This year is the 31st year of Ahlman's Shooter's Round Up, one of the nation's top events for outdoor and gun enthusiasts.

This year's two-day event is scheduled for Saturday, Aug. 26 and Sunday, Aug. 27 on the Ahlman's Gun Shop site north of Morristown.

The Round-Up is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. both days. There is an admission fee for this event, which is billed as the Greatest Shooting Show on Earth.

Jeff and Sue Stangler of rural Waterville have a safe full of interesting paperwork which go back more than 150 years.

The papers include the original deeds of their current farm, which was recently recognized as a Century Farm and a Sesquicentennial Farm by Farm Bureau and the Minnesota State Fair.

With nothing in the city policy book governing cannabis, the Elysian City Council took action to make sure they have plenty of time to make sure there is ordinances in place when it comes to the sale and other items dealing with the drug.

The council approved an interim ordinance prohibiting the sale, testing, manufacturing, cultivating, growing, transporting, delivery, and distribution of cannabis products in the City of Elysian.

Local Legionnaires attended their respective Minnesota State Conventions last weekend.

The Elysian Legion Auxiliary Unit 311 attended the 103rd American Legion Auxiliary Department Convention at Jackpot Junction in Morton. The Elysian Legion attended the 104th American Legion Post/SAL/Riders Department of Minnesota Convention, also at Jackpot Junction.

He remembers the fear sweeping through his being in 2003 when he heard his wife had cancer. Two years later, Chris Smith heard a doctor direct those same words at him.

Here is another test. This is the one to see how things perform below what is here. 

Long-time educator Juanita Krueger of Morristown has been selected the 2022 Outstanding Elementary Teacher of the Year by a committee from the Minnesota South District of the Lutheran Church Missouri Synod.

WEM freshmen Keegan Kuball and Carson Petry are the latest Grizzly wrestlers to advance to the Class A State Wrestling Tournament.
Kuball won the Section 2A heavyweight division Saturday in Blue Earth. Petry was the Section 2A runner-up at 113 pounds. Both will compete Friday, March 4 starting at approximately 10:30 a.m. at Xcel Energy Center in St. Paul.

FFA Week has a new title at WEM High School, FFA/ Snow Week.
The WEM FFA will run daily activities as they have for years, with the addition of coronation.
Three males and three females in each of the high school grades were chosen as royalty. They were voted on by WEM staff based on their PBIS traits. Grade level students will then vote for their king and queen of the court. The royalty includes:

It’s 7:30 a.m.—almost an hour before school starts— but 10 brainy Buccaneers are already seated in desks, deep in thought.
They are the members of Waterville-Elysian-Morristown High School’s Knowledge Bowl Team.
A few students munch their breakfasts.
Many down caffeinated drinks.
All are focused on solving the question at hand, a brand-named brainteaser that Knowledge Bowl Advisor (and Spanish teacher) Tom Walker has posed: resonating percussion instruments of a political faction.

It was -13ºF outside, but things were heating up inside the Waterville Area Senior Center, Thursday morning, February 3.
There’s music. There’s laughter. And, there’s exercise.
There’s also a handmade sign taped in the front of the room that reads: Stop if you get tired. Sit and rest or sway side to side instead of marching. It’s Okay!
It’s the local S.A.I.L. (Stay Active and Independent for Life) exercise program.

The work of former Le Sueur County resident Edward S. Curtis, a world renowned photographer of Native Americans during the late 1800s and early 1900s, is being celebrated in the form of a free exhibit in the lower-level of the Elysian Area Library and Heritage Center, now through mid-March.
With more than 85 large prints on display and indigenous artifacts, the exhibit is the largest of its kind to be featured in the area—a salute to Curtis’s ties to Elysian Township.

Big things are happening in the woods on Elysian’s west side.
Jacob and Leslie Lee are transforming the former Knotty Pine Bar and Grill into Ahavah Cottage, an elegant wedding and event venue that can accommodate up to 295 people.
The couple purchased the property in November.
“This place means a lot to me,” Leslie stated with a smile. “I worked here as a single mom back when it was The Bear’s Den… It feels almost surreal now to walk in, knowing we own this place.”

Richard “Dick” Stangler, of Kilkenny, has spent his entire life working with seed. His first job was to clip the metal MCIA seal on seed bags with a pliers. His grandfather, Elmer, started the family in the certified seed business; his father, Jim, followed.

Since August, three daycares have closed in the local area, according to Minnesota Department of Human Service’s online Family Child Care database. One was located in Elysian. The other two were in Waterville.
During that same time frame, two new home daycares have opened.
Sheila Mack opened her home daycare, Homegrown Kids Childcare, in Waterville in early January, after weeks spent scrambling to find more convenient care for her infant foster daughter.

The WEM Board of Education approved a slight increase to the school district’s levy for the 2022 pay year.
The board adopted a proposed levy in September based on the limits set by the Minnesota Legislature. The increase in levy is due to an increase in debt service.
But according to Business Manager Margaret Jewison, county assessors determine estimated market values for each parcel of property in the WEM School District.