He helped New Prague honor its own fallen hometown hero in 2012, 23-year-old Marine Lance Corporal Dale W. Means, who died November 18, 2012, while serving with the U.S. Marine Corps in Afghanistan.
Now, Larry “The Flag Guy” Eckhardt of Little York, Illinois, is at the end of his life, having placed nearly half a million flags around the U.S. to honor fallen police officers, firefighters, and service members—including Means.

The Le Sueur County Board cruised through a very light agenda Tuesday, March 3.
The regular meeting lasted approximately 40 minutes, but was followed by a special road and bridge work session.
A number of items which were dealt with during the regular meeting involved the highway department.
A couple of final payments were approved for work done this past year.
Crane Creek Asphalt received final payments of $148,200.72 for the CSAH 15 project from CSAH 22 to CSAH 26, and a payment of $69,056.47 for the CSAH project near Heidelberg.

The City of Elko New Market held an open house for an Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) on the Adelmann family property, east of the town. Community Development Specialist Renee Christianson and City Engineer Rich Revering answered questions about the review of the approximately 70 acres of property, which is located near the Interstate 35 interchange and currently in New Market Township.

Coborn’s Marketplace in New Prague held a Grand Re-Opening of its store the afternoon of Wednesday, March 4, with two ribbon cuttings. One included dignitaries from the store, employees and those who helped with the remodeling of the store, Little Dukes gas station, the addition of a Caribou Coffee and a new liquor store. The other was for the New Prague Chamber of Commerce. The Grand Re-Opening included face painting, samples from the store and local vendors until 6 p.m., free carnations, cookie decorating, kids activities, and free balloon swords or animals from Wallie the Clown.

The New Prague Fire Department took possession of a new pumper truck the afternoon of Tuesday, March 3. Members of the fire department were spending Tuesday learning how to run the new vehicle. The new truck replaces a pumper truck that had a cracked frame. The new pumper truck can hold 1,000 gallons of water, will be used to help fight rural fires and the department hopes to make use of the truck for more than 25 years. For more see an upcoming print issue of The Times. (Patrick Fisher Photo)

Judy A. Prom, age 74, of Chaska, formerly of Jordan, died Sunday March 1st, 2020 at St. Francis Regional Medical Center in Shakopee.
Born in Cincinnati, Ohio on November 10, 1945. Judy was the daughter of Lawrence and Mary (Austin) Gardner.
Judy was a lover of life. The caring person that she was, it came as no surprise that she would study nursing for a time. She was well known as “Ma” or “Grandma” to everyone she met. When she wasn’t spending time in the garden nurturing her plants, she was nurturing her mind reading her many books...Judy was a Beautiful Soul.

Primary voting is going on across Minnesota today (Tuesday, March 3). Here is a listing of the places people can vote from around the area.

Scott Richard Vig, Caske Taḣca Wihni Hokṡida “First born son who hunts for deer, Boy”, age 38 of Prior Lake, member of the Shakopee Mdewakanton Sioux Community,   passed away accidentally Thursday, February 27, 2020 due to a terrible mechanical failure in Eden Prairie.
Scott was born on October 13, 1981 in St. Louis Park, the son of Charlie and Donna (Kraemer) Vig. He married Kristin Breault on October 6, 2007 at Shepherd of the Lake Lutheran Church in Prior Lake.

Spring Load Restrictions on Rice, Le Sueur and Scott County State Aid Highways and County roadways will go in to effect at 12:01 a.m., Friday, March 6, 2020.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation has issued a notice that Spring Load Restrictions on the state highway system in the south, southeast and metro frost zones go in to effect on Friday, March 6, 2020.
Ending dates for spring load restrictions are variable and based on how weather is affecting roadway strength.
The Spring Load Restriction map is posted on the MNDOT website at mndot.gov/loadlimits.

Larry Allen Edwards,  age 79, of New Prague,  MN passed away peacefully with his wife by his side on Wednesday morning,  February 26th, 2020 at The Lutheran Home in Belle Plaine.   A memorial gathering to celebrate Larry's life will be held at Holy Trinity Lutheran Church in New Prague with Pastor Diane Goulson officiating.  It will be March 19th at 11am with a one hour visitation prior to the service.  Burial will be held at Meadow Ridge Memorial Park Cemetery in Faribault,  MN at a later date. 

The 44th annual Norm Sladek Memorial Euchre Tournament drew 84 people. Held at the Knights of Columbus Hall in New Prague on Saturday, Feb. 22, winners this year were Tom Kohout and Donnie Revord. The two edged out the team of Rita Dirks and Katie Skluzacek.
Winning the Trouba Award were Matt Novak and Rob Tietz, who lost 8-1. During the tourney they set the team of Ron and Jeff Simon four times in a row and still lost the game.
Among the teams from around the area who played through the day at the tourney were Harold Shimota of New Prague and his son Tom of Rosemount.

A beautiful winter day helped lead to a great turnout for MusicFest III at the Park Ballroom in New Prague on Saturday, Feb. 22. Lots of sun and temperatures in the low 40s likely helped the fundraiser for the New Prague Veterans Memorial as 550-600 attended the dance and silent auction. The combined events raised approximately $19,500 that will go to the Veterans Memorial that is scheduled to be built this summer.

Sunday, Feb. 23, was a busy day for the 21st annual Wood Duck Box Building Day as a multitude of families stopped by the Knights of Columbus Hall in New Prague to make duck houses.
“We think we’ll be out of houses before it’s over,” said Andrew Harms, the new chapter president of the Scott-Le Sueur Waterfowlers. Around 11:30 a.m. 270 of the 300 duck houses had been built and taken home by families. “It’s been a busy day, but that’s what we like,” said Harms.

Between 390 to 400 people showed up to savor the offerings at the 26th annual Soup Supper. Held in the basement of St. Wenceslaus Catholic Church on Monday, Feb. 17, the free will event served up three flavorful soups. The all you can eat supper had choices of chili, vegetable beef barley and chicken noodle.
Volunteers served up 35 gallons of chili, 35 gallons of vegetable beef barley and 40 gallons of chicken noodle to those attending or those who took their meals to go. There were also several choices of...

Fourteen New Prague wrestlers competed in the Section 2AAA Tournament Friday, Feb. 21 and Saturday, Feb. 22.
Every wrestler finished in the top four of their respective weight classes. Seven of those advanced to State.
“It was a great weekend of wrestling. This is the best the team has wrestled collectively all season long,” Trojan head coach Dan Wagner said. “The depth of our talent showed this weekend as we had all 14 wrestlers place in the top 4. We had four champions and three second place finishers. Going into the tournament we only had two wrestlers seeded number 1.”

The New Prague Adapted Floor Hockey team continued its unbeaten winter season with a pair of wins last week.
The Trojans defeated South Suburban, 11-1, Tuesday, Feb. 18 and Winona, 13-1, Thursday, Feb. 20.
In the win over South Suburban, Dylan Raaen scored five goals, Leo Fahey scored three goals, and Mathew Boike added two goals.
Garrett Gagner had four assists and Seth Dorner had three assists.