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We still haven't heard back from our coloring contest winners. Hopefully the kids that won it were not from out of town visiting relatives. Again, Autumn, Wyatt and Avalynn, please contact us here at the Press at 651-257-5115 or stop in to claim your fabulous prizes. We want to take your photos for the next Press edition.

Last week I wrote about saying goodbye to George McMahon who retired from the Chisago County Board. This week I wanted to say a huge thank you to another good friend Jerry Vitalis. We had a nice write up about him last week with a photo of him. I have known Jerry for what seems like forever. He is one of the kindest people I have ever known and his charity work, while he likes to keep it quiet, has not gone unnoticed. He has long been the face of the Chisago County Relay for Life and the massive dollar amounts he has raised for the fight against cancer over the years is unknown. While I sometimes feel like these goodbyes feel like obituaries, they are not meant to, I am just not much of a wordsmith. What I am trying to say is Thank you Jerry. I am excited for you to enjoy more time with your family and in the garden!

As I write this, we won't know until tomorrow (Wed) what the Governor of Minnesota will decide on the latest round of closures for businesses, mainly bars and restaurants. As many of you are, I’m keeping my fingers crossed he loosens his restrictions and allows them to re-open. If he decides to loosen restrictions, I hope that he picks a decent allowable percentage that actually makes it worthwhile for a business to open again. A 25 percent capacity doesn't help anyone. I am not saying to open the floodgates completely, but at least cut these poor business owners a break.

Speaking of the pandemic, I see that the state has dispersed 78,000 or so vaccinations of the 297,000 it had received. What happened to operation warp speed? These companies worked 24 hours a day for the last year to get the vaccine completed safely and in mass quantity. Why then is the actual vaccination moving like operation molasses? It's not like the state didn't have time to plan this out, they have had around a year to come up with a prompt vaccination plan.

The Celebration of the Lakes will happen in one form or another. But before all of that gets decided, there is a raffle taking place that will support this year's event. Right now, you can purchase a $10 raffle ticket to win a brand new Polaris Indy 600 SP snowmobile.

The drawing will take place at the Celebration of the Lakes and the winner will not have to be present to win. The snowmobile has a retail value of $11,120. Quite a bit different then the Polaris Colt I bought in Junior High for $240.

You can get your tickets by contacting the Wild River Snowmobile club, the Chisago Lakes Area Chamber of Commerce, or the Kids Pro Ice club. Good luck, but hopefully I will be writing about my new snowmobile in a few weeks.

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