Ryanna Steinhaus reaches for the ball for a return volley. Steinhaus didn’t lose a set during last week’s opener.
The reconstruction of U.S. Highway 12/North Sibley Avenue has progressed more quickly than originally anticipated. The completion date — Sept. 19 — is six weeks earlier than expected, and actual completion could be even sooner, according to a Minnesota Department of Transportation spokesperson.
One of the new features downtown is the “jewelry store” clock in the 200 block of North Sibley Avenue. Purchase and installation of the clock was driven by the Litchfield Downtown Association.
Old-fashioned globe lights illuminate the downtown streetscape.
A mostly empty North Sibley Avenue/Highway 12 looked almost ready to use last week. The construction project is expected to be complete by Sept. 19 or earlier.
It has been a long and difficult summer for many due to the coronavirus.
But at least one thing has gone right for businesses along Litchield’s main street — U.S. Highway 12 has been ahead of schedule almost from its beginning in May.
And it’s likely that the project that included an infrastructure overhaul on North Sibley Avenue from Fourth Street to Depot Street, and on Depot from Sibley to Holcombe Avenue could be done within days.
“We’ve been very fortunate with the weather, first and foremost,” Mandi Lighthizer-Schmidt, spokesperson for the Minnesota Department of Transportation, said late last week. “We announced earlier in the season that we were going to be completed … six weeks earlier than the original completion date. It looks like it’s going to be completed even earlier.”
The original completion was slated for October, but that quickly changed to Sept. 19, Lighthizer said. Along with a benevolent construction weather cycle, the project also might have benefitted from the unforeseen effects of the pandemic, which kept many people home and off the roads, especially early in the summer.
Credit also goes to Landwehr Construction, Lighthizer said, for a well-managed project.
“Landwehr has been really efficient in terms of scheduling and making sure they were taking advantage of when we had good weather,” she said. “There hasn’t been a delay, really. They’ve done a great job.”
At the same time, Lighthizer acknowledged that even an ahead-of-schedule construction project strained many small business operations.
“In kind of an odd year, we still know that (construction) has been a disruption for people,” Lighthizer said. “We thank them for their patience.”
The patience of businesses along the construction route has most certainly been tried, according to The Chamber Excecutive Director Judy Hulterstrum. As the project start date approached, business owners and managers along the route had to change their operations, at the least to create an alternate entrance to their front doors, which would be shut down during parts of construction, and publicize public parking other than on main street. When the coronavirus hit, it seemed like piling on for many.
Yet, most businesses have tried to make the best of a bad situation.
“Parking was the main concern for a few businesses, and then the virus hit,’ Hulterstrum said. “Restaurants and businesses made sure access to their services were provided by curbside deliveries and so on. Businesses really stepped up and made sure the customers had access.”
Last week’s construction included completion of lighting installation, with commencement of road striping and signage installation, which is expected to be completed by Friday, weather permitting.
One of the biggest pieces yet to be completed is electrical work, including signal lights and railroad crossing arms, which are scheduled for completion by Sept. 8.
Construction spectators who venture downtown might take a look and see a ready-to-use street but Lighthizer cautioned against that perception.
“Infrastructure-wise, it looks really done,” Lighthizer said. “But there’s still those details that have to be done to get the road safe and ready for the traveling public.”
Still, even MnDOT’s spokesperson sounds optimistic of an earlier completion date.
“We’re hesitant to say it’s going to be ‘this date,’” she said. “We’re going to open it as soon as we possibly can.”
Whenever that date is, Hulterstrum said, it will be welcomed by downtown businesses — and their patrons.
“This has been a difficult time having two situations happen at the same time, but I feel businesses have done a great job to continue serving the public in unique ways,” Hulterstrum said. “Hats off to our business community.”
The Chamber is looking for ways “to bring fun back to our retail and business community this fall,” Hulterstrum said.
Meanwhile, MnDOT also plans a “road opening” celebration — albeit a pandemic, socially distanced affair, as is the norm these days.
“It’s going to be done virtually,” Lighthizer said of the celebration. “But we’re putting that together now, and it will go out for folks by that Sept. 19 or earlier date, to see the project from start to finish.”
