JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER As of Tuesday — one week after school boards from Freeman Academy and Marion both deferred action on an all-sports proposal presented by a Freeman Public task force — the situation remained a fluid one.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER Because of high enrollment numbers in the lowest grades, school officials from Freeman Public Schools are considering re-configuring classrooms on the elementary side of the campus to allow them to, next year, split this year’s kindergarten class of 30 and first grade class of 28 into two sections. Freeman Elementary currently serves students in grades K-5, and is also home to Growing Dreams Learning Center, a daycare and preschool that is not part of the school district but has been using its facilities since 2019.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER An all-sports cooperative between Freeman Public, Marion and Freeman Academy took a step forward Monday night, Jan. 10 when the Freeman Public School Board voted 4-1 to approve a proposal presented by its own task force. But what will ultimately happen remains in question based on the response from the other two governing boards: Also Monday, the Freeman Academy Board of Directors voted to table the issue because it wants more time to consider the proposal.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER The city of Freeman’s Main Street project received an enormous boost last week when the Transportation Commission of the South Dakota Department of Transportation (DOT) voted to award the city a Community Access Grant totaling $600,000 — the amount requested earlier this year and the maximum amount available through the DOT. The funding is a major boon for a capital project estimated to cost $3.9 million, according to the grant application submitted by the city via Brian McGinnis of District III Planning and Development.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER A building project first proposed as a wrestling room by Marion/Freeman coach Chris Sayler back in February — and later reimagined as a multi-use facility — remains on hold. Meeting in special session Tuesday night, Dec. 21, the Freeman School Board voted 4-0 to reject bids for what has since been named The Hanger after construction bids came in considerably higher than expected. Cody Fransen was absent from Tuesday’s meeting. The board agreed to revisit — and likely rebid the project — next year.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Given that she has spent much of her life working in the food service industry, it only makes sense that Tobi Duffel would one day open her own restaurant. That day has come. Freeman’s newest eatery under the 47-year-old’s leadership, BrickHouse Lounge, is now open for business in the former Blue’s Family Restaurant on Third Street one block west of Main Street — a building that was originally built in 1964 to serve as home to the Freeman VFW.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER “You are married to your message and I know that.” That comment from Shirlene Joseph, one of the judges at the 2021 State Oral Interpretation Festival in Huron last week, was directed at Solomé Carr, a Menno senior following her Poetry Reading piece, “Lost and Found.” “I can hear your voice,” the judge continued. “Success at its finest.”

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER For those who compete in oral interpretation, a superior at the state festival is the crowning achievement. The summit. The top rung on which to hang your hat. So what does it feel like when you win 11 of them? Ask Alyssa Fink.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER Ever since her growing-up years as Leah Uecker, the Freeman native, now Leah Biorn, has adored children. She babysat. She nannied. She dreamed of being a mother. She decided to become a nurse. “Caring for children — and even taking care of other people’s kids — that was just me since I was a teenager,” says Leah, a 2010 graduate of Freeman High School who lives in Yankton with her husband, Daniel, and their two young daughters: Caraline, who will be 2 in February, and Charlotte, who was born on Oct. 21.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER John Ulmer sat at a tall stool near the middle of the bar, his large hand wrapped around a half-full Bud Light. The bottle was half-full, as opposed to half empty, because there is reason for optimism, even celebration. See, John was sitting inside Menno’s Beer Garden, a place he has been to many, many times — certainly too many to count — but that he thought might never open again.