JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER The city of Freeman’s Westward View housing development is expected to begin taking shape soon. Meeting in special session late Monday afternoon, Sept. 27, the Freeman City Council voted 6-0 to award the bid for site prep and utility work throughout the 14-acre tract to Menning Excavating, Inc. of Mitchell. The bid came in at $506,441.80 and was the lowest of four submitted. The other three were as follows: H&W Contracting of Sioux Falls, $520,745.90

BY JEREMY WALTNER  |  EDITOR & PUBLISHER If the goal of the Menno Pioneer Power Show is to demonstrate to today’s generation what life was like once upon a time — and make no mistake about it; it is — then you have to look beyond the massive Minneapolis-Moline or the complicated workings of the corn-shelling operation to get the complete picture.  

This photo was taken at the 2021 Menno Pioneer Power Show and is included in coverage of the annual event published this week. The Courier is available online this afternoon and in print Thursday. Click the "You Can't Google Everything" ad at the top of this page to find out how you can help support The Courier in its ongoing effort to tell the stories of our towns.

Freeman High School seniors Jacob Swensen and Lily Wipf were crowned 2021 Homecoming King and Queen at coronation Monday night, Sept. 27 — the formal kickoff to this week's emphasis on school spirit at Freeman Public. Swensen and Wipf were voted royalty on a 9-12 student vote; the court also included Bradey Kaufman and Justin Wollman for king and Ava Ammann and Paige Auch for queen.

One person died and two others were injured in a two-vehicle crash that occurred Sunday afternoon east of Parkston.  Names of the three people involved are not being released pending notification of family members.

The Menno community’s traditional celebration of its heritage — Octoberfest — has been canceled for the second year in a row. The event featuring food and entertainment was scheduled for Oct. 2 but has been called off because of a Covid-19-related issue. Octoberfest 2020 was also canceled because of the coronavirus pandemic.    

Because of a change in how our online edition of The Courier looks and functions by the vendor we work with, there were several glitches with how this week’s edition uploaded — including some who did not receive an email notification alerting them that the new issue was live.

The Freeman Public Schools is seeking public input on the issue of sports consolidation and school cooperation through a survey being distributed to district patrons this week. All residents living in the school district were mailed the survey on Monday, with instructions to either answer the printed questions and return them to one of four designated locations in Freeman, use the camera on their smart phone to active the survey through a QR code, or complete the survey by visiting a URL. The survey asks four questions:

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Lois Thieszen Preheim first heard about the infamous blizzard of Jan. 12, 1888 from her mother-in-law, Siglinda Waltner Preheim, shortly after she was married. “I tucked it away in my memory bank,” she told an audience assembled at the historic Bethel Church at Heritage Hall Museum & Archives Sunday night, “and it kept growing from there.”

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Freeman Public will take its turn showing off school spirit when another homecoming comes to town. Freeman’s traditional celebration of “Flyer Pride” will formally begin with coronation next Monday, Sept. 27 beginning at 7 p.m., and conclude on Friday with a noon parade, 3 p.m. football game, pork BBQ to follow and a 9-12 dance to finish off the day.