Even though the spring weather has been unfavorable for outside track and field meets, the TCU Titans had a second week of competition at the Minnesota River Conference Indoor Meet at Minnesota State University, Mankato.
The meet was held on Friday at the Myers Field House. The girls’ team finished in second place with 122.50 points behind Belle Plaine with 238 points. Behind TCU were Sibley East in third, Mayer Lutheran in fourth, Lester Prairie in fifth, Le Sueur-Henderson (LSH) in sixth, and Norwood- Young America (NYA) in seventh place.

Valerie M. Hrabe, age 63, of Elko New Market, died peacefully at home surrounded by her loving family on Wednesday, March 30, 2022.  Val was born on February 11, 1959 in Faribault to Ronald and Dorothy (Malecha) Machacek.  She graduated from Montgomery High School and started working at M.V.E. as a welder.  Unbeknown to Val, there was a young man who also worked at MVE.  They would finally meet when they both attended their milkman’s wedding dance; it was love at first sight for both of them and Val married Dan J. “Herbie” Hrabe on May 14, 1983 in Faribault.

Gregory John Vlasak, 73, of Montgomery passed away on Wednesday, March 23, 2022, at his home. Visitation will be held on Friday, April 1 from 4 to 8 at the Schoenbauer Funeral Home in Montgomery. Funeral services will be held on Saturday, April 2 at 11 a.m. at St. John Lutheran Church in Montgomery, with Pastor Jason Pollington officiating with visitation one hour prior at the church.
Interment will be held in St. John Catholic Cemetery. Military Honors will be provided by the Montgomery Area Veterans Honor Guard. 

The Waterville Fire Department was called to a fire at The Funky Munkey restaurant in Waterville early Saturday morning, March 26. According to a firefighter at the scene, the call was made at approximately 3 a.m.
People in the nearby apartments were evacuated.
Elysian Fire, Madison Lake Fire, Morristown Fire, Waseca Fire, Janesville Fire, Faribault Fire, Le Center Fire, Kilkenny Fire, and New Richland Fire were called to assist and helped extinguish the fire.
There have been no reports of injury.

Le Sueur County has a handful of roadway projects scheduled for 2022 which may limit travel to county roads.
In the northern-most portion of the county there will be a resurfacing project on the east side of New Prague.
The project is set to resurface one mile of County State Aide Highway 3 (141st Ave.) between CSAH 20 and State Highway 19. There will be Stabilized Full Depth Reclamation, bituminous paving, and aggregate shouldering.
The project is currently being advertised and the contractor is unknown. The start-up time will be late spring to early summer.

They were so close.
Tri-City United High School’s Knowledge Bowl team came up just one point shy of moving on to the Regional Tournament last week when the Titans competed at the Sub-Regional event on March 10 at Minnesota State University, Mankato. The event ended the team’s season.
“We’ve had a pretty good season,” stated TCU Knowledge Bowl Advisor Peter Kuriger.

A spelling error led to WWII veteran Arnold “Buck” Zahratka, 96, earning one of the most famous military decorations in the world 78 years after the fact.
Zahratka’s son-in-law, Dale Stadstad said he was searching an online record of Buck’s WWII history with the 106th Infantry Division when he noticed Buck’s last name was misspelled.

Thirteen Titans from Tri-City United Titans have earned recognition by the Minnesota River Conference for their performance during the winter sports season.
Boys Basketball
Jonathan Hurd is a senior at TCU High School. Hurd played the position of wing/post during the season. According to his coach, Hurd has been a three-year starter, captain, hard worker, great teammate.

It was a near perfect performance for the New Prague/TCU/ LSJ/Belle Plaine/Jordan CI Division Adapted Floor Hockey team at the 2022 State Tournament held at Bloomington Jefferson High School March 18 and March 19.
The Trojans won their second State title. The first was in 2014. They defeated three teams at State by a total score of 35-4. They finished the year with a perfect 10-0 record.

France bestowed its greatest honor to a Montgomery veteran on Wednesday, March 23.
WWII Veteran Arnold “Buck” J. Zahratka received the Legion of Honor by the Consul General of France, Yannick Tagand. The special event included remarks by U.S. Senators, officials from Minnesota Veterans Affairs, and Montgomery Mayor, Tom Eisert.

The Trojans will be heading to the Adapted Floor Hockey State Tournament this weekend which will be held at Bloomington Jefferson High School on Friday and Saturday, March 18 and 19. The local team is made up of students from New Prague, Tri-City United, Belle Plaine and Jordan high schools.
The floor hockey team finished the regular season with a record of 7 wins and 0 losses. The Trojans scored 79 goals in those 7 games and only gave up 10 goals all season. The Trojans won the southern conference and were given an automatic bid to the state tournament.

This Sunday, March 20, the 14th annual Roman Barten Memorial Breakfast will benefit Emma Burns, age 3, daughter of David and Carissa Burns of rural Henderson. The breakfast of pancakes, sausages and cinnamon rolls will be held from 8 am. to 1 p.m. at the Knights of Columbus Hall, 411 Fourth Ave. SW in New Prague and it is a free will donation.

The Titan Boy Basketball Team was knocked out of the first bracket of the Section 2AA playoff brackets by the Belle Plaine Tigers on Tuesday, March 8.
Tri-City United 45 Belle Plaine 83
The Tigers wasted no time putting points on the board, thanks to E. Gerres, Jack Kruger and Ryan Retser who amassed 14 points within the game’s first couple of minutes.
It was a full five minutes into the game before TCU’s Fakourou Tandia gave the Titans some points by sinking a three-point shot.

Summer may be prime time for parades and community festivals, but if you’re Irish in any way, be it by blood or in spirit, St. Patrick’s Day is the day to celebrate Irish culture and heritage.
For 40 years revelers have been gathering for a St. Patrick’s Day Parade in Le Center, and Saturday’s festivities brought a crowd of many clad in green and filled with joy.
“This was really a great small-town parade,” said parade-goer Anna Wolf.
Wolf, who lives in Minneapolis, said this was her first time attending the parade and came because her best friend is from the area.

The talents of a dozen Tri-City United artists are featured in a statewide publication for public school officials in the March-April issue.
The artwork is featured throughout the MSBA Journal (Minnesota School Boards Association) that includes school features, exploration of leadership issues and in-depth stories on education trends, showcases student art and contains a directory of vendors. The statewide has more than 2,400 subscribers with some out-of-state-subscribers.

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Kilkenny, Minnesota’s formal twinning with Kilkenny, Ireland, representatives from the local Kilkenny are traveling to Ireland and will take part in the St. Patrick’s Day Celebrations.
According to Kilkenny, Minnesota council member Julie Balfe, who will be part of the Ireland-bound contingent representing the city, the trip will commemorate the twinning and will help highlight historical and ancestral roots.