Apparently the Switzerland booth was the popular spot for some students during the Culture Fair at New Prague High School on Thursday, March 12. This was the third year for the Culture Fair at the high school, showing off the various countries and beliefs represented in New Prague. There were 19 booths with many focusing on an assortment of aspects of a country or region ranging from its music such as a concertina with the Czech Republic to karaoke in the Philippines. For more see an upcoming print issue of The New Prague Times. (Patrick Fisher Photo)

Beginning Friday, March 13, New Prague Middle School will have four performances of fun and music as it presents “Shrek The Musical Jr.” for its spring musical. The show, based on the popular animated movie, will be at the middle school auditorium, 721 Central Ave. N with tickets available at the door. Showtimes are 7 p.m. March 13, 2 p.m. and 7 p.m. on Saturday, March 14, and 2 p.m. Sunday, March 15. Today (Thursday, March 12) there is also a senior preview at 3 p.m.

UPDATED March 13, 2020- The Adapted Floor Hockey games scheduled for Friday and Saturday, March 13 and 14 will NOT be played.

Elementary students from across New Prague Area Schools were able to show off their creativity with an assortment of projects at the Elementary Science Fair on Saturday, March 7. Held at the New Prague Middle School gym there were 52 entries in the annual science fair.
“We had a fun day of science and engineering,” said Jodi Prchal, fourth grade teacher at Falcon Ridge, who helps organize the event with New Prague Community Education. She said of the 52 entries there was “a wide variety of very interesting projects!”

Thursday, March 12, 2020 UPDATE
MANKATO, Minn. – (3 p.m.) Highway 93 from Highway 169 to Henderson is expected to reopen by 6 p.m. this evening, Thursday, March 12, after being closed since March 8 due to flooding on the Rush River.  Crews have been working to clear debris off the road and make repairs to shoulders and culverts.
 The shoulders of southbound Highway 93 are extremely soft due to exposure to the floodwaters. MnDOT is advising no travel on the shoulders until they dry out and repairs can be made.

The Le Sueur County Board cruised through a very light agenda Tuesday, March 3.
The regular meeting lasted approximately 40 minutes, but was followed by a special road and bridge work session.
A number of items which were dealt with during the regular meeting involved the highway department.
A couple of final payments were approved for work done this past year.
Crane Creek Asphalt received final payments of $148,200.72 for the CSAH 15 project from CSAH 22 to CSAH 26, and a payment of $69,056.47 for the CSAH project near Heidelberg.

The City of Elko New Market held an open house for an Alternative Urban Areawide Review (AUAR) on the Adelmann family property, east of the town. Community Development Specialist Renee Christianson and City Engineer Rich Revering answered questions about the review of the approximately 70 acres of property, which is located near the Interstate 35 interchange and currently in New Market Township.

A Las Vegas homicide suspect is in police custody after being located in Rice County.
Mark Doocy, 60, of Blooming Prairie, was arrested on March 4 at the Flying J Truck Stop at I-35 and Highway 19. According to Rice County Sheriff Troy Dunn, Doocy was arrested and forced to leave his vehicle after he refused to cooperate with officials.

He helped New Prague honor its own fallen hometown hero in 2012, 23-year-old Marine Lance Corporal Dale W. Means, who died November 18, 2012, while serving with the U.S. Marine Corps in Afghanistan.
Now, Larry “The Flag Guy” Eckhardt of Little York, Illinois, is at the end of his life, having placed nearly half a million flags around the U.S. to honor fallen police officers, firefighters, and service members—including Means.

Coborn’s Marketplace in New Prague held a Grand Re-Opening of its store the afternoon of Wednesday, March 4, with two ribbon cuttings. One included dignitaries from the store, employees and those who helped with the remodeling of the store, Little Dukes gas station, the addition of a Caribou Coffee and a new liquor store. The other was for the New Prague Chamber of Commerce. The Grand Re-Opening included face painting, samples from the store and local vendors until 6 p.m., free carnations, cookie decorating, kids activities, and free balloon swords or animals from Wallie the Clown.

The New Prague Fire Department took possession of a new pumper truck the afternoon of Tuesday, March 3. Members of the fire department were spending Tuesday learning how to run the new vehicle. The new truck replaces a pumper truck that had a cracked frame. The new pumper truck can hold 1,000 gallons of water, will be used to help fight rural fires and the department hopes to make use of the truck for more than 25 years. For more see an upcoming print issue of The Times. (Patrick Fisher Photo)

Primary voting is going on across Minnesota today (Tuesday, March 3). Here is a listing of the places people can vote from around the area.

Spring Load Restrictions on Rice, Le Sueur and Scott County State Aid Highways and County roadways will go in to effect at 12:01 a.m., Friday, March 6, 2020.
The Minnesota Department of Transportation has issued a notice that Spring Load Restrictions on the state highway system in the south, southeast and metro frost zones go in to effect on Friday, March 6, 2020.
Ending dates for spring load restrictions are variable and based on how weather is affecting roadway strength.
The Spring Load Restriction map is posted on the MNDOT website at mndot.gov/loadlimits.

Minnesota will join Super Tuesday this year — and 13 other states, including Texas and California, in perhaps the most consequential day of the presidential primary season.
It’s new in Minnesota. It’s our first presidential primary since 1992 and only the fourth in state history. Here are some rules.

The 44th annual Norm Sladek Memorial Euchre Tournament drew 84 people. Held at the Knights of Columbus Hall in New Prague on Saturday, Feb. 22, winners this year were Tom Kohout and Donnie Revord. The two edged out the team of Rita Dirks and Katie Skluzacek.
Winning the Trouba Award were Matt Novak and Rob Tietz, who lost 8-1. During the tourney they set the team of Ron and Jeff Simon four times in a row and still lost the game.
Among the teams from around the area who played through the day at the tourney were Harold Shimota of New Prague and his son Tom of Rosemount.