At the November 19 Lanesboro School Board meeting, which was held with social distancing measures, Superintendent Matt Schultz informed the board that the solar panels on the gym at the school should be installed by the end of the year and will supply a significant portion of the school’s energy, saving an estimated $60,000-$75,000 a year in energy costs. Board member and city … [Read more...]
Articles by Hannah Wingert
Reporter
hannah@fillmorecountyjournal.com
Lanesboro Arts Center remains positive despite pandemic challenges
“We’ve been here for 30 odd years, we’re not going away,” Lanesboro Arts Director and Team Executive Director Robbie Brokken said. Brokken shares the title of art director with Kara Maloney who is also the advancement director. Together, with an incredible, hard-working staff and board of directors, they run the Lanesboro Arts Center. Despite the challenges that the center has … [Read more...]
The Sweet Stop and Sandwich Shoppe reopens with improvements
Everyone knows that renovations of any kind can be stressful. So what better time to do them than during 2020, a year marked by intense stress for just about everyone? When Mike and Brenda Eickhoff temporarily closed the The Sweet Stop and Sandwich Shoppe in Preston on July 26, they saw an opportunity to finally get some renovations done that had been on their list for a while. … [Read more...]
Improvements at Cancer Memorial Park in Harmony
By Hannah Wingert The November 10 Harmony City Council meeting opened with a public forum to discuss the assessments, but as no one was present with questions or comments, the forum was closed. President of the Harmony Area Cancer Support Group, Ann Mraz, attended the meeting to discuss the cancer memorial park in Harmony. The support group was first started in the late 1980s … [Read more...]
Lanesboro council approves vacation of portion of Fillmore Avenue N.
By Hannah Wingert The Lanesboro City Council met at 5 p.m. on November 2 to hold a budget workshop. It was noted that utilities will go up because the city has to prove that it can pay for the new wastewater treatment plant. A few minor changes were made to the 2021 budget, but nothing major was changed. At 5:45, a public hearing was opened to discuss the potential vacation … [Read more...]
Fillmore Central adds additional early dismissals to calendar
The Fillmore Central School Board met on October 27 at 6:30 p.m. Superintendent Heath Olstad gave a report for the elementary and high school buildings. The end of the first quarter is on November 6 and parent-teacher conferences for grades K-6 will be held virtually on November 12. Six additional early dismissals have been added to the school calendar to give the teachers … [Read more...]
Lanesboro facility project moving along
At the October 12 Lanesboro School Board meeting, the board reviewed two change orders for the facilities project. The first change order was in the amount of $1,011 for paint, kitchen, electrical, and sprinkler expenses and the second, in the amount of $6,301, was for the kitchen layout and equipment. Superintendent Matt Schultz informed the board that there will probably be … [Read more...]
Harmony residents raise concerns over high tax levy
The October 13 Harmony City council meeting opened with a public forum. Council member Deb Swenson was absent. Harmony residents Ron Gregg and Dan Tiffenbacher brought their concerns about the 2021 tax levy to the council as they felt that the increase of 10.2% set at the September meeting was high. City Administrator Devin Swanberg assured them that it’s customary for the city … [Read more...]
Traditions of Preston opens memory care unit
When Traditions of Preston first opened in 2009, it started out as an assisted living center with a memory care unit, but at that time, none of its residents were in need of a memory care facility and there wasn’t much interest in it. Rather than let the rooms sit empty, the space was changed to a regular unlocked assisted living unit instead. Eleven years later, things have … [Read more...]
Lanesboro EDA works to support local small businesses
The Lanesboro City Council met via Zoom on October 5 for their regular meeting. A public hearing was opened to hear any questions or comments on the possibility of vacating a portion of Fillmore Avenue North, but there were no members of the public present for the hearing so it was closed. Cathy Enerson gave the EDA report. She has worked with CEDA for 12 years now with other … [Read more...]
Sally’s Hair to Dye For still going strong after 20 years
Sally Gibson has known that she wanted to be a hairdresser since she was in eighth grade. After high school, she attended a beauty school in Rochester and then worked in Rochester at a hair salon for the next 20 years. Things changed though when her family moved to Preston into a house that already had a salon built into the basement. She had planned to retire from hair … [Read more...]
Low-maintenance perennials make beautiful landscaping at the Augs
Chuck and Vonnie Aug have lived in their big white house in Preston for 39 years, but it wasn’t until they tore down the old garage to build a new one 26 years ago, that Vonnie got into landscaping. Once the garage came down and she saw the bare dirt, she figured that she needed to either pay someone to take care of it or learn to garden herself. She had never really done any … [Read more...]
Lanesboro school year off to a good start
Distance learning teacher Bret Klaehn updated the board about how the school year has been so far at the September 17 Lanesboro School Board meeting. “It’s been manageable,” he said, adding that no one was really sure how it would go until it had actually started. “As nervous as everyone was, at the end of the first day, everyone was just really happy to have spent a whole day … [Read more...]
Fall sports resume at Fillmore Central
At the September 22 Fillmore Central School Board meeting, Superintendent Heath Olstad informed the board that the Minnesota State High School League or MSHSL made the decision to hold the football and volleyball seasons this fall. Practices for both sports started on September 19 and will follow COVID-19 guidelines from the Minnesota Department of Health as will the games. “We … [Read more...]
Lanesboro school facilities project on track to finish by December 31
Like most schools across the country, and even the world, 2020 has been an unusual and challenging year for Lanesboro Public School. The 2019-2020 school year wrapped up with distance learning for all students thanks to COVID-19, and the 2020-2021 year just began with the in-person/hybrid learning models, necessitating lots of changes for both students and teachers. And as if … [Read more...]