When it comes to playing competitive ice hockey, Braeden Woitas isn’t ready to put his skates away. Not yet.
Woitas, the son of Marisa and Kevin Woitas, has accepted a tender to play junior hockey in Mason City Iowa in the North American Tier III Hockey League. His long-term goal is to play college hockey. Where and at what level is yet to be determined, he said.

Diane M. Schmitt, age 62, passed away on April 3, 2024, at Nagel Assisted Living in Waconia, MN. 
A celebration of life will be held on Sunday, April 21, 2024, from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. at Ballard-Sunder Funeral Home, 4565 Pleasant Street SE, Prior Lake, MN. Her burial will follow at St. Wenceslaus Catholic Cemetery in New Prague, MN.

Laurie Beek-Korbel, age 59, of New Prague, passed away peacefully, in her sleep at home on Sunday, April 7, 2024.  She had been diagnosed with Congestive Heart Failure on June 12 of 2022, and entered hospice care on February 28 of this year. Laurie was born on February 10, 1965, in Faribault to Donald & Evelyn (Timmers) Korbel.  She grew up on the family dairy farm in Kilkenny and graduated from Montgomery-Lonsdale High School in 1983.  She had 2 years advanced schooling in sales marketing and management and worked for K-Mart during those years.  Following her education, she worked for

The New Prague City Council directed city staff at its Monday, April 1, meeting to move forward with work on a 54-unit apartment to be located on the lot south of Walgreens along Chalupsky Avenue SE.
City staff will be working on an application from the Workforce Housing Development Program with the city using a housing tax abatement for the required local match.
City Planning/Community Development Director Ken Ondich presented the request for the application. Ebert Construction of Farmington is working on the apartment building.

Apparently with everything going right in Minnesota, it seems one of the pressing issues before us is the need to eliminate the line of demarcation between where people can hunt with rifles and where shotguns firing slugs must be utilized.

New Prague has joined a growing number of schools offering boys’ volleyball as an emerging activity sport. Tuesday, April 9, 7 p.m., the Trojans will make a little bit of history when they host their first match.
The Trojans opened formal practices Monday, April 1. Players have been working together during open gym sessions and camp for several weeks, said coach Greg Sayuk. The NPHS coach expected about 28 players out for the new team, enough to meet the requirement to have a varsity and junior varsity teams.

Ambassadors looking for candidates
The Lonsdale Ambassadors annual Easter Egg Hunt once again drew hundreds of area families to Lonsdale’s Jaycee Park on Saturday, March 30.
Miss Lonsdale Ambassador royalty facilitating the three age group-separated hunts were Miss Lonsdale Alli Simon, Miss Ambassadors Khloe Flicek and Avery Lerfald, Junior Ambassadors Payton Fischer and Paige Miller, and Little Ambassador Kyrie Smisek.

Performances of New Prague High School’s spring play “You Can’t Take it With You,” are Friday, April 5, and Saturday, April 6, at 7:30 p.m. both nights, in the high school auditorium. Tickets can be bought online at https://gofan.co/app/school/MN19627 or at the door of each performance.
George S. Kaufman and Moss Hart wrote the play. It is set in the 1930s during the Great Depression and is a comedy about an eccentric family and their friends, with the message is to pursue things that make you happy.

While it won’t be open for public use, a new recycling facility will be bringing benefits to Montgomery starting next month.
Cosmic Recycling has plans to open a facility that focuses on recycling solar panels and electronic waste, dubbed e-waste. The waste items will be shipped in from outside sources rather than collected from the community.
The facility will be located at 513 1st St. South in Montgomery in a facility owned by Hruby Rentals.

Other than an actor whose movies her grandpa cherished, she doesn’t know who John Wayne was. That’s all Jenna Hlavac needed to know before creating a drawing of the famed American icon.

The New Prague City Council at its Monday, March 18, meeting received an update on its community recreation in the form of how many parks it has, what condition they are in and what to do next.
“We have not put any cost to this,” said John McNamara of Wold Architects, who presented the update. He added the firm wanted to find out from the city how it wanted to proceed with community recreation needs.

When he’s had a tough day in the classroom, Jeremy Biermaier always has basketball as an activity more often than not will end the day on a positive note. 

Donna Hall, age 70, of Northfield, passed away at home, with her family by her side, on Wednesday morning, March 27, 2024.
Donna Mae (Sticha) Hall was born July 14, 1953, in New Prague, Minnesota, to Frank J. and Rose M. (Tupy) Sticha.  She was raised on the family farm at St. Patrick, attended St. Wenceslaus Parochial School and graduated from New Prague High School in 1971.  During her high school years Donna began working as a legal secretary and continued her education to become a Paralegal where she worked for O’Neill, Traxler, Goggins, and Zard for 20 years.

The following New Prague High School student-athletes were named to the all-Metro West Conference teams for their performances during the winter season.
Boys’ Basketball
All-conference: Evan Weichert; honorable mention: George Songe, Jonny Connelly.
Girls’ Basketball
All-conference: Katie Boulanger, Taylor Hemann; honorable mention: Maya Kilian, Lily Schoenecker.
Gymnastics
All-conference: Hannah Kraft, Karly Ophus, Brooklyn Carter, Vayda Spicer, Maura Erickson; honorable mention: Maria Schoenbauer, Susie Dalsin.
Boys’ hockey

Mary Elizabeth (Chlan) Sirek, 90, of Lakeville, Minnesota, passed away on March 22, 2024. 
She was born August 26, 1933, in Webster, Minnesota, to parents Joseph and Agnus Chlan. Mary, alongside her late husband Stephen, dedicatedly raised a family of ten children and remained a devoted and nurturing (great) grandmother throughout her life. She will be missed by all who knew her. 

Peggy MaryAnn Wulke, age 74, of New Prague, MN, passed away on March 17, 2024. A Celebration of Peggy’s Life will be held from 4:00 – 6:00 p.m. with closing words at 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday, April 9, 2024, at Ballard-Sunder Funeral & Cremation (104 First Street West) in Jordan.