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Get ready for a whole lot of those Cheers and Jeers for lots of things

By Chuck Hunt - Editor | Sep 29, 2024

Time to sit back and relax and have a cup of coffee and enjoy another round of Cheers and Jeers from ye olde editor. Yes, you know you were wondering when those Cheers and Jeers would be back. One person recently suggested that Roasts and Toasts might be a better name for them. But it is hard to change after so many years of Cheering and Jeering.

The first Cheer goes out to the Blue Earth City Council and everyone else who was involved in the development and construction of the new tennis courts in Putnam Park.

We have to admit they look pretty nice and they have certainly gotten a lot of use since they were completed.

A Cheer also goes out to all those people in our county who are willing to run for office and have their names on the ballot come Nov. 5. Some races even have multiple names to choose from, something not always true in small rural towns in Minnesota.

Of course, we have to put out a small Jeer for the fact that there are a few offices on the ballot with no names. But we are sure someone will be chosen by write-in selection in those cases.

A Cheer goes out to the Faribault County Board who recently voted to help out the city of Blue Earth with the demolition costs of the Three Sisters buildings. The county has a demolition fund and it was good to see them use it to help out the city. The county realized that if the city had not taken action, the county would have had the buildings from non-payment of taxes eventually, anyway.

A Cheer to the schools in the county that seemed to generate a lot of enthusiasm for students as they headed back to school. Not all of the students were maybe happy with new cell phone policies that were in place, but we will Cheer the fact that cell phones are not available for use all day long.

Another Cheer for the schools getting to full staff before the start of school. We count 22 new teachers in the county, with 12 at Blue Earth Area, six at United South Central and four at Genesis Classical Academy. A big welcome to them all.

A Jeer goes out to the fact that a serious big issue has developed between the city of Blue Earth and the Blue Earth Chamber of Commerce about the lease of the Giant Welcome Center. We hope that a solution to the issue can be found, as the Chamber and the Welcome Center are valuable assets to the community and the area.

We are going to reserve the right to give out a Cheer for the Blue Earth Council’s idea of developing a group to tiny homes near Putnam Park. While it is good to see the council taking a serious look at the issue of affordable housing needs in the city, these tiny homes are only one possible solution. It is an interesting concept for sure.

A Cheer goes out to the Blue Earth Town and Country Players as they finally were back in action with their musical “Church Basement Ladies.” The group has had some struggles of late, starting back with the COVID times. It was good to see them finally get their newest production on the stage despite a two-month delay.

A Cheer goes out to all the folks who helped out in any way to put on the Faribault County Fair and all of the town celebrations that go on all summer long and into September.

It takes a ton of work to put on these events, and sometimes they had to battle hot weather and a whole lot of rain. But they persevered and put on a good show.

One special one we will give a Cheer to is the annual Faribault County Relay for Life. They had a great event last month and once again raised a big sum of money to help with cancer research. The Cheer is not just to those who put it on, but to all of the people who support it.

A Cheer goes to Hosu Chang, the person who raised some questions about the new data center in Blue Earth. Then another Cheer goes to the Blue Earth Council and Blue Earth Light and Water for taking the effort to answer all her questions. That was how things should work in our small towns. People asking questions and officials answering them.

We have to give out a Jeer for the way the state has started to roll out the new cannabis rules and regulations. It seems that cities and counties are struggling to learn what it is that they can – and cannot – do to control cannabis production and sales in their communities.

That is it for this round of Cheering and Jeering. And you will note we did not mention the weather once this time. It never seems to do any good anyway.

But if we did, it would be a Cheer for the very nice weather of the last couple of weeks.