The Le Sueur County Historical Society has remained busy during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The society recently finished repairs of the old Cleveland Methodist Church, which currently houses many of the society’s artifacts.
In late fall, the large, overgrown lilac hedge on the building’s west side was removed to give better visibility to the building’s exterior in an attempt to deter people from breaking in. According to LCHS, several breaches have occurred at the church in recent years, but none of the artifacts appear to have been taken or damaged.

For 38 years, the WE Share Food Shelf in Elysian has provided food to those in need in the Waterville and Elysian area.
While the year-long COVID-19 pandemic has magnified the need for food assistance, the local food shelf’s numbers have remained steady.
“The need has definitely gone up, but we are serving about the same number of families—between 40 and 50—we did at this time last year,” stated food shelf coordinator Pat Nusbaum.
This conundrum is explained by a change of clients.

A modest two game winning streak came to an end Friday, Feb. 19 for the WEM boys basketball team.
Hayfield knocked off the Bucs for the second time this season, downing WEM 76- 53 in Hayfield.
The Bucs had their best shooting night of the season, but turnovers and steals proved to be their demise.
WEM shot 54 percent from the field and 61 percent (17-of-28) from inside the three-point arc.
Hayfield, the second place team in the Gopher Conference, forced 21 WEM turnovers and had 13 steals. WEM forced only 10 turnovers and had five steals.

An Elysian man has been charged with a felony after he fled a police officer in a motor vehicle.
Bryan William Fries, 37, of Elysian faces a felony charge in Le Sueur County Court for fleeing a peace officer in a motor vehicle. Four misdemeanor charges, all tied to the same incident, have also been filed against Fries for having violated a domestic abuse no-contact order, domestic assault, possession of more than 1.4 grams of marijuana in a vehicle, and having an open bottle of alcohol in a vehicle. The charges were filed February 16.

The WEM/JWP wrestling team was without a number of wrestlers Thursday, Feb. 18 due to Covid protocol.
The Grizzlies dropped a pair of duals, including a Gopher Conference matchup with Westfield.
In the opening dual, the Grizzlies were defeated by the Razorbacks, 63-12.
In the second dual, St. Clair/Mankato Loyola edged WEM/JWP, 39-27.
Westfield recorded seven pins, received three forfeits, and won one match by a decision.

The record-setting high school basketball career of WEM senior Brielle Bartelt will be coming to an end in April.
The Class A State Tournament is scheduled for the second weekend in April.
Bartelt would love to have her team advance, as they did last year, only to have the tourney end due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
If the Bucs do advance, this wouldn’t be the final high school game for Bartelt, who has signed to play at Iowa Lakes Community College in the fall.

The 2021 FFA/Snow Week Royalty were crowned Friday, Feb. 19 in Waterville. The Queen was Lindsay Condon and the King was Kolin Rients. Princesses were Paige Atherton, Jessica Hilpipre, and Lindy Caldwell. Princes were Kyle Schmitz, Gavin Krantz, and Ahmad Alladin.
Feb. 22 through 26 WEM students will feature a ton of activities and dress up days.

A respected Czech Country supper club has become the latest victim of the COVID-19 pandemic, announcing its permanent closure on Thursday.
The Lakeside Supper Club, located on Lake Pepin on Highway 13/21 between Montgomery and New Prague, has been closed since the initial COVID-19 "stay at home" order in March last year, and will not be re-opening.
In a Facebook post to its patrons, owner George Kukacka and Catering Manager, Jayne Hirdler, made the decision with “heavy hearts and profound sadness” not to re-open.

This program is for children living in the Waterville-Elysian area who are 1-18 years of age.
Program is sponsored on the third Saturday of each month between the hour of 10 and 11:30 a.m. Next distribution is Saturday, February 20.
Pickup occurs in front of the food shelf, volunteers will be there to ask how many children in the family, bags of kid friendly food will be given to each car.
There is no income eligibility for anyone. All families with children will be accommodated, until supplies for that day are exhausted.

It just isn’t the same but I guess it is all we have at this time.
I have attended thousands of games during my newspaper career.
You get used to many things when traveling to different schools, gyms, and communities.
You get used to things at your own school.
The first thing is knowing where to park so you are as close to the front door as possible.
When you get inside, what is the first thing you notice? Of course it is the smell of either popcorn or pizza.
Jordan High School has carmel corn so that is a much different smell, but oh so good.

For about 20 years, Laura (Borneke) Allen worked as a speech language pathologist at Waterville-Elysian-Morristown schools.
A few years ago, Laura’s chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia started to make it difficult to keep up with a full-time...
To see more on this story, pick up the February 18, 2021 print edition of the LifeEnterprise.

For about 20 years, Laura (Borneke) Allen worked as a speech language pathologist at Waterville-Elysian-Morristown schools.
A few years ago, Laura’s chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia started to make it difficult to keep up with a full-time...
To see more on this story, pick up the February 18, 2021 print edition of the LifeEnterprise.

Temperatures dropped below -25 over the weekend. Derek Westby of Elysian decided to see exactly how cold it was and the results are in. It was cold enough to freeze your pants.

Linda Brink (Ward), 71, formerly of Silver Bay, died Thursday, February 11, 2021 at Essentia Health St. Mary’s Medical Center.

Per Governor Walz today, effective Saturday, February 13 at noon, further steps to reopen Minnesota’s economy safely, are listed below.
·        Increasing the “not to exceed” capacity in restaurants to 250, while leaving the maximum capacity at 50 percent
·        Increasing indoor entertainment “not to exceed” capacity to 250, while leaving the maximum capacity at 25 percent
·        Increasing private events and celebrations “not to exceed” capacity to 50, while leaving the maximum capacity at 25

All it took was a mouth full of expired, curdled milk.
And, my darling daughter, Ellen, learned another valuable life lesson!
Always check the expiration date.
My little redhead was simultaneously horrified by the sour, chunky experience and astonished to learn that those little, hard-to-read black letters and numbers on food containers actually mean something.
I’m astonished it has taken this long. She is going to be...
To read more on this story, pick up the February 11, 2021 print edition of the LifeEnterprise.