With the prep work on the main stretch that runs through the Freeman business district completed, workers were making plans Friday morning to begin pouring concrete — a process expected to start around noon. The work will first take place on the west side of the roadway from Fifth Street to Railway, which is expected to take between 4 and 5 hours. Workers with Reede Construction will then come back to pour the west-side curbs on Tuesday and then move to the mainline concrete on the east side of the roadway starting Wednesday.

Andre Eisenbeis helps a customer with her zucchini at the Freeman Farmer's Market Wednesday evening, July 6. This year's market has been operating from the Swimming Pool Park since late spring and will return every Wednesday through October. Hours are 5:30 p.m. to 7 p.m.

Strong winds late Tuesday afternoon split this tree in front of the Jim and Sue Rigo home on Cherry Street and took down a fair amount of other limbs and branches around town. The storm that passed through eastern South Dakota yesterday is being classified as another derecho, although it didn't have the power or the drama of the one that struck in May. While the winds created a mess, the system included much-needed moisture; the Freeman community is reporting about 1.50 of rain in town, with varying amounts in rural areas.

This is how it looked at the Lily Pad, Menno's baseball field, the night of July 4 as scores of people came out for the traditional Independence Day game between the Mad Frogs and the Freeman Blacksox. Freeman came out on top 21-10 in the slugfest.

As dark closes in, Lawson Hall, right, and Myles Miller sit atop a pickup cab waiting for the fireworks show to begin. It was the end of a warm but festive Independence Day celebration in Freeman Sunday, July 3 as the community marked the occasion in its traditional way — with youth softball and baseball games, chislic, other concessions, amateur baseball between the Blacksox and Tabor Bluebirds, and the light show to cap the night.

Emily Hofer sets out Freeman Blacksox merchandise in advance of today's big celebration in Freeman marking the Independence Day weekend. This will get rolling late this afternoon with youth ball games beginning at 11:30 a.m. Chislic sales will start at 12 p.m. and baseball and softball action will continue throughout the day. Here's the updated schedule. All games are inner squad scrimmages and on the little field unless otherwise noted. 11:30 a.m. - 6u softball  12:30 p.m. - 6u/8u boys 1 p.m. - 14u Sticks vs. Scotland/Menno (Merchants State Bank Field)

Blasts and booms were the name of the game for this group of Freeman boys Friday night as they discharged fireworks from the Freeman High School parking lot. It will be a busy weekend for this kind of activity as Independence Day nears. Fireworks will be sold through July 5 and may be legally discharged through the following Sunday.

The reconstruction of Main Street isn't the only road work taking place in Freeman. This shows what will be W. Third Street coming off Cedar Street, which will lead into the new Westward View housing development. Concrete work on curb and gutter is expected to start within the next week. Also, an updated schedule for the Main Street project shows concrete work starting at the end of next week (July 7-8) as opposed to the middle of the month. Workers will start with the west side of Main Street (southbound traffic) before moving to the east.

This drone photo offers a great look at what was happening on Main Street Thursday morning as workers from Slowey Construction were adding additional fill to the gravel roadway in anticipation of paving — a hallmark moment that is expected to being around the middle of July.

This is the corner of Main and Fourth streets, which looked notably different on Wednesday morning than it did 24 hours earlier. That's because workers reconstructing Main Street took down the large tree that had stood on that corner for generations on Tuesday afternoon — a symbol of "out with the old, in with the new" that is marking this $5.1 million capital project taken on by the city.