At their July 8 meeting, the Houston City Council recognized ambulance employees Dave Runningen and Chris Cox for their impressive 40 years of service to the community on the ambulance. In addition, Anna Frauenkron shared that the ambulance has now officially become a training center for the state of Minnesota. With that, the ambulance crew can present EMT, EMR and refresher … [Read more...]
Lanesboro Contracts for Food Service
The Lanesboro School Board approved a contract with food service company Taher, at their July 10 meeting. After putting out an RFP (request for proposal), a single proposal was received from Taher. Following the requirements, a point system was used to evaluate the proposal with Taher receiving a total of 93 points. The contract is pending approval of MDE. The school had … [Read more...]
Milwaukee Road Enthusiasts Tour Local Depots
When MRHA (Milwaukee Road Historical Association) selected Winona as the site for their annual convention, they had an expert with local routes available to help plan a tour of the depots of Fillmore and Houston County. President of MRHA Jeff Goutcher hails from Preston originally. A tour was planned of depots remaining along the route of the Milwaukee Road. On June 28, three … [Read more...]
Rushford Rezones Former Windswept Inn
Following a public hearing on June 12, the Rushford City Council approved rezoning the former Windswept Inn at their regular June 24 council meeting. The new owners, PPS Properties, LLC., intend to create apartments rather than operate a motel. The zoning has been changed from Arterial Commercial to Multi-Family Housing. The plan is to create eight efficiency apartments from … [Read more...]
Hoff Purchases Riley Funeral Homes
Hoff Funeral and Cremation Service recently acquired the former Riley Funeral Homes in both Lanesboro and Chatfield, bringing their number of locations to eight. The Lanesboro and Chatfield locations will now have the same services available as all of the other Hoff locations. Changes will include the use of more technology, more personalization and updates to the facilities to … [Read more...]
Frac Sand Mine Proposed on Hwy. 30
Frac Sand Mining has once again been proposed in Fillmore County on the Roger Dabelstein property 13 miles west of Rushford on state highway 30. Twelve years ago, Minnesota Sands proposed a much larger project consisting of 11 mines. That project had been tabled since 2018 by the EQB (Environmental Quality Board) until this January. An EIS (Environmental Impact Statement) had … [Read more...]
R-P Fully Staffed
R-P Superintendent Dr. Ben Bernard was able to announce to the school board at their regular meeting June 17 that, with the hiring of middle school special education teacher Nathan Whitacre, the school was fully staffed for the 2024-2025 school year. Both the revised 2023-2024 and the proposed 2024-2025 budgets were approved after the examination of the budgets with the help … [Read more...]
Survey Launch for Rushford’s Former Farmers Win Site
City Administrator Tony Chladek shared the details of the public survey regarding the development of the former Farmers Win site in downtown Rushford at the Rushford City Council meeting June 10. On Monday, June 17, flyers will be placed around town, postcards will be mailed out, the survey will be posted on Facebook and physical copies of the survey will be available at city … [Read more...]
Four Houston School Board Positions Up for Election
With the resignation of former board member Marissa Grams at the June 6 meeting, the Houston School Board will now have four positions to fill in the general election next fall. Grams’ position will be filled by appointment of the school board; it will then be included in the general election and the newly elected board member will join the board in January with the other new … [Read more...]
Lanesboro School Board Approves Policy 404
After tabling the issue for several months, the Lanesboro School Board unanimously approved Policy 404, Employment Background Checks, at their June 12 meeting. The board used the MSBA suggested policy, but added procedures to the policy. In the adopted procedures, they stipulated that the teaching staff will annually respond to some questions that are the same as they are asked … [Read more...]