Businesses and residents woke up with surprise the morning of July 5 when barricades were placed at intersections all along Highway 13 south of Lexington Avenue.

St. Patrick’s Trevor Divinski and Ryan Friedges combined for a shutout win over the Orioles Wednesday, June 28, in New Prague.
The Irish jumped to a 2-0 lead in the opening frame and held New Prague scoreless. St. Patrick added another three runs in the seventh inning. Ben Taxdahl led the Irish offense with a two-run home run while Joe Weiers drove in two RBIs.

Rudolph J. Skluzacek, age 92 of Lonsdale, Minnesota, went home to the Lord on July 1, 2023.
He was born May 29, 1931 to Frank J. and Hedwig (Pekar) Skluzacek on the home farm in Wheatland Township.
Rudy farmed on the family century farm his entire life.  He also was employed at McQuay, in Faribault, and McNamara Construction. 
He served his country in Alaska during the Korean War.  He was a proud, active, lifetime member of the American Legion Post 586 for 71 years. 

Runners from New Prague and the area were well represented at Grandma’s Marathon and the Gary Bjorklund Half-Marathon earlier this month.
New Prague’s Garren Hamby, 43, finished the Grandma’s Marathon between Two Harbors and Duluth in 3 Hours, 20 minutes, 43 seconds. He finished 1,308 of 6,689 marathon runners.

Even though Mother Nature dumped more than a half of an inch of much-needed rain on the afternoon of Saturday, June 24, it didn’t deter people from attending the annual Fireman’s Relief Dance later in the day and into the night.
Fire Chief Kenny Pavek said, “The dance went well considering the weather we had Saturday. We had some storms come through just as Charlie Sticha had started playing. We had to do a few repairs on tents, and it rained for about an hour, keeping the crowd away. After the rain, the weather was alright, but the crowd was down from years past.”

Kolacky Days held a festive Meet and Greet event Monday evening, introducing the Grand Marshall for this year’s event and a chance to get to know the current and competing royalty.

New Prague and other communities in the area will be celebrating the July 4th holiday with everything from parades to music to boat parades to fireworks.
New Prague The evening of Monday, July 3, will be the New Prague Fireworks Show. Events are east of the New Prague Middle School, beginning at 6 p.m. there will be Kona Ice, Dawgs on the Run, face painting and free massages. The national anthem will be sung by Linda Fahrenkamp with the fireworks at 10:10 p.m.
Elko July 1st at Dusk, Elko Speedway

Air quality is expected to reach the orange AQI category in southern, east central, and northeast Minn., which is unhealthy for sensitive groups.

James “Tony” Anthony Stage, age 60 of Montgomery passed away peacefully on Wednesday, June 21, 2023, at Methodist Hospital in Rochester, MN surrounded by his loving family after a courageous 10-month battle with cancer.

Montgomery Mallards 1, Elko Express 8

Pounding out 15 hits, Union Hill thumped Shakopee, 12-1, Sunday, June 18, at Joe Schleper Stadium.
The Bulldogs blew the game open in the third inning after Nate Lee and Adam Giesen scored in the second inning and Eric Berg crossed the plate, upping the lead to 3-0 in the fourth. Union Hill added two more runs when Adam Giesen and Jack Giesen both scored to give the Bulldogs a 5-0 lead after five innings.

Air quality alert issued due to ozone for Tuesday, June 20, through Thursday, June 22, for central and southern Minn.
Air quality is expected to reach the orange AQI category in central and southern Minn., which is unhealthy for sensitive groups.
The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) has issued an air quality alert for central and southern Minn., effective from noon on Tuesday, June 20, through 9 p.m. on Thursday, June 22. The affected area includes central and southern Minn., and the tribal nations of Leech Lake, Mille Lacs, Upper Sioux, and Prairie Island.

Dave (“Pobbies”) Charlson, 84, of Plymouth, Minnesota passed away peacefully at home, surrounded by his family, on June 12, 2023 after a brief illness and diagnosis of cancer.
Dave (known fondly by his children as “Pobbies” and his grandchildren as “Grandpobbies”) was born July 16, 1938 in Grand Rapids, Minnesota to the Reverend Dalton Vincent Charlson and Pearl Evelyn Charlson. Dave graduated from Bradley University with a B.S. in Engineering and following his graduation he worked in Design, Development, and Manufacturing.

Marvin Lawrence Edel, age 87, of Kilkenny, passed away on Sunday, June 18, 2023 at Central Health Care in Le Center. Visitation will be held on Thursday, June 22 from 4 p.m.- 8 p.m. at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church with rosary at 3:30 p.m. Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Friday, June 23 at 11 a.m. with visitation one hour prior also at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church with Father Tom Niehaus officiating. Interment will be held in the Trebon Cemetery.

507s 6, Orioles 1 The New Prague Orioles hosted the 34th New Prague Oriole Invitational this past weekend, June 10-11. The Lyon's Pub Warriors out of Minneapolis were the eventual champions. New Prague went 1-2 against a few tough Class B teams. In round one they lost to the 507 club out of Mahtomedi. Matt Zweber, Jake Deutsch and Gavin Bergman all pitched well, but some good timely hitting by the 507s led to a 6-1 victory for the visitors. Ben Schmitz, Eric Wagner and James Fuerniss all had good days at the plate with hits and reaching base multiple times.

I’ve had a gripe for many years that has only become stronger — ticket resellers.
To get one thing out of the way right away, ticket resellers do serve one very small purpose, which has even since been almost eliminated, and that is to resell tickets for people who can’t go to an event for one reason or another. However, ticket companies have introduced ways to resell your tickets on their platform in the last few years, essentially eliminating the one purpose ticket resellers had.