Spring Valley EDA

Tools for Economic Growth in Spring Valley, Minnesota.

Chris Hahn

Spring Valley Ag Days Parade Route Changed

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Dear Spring Valley Residents,

The Kiwanis Club of Spring Valley would like to inform you that the parade route for the 2025 Spring Valley Ag Days has been revised. The updated route is provided on the reverse side of this notice. We kindly ask that you review the new route on the back of this page and make any necessary adjustments to your seating plans.

Should you have any questions or require further information, please contact Jay Webster with the Kiwanis Club at 507-421-1821.

We appreciate your attention to this matter and look forward to celebrating with you at the Spring Valley Ag Days parade.

 

Thank you,

 

Kiwanis Club of Spring Valley

 

Spring Valley Kiwanis Club seeking Citizen-of-the-Year nominations

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The Kiwanis Club of Spring Valley is asking the community to nominate an outstanding person to be honored at its’ annual Citizen-of-the-Year program to be held in the fall.

The Kiwanis Citizen-of-the-Year is chosen by the club from nominations received from the public.  Forms can be picked up at Spring Valley City Hall or the Spring Valley Public Library and must be returned to them or mailed to the Kiwanis Club of Spring Valley, P.O. Box 133, Spring Valley, MN 55975, by September 1, to be considered for this years’ nominee.

Last years’ Citizen-of-the-Year was Steve Volkart.

Any monies given to acknowledge the Citizen-of-the-Year selected will be deposited into the Kiwanis Clubs’ Citizen-of-the-Year scholarship fund.

 

Ag Days 6k returns on Saturday, Aug. 16

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Posted July 14, 2025. By David Phillips

Registration is now open for the annual Ag Days 6k run on the paved Spring Valley trail.

Runners start on County Road 8 near the camper parking area east of Spring Valley. They take a turn into the camping area after a short distance and then follow the trail all the way to Willow Park near the pavilion. The 6k race is about 3.72 miles long.

Runners will meet from 7 to 7:40 a.m. on Saturday, Aug. 16, at Willow Park, which is located just east of downtown, for the 8 a.m. race. Runners will board a bus at 7:45 a.m. for a shuttle to the camper parking area on County Road 8. The scenic trail has no intersections with public roads as it crosses over Spring Valley Creek several times and underneath Highway 16. There will be an aid station along the course plus refreshments at the end.

The first 50 people registering for the race will get a custom performance T-shirt.

Registration for the Ag Days 6k run is online with no added fees on the Spring Valley EDA website (springvalleyeda.org). Forms may also be picked up at City Hall. Race day registration begins at 7 a.m., but runners are encouraged to register in advance.

The price for the 6k race is $25 for runners signing up prior to Aug. 1. The price is $30 from Aug. 1 to the day of the race.

Trophies will be awarded to the overall male and female winners in the 6K race as well as for the top three males and females in age groups.

For more information on either event, contact Dave Phillips at 507-346-2368.

The annual 1k free kids run, called the Little Husker, will also take place on Saturday, Aug. 16, at 9:30 a.m. The race, sponsored by the Spring Valley Area Community Foundation, is free of charge. The routes for various ages are on the trail at Willow Park. For information, check the EDA website, springvalleyeda.org.

 

Click Here for Online Registration and Sign-up information

or 

Download the paper registration form here

 

Top Hat Classics dealership now open at Matt’s Body Shop

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Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, June,12 2025.   Reprinted with permission and gratitude.

By Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy

Greg Melartin’s taken a shine to chrome, and oh, the smiles it’s going to polish up.

“They’re for putting a smile on people’s faces. Some belong behind glass to preserve them for future generations, but the majority of them should be driven. The cars I’m buying and selling are nice, but they are drivers – something you can get in and enjoy the day driving them,” stated Melartin, proprietor of Matt’s Body Shop…and now of Top Hat Classics, a classic car dealership open at his collision and repair shop on the very north edge of Spring Valley, where he specializes in “classics, unique vehicles, motorcycles, cars, fun toys…I also buy and sell classic campers…anything cool and old, like the canned ham campers.”

There’s never been any doubt that Melartin would eventually trade in cars and vehicular curiosities he has effectually lost track of how many vehicles he’s personally bought and sold since he was old enough to steer and accelerate, estimating it at “about 50 now,” but his fascination with chrome, a near-heaven and holy whitewalls experience, began when he was a kid living in a trailer park. His mother’s friend Dave owned a vintage car, the fanciest thing he’d ever seen. It sparked in him a compulsion to tinker, to aspire toward repairing things – even taking his mom’s toaster and other appliances apart – to have the chance to put them back together, to overhaul and create. “It was like a 1932 or 1933 Plymouth my mom’s friend had, and he came to the trailer court we were living in, and from that moment, I was hooked.”

