Kenneth Lee Nihart, 92 of Austin, died Monday, March 9, 2015, at Our House Assisted Living, Austin. 
He was born Oct. 30, 1922, in Dover, Minnesota, to Lawrence and Anna (Johnson) Nihart. Kenneth attended Dover schools, and made his living as a farmer and as a laborer at Hormel Foods Corporation for 38 years, retiring in 1980. He was also a school bus driver for Austin Transportation for 14 years.  

LaVonne Mae Simonson, 84, of Owatonna, died Wednesday, March 11, 2015, at Koda Living Community.
She was born June 23, 1930, on the family farm in rural Blooming Prairie, the daughter of Alvin and Hilda (Hintz) Eaker. She grew up on the farm with her siblings Elsmer, Audrey and Vivian. She attended St John’s Parochial school and graduated from Blooming Prairie High School in 1948.

This past week’s temperatures makes it seem like spring is here. But living in Minnesota, I’m sure that there will be at least one, if not more, days of cooler weather and possibly even snowstorms heading our way.

First he lost his house by fire. But then the real kicker came when his life companion took off apparently distraught over what had happened.
After the early March blaze, Steve Jensen of Hope experienced several restless nights wondering if he would ever be reunited again with his life partner, a black and white English Springer named Chelsea. The two have been together for nearly 11 years ever since Chelsea was five months old. 

The Triton youth wrestling team had fourteen individuals compete March 5-9 in the MN/USA state wrestling competition. The tournament had over 1,800 entrants from Pre-K through high school ages.  

For the past couple of weeks the News Enterprise has been looking at some of the ways people in Dodge County and the surrounding areas are dealing with food insecurity problems.
Food insecurity doesn’t have to mean going hungry. Rather, it’s not having a consistent, affordable access to healthy food.
Statistics show there are more people throughout Minnesota who are in that situation than we care to believe.

Writing a weekly column can be difficult at times. It’s not so much the writing aspect of it, but rather coming up with a relevant topic that is going to have broad appeal to readers. 

In response to concerns about water wells drying up and large feedlots potentially draining water without proper permits, the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is stepping up efforts to nab violators. 
The DNR has launched a compliance sweep of the region’s growing livestock industry. The areas targeted right now will be Dodge, Freeborn, Blue Earth and Martin counties. 

When Barb Streed became pastor of Faith Lutheran in Dodge Center, she said, the congregation had restructured the church council and was trying to decide what the congregation’s ministry should be.
They “talked and prayed” about what God was leading the congregation to do and alleviating food security kept coming up, Streed said.
“All of us had thought about alleviating food insecurity,” she said.