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Good numbers for Buffalo DaysWith great weather and good participation, ’06 will go down as one of the nicest Buffalo Days Luverne has had, and that is saying something, because we’ve had a lot of nice Buffalo Day weekends.With temperatures in the mid 80s, the weekend started out with the Friday night cruise-in at a new location.This year’s cruise-in was located on Luverne’s Main Street with a total of 143 cars registered for the event. They filled both sides of Main Street for two blocks from Freeman Street to McKenzie, with a little spillover on the side of the Palace Theatre.In addition to the usual attractions, the Eagles Club set up a beer garden between Minnwest Bank and the Pizza Ranch, and the Luverne Hockey Association peddled brats and root beer floats . At dusk, the event was illuminated by Luverne’s really cool new downtown lights.Sioux Valley Luverne Hospital sponsored the 5- and 10-K run/walk utilizing the new Blue Mounds Hiking and Biking Trail for the first time. According to event coordinator Darci Pap, 140 people participated in the event.This year the participants were bussed to the Blue Mounds State Park and ran back into town.You may be interested in a few other results of Buffalo Days:
260 people participated in the Dad’s Belgian Waffle feed sponsored by the Southwest Chapter of the America Red Cross.
100 vendors sold their products to large crowds at Arts in the Park. Other Arts in the Park events included The Zoo Man, the Spot Light Dancers, Tae Kwon Do Club demonstrations, and the buffalo chip throwing contest sponsored by Green Earth Players.
1,200 free buffalo burgers were distributed at the Blue Mounds State Park within an hour Sunday. The Buffalo Days free burger feed is offered in conjunction with the state park’s annual open house.Interpretive Center will now be an information centerThree years ago the State of Minnesota cut the funding for the naturalist at the Blue Mounds State Park, resulting in closing the Interpretive Center, the former Manfred home.Now, thanks to a fund-raising effort by the Blue Mounds State Park Partners, the building will once again be open to visitors.The Park Partners managed to raise $5,000, which, according to park manager Rick White, will allow the facility to be open from noon to 4 p.m. every Wednesday through Sunday until Labor Day for the next two years.Because the state did not hire a nature interpreter to staff the facility, it will be considered an information center, not an interpretive center.However, the state did agree to provide maintenance for the building and guidance training for the employee.Power outage goes more quickly than expectedTuesday’s power outage, which affected everything north of the high school and west of Highway 75, went much faster than the worst-case eight-hour scenario talked about in the Star Herald last week.Rick Hoftiezer, line maintenance foreman for Missouri River Energy Services, told the Star Herald last week that the project could take up to eight hours, but the juice was off at 8 a.m. sharp and back on before noon, an outage of less than four hours.Now the next upgrade is already being planned. The affected area will also be located in the northern part of town, in close proximity to Cashin Drive and N. Kniss Ave.The outage will take place on Tuesday, June 13, beginning at 8 a.m. and is expected to last approximately five hours.Affected residents will be getting reminders hung on their doors this week.Again the outage on the 13th is necessary to upgrade both cable and equipment.