The shadetree dismantler went into the service, became a veteran who moved to New Jersey upon completing his commitment, then became a guy who needed to come home to Minnesota where his mother and grandparents were, and he worked in construction and other fields, but he was always a guy looking for a place to take apart a transmission or stick another magnetic parts tray. Matt’s Body Shop went on the market in late 2020, and Melartin bought it from Chris Czapiewski in March 2021, planning to make it efficient and self-sufficient enough that he could oversee operations and work on what he felt he ought to when necessary to sustain his tinkering habit or expand his business to include new endeavors. “The body shop was set up so that it could operate on its own, that all parts of it were occupied by mechanics, body people and customer service that could do what they need to do, and also, last winter, because it was so warm, there weren’t as many deer collisions to work on, so that meant that I needed to find something to do. This idea to have a dealership has always been in the back of my mind, but to actually get it off the ground…it’s been a year or two since.”

Melartin is always shopping for new wheels because that’s what he’s always done. He even once bought a car and traded it nearly the next day – and there was a cheeseburger and fries written into the deal. To spend an afternoon scrolling through car listings on Facebook Marketplace or Craigslist is to him like taking a day to go to a car show, minus the gas money. “I like to find cars on Facebook Marketplace, Craigslist, through word of mouth. If somebody’s looking for something specific, I can look for it for them. I try to find cars that are mechanically sound and have minimal rust. There are some special cars that I would get that are non-runners, but for the most part, I want running, driving vehicles. It’s easier to make more people smile with a running classic vehicle.”

He’d eventually like to add a pole barn as extra storage for the body shop and a place to stow a few classic cars, because the current arrangement finds his classics parked either next to the body shop or out on the yard. “I’d like to have maybe 15 cars. I’ve always wanted to put an additional pole barn here…I don’t want to have hundreds of cars. I’d like to keep it so that I can still manage the body shop, but this is something for me to do. My business is set up so that other people can handle it, but I like buying, selling, negotiating – that’s why I set up a dealership.” He quipped, “We are a one-stop, full mechanical and collision services shop. We also have full toy services.”

The adventure, for Melartin, lies in “meeting people and making deals.” “I like that people like talking about their cars, their dreams, their stories. A lot of people buy cars because they have memories tied to a vehicle that belonged to their grandparents, parents, aunts or uncles. I’ve sold a couple of bikes so far, and I sold a 1954 Ford F250 to a 20-year-old girl who was smiling from ear to ear.”

Top Hat Classics is located at Matt’s Body Shop on the north edge of Spring Valley. For more information, stop at the body shop, log onto the Matt’s Facebook page, or call 507-346-2161 and ask for Greg.

 

Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325

Good Earth Village celebrates summer with June GoodStock

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Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, June 12, 2025.   Reprinted with permission and gratitude.

By Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy

Tyler Anderson is proud to announce that his workplace has Thomas – and the shakes – along with a loud mouth and some vintage wings.

Better yet, there are the summer people.

“We’re pumped to have these three bands coming to Good Earth during Good Stock,” said Good Earth Village (GEV) hospitality and retreat director Anderson, listing that Thomas and the Shakes, Loud Mouth Brass, and Wings Over America: A Tribute to Paul McCartney & Wings will perform, adding, “The big thing this year is the decision to move the event up to mid-June and not have it at the end of summer.”

He highlighted that the 2025 GoodStock music festival, a family-friendly music party hosted by the Lutheran camp just northeast of Spring Valley, has been rescheduled from its August end-of-summer bash date to a summer kickoff party on June 21 and 22 that will feature almost all of the same activities as in previous years, such as the trail color run, family fun zone with games and wagon rides, a petting zoo and food trucks.

The trail color run has been a favorite for numerous GoodStock attendees, and Anderson stated that runners will again have the opportunity to trek uphill and down on GEV’s trails in the race. “On Saturday, June 21, we’ll have the color run. It starts up above on the hill and goes down through Old Town…it’s fun to do this run because it’s not in town and it’s not on flat ground. People have to run up and down the trails to participate.” The GEV website relayed that “the course will be on Good Earth Village trails – strollers are not recommended. There will be one short trail option, approximately one mile due to trail repairs. Cost is $15 per person before the event and $20 the day of the run.” Anderson commented that while the original registration guaran teed runners a race t-shirt, that deadline has passed, meaning that “people can still register for the race, and we will have t-shirts there the day of, but there’s no guarantee we’ll have your size.”

