Mayo Clinic Health System in New Prague has more than 200 available COVID-19 vaccine appointment slots available Thursday and Friday, April 22 and 23.
The vaccination site is located at the Mayo Clinic Health System clinic, 212 10th Ave. NE, New Prague.

Jean E. (Matko) Gelhar, 77 of  Mcgregor died Sunday, April 18, 2021 at her home surrounded by her family.  She was born January 6, 1944 in Saint Paul to Joe and Marcella (Koppen) Matko.  She grew up in Minneapolis and graduated from Minneapolis High School in 1962.  Jean was united in marriage to Dennis D.

Carol Jean (Erkel) Svoboda, 85, of Le Center, passed away on April 16, 2021, at Mala Strana Health Care in New Prague with family by her side. 
Visitation will be on Thursday, April 29, from 4 to 8 p.m. at the Schoenbauer Funeral Home in Montgomery. Funeral services will be held on Friday, April 30, at 11 a.m. at St. John Lutheran Church in Montgomery with Pastor Jason Pollington, officiating.
Visitation will be held one hour prior at the church.
Interment will be held in the St. John Lutheran Cemetery.

Lawrence “Larry” F. Ruehling passed away peacefully on April 18, 2021 at Benedictine Living Community in Owatonna.
He was born on January 30, 1923, at home in Helena Township, Scott County, the son of August Karl and Elisa (Bohnsack) Ruehling. Larry lived on the home farm and attended rural school district #50 and graduated in 1940 from New Prague High School.
Larry moved to Owatonna in January of 1942 and worked for the Borden company. It is also where he met his future wife, Ruth Pichner. They were married in January of 1944.

Elgar N. Busch, age 91, of  New Prague, died peacefully with his family at his side, on Saturday, April 17, 2021, at Praha Village.  Elgar was born a twin at the New Prague Hospital on February 6, 1930 to Florian H. and Elizabeth (Hoffman) Busch.  He grew up on the family farm in St. Benedict and attended St.

A group of roughly 20 students from New Prague High School gather around the flagpole around 1 p.m. on Monday, April 19. The group joined other students across Minnesota who walked out in solidarity against racial injustice. The students at New Prague and other schools talked about the fatal shooting of Daunte Wright in Brooklyn Center and discrimination in their own schools. The walkouts ended with a moment of silence at 1:47 p.m., the time that Wright was shot. For more see an upcoming print issue of The New Prague Times. (Patrick Fisher Photo)

Ruth Marie (Halloran) Flicek Johnson, age 90, of Madelia, passed away peacefully on April 15, 2021 at United Hospital in St. Paul following a stroke.
Ruth was born in Belle Plaine, MN, in 1930 to John and Grace (Schoell) Halloran and grew up on a farm near St. Thomas. She graduated from New Prague High School in 1948 and the College of St. Catherine in St. Paul in 1951 with a diploma in nursing. Ruth worked as a registered nurse at St. Joseph’s Hospital in St. Paul, and the Madelia Hospital until she started her family.

Jean A. Hartman, age 72, of Jordan, MN, passed peacefully surrounded by family at her home, after a courageous battle with cancer, on Wednesday, April 14, 2021. 

As of Thursday, April 15, the City of New Prague announced it is allowing the one story “rear” portion of Downtown Sound at 104 Main St. E to reopen. This is the portion that is marked internally in the building – essentially all the rear portion except the north 12-feet closest to the two story portion of the building. This will allow Downtown Sound to continue to hold music lessons in that portion of the building. This determination was made in consultation with the building owner’s structural engineer and the City’s structural engineer and Building Official.

The Rice County Master Gardener volunteers are hosting their annual Arbor Day tree and shrub giveaway on Friday, April 30, at the Rice County Fairgrounds in Faribault. The giveaway will take place from 3:30-5:30 p.m., while supplies last.
The giveaway will take place as a drive-through, minimal contact event. Everyone is welcome to drive through the fairgrounds and select a free tree or shrub seedling. Participants should enter the fairgrounds from Second Avenue NW and there will be signs indicating the flow of traffic.

(This is the first in a series about changes that New Prague’s Main Street businesses are dealing with due to the reconstruction of Main Street.)
Businesses on New Prague’s Main Street will be dealing with changes due to the reconstruction of the street and the placing of new infrastructure underneath the street.
New Prague Postmaster Pauline Lambrecht said the post office’s hours are still the same. The mail box in front of the building was moved on Friday, April 8, onto...
To read more on this article, pick up the April 15, 2021 print edition of The New Prague Times.

More than once I’ve heard the saying, “The best laid plans of mice and men often go astray.” For those who want to get technical it is based on a Robert Burns poem “To a Mouse” that is originally, “The best-laid schemes of mice and men, Go oft awry.”
Awry is a good word for the last few days. Work on Main Street is still progressing, but for The Consignment Lodge and Downtown Sound, things are still up in the air as of press time as to when or how they will be able to reopen.

Kathryn M. “Katie” Berg, age 40, died peacefully with her family by her side, just one day shy of her 41st birthday on April 9, 2021 at St. Mary’s Hospital in Rochester.  Katie was born on April 10, 1980 in New Prague to Paul and Mary Lee (Shonka) Berg.  She attended St. Wenceslaus School, graduated from New Prague High School, graduated from Argosy University in dental hygiene, and attained her B.S. from Minnesota State University Mankato.  Katie had an indomitable spirit, enjoying dance in her younger years and music all her life.

The City of New Prague will have the building located at 102 E. Main Street (containing The Consignment Lodge at 102 E. Main Street and Downtown Sound at 104 E. Main Street) posted as an unsafe structure and to be vacated (per MN Rules1300.0180) until further notice.

The Le Sueur County Commissioners cast their votes Tuesday, April 6 for their top candidates for the county administrator position.
The board was presented a list of nine candidates by DDA Human Resources Management Consultant Liza M. Donabauer, who has been working on the hiring process for the county.
The position was posted February 17 and four weeks later 30 individuals had applied. 14 of those applicants were selected as semifinalists. Of those, five withdrew their applications.