Spring has come with warm temperatures and green grass along with blooming flowers. Everything is changing for the better. Congratulations to the GR boys basketball team and for all the awards and honors they have received since winning the State Tournament. Well deserved honors. Congratulations to all! Burnell Grimmius and Larry Pieper have been doing the finishing work on the new EMT building and as always they have done a great job. Thanks to both for all the time that you have put in. Also thanks to the large crew of volunteers who helped Burnell and Larry and to all those who helped with the painting. I want to also thank Trent Wentzien for donating the labor on the plumbing and Dan DeWitt for donating the labor when installing the furnace and the air conditioning. Thanks to all the volunteer firemen for all the time and work that they provided. I know I’m missing someone and for that I apologize. It’s great to live in a town where so many come to volunteer on a project of this size. All of the help saved the town a lot of money. All of us here in Gladbrook owe all of you a big thank you for your work. By the way, the firemen officially moved into the new building April 11 and are operating out of it. The young men of Gladbrook have formed a new organization called the Sons of the Legion. They have had two fish fries and they both went well. If you missed them, you missed a very good dinner. It’s great to have a new young men’s organization in town. I hope everyone will help and support them to get off to a good start. There have been a couple of old city landmarks that have come down in the last few weeks. One is the Crumrine and Osten building located in the north part of town by the water works. They other is the old grain elevator and storage shed located on the east end of Main Street. These structures were not being used and were outdated. I have been asked several times what is going on with all the dirt work east of our house. For those of you out of town this is the corn field between our house and Doug Gethman’s just northeast of the old Wentzien brick house. Contrary to local rumors, this is not for a new swimming pool. PCI, a contractor out of Reinbeck, is digging the dirt and moving it to the new bridge project north of town. When done, PCI will level off the ground. This is a big project – contructing the bridge and raising the existing road. It definitely looks different out there. For those of you who like to ride bikes or walk, thanks to Denny Gienger the bike trail is open. You have to be very careful at the west and where all the bridge construction is going on. It is better to turn around and go back to town. It makes for a nice walk or ride. Once again, Jeff and Cheryl Bruene have donated a beef to be auctioned off in quarters on the Saturday night of Corn Carnival during the talent show. This beef will be ready to go at that time and will be processed and packaged. This is hormone and drug free beef – very, very good eating. The proceeds will go to the fire and ambulance building. Thank you to Jeff and Cheryl for your generosity.

That’s all for now! Keith Sash, Mayor