The restoration of the Settler’s Log Cabin in Memorial Park, Montgomery, continued over the weekend. Roland Ceplecha spent a few hours Saturday powder blasting the cabin. Ceplecha owns Kaderlik Well Drilling and Service, and he volunteered his equipment and labor for the job. Prior to the powder blasting, one of the logs near the bottom was also replaced. Rick Krenik replaced it with the help from Public Works Supervisor Chris Roemhildt, who used a pay-loader to lift the log cabin. After the blasting, the log cabin will still have a few things to be completed.

The Rice County Master Gardener volunteers are hosting their annual Arbor Day tree and shrub giveaway on Friday, April 30, at the Rice County Fairgrounds in Faribault. The giveaway will take place from 3:30-5:30 p.m., while supplies last.
The giveaway will take place as a drive-through, minimal contact event. Everyone is welcome to drive through the fairgrounds and select a free tree or shrub seedling. Participants should enter the fairgrounds from Second Avenue NW and there will be signs indicating the flow of traffic.

Most Holy Redeemer Catholic School recognized a model student and eighth grader for emulating the virtues of the school’s saint of the month.
For April, the saint is...
To read more on this article, pick up the April 8, 2021 print edition of the Montgomery Messenger.

The Le Sueur County Commissioners cast their votes Tuesday, April 6 for their top candidates for the county administrator position.
The board was presented a list of nine candidates by DDA Human Resources Management Consultant Liza M. Donabauer, who has been working on the hiring process for the county.
The position was posted February 17 and four weeks later 30 individuals had applied. 14 of those applicants were selected as semifinalists. Of those, five withdrew their applications.

We missed Easter this year. Well, most of it. My family of four (my husband, John, daughters Anna, age 11, and Ellen, age 9, and myself) recently spent a week in Florida with my brother-in-law and sister-in-law’s family of five. They have three kiddos—ages 7, 5, and 3, and one more on the way. Basically, the Ingebrands invaded Florida.

Montgomery’s City Council and Planning and Zoning Commission gave a thumbs up to the new seasonal employee housing plan presented by Seneca Foods, Inc.
After hearing a presentation of facts by City Administrator Brian Heck, with additional information by Zach Woytcke, planning and zoning members unanimously approved the conditional use and building permits for the project on Tuesday, March 8.
The plan, which will replace the...
To read more on this story, pick up the April 8, 2021 print edition of the Montgomery Messenger.

Take a Mom Fishing Weekend is the weekend before fishing opener
Fishing seasons open for walleye, bass, trout in lakes, and northern pike on Saturday, May 15, with this year’s date taking the prize for the latest possible opener under Minnesota statute.
“We know there is some confusion about this year’s opener date,” said Jon Hansen, fisheries program consultant for the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources.

The City of New Prague will have the building located at 102 E. Main Street (containing The Consignment Lodge at 102 E. Main Street and Downtown Sound at 104 E. Main Street) posted as an unsafe structure and to be vacated (per MN Rules1300.0180) until further notice.

High School students are returning to full, in-person learning - again.
The TCU School Board approved change in a special meeting Monday.
The option to full in-person learning was not the board’s first option.
Board member Michelle Borchardt made a motion to return to the hybrid model the district started at the beginning of the year. Unlike the current hybrid model where at-home students view live-streamed classes, the model Borchardt suggested was to have work days when kids are at home.

After a pair of impressive performances on the mound the weekend of March 20, Elly Novak quickly cemented her spot as the College of Saint Benedict softball team’s Game 1 starter. After another big weekend against two solid teams, Novak caught the eye of the Minnesota Intercollegiate Athletic Conference (MIAC).
After notching 24 strikeouts and giving up just six earned runs in three appearances, Novak was named the MIAC Pitcher of the Week, the league announced on March 22. This is the first MIAC weekly pitching honor for Novak, a sophomore at CSB.

The community Easter Egg Hunt will happen again this year.
Due to ramifications of COVID- 19, the Minnesota Department of Health (MDH) has again approved an alternative community event for Montgomery. The Easter Goodie Bag Drive-Thru will be held on Saturday, April 10 from 12 to 3 p.m. in the drive-thru of CornerStone State Bank, one of the organizers of the event.
To get approval during the coronavirus pandemic, branch president Connie White Tupy had conversations with Le Sueur County Public Health and MDH.

Despite some rain drops, there was no raining on their parade. On Saturday, the Tri- City United Wrestling Team visited each community within the district in a parade celebrating their victory as 2AA Team Section Champions at the state tournament. The team also celebrated seven state entrants (Ayden Balma, Chris Johnson, Zach Balma, Caden O’Malley, Marco Reyes, Brody Rud, and Riley O’Malley) and three state finalists (Chris Johnson, Brody Rud and Riley O’Malley).

The City of Montgomery is taking a property owner to court to force the demolition of an abandoned building on First Street.
The case involves the property at 100 First Street South (corner of Vine Avenue and First Street) owned by Bob and Bonnie Taraba. According to the complaint filed in Le Sueur County on December 29, the city has asked Le Sueur County courts to force the Tarabas to tear down the building that it states is dilapidated, hazardous and beyond repair.

More than 100 pieces of artwork created by the youngest Titans are now on display at the Arts and Heritage Center of Montgomery. The exhibit, which is open to the public, is available for view during regular center hours, through April 17.
Each piece of artwork is labeled with the student artist’s name and grade.
Most of the items exhibited are two-dimensional, but some impressive three-dimensional art is featured on a table in the center of the display.

Tri-City United High School students will take to the stage this weekend, seven months after the show was first cast, to present Disney’s “High School Musical.”
The show is directed by English Teacher, Sarah Mejia. The difficulty of bringing this year’s musical to the stage, in the middle of the COVID-19 pandemic, has been an endeavor unlike any other.

Here’s a scary story from the field of science: experiments at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Israel have successfully grown mouse embryos inside an artificial uterus.
Wait!
What?
The embryos looked perfectly normal, according to the study published in the journal Nature. All their organs developed as expected, along with their limbs and circulatory and nervous systems. Their tiny hearts were beating at a normal 170 beats per minute.
Fake wombs?
Really? Why?