David Eugene Ferguson, 80, of Austin died Tuesday, March 24, 2015, at Comforcare Good Samaritan Center, Austin. 

A giant glass castle is taking shape as the new home of the Minnesota Vikings. Featured prominently throughout the $1 billion stadium will be glass manufactured in Steele County. 
Within the past few months, glass panels for the stadium began rolling off the production lines at Viracon’s sprawling factory in Owatonna. Glass will continue to be made, off and on, until October or November. 

Owatonna’s Degner Regional Airport is flying at great heights to plan for its future. 
Information and display boards will be set up for residents to review. Officials will address topics such as airport inventory, airport forecasts, facility recommendations and alternatives analyzed. The airport’s consultant and staffers will be available to answer questions.

Boys and girls attempting to sink canoes and boats might usually be frowned upon, but not when it comes to education.
From 9 a.m. to 1 p.m. last Saturday at West Hills in Owatonna, DNR officers jumped in the pool with students 12 and up to teach boat and water safety. The class was broken into two sessions, a class session and in-pool session. 

Four Blooming Prairie youth wrestlers recently qualified for the state youth wresting tournament at Rochester. The meet went from Thursday, March 26, through Sunday, March 29, and included literally hundreds of young athletes from around the state.

Over 100 golfers enjoyed the improved Brooktree Golf Course in Owatonna Thursday, as it opened for the season at  12 p.m. 
According to Owatonna Director of Parks, Recreation and Government Buildings Jim (Corky) Ebeling, the opening was a week or two earlier than usual, but nice weather and anticipation for showing off improvements motivated the early opening. 

About this time last year, the New Richland-Hartland-Ellendale-Geneva School District was celebrating a state basketball championship – the girls’ second  consecutive title. This year the Panthers won another highly competitive competition and it wasn’t in basketball or in any other sport, for that matter.

Christ has risen!
Christians across the world celebrated Holy Week and Easter to mark the most significant event in human history—the death, burial and resurrection of Jesus Christ. 
My parents always instilled in me the importance of Easter going back to my childhood days of getting up in the wee hours of the morning to attend sunrise services at 5 a.m. at our country church. 

Westfield Township residents met last week to discuss whether the township should establish its own zoning ordinance. But the meeting generated more questions than answers as the two sides now debate whether the meeting that was held was the one that was advertised.