5 things to know today: Alerus Center, Downtown Achievement Award, Grand Forks library, Cass County, 'Indigenous Impacts'

Alerus has extended for another 10 years its naming rights and sponsorship agreement for the Alerus Center.

City officials, representatives of the Alerus Center, Alerus and Spectra, the center’s management firm, met for a ceremony at the event center on Wednesday morning, Sept. 23, to make the announcement.

The Community Foundation of Grand Forks, East Grand Forks, and Region and Greater Grand Forks Young Professionals organizations have received recognition for work related to The Longest Table event.

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Each year, the Washington D.C.-based International Downtown Association recognizes projects which identify improvements to urban centers as winners of its Downtown Achievement Awards.

As other libraries begin to reopen their doors to the public, a localized coronavirus measurement tool could aid leaders at Grand Forks’ public library as they work to do the same.

Staff and officials at the library, which rebranded last year to “Grand Forks Public_” with an underscore at the end, have had a reopening plan in place since May in a format that’s become nearly ubiquitous to governments of all levels during the COVID-19 pandemic: a series of phases that outline decreasingly stringent plans for staff, patrons and the building as epidemiological circumstances grow less risky.

The move to the yellow designation for Cass County does not trigger any legal mandates on businesses, but it changes the state's recommendations for restaurants and large gatherings. Bars and restaurants in the counties are advised to serve only up to 50% of normal capacity, while large venues are urged to hold no more than 250 people at 50% of normal capacity.

"Indigenous Impacts: How Native American communities are responding to COVID-19" takes a deep dive into the effects of the coronavirus on Native American communities and individuals, and looks at how they are battling against the pandemic and the unique problems it poses to their people.