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Community Voices

Adapting to disaster

You can hardly watch the news or read a newspaper without learning about yet another disaster. It almost seems normal that something terrible is happening to someone somewhere. People losing their lives, far-ranging damage, and consequent hardship are the fruit of disaster. The prolonged psychological impact of these experiences cannot be overstated. One of the things that gets us through a disastrous experience is called Resilience. Simply put, resilience is a person’s ability to adjust to, adapt to, and recover from, exposure to a difficult or even terrible situation. Another way ...

Making a board

I recently decided to expand my woodworking skill set by making a board. It turns out that this is much more difficult than it sounds. Yes, I could have simply gone to a lumberyard and purchased some wood. Or I could have wandered into a home improvement megastore where I likely would have gotten lost and forced live off the land by swilling sports drinks and chewing on leather tool belts. But buying a board would have been the easy, wimpy way of doing things. This might be due to my Norwegian heritage, but I believe that anything worth doing is worth doing the hard way. That’s why ...

Taking care of some creaky parts

“You gotta take care of stull.” Long ago, my father Sylvester told me that. That admonition still sits in the back of my mind. Dad was referring to taking care of the myriad machines involved with working the farm. Routine maintenance of everything from the gutter cleaner to the tillage tractor is required. It also means being ever vigilant, on guard for loose chains and squeaky bearings. Recently I’ve been taking care of stuff. Every few years, my 70-year-old Farmall 400 and 60-year-old IH 560 get a once over from the tractor doctors at Miller Sellner Implement. Both ...

Printing plant tour highlights modern technology

I had an interesting experience this week, one that showed how much the world has changed because of technology. I took part in an Adult Community Center tour of the Henle Printing plant at its new location in Marshall’s industrial park. Owner Charlie Stark and Production Manager Marc Klaith introduced the group to the set of machines that produce a massive amount of printed materials. They also gave a demonstration. They printed off 800 programs for the Marshall Tiger football season on a machine that automatically puts pages in order and staples them. Henle’s has only one ...

Funding cuts hit sustainable Agriculture Partnership with University of Minnesota

A significant setback to Minnesota’s growing sustainable agriculture sector is in the works as part of budget cuts being enacted at the University of Minnesota’s College of Food, Agriculture and Natural Resource Sciences. Sustainable agriculture community partners recently received a letter from the college’s dean, Brian Buhr, announcing that he is discontinuing funding for the Minnesota Institute for Sustainable Agriculture (MISA) and distributing its projects and endowed chair funds elsewhere. The dean cited budget cuts as the reason, with federal and state funding reductions ...

Momentum in our schools: The choice ahead for MPS

A new school year is always a special time. There’s a distinct pulse in the hallways, focus in the classrooms and a sense of possibility for what lies ahead. Our teachers and staff are ready to build on the progress we’ve made together as a district. At every level, we are seeing our efforts have a real impact in the classroom — from stronger reading skills among our younger learners to growing participation in career and technical education pathways that connect students to real opportunities in our community. We are strengthening support systems that have led to improved ...