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To various conventions and tournaments that come to Albert Lea.

This week there are a lot of visitors in the community with the 2024 State Eagles Aerie and Auxiliary conventions and the Albert Lea Baseball Classic Tournament.

Welcome to all those who came from outside of the area and across the state to attend these events.

It’s fun to see people from outside of the area come to town for various events and to see what our community has to offer.

While they are here, they are staying at our hotels, eating at our restaurants and utilizing our convenience stores.

While these people likely won’t have time to check out all the wonderful things the community has to offer, we hope their visits are worthwhile and that they will consider returning to our beautiful community in the future.

To the excessive growth of curly-leaf pondweed this summer on Fountain Lake.

If you’ve been anywhere near Fountain Lake in the last few weeks, you’ve likely noticed more vegetation than normal growing along the shoreline and in some other areas in the lake.

According to the Shell Rock River Watershed District, what we’re all seeing is called curly-leaf pondweed, and it is an invasive species made worse this year likely from the low snow and ice cover on the lake.

The weed is troublesome for people who fish from shore and also boaters, who can get the plant caught in their boat motors.

We thank the Watershed District for taking this seriously and surveying the situation to see the extent of the growth. Once the surveying is complete, the watershed board will then decide what measures to take for controlling it in the future.

This includes either mechanical controls or an herbicide control.

While the curly-leaf pondweed is approaching its lifespan for the year, this will be valuable for the future.

To fathers.

Hats off to all of the dedicated and committed fathers in the community, who day after day encourage their children to become good, responsible people and who give back to their families and communities.

Whether they are providers, caretakers, cheerleaders or advocates for their children — or a little bit of all of these — their influence matters, and it helps shape their children into who they are today.

On Father’s Day, we hope you recognize the valuable role you have played and will continue to play in the lives of your children.

Don’t take this role lightly. While it can be a challenging one, it can also be one of the most rewarding things you do in life.