Opinion

My name is Rhonda Miller and I am the Regional Accounting Manager for the Minnesota newspapers, and a few others, owned by CherryRoad Media. My office is located in our St. James site. I have been with the newspaper for almost 30 years and have dabbled in quite a few different rolls along the way. I have always enjoyed helping customers place ads, make payments, and work with them on billing issues or concerns about their ads. It is always a great feeling to help out customers and most times being able to end discussions with smiles and satisfaction.

March 8 is International Women’s Day. Don’t ask me how I know this. I just do. So let us speak of Woman, specifically the International Woman. I like her. Very much. In my opinion She deserves much more than a day. But time waits for no man. Or woman, it seems. So ... let’s get to it.

Editor’s note: Pastor Nate and Chris Belkstrom, of Living Word Church in Redwood Falls, have been in Bucharest, Romania since early January and sent the following report on the situation there and the work they are doing. They wrote this Feb. 28.

If you know me, you know Eastern European missions has been a part of our lives for more than 25 years. My wife, Chris, and I arrived in Bucharest in January and will return the last of March. When we first arrived, we noticed there were more COVID restrictions than in Minnesota and were told that one of the reasons for that is that nobody wants to end up in the Romanian health care system! That’s partially a joke.

Question: I just moved to MN and heard you talking about not using cruise control in the winter, can you please write about this? Answer: Using cruise control on slippery roads could send you on a winter cruise – straight into the ditch or oncoming traffic! With dry road conditions, cruise control helps you safely monitor your speed, stay within the speed limit and improve driving comfort on long, fairly straight stretches of road. It should be used only when you are able to drive at a steady speed with safe road conditions.

Mid-February, Rob met with Olivia, a 6-year-old female snowy owl, in Northern Minnesota. Rob: Thank you for chatting with me.

A young prince, deposed when an enemy overran his kingdom, fled to a neighboring realm where a friend ruled as king. He hoped his friend would grant him a new kingdom. Instead the king gave him 100 sheep.

Redwood County ranks 85th out of 87 counties in the state of Minnesota with access to an internet speed of 100 Mbps download, and 20 Mbps upload speed (100/20 Mbps). The state goal is that every household and business is served a minimum of 25/3 Mbps by the year 2022, and 100/20 Mbps by 2026. At this time, Redwood County is not positioned to meet either of the goals. To provide perspective, a gig of speed is 1,000 Mbps symmetrical.