JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER Orange and white-striped barricades familiar to construction zones blocked off traffic at the intersection of Railway and Juniper one block west of Main Street starting Tuesday, April 26 in anticipation of work beginning on the city of Freeman’s long-awaited Main Street Project the following day.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER It’s now likely just a matter of weeks before work begins on Freeman’s long-awaited rebuild of Main Street. While he couldn’t say for sure, engineer Paul Korn, whose company Sayre Associates has worked on the reconstruction project from the ground up, told The Courier on Monday that activity could be underway by the first week of May.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER When the United States declared war against Germany and thus found itself in the crosshairs of World War I, it didn’t go over well from sea to shining sea. Not initially, anyway.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER A “hopelessly hopeful person” — that’s how Jeanette Ulmer describes herself. Anotherway might be fiercely faithful to a God of love who offers forgiveness, encouragement and redemption that the Menno native has experienced firsthand.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Erika Sage saw her playing career on the basketball court end in disappointment, not once, but twice. The first came her senior year at Freeman High School in 2017, when the standout guard and the Flyers fell one game short of the state tournament for the fourth year in a row. She’ll probably never forget what her dad and coach told her when she came out of the game late in the fourth quarter. “It doesn’t look like it’s going to happen.”

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER The Hutterites were flourishing. Largely in search of military exemption, they had come to the United States from Russia beginning in the 1870s to establish various colonies across Dakota Territory, bringing with them farming equipment and skilled practices that had even generated a personal invitation from President Ulysses S. Grant.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER Late Saturday afternoon, March 26, as they were filling mini meals made up of Schmeckfest sausage, stewed beef, sauerkraut and cheese buttons, volunteers with the Freeman Academy Auxiliary came to a startling realization that made their stomachs drop. They were running out of food.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER In August of 1918, a German-American farmer in Minnesota named John Meintz was tarred and feathered for not supporting war bond drives. In Whitewater, Kan., an angry mob visited the rural home of Bernhard W. Harder, pastor of the Emmaus Mennonite Church, and nailed an American flag onto the porch of the house. Harder responded by singing “My Country ’Tis of Thee,” and not just the first verse that everybody knows. The pastor sang all four and a subdued mob left.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Meeting in regular session Monday night, March 14, leadership at Menno Public School heard from a number of patrons who had gathered to question two recent administrative decisions that will change how things have traditionally been done: 1. Moving baccalaureate from the school’s main gymnasium to the old city/school auditorium, and; 2. The decision to move fifth graders into the 6-8 middle school structure.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER After more than a year of starts, stops, changes and doubts, a capital outlay project that would see a new wrestling and multi-use facility called The Hangar built in the green space between the auxiliary gym and bus lane at Freeman Public Schools has gained approval. Meeting in regular session Monday night, March 14, the Freeman Public School Board voted 4-0 to accept a base bid in the amount of $1,099,999 from Puetz Design+Build to engineer the project.