The camp staff has sparked a new element to the GoodStock celebration’s endeavors. “Obviously, people have chili cookoffs and meat cookoffs, but we are having a campfire cookoff – we’re hoping to have contestants who like to cook over the campfire – because cooking over the campfire is a whole different beast than grilling. Ody’s Country Meats is providing the protein, and we’ll have grill grates for the fire, but any other tools or sides that they need, they need to bring. There will be judging, and the color run participants get to sample. There will be a judges’ pick and fan favorites. We’ll try this out, and hopefully it will be a staple going forward once it catches some steam and popularity.”

The GEV website shared about each band coming to GoodStock, beginning with Thomas and the Shakes. “Thomas and the Shakes is a rock band from Elgin, Minn., formed in 2013 by Thomas Wescott (guitar/vocals) and Garrett Kolb (drums) with his unique ‘shaker’ kit – hence the name. In 2014, while at Mc Nally Smith College of Music, they released their debut EP ‘All My Favorite Things are Free,’ blending roots, reggae, folk, blues and rock. The band later expanded to include Mark Walsh (woodwinds), Logan Kolb (bass), and Tyler Kispert (guitar/vocals), bringing a fuller sound heard in their 2017 album ‘Mind Your Time’ and 2023’s ‘Carpet Booth Sessions.’ After nearly a decade, their friendship and shared musical vision continue to drive their evolving, original sound.”

Loud Mouth Brass is a col lection of brassy, forward adventures into music. “Your ears will smile and your toes will tap when you hear Loud Mouth Brass.” With a splash of New Or leans and a pinch of pop music, Loud Mouth Brass has a tasty musical recipe. While the band’s instrumental arrangements of music spanning the gamut from The Jackson Five to Fallout Boy will make your feet get the urge to dance, with several originals in the mix, this brassy band still makes sure to keep things fresh. From the top of its blue sousaphone to the bot tom of its thumping bass drum, this band exudes fun. The band’s lineup consists of Becca Combs-Cawley on sousaphone, Zach Sander on tenor sax, Erick Stascheck on bari sax, Jon Knutson on trumpet, Nick Novotny on drum set, and John Sievers on trombone. Don’t hesitate to get a little loud, because Loud Mouth Brass won’t mind.”

Wings Over America: A Tribute to Paul McCartney & Wings is an ensemble of the Collective Unconscious. “Band members of Collective Unconscious bring you a tribute show you won’t want to miss! Wings Over America: A Tribute to Paul Mc Cartney & Wings…based on the 1976 live album by Paul Mc Cartney and Wings, this show features some of the group’s greatest hits, along with songs by The Beatles, as well as other hits. This high-energy show will have you smiling, tapping your feet, and singing along. The hits include ‘Venus and Mars,’ ‘Rock Show,’ ‘Jet,’ ‘Medicine Jar,’ ‘Maybe I’m Amazed,’ ‘Lady Madonna,’ ‘Mull of Kintyre,’ ‘Picasso’s Last Words (Drink to Me),’ ‘Bluebird,’ ‘I’ve Just Seen a Face,’ ‘Yesterday,’ ‘Another Day,’ ‘Take It Away,’ ‘Live and Let Die,’, ‘Comin’ Up,’ ‘You Gave Me the Answer,’ ‘Listen to What the Man Said,’ ‘Go Now,’ ‘My Love, ‘Let ‘Em In,’ ‘Nine teen Hundred and Eighty-Five,’ ‘The Long and Winding Road,’ ‘Silly Love Songs,’ ‘Uncle Albert/Admiral Halsey,’ ‘Band on the Run,” ‘C Moon,’ ‘Junior’s Farm,’ ‘Helen Wheels,’ ‘Hi Hi Hi,’ and ‘Hey Jude’.”

GoodStock officially begins at 11:00 a.m. with the campfire cookoff, followed by the color trail run check-in at 1:30 p.m. and the run leaving the starting line at 2:00 p.m. Food vendors will open their trucks at 2:00 p.m., and family fun zone gets the giggles going at 3:00 p.m. Thomas and the Shakes take the stage at 3:00 p.m., followed by Loud Mouth Brass at 4:30 p.m. and Wings Over America: A Tribute to Paul McCartney and the Wings will tune up at 5:30 p.m. The music event concludes at 7:00 p.m. or thereabouts to allow families to get their little ones home to bed on time. Rising to shine and give God the glory on Sunday morning at the outdoor amphitheater begins with coffee and refreshments in Log Lodge at 9:30 a.m. and proceeds outdoors to the Three Crosses at 10:00 a.m. Food trucks arriving at GEV include The Grove Eats – a smashburger and fries purveyor, El Sueno: Greek Edition, and Taco Lab to make dining out easy. Also, Anderson reminded attendees to bring lawn chairs and blankets for concert seating, but GEV asked that four-legged friends be left home.

