Proud Irishmen and women--and those who are Irish at heart--are shining up their shamrocks in anticipation for Kilkenny’s Halfway to St. Paddy’s Day celebration this Saturday, September 11.
Dale and Kathleen Hamele, longtime Kilkenny residents and business owners, have been named this year’s grand marshals. The couple has owned and operated West Side Repair in Kilkenny for 30 years.

A colorful display of Czech beads and jewelry on Saturday continued the “Kaleidoscope of Czech Heritage” display at the Arts & Heritage Center.
Doris “Dee” Coghill, a member of the Czech Heritage Group, the organization responsible for the display, brought her display, which represents the area’s Czech heritage, history, and culture.
Coghill explained the northern region of the Czech Republic, which is two hours north and slightly west of Prague, is the area for the country’s glass production.

According to an independent facility planning company, buildings in the Tri-City United District need improving, despite the recent multi-million-dollar bond referendum projects the district is finishing.

Pawns, rooks, knights, bishops … area youth are making their moves by learning and honing their skills in the game of chess.
Special Education Teacher Collin Scott (TCU Montgomery) started offering chess tournaments three years ago as a way for kids to get involved in an activity. The events usually average between 15 and 20 youth.
“The chess tournament was started to give those students in the surrounding area who didn’t play on an organized sports team or who loved to play competitive chess but had no outlet,” he said.
Scott is no stranger to the game.

For years, I have written an editorial/opinion column that is on this page.
This week, I need to write another one, but I have a severe case of writer’s block.
Oh! I don’t have a problem covering a meeting, sporting event, or a story about an event at the Arts & Heritage Center. That’s easy. I take notes, follow-up with questions, create an outline, and voilà - a story!
No, the block comes up when I have to write about something personal, or something interesting that I’ve done. The problem is, I never do interesting things.
I’m boring.

The September 1, 2021, issue of the Belle Plaine Herald, will be the last.
The newspaper’s owners, the Townsend Family, announced the news on its front page this week.
“The Townsend Family is sadly publishing the final edition of the Belle Plaine Herald, after nearly 140 years of covering the news in Belle Plaine and the surrounding area. This is the one article I hoped we would never have to print,” stated publisher and editor E. Daniel Townsend, who’s been employed at the newspaper and print company as long as he can remember.

A large crowd and good weather greeted The Le Sueur County Pioneer Power Show Friday Aug. 27, through Sunday, Aug. 29. The annual show features tractors of all years, sizes and models.
“We had extremely good attendance this year,” said Bill Thelemann of the Pioneer Power Tractor Show. “We dodged the main (predicted) rain storms.”

The Czech Heritage Club were on the road a few weeks ago.
Club Members George Mikiska and James Simon appeared at the Pope County Fair in Glenwood on August 6. According to the members, Pope County has the next highest population of Czech immigrants in the state after Czech Country (Veseli, Lonsdale, Montgomery, and New Prague).

Three of the four teams from the DRS Amateur Baseball League were eliminated in the first round of the Class C State Tournament last weekend.
Kimball defeated Union Hill (3-0), Luxemburg downed St. Benedict (5-2), and Bemidji ended New Prague’s season (12-3).
St. Patrick is the lone team remaining from Region 3C. They received a first round bye and will play Austin Saturday, Aug. 28 at 11 a.m. at Waconia. Austin defeated Paynesville (6-2) in the first round game.
In the New Prague loss, Bemidji used a draftee pitcher to shut down the potent Orioles offense.

Today's Music in the Park concert has been postponed and will be rescheduled.
The band Back Up and Push was formed out of band members overlapping love of Kenny Baker fiddle tunes, Jim and Jesse vocal harmonies, Stanley and Scruggs banjo licks, and a healthy skepticism of guitar breaks, Back Up & Push takes traditional bluegrass seriously so you don't have to. 
Music in the Park is sponsored by the City of Montgomery, Montgomery Park and Recreation Advisory Board, and Montgomery American Legion Post #79.

Arnold “Arnie” Edel, 59, of Owatonna, passed away Wednesday, August 18, 2021, at Abbott Northwestern Hospital, Minneapolis.

The annual Kilkenny Fire Department ATV Ride, which was held Saturday, August 14, had the biggest turnout in the history of the event.
This is the fifth year the Kilkenny Fire Department has been in charge of the event. The ATV Run was started by the Kilkenny Park Committee a decade ago.
A total of 449 machines and 781 people participated this year, eclipsing the previous high numbers of 329 machines and 525 people in 2019, the last time the event was held. COVID-19 forced the cancellation of the ATV Run in 2020.

An inspection by the Occupational Safety and Health Administration (OSHA) has highlighted the need for a new police department building.
During the regular council meeting on Monday, City Administrator Brian Heck reported on an OSHA inspection done in late July. While, he hasn’t received the final report yet, Heck said the city will get dinged on a couple of items like training, respirators, and other things that total upwards of $12,000 in fines.

Even though school is out for the summer, members of the TCU Robotics Club have been hard at work building, programming and driving their robots.
The most recent competition was a three-day tournament at the Benton County Fair in Sauk Rapids. Club Advisor John Head said the event was special since it was the first event in the world for the 2021-22 season.
He said because of this, all the robots were quite unique in their designs, and there weren’t really predetermined tactics in game strategies.

St. Patrick scored two unearned runs in the 9th inning and one more in the 10th inning to come from behind to defeat Union Hill for the Region 3C Championship Sunday, August 15 in St. Patrick.
The Irish, the No. 1 seed in the tournament, trailed 7-5 after the Bulldogs scored a run in the top of the 9th to take a 7-5 lead.
Kal Brohmer and Ryan Friedges singled with one out in the 9th. They both scored following an error by the third baseman and an error by the left fielder, tying the game at 7-all.

Generations Theatre Company took its cast from its summer production “Blame it on the Movies” on the road on Thursday, Aug. 12. The tour consisted of stops at Tradtions of Montgomery, Mala Strana Rehabilitation and Assisted Living Center and Praha Village, the senior apartment facility, both in New Prague. The group sang songs from “Blame it on the Movies,” which consisted of songs from various time periods of the silver screen.