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What a great time for a little bit of Cheering and Jeering a few things

By Chuck Hunt - Editor | Feb 2, 2025

It seems like only a week or two ago that I dedicated this column space to some Cheers and Jeers to those who deserve one or the other. But, in actuality, it has been about two months since we last did some Cheering and Jeering.

We are going to start this column out by Cheering four outstanding high school students.

A great big Cheer goes out to USC’s Nathan Mutschler and Madison Passer, and BEA’s Jacob Grandgenett and Madelyn Ferguson. These four seniors were chosen by their respective schools as this year’s Triple A (Athletics, Arts and Academics) Award recipients.

All four were well-deserving of the honor.

The next Cheer goes out to a group of Blue Earth Elementary students and a lot of other Buccaneer fans for an outstanding display of good sportsmanship.

It happened at a BEA vs. Jackson County Central JV basketball game. One of the JCC players with special needs came in and sank two baskets and the crowd – including Buc fans – went wild. The BEA boys even caught up with Thomas Bidne after the game for selfies and high-fives.

That is what sports and being a fan should be all about. We can all learn a lesson from those boys.

A triple Cheer goes out to the Blue Earth Chamber of Commerce Award recipients who will be honored at a banquet tonight, Monday, Feb. 3.

Business of the Year is 10 Talents Art Center and owner Jenna Johnson, Rising Star Award recipient is Lost Saint Brewery and owner Mike Lahti and the Community Service Award recipient is Bill Rosenau. A big congratulatory Cheer goes to all three, who are all so deserving of these awards.

A special Cheer also to an extra award this year being given posthumously to Norm Hall, for all his years of dedication to the Blue Earth area community.

Again, so very well deserved.

A Jeer has to go out to the fact that there were several government bodies that made some larger than normal property tax increases. Several cities in Faribault County were raising their rates by 6 to 9 percent by the end of this past year. Blue Earth’s was even higher. Tack on the fact that property tax valuations also took big hikes in some cases and the double whammy made a big impact on some homeowners and a lot of business owners.

Thankfully, the USC School Board barely raised their levy, and the BEA School Board actually lowered theirs a little bit.

We have given a Cheer out to the Knights of Columbus for their Christmas Party for some special residents every year, and this year is no different.

And there is another new group looking to help those who need a helping hand. A Bricelyn Food Pantry is underway and has been seeing success in helping those who need a way to fill in their grocery needs. A big Cheer to those who are involved in that endeavor.

And speaking of new groups being created, another Cheer has to go to Shelly Greimann of Blue Earth who saw a need and worked hard to fill it.

She created a new group for widowed persons and called it Blue Earth Area Healing Hearts. They meet every third Thursday of the month at 10 Talents Art Center.

A Jeer to the shocking and sad news that a man born and raised in Blue Earth was killed in the duty as a Border Agent.

And our sincere condolences to his family in the Blue Earth – Fairmont area.

We have to give out three big Cheers to three girls who recently broke a big mark when they scored 1,000 points in their high school basketball careers.

Lola Lundquist of Blue Earth Area and Taylor Schroeder and Olivia Bungum of United South Central all hit that high mark recently. Cheers to them.

A stand up Cheer to Jacob Niebuhr, a student at United South Central in Wells for saving a man’s life not long ago.

Niebuhr credits learning how to do CPR at USC High School with giving him the skills to save the man.

Cheers to this local hero.

And Cheers to Faribault County Sheriff Mike Gormley who recently retired after 18 years of being the local sheriff.

Gormley did an excellent job of running the sheriff’s department for all those years and we congratulate him on his retirement and on a job well done.

We wish newly designated sheriff Scott Adams all the best with full faith he will do a great job, as well.

Lastly, how about a Cheer -and a Jeer – to one of our favorite subjects, the weather. The Cheer is for the fact that we have had little to no snow. Sure, there were a couple of inches of snow back in November, but it quickly went away and we have not seen much since then.

Yes, we realize that some people really like snow and are sorely missing it. So the Jeer is for those folks to be giving out for the fact there has been no snow.

There you have it. Until next time, we hope you have lots more to Cheer about than Jeer about.