rick peterson
By Rick Peterson, general managerMay 05, 2020I don’t know about you, but keeping track of what day of the week it is has been a bit of a problem for me. It seems like we’ve been doing this stay-at-home thing forever when really it’s only been six weeks. That said, six weeks is a long time when you don’t know from one day to the next what the next day will bring. Our office has been functioning under essential business protocol since mid-…
By Rick Peterson, general managerApril 21, 2020It seems our minds have been flooded with numbers related to the coronavirus. How many people have been tested, how many positive results, how many negative results, how many are in ICU, how many, how many, how many … and it changes by the hour. I have my own coronavirus-related numbers, and they have nothing to do with the virus itself. I would like to give you an example of how to turn bad…
By Rick Peterson, general managerApril 07, 2020It’s been almost a month now that we have been in a virtual state of shutdown. Social distancing, shelter in place, essential business and hand washing — and now face masks have turned our worlds upside down. But really, has it been that unbearable? The whole day-to-day lifestyle changes pale in comparison to the mounting worries we are all facing. For me, I find it difficult to be living,…
By Rick Peterson, general managerMarch 10, 2020It’s been five days since the “spring ahead” time change, and I am now just starting to adjust. Not sure why, but I struggle with the loss of an hour. Maybe it’s because I am a morning person and the added hour of darkness in the morning messes with me. That said, the good certainly outweighs the bad with the time change. The past weekend reaffirms that warmer days are coming. I saw my first…
By Rick Peterson, general managerFebruary 25, 2020So February is about in the books for another year. Even with an extra day it seemed to blow by. So to keep you up to speed on my 2020 bucket list accomplishments, here’s where I’m at after two months. First, just to refresh your memory, the list includes wash a load of clothes at the Laundry Room Laundromat; get at least one haircut at five different salons in Luverne; swim in The Lake; attend a…
By Rick Peterson, general managerFebruary 11, 2020Friday is Valentine’s Day. Truth be told, that is not one of my favorite days. Valentine’s Day puts undue pressure on me to be romantic — not one of my strong suits. I can be compassionate, caring and downright sentimental, but romantic not so much. To make matters worse, Mary will find herself sitting in the dentist’s chair to start her day. In the past, I’ve done the standard Valentine gift…
By Rick Peterson, general managerJanuary 28, 2020A few weeks ago we published the salaries of city department heads and the increases they were going to receive. We do the same with county and school personnel. The fact that we publish such information was the topic a conversation one day at coffee. Most at the table found it important while others (just one) really felt it was unnecessary. The argument against publicizing the salaries was that…
By Rick Peterson, general managerJanuary 14, 2020Before I closed the book on the past year, I went back and checked my first column of 2019 to see what words of wisdom I may have jotted down. As it turns out, I came up short in the wisdom category. My bold and optimistic look at 2019 included four major construction projects that would be well underway by year’s end. The four included tru Shrimp, Premium Iowa Pork, the National Guard Armory and…
By Rick Peterson, general managerDecember 17, 2019With nearly 400 greeting cards already collected, we sent off a couple hundred greeting cards last week to American military personnel currently deployed around the world, including four from Rock County. I would like to thank Lexi Moore and the students from the Hills-Beaver Creek schools and Jason Berghorst and the students from the Luverne schools for accounting for nearly half of the cards so…- By Rick Peterson, general managerDecember 03, 2019I don’t know why, but maybe because the Peterson family celebrated Thanksgiving almost a month ago, it seemed to me that December wasn’t ever going to get here. Then all of a sudden December is here and Christmas is just three weeks away. So now that Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday have come and gone, I assume you have all your Christmas shopping done. Oh, not the case?…
By Rick Peterson, general managerNovember 19, 2019I am writing my annual Thanksgiving column the week before Thanksgiving, and it’s all about Christmas. Last year the CEO class came up with the idea of “Light the Park” for Christmas. It was a huge success with hundreds of cars passing through the Luverne City Park enjoying the lighted Christmas displays. The CEO class has moved on to other projects this year. So as not to let the “Light the Park…
By Rick Peterson, general managerNovember 05, 2019This coming Monday is Veterans Day, and as far as I am concerned, it’s in my top five most important days we honor each year. My top five are Christmas, Easter, Memorial Day, Veterans Day and Thanksgiving. You can rank them any way you want to, but for me Veterans Day and Memorial Day are only behind Christmas. I have told you this before. I am not a veteran, and the fact that I am not is one of…
By Rick Peterson, general managerOctober 22, 2019I mentioned in my last column I was off to Austin for the Minnesota Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener (MGPHO). The press is invited to this event to provided coverage and bring attention to pheasant hunting in Minnesota, and along the way the host city gets a lot of positive press coverage, much like Luverne benefited from hosting the event last year. I attended the event as a press person, but…
By Rick Peterson, general managerOctober 08, 2019This weekend I will be attending the Minnesota Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener in Austin. This will be the ninth year for the Governor’s Pheasant Hunting Opener. The annual event has done a great job promoting the sport of pheasant hunting. As you may recall, Luverne was the host city last year for the event, and by all accounts Luverne set the bar so high that Austin will have to pull out all…
By Rick Peterson, general managerSeptember 10, 2019By now the fall high school sports seasons are all underway. Before each season begins, parents, coaches and student athletes gather for a required meeting to discuss a number of rules that need to be adhered to by parents and the athletes. Items that are covered are eligibility rules, player and parent conduct, and additional rules such as game day dress code for the players that coaches might…
By Rick Peterson, general managerAugust 27, 2019Last week I reached one of those birthday milestones, something called Social Security age. Twenty years ago that was the age when darn near everyone walked off the job into retirement. Not so much nowadays. With $1,000-a-month health insurance premiums, not many of us can pull the plug on the nine to five. I have quickly learned the new target date for retirement is more likely to happen around…
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