He pointed out that the transition from end-of-summer to summer kickoff gives GEV summer camp staff the chance to be on hand to help with the family fun zone, the color run and other activities. “It will allow GoodStock visitors to meet GEV summer staff who usually are not able to attend due to their college classes beginning before an August GoodStock. “We’ll have all the summer staff here – they don’t get to be a part of the event because they’re going back to college. All the parents who bring their kids to camp see them here at check-in, but now, they actually get to meet them. And moving it lets people who want to go to town celebrations like Ag Days and other towns’ festivals do that in August.”

Anderson concluded, “We hope to keep this in June. With the change in dates, we’re really hoping to make this the biggest attendance ever this year. It’s free to attend, so come and have a great time.”

Good Earth Village is located at 25303 Old Town Dr., Spring Valley. For more information on the camp and its programming, log onto its website at www.goodearthvillage.org, or email  info@goodearthvillage.org, find details on the GEV Facebook page, or call 507-346-2494 during office hours, Monday through Friday from 9:00 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.

 

Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325

 

 

Spring Valley Public Library prepares for summer reading program

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Original article published in the Mower County Independent, Thursday, May 22, 2025.   Reprinted with permission and gratitude.

By Gretchen Mensink Lovejoy

Spring Valley’s library board of trustees met last Thursday, May 15 to manage business before the busyness of summer.

Spring Valley Public Library (SVPL) Director Melissa Vander Plas requested that the board consider allotting paid work hours for summer help to offset employee vacations, noting that a volunteer has already committed to being on hand for part of the season, and she would like to retain and pay that volunteer for additional hours as the children’s summer reading program progresses. The board passed a unanimous vote in favor of setting aside money for that purpose.

The director related that library assistant Jeanette Ramaker is “leading the organization of the summer reading program,” this year themed “Ignite Your Imagination at the Library.” Special presentations are slated for Wednesday afternoons at the library in June and July at 1:30 p.m. More information will be available on the library’s Facebook page and throughout the library, as well as in the Mower County Independent.

Vander Plas shared in her director’s report that the new Evergreen library operating system has been put into service. “The transition went pretty well – not without its glitches, but much better than it could have been. We are able to perform most of our day-to-day operations with a few patron records and item records needing to be updated when some of the data didn’t transfer over correctly.” She cited that during the days that the library was still open but not functioning using the new system, library staff spent time cleaning and rearranging SVPL’s collections – “moving the children’s DVDs into their own section for easier and safer browsing for kid-friendly selections.” “Also, we have a Father’s Day card-making workshop for kids on June 7.”

The Friends of the Spring Valley Public Library held a book sale on April 26, garnering $900 for SVPL’s benefit, and members followed up with a garage sale to bring in more money to assist the library’s mission. Vander Plas stated that the Friends “will be helping us with summer reading programs as support, and they’ll be collecting prizes for our drawings…they’re just a valuable resource.”

Donations and memorials for which the board expressed its gratitude included gifts to the SELCO Foundation from Harlan and Pat Bucknell, Stuart and Carol Gross in memory of Dorothy Simpson, Deanna Capelle in memory of Wayn Dreyer, from Ethel Marchant, Carol Himle, and Laura Mangan, Adopt-A-Book donations from Char O’Connor, Friends of the Spring Valley Public Library, Deb Hagen-Moe, Stephanie Vreeman, Jennifer Terbeest and Nicole Pokorney, an anonymous donor giving to the city’s library fund in memory of Roberta Flaherty, the Osterud-Winter Trust Fund’s biannual gift to the library fund, Char O’Connor’s memorial honoring Russ Betsinger, and gifts to the library’s contingency fund from Rita Hartert and from Narcotics Anonymous participants who hold meetings at the library. Vander Plas remarked that “we’ve had donations totaling a little over $2,500 since the beginning of the year,” and she wanted to thank everyone who has contributed to the library’s wellbeing as a community resource.

The library will be closed Monday, May 26 in observance of Memorial Day, and its June board meeting will be held on Tuesday, June 17 at 6:00 p.m. instead of the usual third Thursday due to that being Juneteenth, a national holiday. The meeting schedule will resume in July, and the board will not meet again until September because it takes a break in August for Ag Days.

The Spring Valley Public Library is open Monday from 10:00 a.m. to 6:00 p.m., Tuesday through Thursday from noon to 7:00 p.m., Friday from 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m., and the first and third Saturdays of each month from 10:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. The library staff is available to assist with media inquiries and library questions. For more information, stop in at the library on Jefferson Street, just behind First National Bank, or call 507-346-2100.

Courtesy of the Mower County Independent, 135 E Main St. LeRoy, MN 55951, (507)-324-5325