Mother Nature gave us an early, threatening indication that this year’s Watercade would not go off as planned.

Less than two hours into the weekend’s first big night of celebrations, the skies turned threatening and sent everyone scurrying from the beach at Memorial Park —  leaving behind the planned beach party and hundreds of cooked and uncooked brats and other festival food.

With a name like Watercade, it’s hard to forget the key element of Litchfield’s annual community celebration, which takes place today through Sunday.

Water — specifically Lake Ripley — plays an important role in this weekend’s events. Moves made by the Watercade Board of Directors last year gave Lake Ripley an even more prominent place in the activities.

While decisions to move events like Art in the Park and the lip sync contest from Central Park to the shores of Lake Ripley faced some objections, the moves are easily defended.

Three checks totalling $2,600 might not seem like a big deal when compared with grants given by other, more-established foundations, but they represented a major milestone for the Litchfield Area Community Foundation.

By Stan Roeser

Oct. 6, 1960, was a beautiful, sun-splashed day in the Litchfield area.

At her rural home a short distance southeast of town, 81-year-old Mrs. Herman Clausen went out to the main road to get the mail.

Returning, she handed a copy of the paper to her husband. Then, as reported by the Independent Review of that week, “she stepped out again into the warm October day and quietly vanished.” No trace of her was ever found.

Litchfield School Board’s recent decision to close Libre Academy was understandable.

Understandable, but still disappointing.

Libre Academy opened three years ago as a branch of metro-based Sobriety High School. As the first sober school outside the metro area, organizers knew there might be challenges. But those challenges proved greater than anticipated.

By Matt Entenza
MINNESOTA 2020 BOARD CHAIRMAN
and John Fitzgerald
MINNESOTA 2020 FELLOW

 Most rural Minnesota school superintendents say the way schools are funded is a disaster and is ruining the quality of education.

“There is a crisis in public education and it is significant,” one superintendent wrote. “Minnesota has decided to abandon its support for public education.”

If your home were hit by a tornado or flood, who would you turn to for help?

Minnesotans living in Comfrey, St. Peter, Granite Falls and Buffalo Lake learned not so long ago that the Salvation Army is a godsend of relief within hours of a disaster. The Salvation Army relies on, as its name implies, an army of volunteers to serve stricken folks with water, food and other basic needs.

I want to thank Sen. Steve Dille for supporting  the transportation funding bill. I realize that he voted against party liines and that Sen. Dille did the right thing for our area and for our state.

The roads and bridges are essential for everyone in Minnesota. With a lack of funding from the state, we have seen deterioration of our roads and bridges and basically have worn many of them out. Our rural roads also need safety improvements that are long overdue.

Raising taxes is never popular, but neither are the dangerous curves and blind spots on Minnesota Highway 12 and other rural roads or the congestion you have to deal with once you reach the metropolitan area.  

Recently, this newspaper printed a story on the DFL convention. I want to begin by saying the article was a fine piece of journalism. Kristin Holtz is a credit to her profession, covering the entire convention word for word, even my words.

You see, at one point I made a speech regarding partisanship in St. Paul. In the middle of the speech a woman asked if I would be the DFL candidate to run against Dean Urdahl. This is where I made my mistake. With a laugh, and in a sarcastic tone that my listeners know well, I responded with a “We will see.”