Tri-City United High School’s one act thespians’ season didn’t pan out quite what they wanted to, but it was a great show none-the-less by the students.
Students competed at the 2A sub-section one act competition on Saturday, Jan. 24, at the school’s performing arts center. This coming after their Thursday, Jan. 22, public performance was postponed until Thursday, Jan. 29, due to cold temperatures. Temperatures that evening and the following day dipped to around 20 degrees below zero.
Firefighters from at least New Prague Fire Department and Montgomery Fire Department extinguished a fully-engulfed separated garage fire Thursday, Jan. 29, during the evening hours at Number One Auto north of Heidelberg in rural Lanesburgh Township in Le Sueur County. Temperatures at the time were only about five degrees above zero.
Faced with a deteriorating infrastructure, the City of Kilkenny is looking to rehabilitate and modernize its water systems.
The city met with Kyle Renneke of the engineering firm ISG Monday to go over details of the project. Particular focus is given to the well house. The 90-year old structure is in critical disrepair.
“It has a concrete roof that could collapse at any time,” said Kilkenny Mayor Tammy Holicky said.
Republicans and Democrats in Le Sueur, and Rice counties interested in participating in the early stages of the process of selecting their respective party’s candidates and platforms at upcoming precinct caucuses can do so on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at 7 p.m. at various locations.
Most Holy Redeemer Catholic School (MHRCS) middle school teacher Jennifer Floyd of Lonsdale was awarded the Smart/Maher VFW National Citizenship Education Teacher of the Year for grades 6-8 for Minnesota.
Floyd is the fourth winner sponsored by the Montgomery VFW Post 5340. Prior winners included Heide Veazie, Christine Trcka, and Michael Bass-Smith.
She teaches language arts for 7th-8th grade, Spanish for grades 3rd-8th, and art for all of the middle school at MHRCS where this is her second year there and 35th year as a teacher.
Tri-City United High School was host to the Big South Conference Championship last Thursday, Jan. 8. Six other teams from the conference convened at Montgomery competing in both jazz and kick.
TCU dancers ended up in the middle of the pack for both jazz and kick, and for junior varsity jazz as well.
Head Coach Katey Weiss said, “All three of our dances were our best performances and scores to date. We work every week to improve our routines. I'm very happy with how we finished.”
The Le Sueur County Sheriff’s Office and the Minnesota State Patrol (MSP) have released their incident report and crash reconstruction report regarding the fatal crash on Sept. 11, 2025, at the intersection of Country State Aide Highway (CSAH) 28/320th Street and CSAH 32/211th Avenue, a few miles north of Clear Lake in Derrynane Township.
Belle Plaine mother Mackenzie Jo Glaser, 23, perished in the incident. She was a new mother carrying her one-year-old daughter in the vehicle, who survived without injury. Glaser was on the way to drop off her daughter at daycare at the time.
When Tri-City United (TCU) senior Ella Schmiesing grabbed her 1,000th career rebound Tuesday, Dec. 30 at Waterville, she became one of the select few in state history to have both 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.
The St. Catherine basketball commit is one of only 267 players in Minnesota history to record the milestone.
As a freshman Schmiesing played in all 26 games, recording 219 rebounds in 610 minutes of action.
Montgomery City Administrator Brian Heck formally announced to city council his retirement plans, which has a somewhat flexible target date of June of this year. This was announced at the Monday, Jan. 5, special city council meeting.
“What I told Tom (Mayor Thomas Eisert) and what I put in my notes to council is that my target is June. June is what I’m looking at, and I will commit to hanging around until someone is brought on,” said Heck.
Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation (SMIF) recently approved $300,000 to support 14 capital projects in small towns under 10,000 through the Taylor Rural Improvements Grant. Each project provides services to underserved populations in the community. This grant round considered projects involving food, clothing, shelter, transportation and internet accessibility. An additional $100,000 was dispersed for food and direct assistance through a Good Neighbor Grant from The McKnight Foundation.
The Rice County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday, Dec. 9, approved the county’s 2026 budget and property tax levy, which increased by 8.51% over 2025. That’s slightly less than the preliminary figure approved in September.
While the $103 million budget is about $12 million lower than the current budget, the levy increase is largely due to cost shifts from the state, reductions in state grants and county program aid, the 2026 elections and higher personnel costs laid out in negotiated collective bargaining agreements.
Tri-City United High School Assistant Principal David Reuhs was surprised when he walked into the school's media center on Monday, Jan. 5, for what he thought was a staff meeting.
Ruehs was met by the Minnesota Association of Secondary School Principals (MASSP) Executive Director Bob Driver, his family, much of the staff of the school, and media, where he was presented the honor of being the chosen the 2026 Minnesota High School Assistant Principal of the Year award.
He will be put up against others across the nation in April for the national award.
The Tri-City United School District School Board voted on Monday, Dec. 22, to ask voters in the district again to pass the same $39.99 million bond that was proposed at the November 2025 single vote election. In November, the tax base that showed up to vote voted 926 in approval and 1,088 in opposition.
Eleven members of Tri-City United High School’s FFA chapter spend Dec. 14 and Dec. 15 in St. Cloud competing and learning at the Minnesota FFA Winter Leadership Summit at St. Cloud State University.
The first day of the summit included an lengthy agriculture discussion session and a party. The second day of the summit included preliminary rounds for the seven Leadership Development Event (LDE) categories student competition, employment skills, leadership workshops, final rounds of competition, and an awards ceremony.
Montgomery’s Sharing Tree Coordinator Eileen Segna wants everyone to know they are more than just offering gifts during the holidays, although it’s a big part of their efforts, and that everything given goes directly back to our community.
“This year I think we had 129 (Sharing Tree) tags and there was 19 left over, so we went last Saturday to buy gifts for those 19 people. So, tomorrow when we deliver, everyone will have gifts that otherwise would have been left out,” said Segna.
Saturday’s home weightlifting duo with the Burnsville Blaze yielded three individuals qualifying for state and slug of first place finishes.
Morgan Meier qualified for varsity state competition with an automatic qualifying total (AQT) greater than 95 KG of 100 KG in the varsity girls’s 58 KG category.