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To Freeborn County’s 2025 Farm Family of the Year.

Congratulations to the Rognes framily of Glenville who this week was named Farm Family of the Year at the Albert Lea-Freeborn County Chamber of Commerce’s annual Agriculture Luncheon.

Paul and Becky Rognes and their two adult daughters, Lindsey and Leah, were presented the award for their involvement in the community, including with the LIFE Center of Freeborn County, their church and other environmental organizations.

The family joins a group of well respected individuals who have won the award in the past.

To competitive bids for this year’s Freeborn County road projects.

We were pleasantly surprised to hear Freeborn County Engineer Phil Wacholz present the low bids to the County Board of Commissioners on Tuesday for this summer’s road construction projects.

Almost all of the projects received more than one bid, with many receiving three. One project even received seven. Having multiple bids on a project creates competition for the work and therefore results in lower bids.

For the largest project, the low bid came in more than $3 million under the engineer’s estimate.

Wacholz said the county will be able to expand its construction program because of the less than expected costs.

To first-round interviews taking place this week for the new Albert Lea superintendent.

After reviewing all of the applications, the Albert Lea school board this week named its semi-finalists for the new superintendent, and first-round interviews are slated to take place at 9 a.m. Wednesday at Brookside Education Center.

Interviews are open to the public, and we encourage community members who want to find out more about the applicants to consider coming in to listen. The school board will be the only people who will be able to ask questions of the candidates, but being present, people will be able to see how the candidates respond under pressure and how they interact with the board.

Interviews will take place in Room 109, which is near the main entrance to Brookside.

We welcome the four candidates to the community and hope you enjoy your time in Albert Lea. While the district has many challenges on its plate right now, it has a lot of great things happening here, too.