Elysian, Kilkenny, Morristown, and Waterville have scheduled Memorial Day Ceremonies for Monday, May 25, 2026.

Elysian Ceremony The Elysian American Legion Post 311 Honor Guard will start with stops at Greenland Cemetery (7 a.m.), German Lake Cemetery (7:20 a.m.), St. Peter (Bell) cemetery (7:55 a.m.), Cannonville Cemetery (8:20 a.m.), and the Waterville Veterans Memorial (8:45 a.m.). The Elysian Ceremony will take place at 9:30 a.m. at the Elysian Veterans Memorial at Sunset Park.

A total of 67 seniors will don caps, gowns, and tassels in anticipation of graduating from Waterville-Elysian-Morristown High School at 7 p.m. Friday, May 22 in the Waterville gymnasium.

Of these 67 seniors, 41 have been named honor students.

The 2026 Class Motto is “It’s hard to turn the page when you know someone won’t be in the next chapter, but the story must go on.” The class flower is the Peruvian Lily.

To see more on this story pick up the May 21, 2026 print edition of the LifeEnterprise paper. 

The 41st Annual Morristown Dam Days Celebration will begin with the coronation of Miss Morristown 2026 on Wednesday, May 27, at 7 p.m. in the Morristown Community Center, 402 Division Street South. Admission is two dollars and a Dam Days button. Dam Days buttons will be sold at the door.

Miss Morristown 2025, Addison Langer, will crown Miss Morristown 2026 and share her memories of the past year.

Candidates will be judged on poise, personality, appearance, educational accomplishments, activities, community involvement and talent.

Congratulations to our WEM 2nd grade Poppy Poster Contest winners and to the Poppy Coloring contest winners. All entries will be on display at the Legion. Thank you WEM students for your beautiful art work! Thank you Lisa Becker for coordinating the contests!

The winners of the Poppy Poster Contest:

1st Place and winner of $25 – Archer Splett in Mrs Skurkay’s

2nd grade class 2nd Place and winner of $15 – Beau Holicky-James

3rd Place and winner of $5 – Alia Culhane in Mrs Skurkay’s class

Honorable Mention in alphabetical order:

Dozens of WEM Future Farmers of America (FFA) members received awards during their annual end-of-the-year awards banquet held Wednesday, May 6 in Waterville.

State FFA Awards, officers retiring and newly elected, Greenhand Degrees, Chapter Degrees, and senior recognition were among the awards presented.

Senior Clare Landrum received her State Degree and was the recipient of the James Tracy Scholarship. She is also the outgoing WEM FFA President.

Two WEM groups advanced to State competition.

    Le Sueur County Veterans Service Officer (CVSO) Mark Roemhildt delivered his final department report to the Le Sueur County Board of Commissioners at their regular meeting on April 21.
    “I am just across six years in this position,” Roemhildt said. “My last day will be Friday, May 1. My last day in the office, however, will be this coming Friday (April 24), and then Joe will have the keys to the castle.”
    Succeeding Roemhildt is Joe Fisher, who was hired to the position on April 6. He had been training for the three weeks before the meeting.

The WEM Education Association surveyed its members last week on the issue of hoods and/or hats being worn in school.

This topic was brought up during the March WEM Board of Education meeting and the education association invited its members to participate in the short survey which had only two questions. A total of 48 members responded to the survey and a summary of their responses and reason for or against were tallied.

The first question was should students be able to wear hoods during the school day? 95 percent of those who answered said no.

    Minnesota legislators passed a new school bus safety law by a 133-0 vote in the house and 67-0 in the senate in March to close some safety loopholes. It was the first bill of this legislative session to pass. 
    Stopping for school busses allowed for some gray area in the wording that drivers shall stop when busses are “… displaying extended stop signal arm and flashing red lights.” This left the door open for people faced with a fine to argue that the arm was not extended or not fully yet when they passed.

Do you know of someone who took advantage of the CCC (Civilian Conservation Corps) program in the 1930s? Maybe your father or grandfather or great uncle? Did you know there was a camp situated in our county?

Background On March 31, 1933 President Franklin D. Roosevelt received Senate Bill S. 598 on his desk to be signed. The bill was passed by both the House of Representatives and the Senate and quickly moved forward to the President. Roosevelt then signed an executive order on April 5.

    Minnesota Valley Electric Cooperative (MVEC), which serves much of our readership area, held its annual meeting at Jordan High School on Tuesday, April 7, where over 200 members gathered.
    A total of 20 $1,500 scholarships to high school seniors were given out or a total of $30,000. To be eligible for the scholarship, students must have a parent or legal guardian who are MVEC members, be enrolled to attend an accredited post-secondary institution as a full-time student, and have at minimum GPA of 2.0. 

Three members of the WEM Speech team have advanced to the Class A State Speech Meet, which will be held Saturday, April 25 at Park Center High School.

Seniors Kayla Bronk and Abby Crosby and sophomore Lacey Reysack advanced by placing in the top three of their individual events at the Section 2A Meet held Friday, April 10 at JWP High School.

The annual MSHSL 2A North Sections competition for the Visual Arts took place over the course of two days last week. Each school is limited to a maximum of 18 entries over 12 different art categories. No school is allowed to have more than six entries in a single category. And, no student may enter more than one piece in a single category; but students may compete in more than one category.

The Minnesota Department of Natural Resources will begin lowering water levels on Willis Lake in Waseca County, prompted by a decline in wildlife use and habitat quality.

Willis Lake is a 116-acre shallow lake located in Waseca County. Because of its importance to resident and migratory wildlife, Willis Lake was designated as a wildlife lake in 2001. It is one of only 61 such lakes in the state. This designation allows DNR staff to manage water levels through temporary drawdowns to address factors that affect water and habitat quality.

Montgomery Streets
    Most of the streets in the area between the railroad tracks and Le Sueur County 3/5th Street, and north of Le Sueur County 56/Oak Avenue and south of Boulevard Avenue will receive partial surface milling and a full overlay of pavement this summer. 

Le Sueur County Emergency Management Director Tammy Stewig said that dispatchers accidentally sounded off the county's sirens today, Thursday, April 9, at 1:45 p.m. thinking it was Severe Weather Awareness Week (SWAW), which is actually April 13-17, 2026.

On Thursday, April 16, of SWAW, almost every corner of the state will have two rounds of sirens sounding, one at 1:45 p.m. and one at 6:45 p.m., for businesses and residents to practice tornado safety procedures.

    The Le Sueur County Officials meeting at the American Bar & Grill in Montgomery on Wednesday, March 25, was host to two state nonprofit representatives that assist smaller governments — Cap O’Rourke and Maddie Cash.
    Cap O’Rourke is the executive director for the Minnesota Association of Small Cities (MAOSC), which is a nonprofit that exclusively serves cities of a population of 5,000 or less, and is also the owner of O’Rourke Strategic Consulting.