Litchfield’s Central Park has hosted musical acts nearly every Thursday evening this past summer – thanks to the Litchfield Downtown Council – and the final concert of the season is coming up this Thursday, August 29th. Flannel Plaid will be performing, and the Downtown Council will be selling pizza and pop.
Darlene Kotelnicki says the Downtown Council will split the proceeds from the food sales between the Litchfield Police Dept., Meeker County Sheriff’s Office, Litchfield Fire Dept. and Litchfield Rescue Squad. She says Flannel Plaid, which consists of Tim Cook and Kristi Olson, will perform from 6-to-8 p.m.
Kotelnicki says the concerts for next summer are almost all booked already. She says the Downtown Council is helping to coordinate a Frankenstein Friday trick or treat event on October 25th in Downtown Litchfield, the Candy Cane parade in December, and a buffet and 57 Chevy Band concert during Wintercade in February.
The Litchfield School Board has approved of an assistant FFA advisor position. The action came after FFA Advisor and agriculture teacher Rob Cole composed a letter and also visited with the Litchfield School Board last night.
Cole says with the current level of activity of current FFA members, they lack the capacity to support them in additional opportunities in which the students have expressed interest. He says an assistant advisor would provide for less instructional days out of the classroom for himself, increased advisor time to coach for career development event activities, increase advisor time to support student interests, and the potential for middle school students to participate in FFA.
Board member Darrin Anderson says Litchfield has lost students to other school districts because of the FFA opportunities available in those districts. He says Litchfield currently does not offer FFA activities for Middle School students.
The Litchfield School Board also approved of a level 4 coach for the volleyball program on a 4-to-1 vote with Julie Pennertz opposed. Pennertz questioned why this position warranted higher pay than the FFA assistant position that the Board approved of earlier in the meeting. Head volleyball coach Darin Swenson says there are 41 players in the high school program this year and the addition of a B-squad would allow more of them to be able to play. He says the additional coach would only be for 2024 and then the situation would be evaluated in future seasons.
Also last night, the Litchfield School Board approved of a resolution for the City of Litchfield’s establishment of a tax increment financing district at 415 South Ramsey Avenue.
The members of Meeker Area Partners in Prevention will be hosting a couple of events in Litchfield during Welcoming Week on September 13th and 14th. Welcoming America is a nationwide effort to make immigrants feel welcome in the country.
Meeker County Public Health Educator Chukuma Ijioma says a couple of the main goals of Public Health are to promote health and prevent diseases. He says a big part of that effort is to promote social interaction.
Ijioma says he felt welcome when he moved to the community back in January and it’s important for immigrants to feel relaxed and to feel like they are part of the community. He says there will be story time for children at the Litchfield Public Library on September 13th at 10 a.m., and everyone is welcome to a party at Memorial Park in Litchfield on September 14th from 2-to-5 p.m. to kick off Welcoming Week.
For more details, call Meeker County Public Health at 693-5370 or go to welcomingamerica.org.