JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER If everything goes the way Terry Waterman expects it to go, Heritage Hall Museum & Archives will be home to replica of a mosasaur skull this summer.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER The outdoor athletic facility used by Menno Public School for football and track and field will soon be known by a new name — that of a beloved friend and colleague who died last month at the age of 62. Meeting in special session Monday, March 29, the Menno School Board of Education unanimously agreed that Jim “Jimmy” Woehl should be recognized and honored by renaming the sports complex located just off Park Street in his honor.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER School boards from Freeman Public, Freeman Academy and Marion will meet jointly in special session next week Thursday, April 8 to continue the discussion about a cooperative in boys and girls basketball, cross-country, golf, track and volleyball. The meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the Freeman High School gym and will be streamed on the district’s YouTube channel.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER The 1980s was an extraordinarily difficult decade for the Freeman community. Not only was the farm economy in the tank, but a series of hard-hitting and tragic stories locally littered the timeline. Not to dwell on it, but the litany of tough breaks is worth noting: A fire destroyed a Main Street grocery store, Jerry’s IGA, in 1981.

Read the April 1, 1987 front page here.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Downtown Freeman is no longer without a restaurant. Mimi’s Diner, a project of Freeman resident Amy Beck, opened for business Wednesday morning, March 24 in the Main Street building that was previously home to Doc’s Mess Hall, Delicious Flavor Bakery and, for many years, The Kairos. Beck had been pursuing her own eatery since last year and has spent the past month getting the space ready. That has included upgrading kitchen equipment and painting and redecorating the dining space.

When the last one out locked the front doors at Merchants State Bank in Freeman at the end of the day on Friday, March 20, who could have guessed that those same doors would remain closed to the public for more than a year.

Just. Get. Home. Those three words may or may not have been spoken out loud by Kerry and Lori Hofer as they hit high gear in an effort to get their family out of the Czech Republic and back to the United States the third week of March last year, but they were no doubt front-of-mind.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER For those missing Schmeckfest and wanting to get in on at least a sampling of the festival, the Freeman Academy parking lot was the place to be last Friday and Saturday, March 19 and 20 as the second annual Schmeckfest Drive-Thru unfolded on the west side of Sterling Hall. For five hours each day, vehicles formed a circular line around the perimeter of the parking lot that, at the busiest hours spilled well beyond, to pick up sausage, kuchen and other Country Kitchen items.

JEREMY WALTNER  - PUBLISHER With the proposed rebuild of Freeman’s Main Street beginning as early as 13 months from now, city officials are starting to think about details of the project — specifically what kind of decorative elements should be included in the project, if any.