Getting your Trinity Audio player ready...

To a potential Aldi grocery store coming to town.

The Albert Lea City Council on Monday approved subdividing a parcel off of the intersection of East Main Street and Blake Avenue to accommodate for a potential Aldi grocery store. The news was met with much excitement from the community, particularly from people who drive out of town to shop at the discount supermarket chains.

The company presently has stores in Austin and Owatonna, as well as Mason City south of the border in Iowa.

In February Aldi announced plans to open more than 225 new stores in 2025 as part of its five-year national growth strategy.

We hope the rest of the planning for the project goes smoothly, and we look forward to hearing more about the project in the coming weeks.

To the Albert Lea High School students who placed in the C-SPAN national documentary contest.

Congratulations to Albert Lea High School students Bryant Johnston, Samuel Stay and Benjamin Schulz, who found out this week they were third-place prize winners in C-SPAN’s 21st annual StudentCam competition for their video “Energy in America.”

Now in its 21st year, this project-based learning experience asked students to explore and analyze matters of personal, local or national importance, according to a press release. C-SPAN received over 1,700 entries and nearly 3,500 students participated from 42 states and Washington, D.C.

High school students competed on a regional level, with the United States divided into three regions: East, Central and West.

Great job to the students for their work and for their teacher, Jim Haney, who was an adviser for the competition.

To likely delays in the last phase of the Fountain Lake dredging.

We were disappointed to hear this week during the Shell Rock River Watershed District meeting that the final phase of dredging of Fountain Lake will likely not start this summer because of challenges obtaining a permit for the project.

This project is an important one for our community, and we hope that some resolution will be able to be reached, whether that’s through the normal procedure or an appeal.