Protect your pet cats

Cat owners are strongly encouraged to not allow their pet cats to roam free during the overnight hours.  It can be very dangerous for your cats and neighbors do not appreciate having to clean up sandboxes and gardens after your cats have visited.  Please treat your pets better, they are not wild.  

Election Day & Santa's closet fundraiser

Next Tuesday is Election Day and the only item on the ballot is the BOLD School Referendum.  The Olivia Public Library is the place to cast your ballot.  I encourage all to do so.  

Either before or after voting you may want to stop by the Master’s Coffee Shop for the Santa’s Closet fundraiser.  A portion of the special meal will be given to Santa’s Closet.  There will also be silent auction items to bid on.  It is a good way to get a head start on Christmas shopping.  Santa’s Closet is one of Renville County’s most generous charitable holiday programs.  We are very fortunate in our community to have the wonderful volunteers who make this program so successful.

Construction phone numbers

Construction continues on the North Side of Olivia.  Work is being done around 10^th Street and Walnut.  A majority of the work has been completed on 11^th Street, but curb and gutter will not be done until Spring.  I understand the difficulties some residents have encountered, so the following are a list of contractors and engineers who are on-site every weekday and can answer questions or concerns.  Please feel free to call them. 

Todd Geislinger   320-828-2607

Jason Burg    320-492-9155

Jonas Svavarsson    320-429-0131

Bruch Bayer   320-980-2521

David Palm   507-317-4925

These gentlemen are much more familiar with work at the project site than is the Olivia city office staff.

Kindle books

Fall of Giants: Book One of the Century Trilogy by Ken Follett

This book of close to 1,000 pages was one of the reasons I purchased by Kindle.  I enjoyed getting into a long complex book, but holding it is problematic.  With this title on my Kindle I was able to take it on vacation, on a flight and carry it with me in my purse.  It was terrific.  The book, of course is excellent as are all of Ken Follett's historical fiction.  This is what reading should be.  I enjoyed learning about World War I and its impact, while loving the stories of the families.  My recommendation is not only to read this book, but to read it on a electronic e-reader.  This is what technology should do.

Infrastructure Update

With the weather cooperating the infrastructure project is continuing to make progress.  There are a couple of notes that residents should be aware of.   Some residents on the affective streets are being hooked up to temporary water while the mains are being replaced.  The water coming through those temporary pipes is tested and it is safe.  With the cooler weather these pipes are more susceptible to freezing so if you are using temporary water and the nighttime weather is predicted to go below freezing, please run a small amount of water, even just a drip to prevent the temporary line from freezing.  Homeowners on the temporary line are not being charged for water since it is not going through the meter.  The contractor will be delivering a letter to each affective household with phone numbers to contact them if there is a problem.  Please use those numbers if you have a question.  Residents should know that testing is done on the water lines again after hooking back to the main line. 

Let’s also remember Halloween is on a Monday night this year, so please be careful of youngsters walking around town, drive cautiously all day on Monday.