Sharon Ann (Hillesheim) Malecha, age 84, of Lonsdale, passed away peacefully on Friday, October 31, 2025, at United Hospital in St. Paul, surrounded by her children.

Sharon was born on May 10, 1941, in Sleepy Eye, Minnesota, to Nicholas B. and Veronica T. (Marz) Hillesheim. She graduated from St. Mary’s Catholic School in 1959. After high school, she attended secretarial school in Minneapolis and worked at Maico and Bell Telephone Security Systems.

Tri-City United Schools held a series of four open houses this and last week, one at each school, ahead of the Nov. 4 election for the $39.99 million dollar bond. Each location had plenty of resources on hand to answer questions and tours were given showcasing some of the areas that the bond would cover.

A small group of residents along Elm Avenue Southeast and 7th Street Southeast expressed concerns at the Monday, Oct. 20, city council meeting over a potential 43-unit apartment building off the end of the circle on 7th Street Southeast by Community Asset Development Group.

Before you know it, the Christmas holiday season will be here. The 2025 Torchlight Parade & Fireworks button contest winner is here to remind us of that.

Soleil Neshek, 9, a student in Brenda Petersen’s 4th grade class at Tri-City United PreK-6 School in Lonsdale, was announced the winner this Monday. She is the fourth student to win the button contest from Petersen’s class of the 13 total contests that have been held.

The button contest was open to all 4th grade students within the TCU School District, including home-schooled individuals.

Tri-City United Schools FFA chapter will be out again trick-or-treating to collect non-perishable goods for local food shelves again this Halloween, Friday, Oct. 31. Teams from the chapter will be visiting all three towns in the school district -- Le Center, Lonsdale, and Montgomery. 

Residents are encouraged to gather items from their pantries in preparation for them Halloween late afternoon and early evening. 

Once items are collected, they will be centralized at the high school and divided up accordingly to be distributed in our communities.

Tri-City United High School students once again introduced Hispanic heritage to younger students at TCU Le Center PreK-8 School on Friday, Oct. 24, in honor of Hispanic Heritage Month.

The theme this year revolved around vaqueros (cowboys) with interactive opportunities. TCU Cultural Coordinator Mary Lou Velásquez said, “Kids learned how to line dance to a popular song played at many fiestas, ‘Payaso de Rodeo.’ They also had a chance to learn how to lasso a bull, draw butterflies, learn about popular candies and dance folklore.”

The record-breaking season for the Tri-City United (TCU) boys soccer team ended Tuesday, Oct. 21 with an 8-1 loss to Academy of Holy Angels (17-0-1 record) in the Class A State Tournament.

Donald S.

Our dearest Millie Margaret (Krocak) Jones passed away on October 22, 2025, surrounded by family. After being diagnosed with pancreatic cancer just 2 months prior, her end-of-life was far too short, yet every moment was wrapped in courage, peace and love. She gave us her final “farm goodbye".

The Dakota-Rice-Scott League will have a slightly different look next summer when teams take the field and the St. Patrick Irish isn’t one of them.

The Irish, a Class A team, announced earlier this month they were leaving the DRS and joining the other Class A teams in the River Valley League. An announcement the team posted on social media noted the move puts the Irish in closer proximity with Class A RVL teams like Burnsville, Chanhassen, Chaska, Eagan, Prior Lake, Shakopee and Victoria.

The duo of Cristina Cruz and Lexie Berger placed fourth in the Section 1AA Doubles Tournament last week in Rochester.

Cruz and Berger were the No. 5 seed in the tourney and they split four matches.

In their opener, the Titan duo defeated Maisey Tormoen and Isabel Tix of Simley (6-0, 7-6.

In the quarterfinals, Cruz and Berger defeated No. 4 seed Carmen Puente and Hannah Shepherd of Faribault (6-0, 6-2).

In the semifinals, No. 8 seed Bella Reeck and Tori Thompson of Winona defeated the local players (6-3, 6-4). The Winona duo ended up placing 3rd overall.

In preparation for Thanksgiving, the Le Sueur County Veterans Office is providing $25 gift vouchers during the month of November to veterans. The office is partnering with O’Keefe’s Meat Market in Le Center to provide the gift vouchers, according to a press release from the Le Sue County Veterans Office.

Area veterans can stop by the Le Sueur County Veterans Office to pick up a voucher, while they last, said the press release. This is a benefit for veterans of Le Sueur County because of their service to our nation.

Cracker Barrel came out with a logo, and everyone hated it. I personally hate that they serve very few crackers despite the promise of having barrels full.

Why did people hate the logo? You could throw a dart at a board of reasons why people get angry at anything these days. Any answer you hit will likely suffice.

But why are there so many reasons people get angry these days? The vast majority of it is manufactured, whether folks are aware of it or not. Anger is the easiest route to engagement, and engagement is what drives the economy of social media.

James (Jim) Francis Kalina, age 90, of Lonsdale, MN, passed away peacefully, surrounded by his loving family on October 21, 2025. Jim was born in Wheatland Township, MN, on January 6, 1935, to Max and Emma (Cecka) Kalina. After high school, he served his country in the U.S. Army, stationed in Korea.

Some people make golf, painting, photography, porcelain figurines or traveling to exotic places as a favorite hobby. Paul Bongers enjoys growing pumpkins in the backyard of his house in Lonsdale.

And for Bongers, bigger is unquestionably better.

He grows Dills Giant Atlantic pumpkins in his backyard. He started growing them in 2020. This year’s crop of three pumpkins ranged from 1,200 pounds when it split, a condition leading to rot, to 1,219 pounds and the largest of the three tipping the scale at 1,819 pounds.

The Titans boys soccer team couldn’t muster a win at the Tuesday, Oct. 21, state quarterfinals game in Shakopee against the Academy of the Holy Angels. 
 

A strong, cold west/northwest wind worked to their disadvantage in the first period and helped somewhat in their second period.

Despite the cold and windy conditions, a crowd of over 100 Titan fans showed up to support the hometown team and were very audible the whole game.