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The weather just doesn’t seem to want to cooperate on the weekends lately does it?  The forecast is grim for this weekend with potential snow.  Yuk.

I would urge you to not let the weather keep you from coming out to your local firehouse to celebrate Fire Prevention Week.  Center City and Lindstrom will be hosting their annual open houses Saturday both beginning at 10 am.  Center City kicks the day off with the Firefly 5k run walk. You can register before the race between 7:45am to racetime at 8:30am.  There is a kids run at 9:30am as well.  Center City Fire is home to a brand-new expanded sparkling facility that they would love to show  you.  Besides the beautiful new building, you will be treated to demonstrations as well as meeting Sparky the Fire Dog. Kids will receive free fire helmets among other fun goodies.  At noon the firehouse will be the place to be for their famous chili feed. Center City’s open house runs until 1 pm.

Over in Lindstrom; the Lindstrom Fire Department invites you to its open house.   You will be treated to hotdogs and refreshments and make sure to bring the kids. They will have a bouncy house and will be giving out pumpkins. Lindstrom FD will also be giving away free fire helmets for kids as well.  There will be giveaways during the entire open house and hopefully the weather allows them to hoist the ladder truck.

Chisago City does not hold an open house. Instead, they visit the schools to inform the kids on fire prevention and let them have some fun with hoses and the trucks. They traditionally also visit the local daycare center as well.  

Folks I can’t say this enough, these men and women who make up our local fire departments are so awesome.  They are brave, honest, hard working, and put our safety and our property above anything. We owe them a huge debbt of gratitude.  If you are a local firefighter - THANK YOU! You are appreciated!

As we enter into the fall yard clean-up stage of the year a lot of you may be asking where can you take your leaves and clippings?  We as a community have a compost site that is located along Lofton Avenue or County Road 24 just north of Chisago City.  residents of Chisago City, Lindstrom, Wyoming and Stacy may compost leaves, grass clippings and brush up to 3 inches in diameter at no cost.  You must show ID to compost for free. Others from outside the area (myself included) will be charged a small fee to compost.  It's a great service that a lot of people do not know exists.  The site is open Wednesdays from 2 - 7 pm or until dusk, Saturdays from 9am to 4pm and Sundays from 1 pm to 4 pm.

If you are like me, you are totally grossed out by boxelder bugs. I know they are harmless but this time of the year they are everywhere. They multiply faster than rabbits and can seemingly produce thousands of young overnight.  

 The south wall of the Press seems to be grand central station for all boxelders.  Not a huge deal I know but when they find their way into the smallest crevices soon you have a civilization crawling and landing on your computer screen and keyboard.

Luckily one of our readers tipped me off onto a very inexpensive way to mitigate the bugs. Apparently the mixture of tap water with a generous amount of dish soap dries their wings and they perish within no time. To make it easier to cover more territory here at the Press I am using a weed pump sprayer with water and soap.  The results are amazing and the Press has never smelled cleaner!

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