If the voters of Independent School District No. 129 had approved the excess levy referendum last November, the school board would not be having three meetings this week to discuss ways to balance next year’s budget.

Watson residents voted overwhelmingly, 72-17, in Tuesday’s special election, to change the city’s form of government to a Plan A from the current standard form.

City of Montevideo officials received some unwelcome news last week when Gov. Tim Pawlenty announced his administration wants to cut an additional $292,436 from the city’s local government aid (LGA) allotment this year to help balance the state budget.

An accident claimed the life Sunday of Lloyd Koch, 80, of rural Montevideo, when the front end loader he was using to remove snow apparently rolled down a hill. The accident occurred along the 4000 block of 350th Avenue in Yellow Medicine County.

Drawing on the lessons they learned from the all-time record Flood of 1997 when the Minnesota River crested just short of 24 feet — 10 feet above flood stage — Montevideo city officials are preparing for what could well become known as the Flood of 2010.

A Milan area couple spent more than seven hours trapped in their car stuck in the snow during Sunday’s whiteout conditions.

In August 2009 the Chippewa County Com­missioners discussed the idea of an energy modeling study for the courthouse to determine whether or not some “green” enhancements are a good idea. The courthouse was built in 1957 and has had few updates since then.

Montevideo Community Edu­cation Director Doug Spray has become only the 11th person to receive the Minnesota Com­munity Education Associ­ation Lifetime Achievement Award.

While the soldiers of the 151st Field Artillery are overseas, their families are doing double duty here at home. Most of us do not realize what the families of deployed soldiers go through while their loved ones are deployed.

The 2010-2011 initial budget projections laid out Monday night at the Montevideo School Board meeting by Dr. Luther Heller, Montevideo superin­tendent of schools, were clear, detailed and sobering.

In a telephone conversation several days after his expected resignation from office, Wat­son Mayor Jason Avels­gard told the American-News he had decided not to hand in his resignation.

Once again a winter storm has struck Montevideo and the surrounding region, blanketing Min­nesota and neighboring states with a fresh mantle of snow.

Gemini Rescue shelter has an opportunity to receive either a weekly $1,000 grant or a grand prize $10,000 grant competing in the National Shelter Challenge.
Out of hundreds of shelters in Minnesota, Gemini is currently in fifth place. Out of thousands of shelters nationally, Gemini is in 122nd place.
“We feel that this is a testament to how far reaching our rescue efforts have spread and how many lives we’ve touched in the process,” says Wold.

Citing irreconcilable differences with the city clerk, the mayor of Watson has resigned his office one year into his term.

Supporters of a proposed veterans home in Montevideo are willing to put their money where their mouths are, having pledged to raise $2 million locally toward the cost of the estimated $30 million facility. But it might not be enough; at least not in the short term.