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For many years there wasn’t Postal delivery to homes where I lived as a child. Six blocks away there was a one story brick building with Postal boxes inside. Mother pulled me on a sled or wagon and my older siblings walked there. We also picked up the mail for elderly residents in our neighborhood.
These days the US Postal Service is in financial trouble. According to its Nov. 24, 2018 report: There was an overall volume decline of 3.2 billion pieces and a net loss of $3.9 billion. Its only good news was in its Shipping and Packages business, where revenue increased $2.0 billion, or 10.1 percent.
A lot of the loss, it is said, is because people rarely write personal letters as once was done.
I so much treasured letters, that I still have a large box of personal letters I have received since I was a child. Mostly they are ones from family members. Fewer yet from good friends. The trouble is, although I plan to drop a line to someone, I put it off.

The cost of a “forever” postage stamp went up on January 27 from fifty cents to fifty five cents. In 1918 the Postal Service lost $3.9 billion dollars. It’s kind of a grey area about who runs our postal service. At one time it was the government that made all the rules and regulations.
For the past twelve years it has been hemorrhaging cash. Trump puts the blame on Amazon saying they are not paying their fair share by offering “free delivery” on their merchandize. This is debatable. People using emails instead of writing letters may have something to do with this. So far this year I’ve written only one letter and have received two in return. I’m still old fashioned and sent seventeen Christmas cards. Twenty years ago it was thirty or more cards. I am keeping in touch electronically like the majority of people are doing.

by Annette Meeks, CEO of the Freedom Foundation of Minnesota -

The USDA Forest Service anticipates reopening the process to reserve Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness quota permits on February 27, 2019. Prior to the tentative reopening date for the reservation system the Forest Service is working on the following actions:

fixing a technical problem in the BWCAW sale software;
additional planned training for permit cooperators who rely on the system;
and additional testing to ensure a smooth launch of the updated system.
Once the above schedule of actions is successfully completed the Forest Service will confirm the reopening date and move forward with broad public outreach to notify the public of the new reservation period.

by Tom Coombe -

Ely’s Jayne Dusich holds numerous track and field records at Bemidji State University.
It took almost 30 years, and one of her former students, for one of those records to fall.
Last weekend, freshman Ryne Prigge of Ely not only won the 1,000-meter run at an indoor event in North Dakota, but she also shattered a school record set by Dusich in 1991.
Prigge, who was coached by Dusich in both cross country and track at Ely, won Saturday’s race in 3:00.57, breaking Dusich’s school-best mark when she was a standout for the Beavers in the early-1990s.
Last year’s Arrowhead Conference Female Athlete of the Year, Prigge was a standout in track, cross country and Nordic skiing at Ely and signed with Bemidji State, an NCAA Division II school, to compete in both track and cross country.
Dusich followed a similar path and earned spot in both the BSU and Northern Sun Intercollegiate Conference Hall of Fame.

Jack Lindgren, 92, of Oklahoma City OK, passed away on Jan. 25. He was born in Ely Minnesota in 1926 and served in the U.S. Navy.

Patricia Jean (Palmer) Wickett, 87, of Virginia, formerly of Babbitt, passed away Tuesday, February 5, 2019. Patricia was born December 18, 1931, in Lanesboro, MN to Orrie and Alice (Palmer). In 1946, the family moved to Harmony, MN, where she graduated from high school in 1946. She then attended the Harding Beauty School in Winona and received her cosmetology license in 1950. She worked in shops in Austin and Preston and later was assistant cashier at a bank in Harmony. She was united in marriage to Richard E. Wickett on August 5, 1951. The lived in Harmony and Canton before moving to Babbitt in 1956.
She was a member of the Woodland Presbyterian Church, American Legion Auxiliary, VFW Auxiliary, Babbitt Golf Association, Women’s bowling Association for over 35 years, Dance Club, Babbitt Knight Riders, Snowmobile Club, and was active in Cub Scouting for a number of years.

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WINTER FROLIC Queen Jessica Anderson and King Alex Motes were crowned at Tuesday’s pep rally.