Antonia Muellerleile as Alex the lion, Adeline Nelson as Marty the zebra, Ben Gosswiller as Melman the giraffe and Allyson Dallmann as Gloria the hippo team up for adventure in “Madagascar Jr.”
Visions of steaks, including Therese Kulzer, left, dance in Alex the lion’s (Antonia Muellerleile) head during a scene from “Madagascar Jr.”
Anoni Haynie, as Maurice the Lemur, Jazlyn Franklin as Lynn the Lemur and Kylah Freitag as King Julien rehearse a scene.
Litchfield Community Youth Theatre has turned into a real zoo.
Oh, and uh, just to be clear, that’s a good thing.
The animals take over the stage for LCYT’s annual spring musical, “Madagascar — A Musical Adventure Jr.,” with four shows planned April 7-10 at Bernie Aaker Auditorium.
A cast of 32 youth ranging in age from third to 11th grade has been rehearsing since early February under director Rosanne Hansen, who landed her role in November.
“We have a good group of kids (in the show),” Hansen said. “I think, probably, at least half of them were in the show last year. I wasn’t involved in that show, but most of them have experience in theater somewhere.
“There’s maybe a quarter that are brand new, and that’s fun, too, as they all learn together,” she added.
The musical is based of the popular DreamWorks animated movie “Madagascar,” and follows the adventures of Alex the lion, Marty the zebra, Melman the Giraffe, Gloria the hippo, and a band of swashbuckling penguins as they escape New York’s Central Park Zoo and land in the off-kilter world of King Julien’s Madagascar.
Alex the lion is the main attraction at the Central Park, but Marty the zebra convinces him and their friends that their life in captivity is boring. Aided by a group of madcap by penguins, they escape to explore the world. Their musical misadventures and natural inclinations create some humorous challenges during their journey to finding themselves.
The play features music made popular by the animated film, including “I Like to Movie It,” and other numbers like “Best Friends,” “Relax, Be Cool, Chill Out,” and “Wild and Free.”
Hansen admits “Madagascar Jr.” was not on her list of musicals she wanted to direct — in fact, she knew little about the show’s storyline or music until sitting down to watch the animated movie a week before auditions in January. Despite that, the show seems to be growing on her.
“The songs are super catchy. I am definitely enjoying the music,” Hansen said. “’I Like to Move It’ is the one that everybody knows, but then the other ones are just ... they’re catchy. They get stuck in your head easily, which is always fun.”
Rehearsals have been four days a week every week since early February, and by the end of last week, Hansen said, she felt the cast has come together well. There’s work to do, of course, but she’s confident they’ll be ready to go by opening night.
“We just started our first actual run-through, start-to-finish last week,” she said Thursday. “I think we’re on track, hopefully adding mics soon, which will be nice, because then everyone backstage can hear, and we can work on transitions and everything.”
That work, combined with the shows music, will create an entertaining show for anyone who ventures to Bernie Aaker Auditorium next week.
“It’s animals going on an adventure, and there’s cute penguins!” Hansen said. “I think people will enjoy it.”
Litchfield Wastewater Treatment Facility faces some major upgrades due to changes in state treatment requirements and an increase in demand from so-called significant industrial users.
Changing requirements and increasing industrial demand will force some expensive improvements to Litchfield’s wastewater treatment plant.
Paul Saffert, a wastewater expert with Bolton & Menk, told the City Council Monday that the city’s engineering consultant is still reviewing improvement options as they create a plan to deal with more stringent wastewater discharge limits from the Minnesota Pollution Control Agency and at the same time handle increasing loads from some of the city’s large industrial customers.
In addition, even though the wastewater treatment system has seen some upgrades in the past decade, some components at the treatment plant are at least 40 years old, Saffert said.
Depending on the technological path that’s chosen — and where the state’s limits on wastewater discharge land — upgrades could range between $55-$90 million.
