News

Concrete slab at Mantorville pickleball courts.

Construction begins on Mantorville pickleball courts

Construction is underway on three regulation tournament-play pickleball courts at Slingerland Park, located at the corner of West Street and 5th Street West in Mantorville. Excavation and concrete work began earlier this summer. The project will pause for about a month to allow the concrete to cure...

Triton Superintendent Craig Schlichting and the cake prepared for his last school board meeting.

Schlichting retires from Triton schools

When the Triton High School Class of 2025 processed out of the gym at graduation, it wasn’t only the students who were saying goodbye to one chapter of their life and moving on to another. Superintendent Craig Schlichting was also saying goodbye to the Triton district where he had served as a...

Ryan Stites finished 12th in the pole vault at the Class AA State track and field championship meet.

Byron, K-M compete at AA State Track and Field Championship

The Byron track and field team took home a number of medals at the Class AA State championship last week. Madi Hamilton led the girls team coming in fifth place in the shot put, and ninth in the discus throw. The 4x400 meter relay team came in fifth place, which consisted of Taylor Matter, Madison...

Brian and Mary Jo Hindal, founders of Larger than Life.

Expanded ‘Larger than Life’ opens June 28

‘Larger than Life,’ the oversized art display that takes over Riverside Park in in Mantorville each summer, has grown each year since it began with eight images six years ago. This year it will reach new heights as it opens on Saturday, June 28, 28 images and one sculpture combined with an art fair...

Tim Penny of Owatonna has retired as president of Southern Minnesota Initiative Foundation, an organization that he led for 18 years. Under his leadership, SMIF has benefitted southern Minnesota in many ways.

Life of service

Tim Penny was serving in the U.S. House of Representatives when he first learned about the McKnight Foundation’s plan to establish six regional nonprofits in the wake of the mid-1980s farm crisis. Massive increases in farm debt, coupled with falling commodity prices, a 1980 grain embargo, and...

Beth Hangi DC Citizen of the Year

Dodge Center’s Beth Fahning Hanggi has been named Citizen of the Year by the Dodge Center Lions Club. Each year the Lions ask club members and the community to nominate a candidate for the Lions Club Citizen of the Year. This year the nomination committee chose Hanggi, of Fahning and Associates,...

Hindal's prepare for another 'Larger than Life' show

Brian Hindal and his brother grew up near Byron. He is a Byron graduate and participated in basketball and was very active with the school photography club. He used the school darkroom, developed photos, and worked with the school yearbook. Brian had long-time Byron Social Studies instructor, Ron...

Ben Pherson is the new general manager at Dodge Country Club.

Pherson takes over at Dodge Country Club

For years Ben Pherson spent many hours at golf courses as a sports reporter. Now Pherson will be spending even more time on courses taking over as general manager of Dodge Country Club on May 22. He replaces Zach Otto who will be taking over as general manager at Stewartville Golf Club. In an X...

Head Coach Jacob Harmon talks to Kadence Fjerstad after an infield collision during the state championship game.

ANOTHER TOURNAMENT RUN?

From the outfield grass at Jane Sage Cowles Stadium in Minneapolis, the sting of losing a state championship game was still fresh, but the sentiment was clear for Byron softball players and coaches. This was only the beginning. “I think it just really proves that we earned our spot here and we made...

Sue Carol, Gerry Schuler enjoying their retirement in Dodge County

chuler had a fairly idyllic childhood. They were both raised on small dairy farms, Gerry near Buchanan, N.D., which is 13 miles north of Jamestown, and Sue Carol on the Charles and Lavonne Elias farm north of Mantorville. Gerry and his two brothers milked their cows by hand and spent many hours...