One of the most coveted journalism awards in Minnesota has found its way to Steele County. 
The Steele County Times received the Lynn Smith Community Leadership award Thursday night at the annual awards banquet of the Minnesota Newspaper Association in Bloomington. The leadership award is one of the top four awards given out to Minnesota newspapers. 

A settlement has been reached in a federal civil lawsuit against the Blooming Prairie Police Department and Steele County Sheriff’s Office. The settlement came during a conference in U.S. Federal Court in Minneapolis last Wednesday. Details of the settlement are not being disclosed until all sides have signed the agreement, which is expected within the next seven days. 

As the cost of solar energy goes down, interest in solar energy projects is going up. The city of Claremont is considering contracting with a company to provide a “solar garden” for community residents, and Steele Waseca Cooperative Electric is planning for a community solar project for its members.

Wins and losses

To say I was the least bit dumbfounded at our successful run in this year’s Minnesota Newspaper Association awards contest may be a gross understatement.

It is funny how sometimes stories just appear when you least expect them. I recently stopped over at Triton Middle School to talk to Principal Mark Raymond about the robotics program that he hopes to start at Triton.

Brant Hemingway, of Ellendale, has been taking pictures full time for the past 20 years, but the interest started long before that. Hemingway fell in love with photography at age 13, after he purchased his first professional camera with money he earned from working on the farm. 

A group of area farmers found themselves back in the classroom recently as they attended a University of Minnesota Extension workshop to recertify themselves to apply pesticides on their crops.

John Rumpza signed a letter of intent at 9:00 a.m., Wednesday morning, to attend Winona State University in the fall of 2015. While the 6-foot-7 Rumpza could have received a basketball scholarship at several colleges, he chose a partial football scholarship at Winona. In attendence were family members, teammates, friends and Blooming Prairie high school staff.