The Litchfield Area Mentorship Program has its Turkey Bingo fundraiser on Friday at the Litchfield Eagles Club. The doors will open at 5 p.m. and bingo begins at 6 o’clock.
Judy Hulterstrum says there will be 20 games at $1 each and the winner of each game gets a turkey. She says they also have lots of raffle baskets and you can purchase 35 tickets for $20 for chances to win those, and they are also going to have a 50/50 raffle.
Hulterstrum says the Eagles Club will have menu items available so you can eat supper before or during Turkey Bingo. She says if you have any questions, call 320-699-1616 or email info@lampkinship.org. Donations to LAMP are also welcome any time and may be sent to Post Office Box 82 in Litchfield.
Members of the Peanut Butter & Milk Festival Committee who traveled to Alabama earlier this month spoke about their trip on Tuesday evening. They shared many fun details with their fellow members as they spent November 1st through the 8th in Hartford, Alabama – Litchfield’s sister city.
The delegates included Litchfield High School FFA students Cade Cervin, Alexis Engelke, Bianca Forsberg, Wyatt Ratike and Emmett VanDerBill and their chaperones Lane and Abagayle Lysdal. Abby says this was her third time to Alabama and it was fun to see what was different since the last time she was there and to witness the connections between families from Litchfield and Hartford that have endured for years. She says the people in the South seem to enjoy life more as they aren’t in such a hurry.
Lane says he enjoyed seeing the differences in agricultural practices and especially enjoyed seeing how they harvest pine needles and use them for landscaping mulch. He says he had a great time, learned a lot, and enjoyed eating fresh fish during their “beach day” in Florida. Cade says he got to ride in a tractor as peanuts were harvested and he was surprised how woodsy it is in Southeastern Alabama. He says the farmers there can take their time as the weather is more favorable than it is in Minnesota.
Alexis says the people from Litchfield were the only ones in the ocean on “beach day” as the natives felt it was too cold to be swimming this time of the year. She says she ate a lot of fried foods and enjoyed the sweet tea. Bianca says she ate a whole fish at a Mexican restaurant and enjoyed visiting a honeybee farm. Emmett says he especially enjoyed learning about the cotton industry – seeing it harvested and visiting a cotton gin. Wyatt says they got to visit the National Peanut Festival which is sort of like the Minnesota State Fair and they watched the pig and calf scrambles there. He says he also got to go hunting for wild hogs.
The Peanut Butter & Milk Festival Committee is getting ready to host guests from Hartford, Alabama the week of January 31st through February 7th. The next meeting is coming up on Tuesday, December 16th at 7 p.m. in the Litchfield High School Ag Room. Everyone is welcome to join the Committee and get involved in the Festival.
The Litchfield City Council approved of a couple of equipment purchases on Monday evening. A Bobcat track skidloader will be purchased for $53,000 and a John Deere tractor – snow blower – rotary broom will be purchased for $30,000.
Mayor Ron Dingmann says the Council also received information about the possibility of the Veterans Administration building a community-based out-patient clinic in Litchfield. He says they would need to find enough land to build an 18,000 square foot building with 124 parking spaces, and the city administration is in contact with them about what land might be available.
Mayor Dingmann says the Council also heard a request Monday evening from two members of the youth baseball association – Brandon Nagel and Travis Eichner – who would like to see lights installed at the Cal Ripken fields. He says no action was taken, but the Council advised them to also meet with the School Board and the city administration for a plan forward.
Mayor Dingmann says the Litchfield City Council also had a work session yesterday morning to talk about the 2026 budget and staffing prior to the final budget and levy being approved in December.
The Meeker County Board of Commissioners listened to a presentation by members of the Dassel-Cokato FFA Ag Issues Forum Team. The five girls spoke about the loss of agricultural land.
The students will be making their presentation in a state competition in mid-December and need to make five public performances before that time and get feedback from their audiences. They used Wright County as an example as it has lost 16,000-acres to urban sprawl since 2017, and ag land is needed to produce food, but yet, landowners have a right to do what they want with their land and not be restricted by government regulations.
The Meeker County Board also listened to an annual report from Woodland Centers Director Dr. Ashley Kjos.
The Board approved of a request by Finance Director Heather Lemieux to use Ehlers as Meeker County’s investment advisor. The Commissioners also approved of a resolution presented by Public Works Director Phil Schmalz to apply for a local road improvement program for County-State-Aid-Highway 14. A resolution was also approved to support Darwin Township for a local road improvement program grant application. Schmalz says the Darwin Township project would be for improvements to 260th Street where Johnson Drive recently connected – behind Walmart – which has generated more traffic. He says the street is in tough shape.
