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BEA Board hears year-end reports

BLUE EARTH— There was no lack of staff reports at the Blue Earth Area School Board meeting on Monday. It was the last board meeting that would be held during the current school year. Among the reports was one from high school art teacher Sara Albright and elementary art teacher Courtney Mattson. Albright gave an update on all of the awards her students had won during the year, as well as the activities of the BEA Art Club. Mattson explained what each elementary grade had accomplished during the year. Both art teachers had a slide show presentation of the many activities and art ...

Sherburn Festival planned for June 18-20

SHERBURN — The St. John's Lutheran ladies group LWML will meet at 2 p.m. today, Wednesday, May 13. All members are encouraged to attend. The partner church in Wilbert will have their LWML meeting at 1:30 p.m. on Thursday, May 14. The Fox Lake Golf Club Pork Chop Dinner Fundraiser will be ...

Council hears findings for city-run cannabis store

FAIRMONT— On Monday the Fairmont City Council was presented the findings from a feasibility study for a municipal cannabis retail store. Over a year ago, in March of 2025, the council had directed staff to go out for a Request for Proposal (RFP) for a consultant to conduct a feasibility study and ultimately 19 RFPs were received. A committee narrowed it down to three finalists before Vicente was selected by the council in January of this year to conduct the study. Andrew Livingston from Vicente virtually shared results of the study with the council on Monday. He first explained ...

Empower Coalition helps ‘change the narrative’ on mental health

FAIRMONT — May is globally regarded as Mental Health Awareness Month and Martin County-based Empower Coalition is taking mental health awareness and education by storm with its new interactive and community-focused Changing the Narrative on Suicide and Mental Health training. “It feels encouraging to bring this,” said Empower Coalition Project Coordinator Shelly Larsen. “We all have mental health, just like we all have physical health.” During the event, participants will discuss safe language and actions to reduce and prevent stigma, develop confidence to speak about ...

HRA moves forward with radon mitigation after findings

FAIRMONT – The Fairmont Housing and Redevelopment Association (HRA) approved purchasing and installing radon mitigation at its meeting on Monday. The testing found three locations across two buildings where radon gas results exceeded the standard 4.0 acceptable limit. HRA Executive Director Gail Diede said there now needs to be mitigation to bring these levels down. “What they do is dig a hole,” she said. “In those buildings, we don't have to put them in those specific units. We just got to draw out of the building. The electrical room that's in each building, they can drill ...

Briefly

FHS Speech Team members take placements at NIETOC FAIRMONT/SHAKOPEE — Five Fairmont High School (FHS) students on the FHS Speech Team competed at the National Individual Events Tournament of Champions (NIETOC), from May 7 to 10, at Shakopee High School. Thousands of students across the country participated. Each speech category had nearly 200 to 250 competitors. Junior Allie Streit made it to the Quarterfinal Round of Informative Speaking and placed 25th. Junior Leon Yang made it to the final round of Humorous Interpretation and placed third. This is Yang’s second year in a row ...