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This week you will be receiving your blue card in the mail from the Press. The card is your reminder that our annual subscriptions are due the first week in May.  We have made it super simple for you to renew. You can choose to send a check in or write your credit card info on the blue card.  Once we receive your card, we will make sure you don’t miss a single issue.  We work tirelessly on the paper each and every week to try and make your reading experience the best one in the state.  Thank you to each and every one of you for reading,. without you we would not exist.

Beginning Thursday, if you go to chisagocounty press.com, you will find a tile ad for Chisago Lakes Schools.  If you click on the tile, you will pull up a video the district produced. In the video Chisago Lakes School Superintendent Joe Thimm speaking to a group of people at Lakeside Elementary.  I would encourage you to watch the video all the way to the end. He explains some of the goals, concerns, and visions of the future of our schools.  The school has some great ideas with their building infrastructure, but they are lacking one thing, your input.  That’s right, they want to hear from you. You the district resident, you the parents of students, you the tax payers. Every one of your ideas is welcomed. The goal is to accumulate as many opinions as possible to help formulate a clear vision for the future of our schools.  Please watch the video and respond to the link at the end.  Thanks for helping.

I know by now you have heard or been part of the detour issues in our area.  We have a couple of large ones that are currently active including Highway 8 at Highway 95 all the way to the Taylors Falls bridge. The other is in Forest Lake. Highway 97 is being reconstructed at the corner of Highway 61 and Highway 97.  Both areas are putting in a roundabout system and other features.  So getting around those areas is not impossible, just a little tedious.  In Taylors Falls cars and trucks (not semis) are asked to use 310th Street (the steep hill between the Chisago House and the gas station west to Tern Avenue.  Tern will kick you back out to Highway 8 and on your way.

Please remember the businesses that will be affected by these detours this spring and summer.  Let’s all do our part to support them and make sure they are able to stay open during and after construction.  We have successfully done it before and we can do it again.

Coming up on May 7, there is a real neat meeting that the public is encouraged to attend.  It is called the Chisago Lakes Water Trail Summit.  If you look about four inches to the lower right you will see the first of a four part introduction to the incredible water trail system we have in our area.  John Olinger who is spearheading the Chisago Lakes Water Trail will continue to inform you and me about the incredible asset we have right under our own noses.  The summit will highlight the water trail paths, features, and some wonderful opportunities for some great ways to visit our local cities and towns via the water trails.  The summit is May 7 at the Chisago Lakes Library at 9 a.m.  I think these folks are onto something really cool that is going to make this area an even more enticing destination.

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