News

REPRESENT - Left to Right: Exchange Club President Mikhail Rostislavovich, Special Olympics Coach Connie Hoehn, Athlete and Exchangite Jake Lieser, Exchange Club President-Elect Perry Berg

Jake Lieser to represent Minnesota

The Waseca Exchange Club is proud to announce that member and Special Olympics athlete Jake Lieser has been selected to represent Team Minnesota at the 2026 Special Olympics USA Games, taking place in late June at the University of Minnesota-Twin Cities campus. Jake will compete in track...

City council talks audits, golf carts

An audit presentation and a discussion about golf carts were the hot button topics at the regular New Richland city council meeting June 9. Tom Olinger of the accounting firm Abdo, Eick & Meyers presented an overview of the 2024 audit to the council. His presentation included showing...

ORDER IN THE COURT - Olive Scheffert (Detective H.D.), Charlie Randall (D.A. Stiltskin), and Sadie Schimming (Assistant Director) are rehearsing for "Law and Order: Fairy Tale Unit" at the Waseca High School's Performing Arts Center on Thursday, June 12, 2025. Pioneer photo by Ben Revermann

Community Education summer performances

Waseca Community Education Children's Summer Theater in conjunction with the Waseca Drama Department proudly presents “Law and Order: Fairy Tale Unit,” performed by Waseca’s Little Rascals’, written by Jonathan Rand. Directed by Karen Pfarr Anderson with assistant director, Sadie Schimming, the...

YOUNG VETERINARIANS - Kids donned their doctor attire to help their chosen wildlife animal at the Aspyn Acres Kids Wildlife Clinic Saturday, June 14 at the Aspyn Acres farm. Mr. Fox, top left, joined to assess their work. Pioneer photos by Amelia Roessler

Aspyn Acres kid’s wildlife clinic

The Aspyn Acres Wildlife Rescue and Farm Sanctuary held a practice clinic designed to introduce young learners to the information and techniques needed to take care of sick or injured wildlife. The event took place Saturday, June 14 at the Aspyn Acres property just north of Waseca; about 50...

100 YEARS - Doris Beckmann (front) was surrounded by friends and family to celebrate her birthday. In the back, from left to right are Beckmann’s five daughters, Charlene Chevalier, Valerie Giles, Kayla Root, Eileen Borchert and Joleen Oterson.

Beckmann, family celebrate century mark

Doris Beckmann of New Richland marked birthday number 100 on Saturday during a celebration with family and friends. Born June 12, 1925, Beckmann grew up in Waseca County and went to school in Freeborn, graduating in 1942. Although she is now 100, Beckmann said she still feels 99. ...

FOUNDERS FLEX - Founder of Circus Manduhai, Chimgee Haltarhuu(splits), Tamir Bayarsaihan (juggler), Lana Umbaakhuu (upside down), and Vincent Geruntho with the unicycle performed at the Waseca Public Library on June 12, 2025. Pioneer photo by Ben Revermann

Circus Manduhai dazzles at library

Circus Manduhai performed at the Waseca Public Library on Thursday, June 12 to the applause of nearly 40 children in attendance and the adults who brought them. Despite the small area, these Mongolian-style performers incorporated juggling, acro-balancing, contortion, unicycling, and hula hooping...

Renegotiations with JWP on SRO officer

During the Janesville City Council meeting on June 9, the council revisited the topic of the School Resource Officer (SRO) Sheila Jewison and approved her change of schedule so she will be at Janesville-Waldorf-Pemberton (JWP) only two days a week. However, city administrator Clinton Rogers...

SWORN IN - Olivea Boyer was sworn in to the Minnesota State Bar Association on April 25 by The Honorable Renee Worke at the Waseca County Courthouse. Top, Boyer and Worke hug after being sworn in.

Olivea Boyer follows tradition

“I’m not really the center of this story,” claims Olivea Boyer, 26. “This is about the power of connections and the importance of compassion.” Olivea, a 2017 graduate of Waseca High School, is now an associate attorney with Hennepin County Adult Representation Services, an agency which,...

Children and adults alike enjoyed animals, farm equipment and free food and ice cream at the Taste of the Farm event Tuesday, June 3, 2025 at the Waseca County Fairgrounds.

Taste of the Farm event in the books

The seventeenth annual Taste of the Farm event took place at the Waseca County Fairgrounds on Tuesday, June 3, thanks to the Minnesota Corn Growers Association, the Minnesota Department of Agriculture and the Waseca County Farm Bureau. The rain let up long enough for dinner inside the 4-H...

ENTHUSIAST - Siren enthusiast Chris Alywerd, 20, has made a hobby of studying and learning about sirens and the systems used to activate them. Alywerd recently took this siren to an event in Wisconsin where more than 600 people who share his interest gathered to exchange information about sirens and how they are used. Pioneer photo by Deb Bently

Siren enthusiast tells of hobby, safety measures

Chris Aylward, 20, has lived in Waseca for a year and proclaims enthusiastically that he loves it here. Having grown up in a Chicago suburb where noise from a nearby highway was constant and the sounds of airplanes taking off and landing at O’Hare airport shook his family’s home, he says he loves...