This past week I had the pleasure to interview a woman who turned 107 years old on Sunday.
My only regret with this story is that I didn’t get to personally meet Elrose Milverstedt, who grew up in Dodge County and now lives in Owatonna. Knowing that social distancing requirements are in effect right now with long-term care facilities, we arranged for a phone interview.

As weather patters change from polar pushes into the state to more tropical weather from the Gulf of Mexico our days are warming and trees are leafing out.
Grass needs mowing at least once a week as heavy rainfall moves through the region. (Most folks are hoping it’s not a repeat of last year’s record-setting downpours.)

Isaac Andrew Monson, 17, of Dodge Center, passed away on May 23, 2020.
Isaac was born on July 12, 2002, in Rochester, the son of Tracy and Heather (Bowman) Monson.
Isaac was to graduate with the Triton High School Class of 2020, and planned to attend Riverland College this fall.  He enjoyed working on computers and was an avid gamer. Family was very important to Isaac and he enjoyed going on trips with his grandmother, Linda.

Paul Harold Bringgold was born on November 4, 1927 on the family farm in West Concord. He was the son of Harold and Violet (Raddatz) Bringgold. He had a younger brother James.
Paul grew up in the years of the Great Depression and World War II, experiences that formed his character. He learned how to work hard on the 200-acre crop and dairy farm, plowing the fields with horses and milking cows by hand before school.

Dodge County girls hockey team manager and K-M freshman Eric Fagerlind was sitting in the Kasson-Mantorville High School Learning Center when he got the text he’d been waiting for.
It simply read: “The grant is ours.”
Fagerlind couldn’t believe it.
            “I was astonished, to say the least. This was something long awaited and I was shocked,” he said.

Sometimes the more schools that offer scholarships to a student-athlete, the harder it can be for them to choose the right one, but that wasn’t the case for Byron’s 6’4” basketball star Sacia Vanderpool.

The Kasson-Mantorville school board discussed an expected partnership between the high school and CHS Inc., the option for students to take this quarter’s classes as pass or no credit and changes to the schedule at K-M Middle School among other subjects at its monthly meeting on Monday, May 18. Superintendent Mark Matuska said CHS is interested in getting involved with Kasson-Mantorville High School’s agricultural program.

Kasson Police Chief Kent Berghuis, who is retiring the end of June, grew up in Marshall, where his parents were on the school faculty. He participated in football, some wrestling and was a member of the DeMolay youth organization in the community, plus he liked hunting and fishing.   

The Minnesota State Fair has been cancelled for this year due to the COVID-19 outbreak.
“It’s unfortunate, but we saw it coming,” said Steele County Fair President Dan Deml in response to the State Fair’s decision. “It’s inevitable, but incredibly unfortunate.”