July 4 JC closures and celebrations

It’s almost time to celebrate the signing of the Declaration of Independence which signified the decision of the Original 13 colonies to break away from England and establish their own country on July 4, 1776.

It has long been a United States tradition to celebrate July 4th with fireworks, parades, speeches and the like. Though often for Jewell County residents wheat harvest conflicts with the holiday.

This year, if the hot dry weather holds, most farmers will have competed their 2024 wheat harvest and be ready for a relaxing day on July 4.

The harvest began late last week and with today’s big machines and fewer acres being planted, it no longer takes weeks to bind and thresh the wheat.

Most businesses and government offices throughout the county, including this newspaper’s Mankato office, will be closed on Thursday, July 4. And that means the delivery of next week’s printed newspaper will again be delayed by at least a day. That doesn’t mean our many readers will have to delay reading the next issue.

For those who have taken advantage of our offer of free e-subs when purchasing a printed subscription, they will be able to use their computers and internet connections to read replica copies of the printed edition as early as Wednesday evening. The internet site also provides links to the printed inserts which are included in that week’s mailings.

Two Jewell County communities have provided this newspaper with information about their planned Independence celebrations.

For the community of Jewell, the big celebration will be held on the shore of Emerson Lake the evening of Wednesday, July 3. There will be fireworks, food trucks and various other activities.

Burr Oak will celebrate on Friday.

Jewell County’s biggest July 4 community will be found at Lovewell State Park where the number of visitors will number in the thousands. There will be plenty of water for water based activities as the lake is filled above the conservation pool top.

There’s a Mankato lake in the national news this week but fortunately it isn’t any of the lakes in Jewell County.

The 114-year-old Rapidan Dam on the Blue Earth River was breached Monday morning and was said to be in imminent failure condition.

For the casual reader, it was easy to see how the story could be wrongly connected to Jewell County. The dam is located near Mankato, Minnesota, and located on the Blue Earth River. Here in Kansas we have dams, a Blue River and a Mankato. At times there have been concerns voiced about the safety of Tuttle Creek Dam located on the Blue River above Manhattan, Kansas but we have heard of nothing new this year.

There is flooding this week on the Missouri River. In the past, there have been years when Missouri River flooding has caused the Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad to divert trains to the line which serves the Jewell County communities of Lovewell and Webber. We haven’t been told to expect that this year but assume it is still a possibility if the flooding disrupts the movement of trains along the Missouri River.