2023 Lonsdale State of the City/Schools

The 2023 Lonsdale State of the City/Schools was held to a full house in the Lonsdale Public Library on March 7. Attendees dined to a box lunch from Subway sponsored by Steele-Waseca Cooperative Electric. The event was coordinated by the Lonsdale Chamber of Commerce.

Mayor of Lonsdale

Lonsdale Mayor Tim Rud spoke about the progress of the City of Lonsdale over the decades but emphasized how things changed in the 1990’s to the 2000’s. The Mayor said that there was tremendous growth during this period and it changed the way the city operated.

Mayor Rud gives praise to a lot of different things that happened from that period until now that he believes has moved the city in a positive direction. A particular thing he noted was that people that had lived in the community their whole life and become elderly were faced with having to move out of the community for the care and lifestyle they needed with age. He said the library and assisted living was a part of keeping the community together when it was built.

He praised the effort put into developing a business park starting in 2012, noting that the fruits of those efforts were now being seen with the building of the Scan Air Filter plant, which moved out of the Twin Cities metro, and a project called “Park Place Storage” moving in there.

Rud also made note of the wonderful city that has been built with planning and community support of items such as the Veteran’s Memorial and the addition of the skate park this year. “It’s created a downtown destination,” Rud said about the memorial.

The skate park being built was done so by using a used set of equipment and the city workers making the necessary repairs and installation of it themselves to save money. “It’s another way to get things done without a big impact on the taxpayers,” Rud said, “It’s a wonderful place to raise kids.”

The Mayor’s full and detailed report can be read on the City of Lonsdale’s website under News & Announcements.

School Reports

New Prague Schools Superintendent Tim Dittberner started off with a thank you to the Tri-City United School District and the partnership that they have with them. He noted the amount of different activities that are shared between schools, giving students opportunities they otherwise would not have.

Dittberner shared some statistics about the students in the New Prague School District that showed how their efforts have been successful, such as they have a 96% graduation rate, compared to 83% for the state average. The standardized testing scores also being above the state average in math, reading, and science by about 10 points each. “Kids have a lot of opportunities in sports and activities,” said Dittberner. He believes this can be attributed to having great facilities for students and those in the community to engage in.

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