There was little intrigue in the New Prague City elections Tuesday, Nov. 6, with four candidates running for four positions. 
 
Incumbent Mayor Chuck Nickolay was unopposed and received 2,851 votes. He will begin another two-year term in January. 
 
Maggie Bass and Rik Seiler were the only two candidates running for four-year terms on the council. Bass, who was appointed to the council last year, received 2,400 votes. Seiler received 1,869. 
 
Bruce Wolf won a special election to complete the final two years of a term. He received 2,687 votes. 

Tony Kornder and David Entinger were elected to the Belle Plaine Township Board of Supervisors Tuesday. Kornder received 285 votes for Seat A, with opponent Chris Franke receiving 107. Entinger received 224 votes for seat B, with Mark Schulz receiving 115 and Chris Bieder 79. 
Kristy Bieder was unopposed for Town Clerk, and received 340 votes.

As of 10:45 p.m., With 14 of 15 precincts reporting, it appears Tammy Pexa, Mark Bartusek and Leo Giesen have won four-year terms to the New Prague Area School Board. 
 
The only precinct that hasn’t reported is Lonsdale, and Lonsdale has just a handful of voters in the New Prague Area School District - not enough to overcome the 350-vote difference between the third and fourth place finishers. 
 
Vote totals are: 
Mark Bartusek 3991
Tammy Pexa 3868
Leo Giesen 3237
Sandy McMillan 2887
Matthew Goldade 2141
Miranda Vertnik 2111

Scott County Sheriff Luke Hennen, who was appointed to the position in 2016, won a four-year term with a narrow victory over challenger Jason Arras in Tuesday’s General Election. 
 
Hennen finished with 29,698 votes, or 50.63 percent. Arras recevied 28,726 votes, or 48.97 percent. 
 
Hennen’s term will begin in January and run through 2022. 
 
County Attorney Ron Hocevar was unopposed for reelection. He received 46,632 votes. 
 
In Commissioner District 3 (Shakopee), Michael “Mike” Beard defeated Joe Wagner, 5,688-3,713. 
 

Lucille M. Steinmetz passed away peacefully, fully surrounded by her family at The Lodge Elko/New Market on Friday, November 2nd, 2018 at the age of 91.

Ronald L. Giesen, age 59, of New Prague, died suddenly with his family at his side on Thursday, November 1, 2018 at Mayo Clinic Health System – St. Mary’s Hospital Campus in Rochester.  Ron was born the ninth of eleven children on January 14, 1959 in New Prague to William F. and Helen M.

Guests tour the Cardio room at the new Fitness and Aquatic Center, located at the New Prague Area Schools’ Central Education Campus. Exercise equipment from the former Fitness Center operated by Mayo Clinic Health System, along with some new equipment, was moved into the CEC building this week and an open house was held Saturday, Nov. 3, from 9 a.m. to noon. A second open house is scheduled Saturday from 3-6 p.m. for people to tour the new facilities and learn about memberhip rates.

Since first starting as editor of the Le Sueur New Prague Times News-Herald in 1988, I have covered close to 30 elections. Some of these were major elections and others included just local races. The way elections are covered has changed a great deal during that time, but some things have remained unchanged.

From a broken sanitary sewer service line to brand new sidewalks that are cracked, the city councilors of Lonsdale are not pleased with work completed by contractors this year.
“It’s not acceptable,” Lonsdale Mayor Tim Rud said of the emergency repair work needed on the sewer line. “We should not let this slide.”
Rud is referencing the work completed by Quam Construction in July on a section of sewer line on Fourth Avenue Northeast that caused a home to be uninhabitable and required emergency repairs.

The New Prague Trojan boys cross country team competed at the Section 2AA meet Thursday, Oct. 25, at Gale Woods Farm Park in Minnetrista, with the team placing 12th of 16 teams.
Jacob Malecha was the top Trojan runner. He had a PR with a fast second half, placing 23rd in 17 minutes, 3 seconds. Adam Brandt was next for the Trojans, placing 53rd in 17:34, followed by Noah Weichert (61st, 17:48), Carson Davis (74th, 17:58), Jacob Helvick (94th, 18:27), Josh Anderson (101st, 18:38) and Trevor Prelesnik (110th, 19:326).

The New Prague Composite Mountain Bike team had a successful 2018 season. This year the Minnesota High School Cycling League has grown to more than 1,700 racers, from more than 60 teams, from all over the state. All of these teams met this weekend, both Saturday and Sunday, for the State Bike Championships at Mt. Kato in Mankato.
New Prague Composite had 18 racers from seventh to 12th grade who practiced and competed in a series of five races since the beginning of July. As the season concludes head coach Jon Rosemeier stated how proud he is of all the racers.

Voters in the New Prague area, along with the rest of Minnesota and the United States, head to the polls on Tuesday, Nov. 6. They will decide who will represent them at various levels of government ranging from local to national offices.
At stake is control of the US Senate and Congress, Minnesota Constitutional offices, including Governor and control of the Minnesota House of Representatives, along with many county, city, school district and township offices.

After months of campaigning and weeks of annoying negative advertising, election day arrives on Tuesday, Nov. 6.
Since last spring, we’ve seen candidates tell us why we should vote for them, and even more commercials and print ads telling us why voting for their opponent is a bad thing. The barrage of negative messages can’t end soon enough.

“The turnout has just been overwhelming, it’s amazing,” said JeNean Erickson about Hops for Hope, a benefit for the Minnesota/North Dakota/South Dakota Chapter of the ALS Association. Held on Saturday, Oct. 27, at Giesenbrau Bier Co. in New Prague, the benefit had more than 500 people attend and more than $20,000 was raised.

The New Prague Trojan Swim and Dive team hosted the Wright County Conference championships on Saturday, Oct. 27. Nine teams competed, with the Trojans placing seventh.
Hutchinson won the meet with 555 points. It was their 11th straight conference title, dating back to its days in the Missota Conference. Delano was second at 465, followed by Mound Westonka (368), Waconia (272), Orono (260), Dassel-Cokato (236), New Prague (119.5), Litchfield (33.5) and Watertown- Mayer (16).