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Home, Health and Recreation Show

The annual New Ulm Home, Health and Recreation Show is back at the New Ulm Civic Center. The Home Show will run through Saturday from 9 am to 4 p.m. and will showcase dozens of vendors from the community and region. The home show will also be hold seminars Saturday on the second floor of the Civic Center. Seminars topics are 3D Imaging, Medicare basics, assisted living and first time homebuyer programs. The show is a great spring tradition that provides a wealth of information for those seeking information on home improvements, health or just fun.

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No avoiding major cuts for New Ulm Public Schools

For the last month, it has been clear the New Ulm Public School would be facing substantial budget cuts for the 2026-2027 school year. Part of the problem is enrollment figures. There are fewer incoming Kindergarten students than outgoing seniors. The difference means a drop of 47 students in one year. Since the district receive $10,000 in revenue per student, means the school is losing $470,000 in funding. Other cost increases related to insurance and inflation have compounded the problem. The school board will need to cut at least $1 million from the budget for next year and likely another $1 million for 2027-2028. This means loss of staff, curriculum and programming in the district. New Ulm is not the only school district struggling with cuts. The Anoka-Hennepin School District recently made $8.1 million in budget reductions and cut 75 staff positions. New Ulm’s situation is not as dire, but it is still a difficult position to be in with no clear answers.

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Allina Health/Sutter Health deal sounds good

Last week Allina Health tentatively entered a deal to join Sutter Health. Allina Health would effectively become the Upper Midwest Division of Sutter Health. As part of the deal, Allina Health would maintain its name, the brand and its Minneapolis headquarters. With this merger, the plan for now is to maintain current leadership structure.  In theory, Allina Health would continue to operate as normal, but now with additional resources from Sutter Health. As part of the agreement, Allina facilities in Minnesota and Wisconsin would receive $2 billion in new capital investments. In theory, it means New Ulm Medical Center (NUMC) could receive an influx of capital investments. It is too early to know what that will look like locally. For now, NUMC patient care will remain unchanged, but in the long term this could mean improvements for the medical center. Since this merger is still new, it is impossible to know for certain how much NUMC will benefit, but for now there are no obvious downsides.