Discussion of upgrades at the treatment plant began late last year and was sparked by what City Engineer Chuck DeWolf described as “overloading” by some of the city’s industrial customers. Among those customers is First District Association, which last year completed a massive expansion of its dairy processing facility, but FDA is just one of 10 “significant industrial users” who have increased production, which has increased demands on the city’s wastewater system, according to Mayor Keith Johnson.
The MPCA established new limits for effluents and phosphorous, and a new limit for nitrogen is expected in the near future.
The phosphorous limit, which previously was 1 milligram per liter, will be reduced to a quarter of that amount, Saffert said. Previous upgrades at the Litchfield facility allowed the plant to reach a phosphorous discharge level of .5 mg/liter – half of what the current limit is. But that better-than-required performance would fall short of the four-times reduction of the more stringent rules.
Meeting the new limit leads to other challenges at the plant, Saffert explained, one of them being increased biosolids. Every pound of phosphorous treated creates about 15 pounds of biosolids, and the existing equipment at the treatment facility does not have the capacity to handle that.
Saffert expects the nitrogren limits to be much more stringent as well, and even though the target isn’t known yet “just know it’s coming,” he told the City Council, so that can be integrated into plant upgrades.
Another concern is chloride discharge. The MPCA’s limit is 230 mg/liter, while the city’s current discharge is about 300 mg/liter, Saffert said. Chloride comes to the treatment facility as a result of home softener systems, which use salt in the softening process. Municipal wastewater treatment plants aren’t designed to remove the chloride, so it ends up being discharged into rivers, which can harm fish and plant life.
The best way to reduce the issue is for the city to provide soft water to residents, but “that is a separate project” from wastewater treatment upgrades, Saffert said.
Wastewater treatment plant upgrades have a cascading nature, with “every single one of these processes done independently,” Saffert said. “The plant is actually a set of 10 different systems that are working together. As you work on one, it impacts four others.”
A Meeker County poultry flock is one of three in the state afflicted with confirmed cases of the bird flu, according to the Board of Animal Health.
Samples taken from flocks in Meeker and Mower counties were tested Friday at state laboratories and confirmed by the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Veterinary Services Laboratories in Ames, Iowa, showed H5N1 highly pathogenic avian influenza, or bird flu.
The Meeker County case involves a commercial turkey flock of almost 300,000 birds, where mortality and signs of depression were reported. That report led to samples being collected and tested at the Minnesota Poultry Test Laboratory in Willmar.
Jennie-O Turkey Store in Willmar announced Saturday that highly pathogenic avian influenza was confirmed in its supply chain, on one Minnesota farm operation.
A Mower County backyard flock of chickens, ducks and geese also was tested, by the University of Minnesota Veterinary Diagnostic Laboratory in St. Paul, after a report of increased mortality. A third flock in Stearns County also was identified Monday as having a confirmed case.
“These are the first cases of HPAI in the state of Minnesota since 2015,” said Dr. Dale Lauer, poultry program director for the Board of Animal Health. “Poultry producers and backyard flock owners need to be on alert and contact their veterinarian immediately if they see any changes in their flocks. Everyone in poultry facilities needs to follow the site’s biosecurity protocols every time to prevent the spread of disease.”
The state enforced a quarantine of both confirmed sites, and depopulation of birds was under way Saturday. Poultry are depopulated to prevent the spread of the disease. Poultry from the infected flock will not enter the food system, according to the Board of Animal Health.
Gov. Tim Walz announced Monday that the USDA’s emergency response team had been activated. The team will work along with Minnesota’s own Agricultural Incident Management Team based in Kandiyohi County. The USDA team is expected to arrive on the scene Wednesday and be deployed for at least three weeks.
“Armed with years of preparation for this incident, our state’s Agricultural Incident Management Team is working quickly and decisively to respond to the cases of H5N1 in Minnesota,” Walz said in a news release. “Within hours of the first confirmed cases, our Board of Animal Health requested emergency support from the USDA. These federal partners will bring targeted expertise to contain this virus and ensure that our state’s poultry industry remains the strongest in the nation.”
