Joe “Joey” Luis Leija Jr., age 62, of Montgomery, passed away on Thursday, April 6, 2023 peacefully at his home surrounded by his family after a long battle with cancer. Visitation will be held on Tuesday, April 11 from 3-7 pm at the Schoenbauer Funeral Home in Montgomery. Interment will be held at a later date in St. Michael’s Cemetery in Montgomery.

Robert Lee Selly, age 86, of Le Center, passed away on Tuesday, April 4, 2023 at Horizon Place in Le Center. Visitation will be held on Thursday, April 13 from 4 pm-7 pm at the Le Center Funeral Home. Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Friday, April 14 at 11 am at St. Henry Catholic Church in St. Henry with visitation 10 am - 11 am also at the church. Interment will be held at a later date in St. Henry Cemetery.

Steven Roy Pany, age 65, passed away peacefully on December 23, 2022, at Norbella Assisted Living, Prior Lake, following a brief illness.
Graveside service will be held at the Bohemian National Cemetery in Montgomery at 11 am on Saturday, April 15 with Pastor Jason Pollington. A Celebration of Steve's Life will be held at Ridges at Sand Creek in Jordan at 1 pm.
Steve’s family requests memorial donations be directed to his favorite non-profit organization, Lake Volney Association, PO Box 132, Le Center, MN 56057.

John George Stasney, age 96, of Montgomery, passed away on Sunday, February 19, 2023 at Central Health Care in Le Center. Visitation will be held on Wednesday, April 12 from 4pm-8pm at Schoenbauer Funeral Home. Mass of Christian Burial will be held on Thursday, April 13 at 10:30 a.m. at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Montgomery with Fr. Tom Niehaus officiating. Visitation will also be one hour prior at the church. Burial will be in Calvary Cemetery in Montgomery. Military Honors will be provided by the Montgomery area Veterans Honor Guard. 

Dean M. Hovey - 4/4/1959 – 3/30/2023
Dean was born to Edwin and Barbara Hovey, in Austin, MN. He spent his adolescent and teenage years with Alvin and Margie Wondra, of Montgomery, MN where he graduated high school. He went on to become a skilled welder, starting his career at Minnesota Valley Engineering (MVE), in New Prague, MN.

Robert “Bob” Louis Heilman, age 71, of Le Center, passed away on Thursday, March 23, 2023 at his home. Visitation will be held on Friday, March 31 from 4 pm-8 pm at Le Center Funeral Home. Funeral Service will be held on Saturday, April 1 at 11 am at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Le Center with visitation one hour prior. Interment will be held in Woodlawn Cemetery in Le Center at a later date.

Arnita B.

Richard Francis Korbel, age 88, of New Prague, passed away on Tuesday, March 21, 2023 at home surrounded by his family. Visitation will be held on Saturday, April 1 from 9:30 am-1:30 pm at Most Holy Redeemer Catholic Church in Montgomery. Mass of Christian Burial will follow at 1:30 pm with Fr. Tom Niehaus officiating. Interment will be held in the Calvary Cemetery in Montgomery.

After selling fashion online, out of her basement and garage, BAM Fashion Boutique owner Amy Gray opened her first-ever retail store in Lonsdale on Saturday, March 18.
Gray explains that her home business and family’s move to Lonsdale made them look for a brick-and-mortar location.
“I ran out of my basement in Elko in the beginning, then out of our detached garage,” she explained after the ribbon-cutting ceremony on Saturday at 126 Main Street North. “I would have open shopping hours, but never set hours.”

Franke’s Bakery was sweeter than normal on Saturday, March 18 for those who renewed their membership or took out a new one to the Montgomery Area Community Club’s (MACC) Annual Membership Drive.

Tri-City United High School band and choir students had a memorable trip March 5-10 at Disney in Florida.
For some students, it was their first time on an airplane, seeing the ocean or even their first time leaving Minnesota.
TCU Music Director Sarah Costello said, “We had an amazing time on our trip!  We are so thankful we are able to offer opportunities like this…that we did some fundraising to help lower costs, and students got to experience such wonderful memories on our trip.” 

Students from the Tri-City United Business Professional’s of America (BPA) teams placed well at this year’s state competition in Minneapolis during the state Spring Leadership Conference.
The network design team of Josiah Turek and Cole Walters placed first in their category and will be moving on to the national competition in Anaheim, California. Turek and Walters are not the only team from TCU to advance to the national competition. Three other teams (listed below) will be heading to California to compete at the National Leadership Conference April 26-30.

Chuck Wann, who worked for over 50 years with his grandfather, mother and family members to run Suel Printing and The New Prague Times, passed away this past week. He leaves behind a legacy of a family-owned publishing company committed to serving readers and advertisers and helping make the communities they serve better.
Chuck’s obituary appears on newpraguetimes.com and in this week's papers.

Tri-City United sophomore Alexia Marcussen was selected Most Valuable Player of the Titan Girls Basketball Team during their Awards Banquet Sunday, March 12.
Marcussen led the Titans with free throws made (5), best free throw percentage (50-of-70, 71.4%), assists (81), steals (53), deflections (78), and she also scored 192 points in 27 games (7.1/game).
Marcussen and classmate Audrey Vosejpka each received Honorable Mention All-Conference Honors.
Kaia Krocak, Jacy Saemrow,, and Sami Tiede were also honored with the Academic All-State Award.

A number of entities came together to implement the Farmers Protecting Rice Creek Project in the Rice Creek watershed in 2018. The project expanded to include parts of Heath and Wolf Creek watersheds in 2021 and was renamed the Farmers Protecting Bridgewater Streams Project (FPBSP).

You can visit the Montgomery Arts and Heritage Center over the next two months to see Tri-City United student-created artwork. The exhibits will run from now through May 13 and will be divided into three grade-level groups.
Many different types of artwork displayed, including pottery, watercolor paintings, beadwork, knitting, collages, photography, and more.