Mayo Clinic and Mayo Clinic Health System is deferring all elective care that can be deferred for eight or more weeks, according to a press release Tuesday, March 17.

Tri-City United will provide free meals to youth at various locations around our communities while schools are closed due to COVID-19, according to a news release Tuesday.
Parents/guardians should use this survey link to indicate the need for school meals while schools are closed: https://forms.gle/QeePAowU6fYjbJe2A
- If already completed, parents do not need to resubmit.
- The survey must be completed by 10 a.m. in order to receive meals the following day.

Mayo Clinic Health System in New Prague now offers a drive-through screening process for patients who meet criteria for COVID-19 testing. Transmissions of COVID-19 are increasing statewide and across the nation and other institutions have successfully used the drive-through approach.
According to a press release, as a first step, patients must call their Mayo Clinic Health System primary care clinic. A provider or nurse will determine if patients meet criteria and will schedule a drive-through test.

In response to the Governor’s action to close Minnesota schools due to COVID-19 by Wednesday, TCU Schools will begin their closure starting Monday, March 16.
According to TCU Superintendent Teri Preisler, Monday and Tuesday, March 16 and 17 will be Blended Learning Days like is done for weather-related school closings.

Gov. Tim Walz announced Sunday that all of Minnesota’s K-12 schools will close for eight school days starting Wednesday to try to slow the spread of COVID-19.
Walz and state Education Commissioner Mary Cathryn Ricker made the announcement Sunday morning in St. Paul.

The Minnesota State High School League put out an announcement Friday regarding cancellations due to the COVID-19 pandemic:
Effective Immediately:
The Minnesota State High School League is immediately cancelling the Girls Basketball State Tournament.
Additionally, all Boys Section and State Basketball Tournaments have been cancelled.
Section Speech Tournament events for the week of March 15-21 have been postponed indefinitely.
The Adapted Floor Hockey games scheduled for Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14 will NOT be played either.

The Polka Dance Party scheduled for Friday, March 13 at the Central Education Campus in New Prague has been canceled. We are following the Minnesota Department of Health's recommendation to not have large group activities. Please pass this information on to anyone that may have been interested in attending.

UPDATED March 13, 2020- The Adapted Floor Hockey games scheduled for Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14 will NOT be played.

Thursday, March 12, 2020 UPDATE
MANKATO, Minn. – (3 p.m.) Highway 93 from Highway 169 to Henderson is expected to reopen by 6 p.m. this evening, Thursday, March 12, after being closed since March 8 due to flooding on the Rush River.  Crews have been working to clear debris off the road and make repairs to shoulders and culverts.
 The shoulders of southbound Highway 93 are extremely soft due to exposure to the floodwaters. MnDOT is advising no travel on the shoulders until they dry out and repairs can be made.

In a three-to-one vote, Lonsdale’s city council has opted to move forward with selecting a new garbage collector for weekly trash services.
Every five years the city advertises for bids for this service, historically selecting just one company to handle all the refuse services within the city.
Since 2005 the city has gone with Waste Management. But, starting April 1, pending final contract negotiations and council approval, West Central Sanitation, Inc. will take over the refuse and recycling collection.

The Le Sueur County Board cruised through a very light agenda Tuesday, March 3.
The regular meeting lasted approximately 40 minutes, but was followed by a special road and bridge work session.
A number of items which were dealt with during the regular meeting involved the highway department.
A couple of final payments were approved for work done this past year.
Crane Creek Asphalt received final payments of $148,200.72 for the CSAH 15 project from CSAH 22 to CSAH 26, and a payment of $69,056.47 for the CSAH project near Heidelberg.

Caleb Whipps, Brody Rud, Riley O’Malley and Jose Reyes didn’t receive the medals they wanted at the State Wrestling Tournament, but their coaches said they fought hard with gutsy mental toughness.
Whipps earned an early victory but fell in two matches in the first day, while Rud, O’Malley and Reyes ended just shy of a medal with top-eight finishes.
Coach Shaun Timmerman said the boys performed very well.
“We won some VERY awesome matches, and come-from-behind-wins, which showed that we had a lot of guts,” he said.

TCU added more weight lifters to its state roster after the Mi5 meet in Lakeville on February 22.
Ava Rud, Lexi Factor, Chloe Freeman, Alexis Freeman, and Anabelle Davies all qualified, according to Coach Andrew Meier.
Morgan Meier took first and set a new PR for a total of 65 Kg.
Alexis Freeman also took first and set a new PR for her total of 130 Kg.
He also noted that Ella Rise scratched out on Snatches, but set a PR for her Clean and Jerk, and Alexis Neubauer scratched out on both lifts.

A Las Vegas homicide suspect is in police custody after being located in Rice County.
Mark Doocy, 60, of Blooming Prairie, was arrested on March 4 at the Flying J Truck Stop at I-35 and Highway 19. According to Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn, Doocy was arrested and forced to leave his vehicle after he refused to cooperate with officials.

Russell Clarence Harkins, 70, of Le Center, died on Monday, March 2, 2020, at Methodist Hospital in St. Louis Park. Visitation will be held on­­­­­­­­­­­ Thursday, March 5 at the Le Center Funeral Home from 2:30 to 6:30 p.m. Memorial Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Friday, March 6 at 10 a.m. with visitation one hour prior at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Le Center with Fr. Tim Sandquist, officiating. Interment will be at a later date.