Tri-City United High School crowned its SnoBall King and Queen at its dance on Saturday. Crowned King was Thomas Budin. Crowned Queen was Destiny Dunagan. Due to the extreme temperatures and school closings this week, the high school's SnoWeek activities were moved to next week. (Wade Young photo)

Tri-City United High School’s One Act advanced to Section Competition after placing second in last week’s Subsections in Jordan. Belle Plaine placed first.
Section competition will be held on Saturday in St. Peter High School and will see Belle Plaine again, as well as Maple River, NRHEG, St. Peter, Mankato Loyola, Mountain Lake and Martin County West schools who also placed in their subsections. TCU competes at 2 p.m. It is open to the public.
Only the first place show gets advanced to the state tournament Thursday and Friday, February 8 and 9 at St. Catherine University.

Staff writer and columnist Lisa Ingebrand, who works for the Lake Region Life, Elysian Enterprise, and the Montgomery Messenger, was honored for her writing during the 2019 Minnesota Newspaper Association’s (MNA) Annual Convention on January 24 in Bloomington. Ingebrand earned third place honors for her work as a writer in the Arts and Entertainment category among weeklies with up to 1,500 in circulation. This was her tenth MNA Award in 15 years with the local newspapers.

Tri-City United schools will be closed tomorrow, Thursday, Jan 31st due to cold weather & bus transportation concerns. Our bus company has been closely monitoring our fleet and reports that the cold weather is causing concerns about reliable bus transportation.
Preschool will be closed.
TCU noted the following: This is a highly unusual situations and so we will provide Kidzone on Thursday, January 31st from 8:30 a.m.—4:30 p.m. for all registered families.
Varsity/Bsquad Activities will still take place, but no Jr. High.

Current and former Montgomery firefighters and emergency service medical personnel were honored and recognized Saturday, Jan 19 at their annual fire and rescue awards banquet in Montgomery.
"Thank you for everything you have done and everything you still do to this day for the community," said Montgomery Fire Chief Ken Pavek of those who have retired and whose presence is still felt daily by current firefighters on the department. "I am honored to walk in your footsteps."

Due to projected deteriorating weather conditions, the United States Postal Service has suspended delivery for Wednesday, Jan. 30, for Minnesota, Western Wisconsin, Iowa and Western Illinois.
A press release issued Tuesday afternoon said retail operations at local offices will be available, but may be limited.
There will be no collection mail pickup from business or collection boxes. In addition, there will be no residential or commercial package pick-up service.

TCU Schools closed Tuesday and Wednesday
Tri-City United Schools are closed Tuesday, January 29 and Wednesday, January 30 due to the predicted National Weather Service Wind Chill Warning.
Both days will be blended learning days, which the district explained will include a variety of activities.
PreK - Grade 6
• complete at least 5 activities from activity choice board

• sign and return activity sheet to their teacher on the next school day

• K-6 Choice Boards  (Links)
On a Blended Learning Day, parents will:

Due to current road conditions and forecasted continued snow and winds, Tri-City United Schools and Most Holy Redeemer School will be closed tomorrow, Monday, Jan. 28, 2019. Phone messages are on their way.

Winter Storm Warning for Le Sueur County, Minnesota
From 3:00pm CST, Sun Jan 27 until 6:00 am CST, Mon Jan 28
Action Recommended: Make preparations per the instructions
Issued by: Minneapolis - MN, US, National Weather Service,
...WINTER STORM WARNING IN EFFECT FROM 3 PM SUNDAY TO 6 AM CST MONDAY... *
WHAT...HEAVY SNOW EXPECTED. TOTAL SNOW ACCUMULATIONS OF 6 TO 8 INCHES EXPECTED.
WHERE...PORTIONS OF CENTRAL, EAST CENTRAL AND SOUTH CENTRAL MINNESOTA. *

Tri-City United High School announced its royalty candidates for SnoWeek 2019 on Friday, Jan. 26 during a Pep Fest. The theme this year is “Minnesota Masquerade.” All of the candidates received Mardi Gras masks, and the young women also received flowers. The candidates are (from left) Maggie Trnka, Sarah Colwell, Destiny Dunagan, Lizzie Christian, John Carson, Thomas Budin, Cade Passe and Alex Miland. Missing are candidates Rianna Doyle and Isaac Rynda. See more in the print edition. (Wade Young Photo)

The calendar year of 2019 will be filled with many projects in Le Sueur County.
One of the county’s biggest projects in the last three decades is the construction of the new Justice Center in Le Center.
The project is scheduled to be completed and ready for occupancy in August of 2019.
The county is currently hiring a number of new correction officers and dispatchers.
They are also working on the transferring of probation, court administration, court rooms, judicial court areas, and all sheriff’s department personnel to the new justice center.

It takes a team effort to respond calmly and effectively in the face of an emergency situation.
The outcomes are heavily dependent upon the quick reactions and efforts of those witnessing and responding to the emergency.
A matter of seconds and minutes can be the difference between life and death.
On Friday, August 31, John Segna learned how true this is and fully believes he wouldn't be alive today if it hadn't been for the team of heroes that were there in his time of need, his emergency.

The Blue Earth County Sheriff’s Office reported that three vehicles had fallen through the ice on Madison Lake on Saturday, Jan. 19.
Captain Paul Barta said the vehicles had fallen through the ice in the area of the narrows on Madison Lake, southwest of the Point Pleasant Resort and Campground. He added the area had open water within the past week.
The first vehicle, a Ford Escape, broke through the ice and became fully submerged at 11:51 a.m. All three occupants were able to escape with no apparent injuries.

LE CENTER - Le Sueur County received outstanding bids on their $12.635 million general obligation capital improvement bond sale.
A total of eight bidders attempted to purchase the funds which will be used to fund the remaining non-jail portions of the County's Justice Center and the second phase of remodeling to the current courthouse in Le Center.
The Justice Center will use $9,720,000 of the money and the Phase II Courthouse Remodel will use the remaining $2,915,000.

After multiple rounds of spelling, sixth grader Hayden Winter won the second annual Tri-City United Spelling Bee with the word “circulation.”
The bee started out with winners from grades five, six, seven and eight competing against each other to secure a spot in the bee’s final round.
Some of the words that took students out of the competition included guise, dismissal, pennant, and recognition.
Some of the words had homophones or could be confused with other words. Students were read a definition for these words prior to spelling it.

Brothers Arthur and Edward Devine, sons of Sharon and Robert Devine of Kilkenny, battled it out in Most Holy Redeemer Catholic School's Geography Bee Thursday morning, Jan. 17. Out of a field of 10 contestants, the Devine boys both answered their way to the championship round. In the end, seventh grader Edward was victorious over his big brother, eighth-grader Arthur. "I thought he was going to win," Edward stated. "He reads lots of books and knows things. I was just lucky... I like to look at the globe."