Local News

The Litchfield School Board heard the monthly report last night from Business Manager Jesse Johnson.  He updated the Board on the financial audit and on the pool remodeling project.

Johnson says a construction kick-off meeting for the upcoming pool renovation project was held on October 22^nd and the project is expected to begin on November 17^th with substantial completion expected by January 16^th.  He says the Litchfield School District will be coordinating closely with Ebert Companies, Wold Architects & Engineers and other project partners.

Johnson says Conway, Deuth & Schmiesing was in the District the week of September 22^nd gathering information for the annual audit report.  He says the report is expected to be delivered to the Litchfield School Board during the November 10^th meeting.

Litchfield Community Education Director Grant Solem also gave a report to the Board last night and said that they are operating in the black.  He says having a director in place at Dragons Kids Club has been a huge asset this past year, and he says they are scheduling their first basketball tournament in the new Litchfield Area Recreation Center.

The Litchfield School Board approved of resolutions last night supporting Form A and Form B applications to the Minnesota State High School League Foundation which helps provide grants for certain students to assure that they can participate in athletic and fine arts activities.

Also last night, the Litchfield School Board approved of a resolution accepting several donations.  Among the donations were:  $250 from the Meeker County Corn Growers and $100 from Tim Bergstrom for the Litchfield High School FFA Chapter; $150 from Three Son’s Seltzer for Lake Ripley Elementary School supplies; $697 from Meeker Energy for the Lake Ripley Elementary School SUN Room; $500 from the Litchfield Lions Club and $250 from the Litchfield Kiwanis Club for the Lake Ripley Elementary School Tradehome Shoes project; $2,000 from the Dr. Roger Patten memorial for athletics – split evenly between girls tennis, gymnastics and Middle School boys basketball; $1,500 from Resonetics for the CTE program 10 face mills; $5,328 from the Girls Basketball Booster Club for the Girls Basketball program coaching; $2,109 from the Goal Line Club for football field paint ; and $6,000 from Center National Bank for classroom needs.

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The Litchfield High School Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on November 7th at 7 p.m. in the Litchfield High School Commons. Four Litchfield High School graduates will be inducted this year – including Donald “Pokey” Schreifels from the class of 1961.

Schreifels says he wasn’t the best student in high school, but was very involved in sports and could’ve received scholarships to play at various state universities, but his dad wanted him to attend St. John’s University where he had graduated in 1934, so that’s where he went to college. He says he was in the ROTC and served in the Army in Korea during the Vietnam War and got out in 1968.

Schreifels says he worked for General Mills in Chicago and then moved back to Minnesota in 1969 and spent 45 years in the insurance business – with Northwestern Mutual Insurance, at first, and then on his own and was a life-long member of the Million Dollar Roundtable. He says he has great memories of growing up in Litchfield.

Schreifels says he will be back in Litchfield for the Hall of Fame activities on November 7th. He now lives in The Villages, Florida. He says his advice to students is to work hard, be honest and trustworthy – no matter what you do – and develop good habits.

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The Litchfield High School Hall of Fame induction ceremony will take place on November 7th. Four Litchfield High School graduates are being inducted for 2025, including Andy Revering from the class of 1961.

Revering says his parents operated the Bi-Way Beer Tavern just outside of Litchfield and he has so many good memories of growing up in town, especially downtown where he would get his haircut in the hotel basement, eat 15-cent hamburgers, and watch westerns on Saturday afternoons in the Unique Theater. He says he attended country school until the 5th grade, then went to the new St. Philip’s Catholic School through the 8th grade, then attended Litchfield High School. He says he was involved in football, wrestling, and track and was an artist for the yearbook.

Revering says he joined the U.S. Air Force in Texas two days after graduating from Litchfield High School and when he was done there in 1965, he wanted to join a police department in Minnesota with a K9 unit, but couldn’t find one. He says he got hired by the Anoka Police Dept. where he got the chief to send him to a national police dog academy to get a K9 implemented into their department, and then he worked his way up the ranks as sergeant, captain, deputy chief, and then chief. He says he served for a total of 33 years in Anoka – 14 years as chief – before retiring.

Revering says that he’s proud of a program that they pioneered in Anoka for preventing juvenile crime called Police Accountability Conferencing for Juvenile Offenders. He says it is a program that originated in Australia – an in New Zealand before that.

Revering says it is a very effective program, with 96% of the juveniles not reoffending. He says Litchfield was a great town to grow up in and when he’s back in town on November 7th for the hall of fame induction ceremony at Litchfield High School, he’s hoping to let students know what an impact their teachers have, even though they might not realize it until years after high school.

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