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Thumbs up for environmental opportunities. The Minnesota Pollution Control Agency has put out a call for volunteers to monitor local bodies of water, part of a program the MPCA has held for 52 years now. This is a marvelous opportunity to take part in our local environment and collect data that can be used in future efforts to maintain what we have.

Thumbs up for meeting authors. Sweet Reads Books and Candy has had a long-standing tradition of bringing both local and regional authors in so that readers can meet them. Book readers are a passionate lot and oftentimes have questions about the authors themselves and the books they write. It’s a perfect opportunity to bring these two worlds together.

Thumbs up for construction — seriously, construction. We’ve had a fairly lenient winter and mild spring all things considered, and even though our precipitation is down, it has allowed construction crews to continue on at a decent pace in order to keep our bridge project on track. Crews continue working on the Fourth Street NW bridge with the intention of starting work on the eastbound lane bridge over the Cedar River and rehab work on the eastbound land over Sixth Street NE later this spring.

Thumbs up for a golden opportunity. This past weekend, we featured the story of Aidan Falcon, who is competing on a wheelchair basketball team. We often feature athletes and while it’s always fun to put them on our pages, we love including inspirational stories such as Aidan’s because it shows the benefits sports can have for all.