Tri-City United High School’s one act thespians’ season didn’t pan out quite what they wanted to, but it was a great show none-the-less by the students.
    Students competed at the 2A sub-section one act competition on Saturday, Jan. 24, at the school’s performing arts center. This coming after their Thursday, Jan. 22, public performance was postponed until Thursday, Jan. 29, due to cold temperatures. Temperatures that evening and the following day dipped to around 20 degrees below zero. 

    The longstanding American Legion building, 102 Elm Avenue Southwest, is now under the new ownership of Robert Krautkremer and Dione Bast of New Prague, renaming it The American Bar & Grill. 
    “This place came available. We looked at it, talked about it and saw some potential there,” said Krautkremer. Their first day of business, a soft opening, was Friday, Jan. 29. 

Montgomery city officials held their first of three town halls regarding the updated Street and Utilities Improvement Plan (SUIP) and the long-term budget of the city, as well as gave more details about the new Memorial Park playground to be installed in 2026. Only two residents showed up to this first town hall.

    With the increased spotlight on Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) and Customs and Border Protection (CBP) presence in Minnesota, it seemed pertinent to see how our local community is responding to it and what presence of the taxpayer activities has been locally. 
    
TCU Schools

    Eleven bowlers from Tri-City United Schools competed in Mankato for the Minnesota Special Olympics State Bowling Tournament Nov. 22-23, 2025. It was one of eight sites containing a total of 792 volunteers and 4,106 athletes. 
    The TCU competitors had been playing and practicing since the end of September as a part of the TCU Titan Special Olympics Program that practiced at Pla Mor Lanes in Montgomery.

Firefighters from at least New Prague Fire Department and Montgomery Fire Department extinguished a fully-engulfed separated garage fire Thursday, Jan. 29, during the evening hours at Number One Auto north of Heidelberg in rural Lanesburgh Township in Le Sueur County. Temperatures at the time were only about five degrees above zero.

Republicans and Democrats in Le Sueur, and Rice counties interested in participating in the early stages of the process of selecting their respective party’s candidates and platforms at upcoming precinct caucuses can do so on Tuesday, Feb. 3, at 7 p.m. at various locations.

Three Tri-City United Schools middle school students performed this past Saturday, Jan. 24, as a part of the Hope Lutheran High School’s inaugural 2026 Southeast Minnesota Middle School Honor Choir.

Gohan Ruiz, Chris Traxler, and Zoey Lien represented TCU after being nominated by their teachers to do so.

Ruiz and Traxler come from Le Center, and Lien from Montgomery.

Faced with a deteriorating infrastructure, the City of Kilkenny is looking to rehabilitate and modernize its water systems.

The city met with Kyle Renneke of the engineering firm ISG Monday to go over details of the project. Particular focus is given to the well house. The 90-year old structure is in critical disrepair.

“It has a concrete roof that could collapse at any time,” said Kilkenny Mayor Tammy Holicky said.

Most Holy Redeemer Catholic School (MHRCS) middle school teacher Jennifer Floyd of Lonsdale was awarded the Smart/Maher VFW National Citizenship Education Teacher of the Year for grades 6-8 for Minnesota.

Floyd is the fourth winner sponsored by the Montgomery VFW Post 5340. Prior winners included Heide Veazie, Christine Trcka, and Michael Bass-Smith.

She teaches language arts for 7th-8th grade, Spanish for grades 3rd-8th, and art for all of the middle school at MHRCS where this is her second year there and 35th year as a teacher.

Tri-City United High School one act play director Elise Lundeen announced that due to the extreme cold weather, The Last Fire Fly public performance scheduled for tonight, Thursday, Jan. 22, will be postponed until sometime next week with details to be announced later.

Students will still be participating in Section 2A Subsection One Act Play competition this Saturday though at TCU High School in the performing arts center.

Former Tri-City United and Montgomery-Lonsdale Schools FFA advisor Barry Schmidt was inducted into the Minnesota FFA’s 2026 Hall of Fame. He joins seven others inducted for 2026.

Tri-City United High School thespians are almost ready to show you their latest one act masterpiece, “The Last Firefly” by Naomi Iizuka.

It’s the story of “Boom,” who is the son of “Thunder,” and goes out to search for his father that left him and his mother “Kuroko.” It’s a mythical story that uses Japanese music and a style of puppetry.

The story was first commissioned and produced by Children’s Theatre Company in Minneapolis in 2016. TCU students are now putting their own spin on the tale.

Late last week an emergency meeting was called for Monday, Jan. 12, of the city council for the City of Kilkenny. No large emergency was present other than information that Nicole LeBrun, the current city clerk, had found a new position elsewhere and a replacement would need to be figured out.

Kilkenny Mayor Tammy Holicky seemed happy for LeBrun, saying that she found an “amazing position somewhere else,” which LeBrun wanted to keep private.

The Le Sueur County Sheriff’s Office and the Minnesota State Patrol (MSP) have released their incident report and crash reconstruction report regarding the fatal crash on Sept. 11, 2025, at the intersection of Country State Aide Highway (CSAH) 28/320th Street and CSAH 32/211th Avenue, a few miles north of Clear Lake in Derrynane Township.

Belle Plaine mother Mackenzie Jo Glaser, 23, perished in the incident. She was a new mother carrying her one-year-old daughter in the vehicle, who survived without injury. Glaser was on the way to drop off her daughter at daycare at the time.

When Tri-City United (TCU) senior Ella Schmiesing grabbed her 1,000th career rebound Tuesday, Dec. 30 at Waterville, she became one of the select few in state history to have both 1,000 career points and 1,000 career rebounds.

The St. Catherine basketball commit is one of only 267 players in Minnesota history to record the milestone.

As a freshman Schmiesing played in all 26 games, recording 219 rebounds in 610 minutes of action.