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Thumbs Up/Down

New future for old Middle School

THUMBS UP: For years the big question for District 88 has been “What do we do with the Middle School?”

At last, the decision has been made and carried through. District 88 and a community-based group, Cenate LLC, closed the deal selling the former school building to Cenate. District 88, which had housed its administrative offices in the middles school, will be leasing office space from Cenate.

Cenate is made up of a number of community members (including Journal Publisher Bruce Fenske, in the interest of disclosure), who want to see the property developed as an asset for the community, perhaps in part as residential property. A big focus of the group is to maintain and preserve the auditorium as a performance area. New Ulm Actors Community Theater has signed a two-year lease for the auditorium, to become its new home.

The Middle School has served New Ulm for a long time as a school building. With this change, it will continue to serve the community long into the future.

Tragedy in the

blink of an eye

THUMBS DOWN: One of the saddest stories we’ve seen this week is one that was entirely preventable.

A young mother in Luverne was bicycling along Highway 270 near her home on Monday, with her two young children being towed behind. They were struck by a pickup truck driven by Christopher Weber of Madison, S.D., who crossed the white line into the shoulder. According to criminal vehicular homicide charges filed this week, Weber was driving while trying to conduct some mobile banking business on his cell phone. He apparently was looking at the phone, not at the road as he came over a hill. As a result, Andrea Boeve, 33, is dead and her children ages 4 and 1, are injured.

This is as clear a lesson as can be when it comes to using a cell phone while driving. It is NEVER a good idea. Do not take or make calls, do not text, do not use an app while you are driving. If your business is that urgent and can’t wait, pull over and take care of it before you continue on.

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