You could probably call this column “A Readers Guide to this Week’s Faribault County Register” if you wanted to.

You know, in deference to the book titled “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy.” That was a rather strange compilation of science fiction comedy scripts from a radio show back in the 1980s, so never mind. I’m already off track for this week’s column and I have just gotten started.

Anyway, most editors would like to give their readers a little guide around the newspaper and I am no different. So let’s try it this week.

The whole Faribault County Register is filled with a multitude of stories and advertisements each and every week, including this one, and we hope you take time to read the newspaper from cover to cover. If you get this copy on Saturday, you might have time this weekend to do just that, as you hunker down to ride out the storm.

But I want to just highlight a few items and perhaps explain a thing or two along the way.

Starting with the front page this week, I’d like to once again point out something about both the County Board and the Blue Earth City Council stories.

Yes, they did appear last week in the Fairmont Sentinel, our sister publication. But those were more brief versions of what happened at the meetings. I urge you to check out these much more thorough stories which contain way more information and details.

For instance, I hope you read all the way to the end of the Blue Earth City Council story. There you will learn the council is considering raising the minimum age for purchasing tobacco products in Blue Earth from 18-years old to 21. There are 25 cities in Minnesota which have already done this. One of the reasons for it is the thought most 13 to 17 year olds get their tobacco from their 18-year old friends.

What do you think about that? The council will be discussing this issue at their next council meeting.

Then there is the story about Blue Earth city administrator Tim Ibisch being a finalist to be city manager in New Ulm. Generally we do not do a story if an official has simply applied somewhere else, but we do a story if they are a finalist for another job elsewhere. And besides, names of applicants are not released to the public until they are finalists and are going to be interviewed.

We will, of course, let you know what happens next in this situation.

Next, we turn to page 2 and reporter Katie Mullaly’s compelling story and photos about animals suffering from frostbite during this rather harsh winter. The photos are hard to look at, I agree, but they are important to help people realize both what is happening to these cats and other pets, and that there are some dedicated humane society folks who care for them.

Granted, not all of them are house pets. Many are feral (wild) cats that wander around the town.

Next up is this opinion page. I guess I know what is on it, if you are reading these words right now. But please take time to read the guest column which concerns the fact that this is Sunshine Week. It is a week dedicated to celebrating the public’s (that would be you) right to know.

Sunshine Week was once going to be the subject of this column, but a former Minnesota fellow newspaper editor did such a great job explaining Sunshine Week we are running his piece. I hope you enjoy it.

Skipping ahead to page 9, we have the start of our sports coverage. Some folks think we make too big of a deal out of sports, while others think we don’t do enough.

But what I want to point out is that we have sports on pages 9 and 10 and then skip way ahead to page 17. Why would we do that, you ask? The answer is simply because we wanted to take advantage of the color on page 17 and get at least a few of our sports photos in color this week.

Pages 11 through 13 and page 15 have legal notices which this week includes the Delinquent Tax List for Faribault County. This is probably one item I don’t need to urge folks to read, as it could quite possibly be the most read pages in the Register this week.

People want to see if someone they know has not paid their property taxes. And, that is precisely why all counties in Minnesota publish this kind of list. One county up north used to have such a long list to print that the newspaper ran it as a second section to their paper.

The list will be published once more, minus the property owners names who come in and pay now.

On a happier note, page 18 has some Education Focus photos and stories, I just want to point out that the BEA Reads story does not really have to do with the Blue Earth Area Schools, but is actually put on by the libraries in the BEA School District area. The BEA District is a supporter of the idea.

However, we felt reading is educational, and the book the libraries have chosen to highlight is very educational. As I have pointed out in this space back in January, the book “Boys in the Boat” is a fascinating look at life in America in the 1930s, team crewing (rowing), the 1936 Olympics in Berlin and information on how Hitler rose to power.

Like they say, “it’s a good read” and I hope you find time to do just that. Check out the library in Winnebago, Blue Earth or Elmore for more details and they will even give you a copy of the book to read.

Our second section this week, which starts on page 19, is our second of four Ag Sections planned for 2019. It has three stories by the three writers on staff here at the Register.

Now I realize not all of our readers are farmers, and that is why we try to find three stories which would be of interest to all of our readers. I think we succeeded once again to attain that goal. Then, I encourage you to also check out the other information and ads in the section.

And that brings us to the end of this guide to reading the Register. Just one more thing. Once again, thanks for reading us.