrooms

Crow Wing Power and People's Security recently distributed 500 Child Identification kits to the Brainerd School District for distribution in elementary classrooms. The kits are part of a nationwide inkless fingerprint identification program sponsored by electric cooperatives.

The kits will be passed out by kindergarten teachers to their students to take home. Parents will collect specific information and record physical characteristics and fingerprints of their children on identification cards. The ID kits would give authorities valuable information should they ever be needed to locate a missing child.

Each year 450,000 children run away from home, 350,000 children are abducted by family members, and more than 4,600 children are abducted by non-family members.