Bluenose Gopher Public House lent their support to the Granite Falls Fire Department on September 29th by having the new fire truck on display in their parking lot for everyone to go check out. Jacke Sand, and her firefighter husband Holdyn Sand, were at the event with young son, Creed, who gave a thumbs up about the new truck. The other firemen that were on site for the showing of the truck were Ryan Haar, Tyler Knutson, and Nick Lund. The crew was giving away fire prevention goodies, including fire hats and coloring books with crayons as well as giving away 9V batteries for smoke alarms.

I don’t know if I had ever used the word acrostic before I started seminary. According to Oxford Languages online, it means, “a poem, word puzzle, or other composition in which certain letters in each line form a word or words.” Psalm 111 is an acrostic psalm in its original Hebrew language.

It has been busy at the Chamber office this month. Each month, about 40 inquiries are made through telephone calls, emails and visits to the chamber office/ lobby.

New roadway signs are being placed on Highway 67, Highway 274, and Yellow Medicine County Road 2 to reflect changes to names and roadway ownership resulting from the Highway 67 rerouting project. A portion of Highway 67 between Granite Falls and Echo was closed in spring 2019 due to ground movement underneath the roadway. Following the assessment of potential solutions, close collaboration with Yellow Medicine County and other stakeholders, and gathering input from the surrounding community, the decision was made to reroute Highway 67 using Highway 274 and County Road 2. New roadway designations • Hwy 274 from Hwy 23 to existing CR 2 (north end of Wood Lake) is now Hwy 67

The YES! House, an in-progress creative community gathering space in downtown Granite Falls, is looking for local residents to help shape the future! YES! House Futures (YHF) is a nine-month process to establish a shared vision for the future operations and stewardship of The YES! House Building. The vision will be created by a seven- member committee of local community members with input gathered from the public through planned events and activities. At the end of this process, there will be a vision statement that will inform the development of a five-year planning document outlining the future operations and stewardship of The YES! House building. The programming and design of The YES! House, located at 726 Prentice Street, emerged through a year-long (and ongoing) community engagement process beginning in 2019 in which local community members collaborated with local and national artists and architects to dream and plan. The current plans include a performance venue, flexible art gallery, audio recording studio, and multidisciplinary creative studio space and media lab. “We look forward to working with committee members to identify opportunities for collaboration and resource sharing between The YES! House and local businesses and organizations and to explore other business and stewardship models for the building,” said Sarina Otaibi, Creative Rural Building Program Director at the Department of Public Transformation (DoPT).

A trio of local folks, Leo Gunner Baker and his kids Leo C. Baker and Lakota Baker, recently spent time in the town of Litchfield helping film a movie titled “Uprising” which is based on a book of the same name written by Dean Urdahl. The film was directed by Christopher Forbes.

The WoMen’s Rural Advocacy Program, Inc. has been awarded a community impact grant from the United Way of Southwest Minnesota (UWSWMN) in the amount of $27,500. These funds will be used to subsidize current services provided to victims of domestic violence and sex trafficking and exploitation in Lincoln, Lyon, Yellow Medicine and western Redwood counties. This work aligns with UWSWMN’s safety & well-being priority area.