There are just a couple of things I want to Cheer and Jeer this week.

First, a Cheer goes out to the Elmore City Council.

I know, it sounds like I am cheering the fact that they closed their city-owned municipal liquor store. Well, that is not quite it.

Having lost money for several years at the store, the City Council knew they really had no choice but to close the city’s municipal liquor store. In fact the state pretty much required as much.

I had written a story to that effect previously and we put it at the top of the front page. But then I decided to attend the Elmore City Council meeting this past Monday, just to see if they really would vote to pass an ordinance and shut down the muni. And, I am glad I did.

They did vote unanimously to shut it down, as of Feb. 15. But then I learned that they were not just going to shut it down and call it quits.

No, the council came up with a plan to try and find someone to lease the space and open up a privately owned liquor store.

And maybe not just a liquor store. The person could open up a combination liquor store – convenience store – small grocery store.

Doing that, the council reasoned, a person could probably make a go of the business and make a profit, where the city could not when they only sold liquor, which is all they were allowed to do.

It seems like the council might be on to something. After the meeting they told me they thought of it as a win-win-win deal. The city wins by having a business open up after the city had to close one. The person leasing the space wins with a chance to own a successful business, and the city of Elmore residents win because they would have a place to shop for some food and drink items without having to travel out of town.

That kind of forward thinking is something to Cheer about. Now, they just have to find someone willing to do it, and can do it right.

Hopefully, the council can turn this bad thing (closing the store) into a good thing (having a better store).

And, that is not the only thing the Elmore Council is doing that deserves a Cheer. I was surprised to learn at their regular meeting that they are now moving their City Hall into a new space. Now, moving the City Hall to a new location basically means moving the city clerk’s office to a new spot.

The clerk’s office is now located inside the city-owned liquor store. Not just in the same building, but in the liquor store itself. City clerk Mandy Emmers says she can literally see the bottles of liquor and the customers from her desk.

So another Cheer goes out to Elmore for finally having a real City Hall for a change.

Another Cheer goes out to having the governor of Minnesota, Tim Walz, deciding to come to Blue Earth for a visit.

Of course, he really wasn’t visiting the whole city, and he was here for the purpose of promoting and touting the state’s plan of helping fund putting broadband internet service from border to border.

And, he wanted to check what local business Bevcomm is doing to put fiber optic cable throughout the rural area.

To say he was impressed is an understatement. The governor saw Bevcomm’s giant warehouse and equipment and staff and learned what they are doing with state grant money.

We are very lucky to have a company like Bevcomm serving our community. And the governor said so, too.

It never hurts to have some good publicity about our town.

Finally, this abbreviated Cheers and Jeers column would not be complete without one Jeer.

We all knew it was going to happen sooner or later. So I have to do a Jeer that winter is finally coming, and according to predictions, it is coming in with a vengeance this weekend.

As this edition of the Faribault County Register goes to press on Friday morning, the snow is falling, the wind is blowing and the temperature is dropping like a rock. Can they really be forecasting wind chill temperatures for Sunday of minus 30 degrees?

Schools are closing and soon my calendar will be filled with postponed and cancelled winter sports events.

Some folks are probably cheering the arrival of winter. But for many us, it is just something we put up with. And makes us appreciate that vacation trip to somewhere south. But even the southland has not been that warm lately.

Just ask my sister-in-law Denise Karau, formerly of Blue Earth, who is spending the winter in the New Mexico, Arizona area in her camper. She is currently in Tucson, Arizona and it has been below freezing in the mornings.

There you have it, some quick Cheers and only one Jeer. I promise a whole lot more Cheering and Jeering coming up in the near future.