The Board of Animal Health’s news release stressed that poultry is safe to eat, and that proper handling and cooking of poultry and eggs to an internal temperature of 165 degrees is always advices.
The Centers for Disease Control said that H5N1 is a low risk to the public, and no human cases of these avian influenza viruses have been detected in the United States.
The two Minnesota cases are the latest in what has been a string of outbreaks of the highly pathogenic avian influenza throughout the Midwest during the past two weeks, with cases confirmed in Kansas, Illinois, Wisconsin and Nebraska since March 12.
Minnesota is ranked No. 1 in the nation in turkey production with more than 660 turkey farms that raise about 40 million birds annually. Turkey production generates $774 million in cash receipts annually, and in 2020 the state exported about 15 percent of its production, worth about $114 million.
Biosecurity is key to preventing the spread of bird flu and other viruses and diseases, according to the Board of Animal Health. The board said that flock owners from commercial operations to backyards should review biosecurity measures. It set up a 10-kilometer control area around the HPAI infected flock, and animal health officials are identifying other commercial and backyard poultry operations in the area. Those flocks will be quarantined and observed to ensure the virus isn’t spreading.
“The rapid response and testing surrounding the infected sites is the result of years of preparation with our local, state, federal and industry partners,” State Veterinarian Dr. Beth Thompson said.
Poultry owners who notice a flock exhibiting clinical signs of influenza, such as a drop in water consumption or increased morality, or who believe the flock might have been exposed to birds with the disease, are asked to call their veterinarian. Veterinarians who receive reports of signs of avian influenza should call the Minnesota Poultry Testing Laboratory at 320-231-5170.
A new Dollar General store took another step toward reality March 21 as the Litchfield City Council approved a variance request for the proposed site on North Sibley Avenue.
The City Council unanimously approved, with member Eric Mathwig absent, a variance to allow a smaller parking lot than required by ordinance.
Litchfield Planning Commission reviewed the site plan and variance request during its March 14 meeting and forwarded the plan to the City Council with its recommendation for approval. The plan for property at 702 Sibley Ave. N., submitted by Rod Hamby of Overland Group and Rodney Parrott of Overland Engineering, included request to reduce the 72 parking spots required by zoning ordinance to 30.
The plan calls for construction of a 9,100 square foot store (7,220 of retail space), which will face east, toward Sibley Avenue, with access to the store and parking lot from West Seventh Street. A memo from the applicants included an explanation of the typical Dollar General site and traffic generation, along with parking needs.
“The proposed parking, facilitated by the variance, appears to be adequate for the retail use of the site,” City Planner Hannah Rybak of WSB wrote in a memo to the City Council and Administrator David Cziok.
Plans also call for a 20-foot set back from the west property line, which will be used for public snow storage. The city currently uses the lot for snow storage.
The property owners also requested an easement vacation, which will be discussed at a future City Council meeting. An alley running through the center of the property was vacated previously, but an easement over the former alley remained. Positioning of the Dollar General building necessitates the easement be vacation to allow construction.
The building will be placed in the middle of the lot, surrounded by parking on the south and east sides, with a stormwater detention area on the eastern portion of the property.
Most of a brief conversation during the March 21 City Council meeting centered around landscaping trees that the Planning Commission recommended, with a minimum size of four caliper inches. Though initial drawings did not include trees, the applicants provided a plan to the Planning Commission that called for two red maple trees of 3 to 4 caliper inches, five swamp white oak trees of 3-4 calpier inches, and five emerald green arborvitae 4 to 5 feet tall when planted.
The plan also shows one wall sign at a total size of 28.1 square feet, well within ordinance limitations of two signs with a total of 40 square feet per sign. Nine mounted light fixtures also will be placed at various locations on the building, with no freestanding parking lot lighting proposed. The area is lighted by one streetlight at the corner of West Seventh Street and North Sibley Avenue.