Face coverings will be part of back-to-school wardrobes for Litchfield students, and the Litchfield School Board ensured there will be a policy to back it up.
The board, on a 4-2 vote, approved a face covering policy Aug. 24 that had been recommended by the Minnesota School Board Association, with a tweak that allows for a sunsetting of the policy.
Board member Julie Pennertz offered the face-covering policy motion with the stipulation that the policy expire when Gov. Tim Walz’s executive order requiring face coverings in public buildings, including schools, ends.
Board members Dave Huhner and Chase Groskreutz voted against the policy, while Pennertz, Marcia Provencher, Greg Mathews and Darrin Anderson approved.
The policy sparked debate at the board’s Aug. 10 meeting, when Huhner spoke strongly against it. He encouraged other board members to do more research about the effectiveness of masks against the coronarvirus, especially for students who will be in a classroom all day.
Huhner and Groskreutz also implied the policy was redundant, since the governor’s executive order already demanded compliance.
Meanwhile, Superintendent Beckie Simenson called mask-wearing “the best way to not only help someone else, but also help yourself.”
Pennertz agreed, saying that she thought it important that the School Board provide support to administration and staff by passing the policy.
Meanwhile, Anderson recommended the board table a decision until last week’s meeting, because “Once it’s a policy, we’re going to have to come back and remove that policy at a later date. We want to make sure we look down the road.”
Pennertz’s motion, with the added policy sunset, appeared an answer to Anderson’s concern. Huhner said he appreciated that the policy would include mention of when it would end, but he it was not enough to change his opposition, because “if you think you’re going into a room all day with some type of invincibility cloak, you’re not. What you’re getting is a false sense of security.”
Pennertz, though, did not argue the science of mask-wearing.
“I understand that there are different feelings on this policy,” Pennertz said, reiterating her point from the previous meeting. “However, I do believe strongly that we need to come at this as support of our staff, support of our students, because it is a mandate. I just think they need to know that we are behind them and trying to do the best that we can.”
ACGC School officials met Aug 24 in the new multi-purpose room and gym at the Cosmos Learning Center.
The new Family and Consumer Science area in the Cosmos Learning Center cafeteria features pull-down doors to keep appliances out of the way during meal service.
The secure main entrance to the Cosmos Learning Center has visual and audio connection to the main office.
For a decade, the Cosmos Learning Center has been serving children with disabilities in southwestern Minnesota.
The school principal, Dawn Holtz, showed the Atwater-Cosmos-Grove City School Board around the newly renovated building Aug 24. The school's programming is operated by the Southwest/West Central Service Cooperative for students with special needs throughout its multi-county service area.
The $8 million building improvement project included a secure front entrance next to the main administrative office, a new gymnasium and multi-purpose room where the former Cosmos school choir and band rooms were located, and classrooms that have been remodeled for use by students who have challenging disabilities. Several areas for individual and small group instruction, and staff offices, are incorporated into the renovated building. The various rooms are interconnected with observation windows and intercom systems.
The school's cafeteria and serving kitchen were also renovated, and include a kitchen and laundry area in which students will practice essential household skills necessary for their future lives. Meals will be brought in from the ACGC school kitchen.
Although the former Cosmos Public School building is still owned by the ACGC School District, and leased to SW/WC, the recent renovations were funded by $5 million in special state allocations and $3 million in service cooperative funds. No local ACGC district funds were required. Once completed, the building will be transferred over to SW/WC ownership. ACGC Superintendent Nels Onstad and SW/WC officials confirmed that negotiations for an orderly transfer would begin in September.
Holtz said that CLC enrollment stands at 42 students at present, but the renovated facilities can handle about 60. These are the “most needy, most vulnerable” students in the region, SW/WC Executive Director Cliff Carmody told the ACGC officials.
The project was overseen by Kim Barse of ORB Management. ORB and others donated a new climbing wall in the large multi-purpose room, Carmody noted. Holtz explained that, on weekends and evenings, the new gym and multi-purpose room would be available to the Cosmos community for local recreation and events, as the former Cosmos gym was. There is a separate, secure community entrance to that area.
