Hello again from Mayor Kim Johnson.

With the warm spring like weather some of us are starting to work out in our yard. Three Spring yard waste and branch collection days and 1 limited cleanup day is coming in April so make sure to check out those details on our electronic city sign or on the West Bend Chamber of Commerce Facebook page. There’s a change regarding ‘couch’ pick up. Couches now require a pre-paid tag from City Hall and are considered an ‘appliance’.

One of my duties as mayor is to attend various Palo Alto and Kossuth County meetings.

One of those is the Kossuth Emergency Management Association meeting. This board would like to ensure that residents living in Kossuth County have their house number visible to ensure quick and effective first response if ever needed. We also have this same ordinance for our Palo Alto residents. So, with the nice weather, take a look outside and see if you have your house number visible or if you need to redo that following any new construction that many of us have had to do following the hailstorms.

Now on to my favorite part of this column.

March was my mom’s favorite month because of St. Patrick’s Day. She was all Irish and was the best little leprechaun every March 17. So, to celebrate the ‘luck of the Irish’ I wanted to find out from our preschool ‘little leprechauns’ what made them feel lucky. Thanks to Mrs. Bormann, Preschool Teacher, for her work on this ‘lucky’ project. Tucker is lucky to have train toys. Ella is lucky to have big stuffies and Ellisyn has a bunny stuffy. Eddie feels lucky to have his mom and dad and said he loves them so much. Lexi and Lenna’s lucky feeling is because they have their family. Myles is lucky to have money while Liam is so lucky to have quarters in his piggy bank. Andi is feeling lucky to have healthy food from her mom and she makes her favorite chicken soup. Niethan is lucky to have his brother Lucas to play with. Eli is so lucky to play with mom and dad. Wynter loves her daddy. Jasper’s luck is having cows and friends. Tate has a lucky surprise at home that he hadn’t opened yet. I wonder what it was! Calvin is feeling really lucky to have a new baby brother, Gavin. Autumn said she is lucky to have Mom and Dad, Nora is lucky to love her mom and Vivian loves her Grandma Julie. Emely agreed by saying ‘yo amo a mi mama’ (I love my momma). Reed also loves his family and said they’re the best people. A lucky feeling for Rhett is to have a new bull named Red Rock and to have his baby Brooks. Ezra and Hailey were absent so make sure to ask them what makes them feel lucky if you see them. Last but not least, Mrs. Bormann feels lucky and blessed to have 23 beautiful students to teach. Mayor Kim feels super lucky to have you, Mrs. Bormann and our families who have chosen to send their child to your preschool program.

I had a few ‘lucky’ experiences the last few weeks.

I was lucky to have gone to my first Friends of the Library fundraiser. Our town is so lucky to have such a committed group of community members supporting our library. I was also lucky to read the articles that the WB-M journalism class published in this newspaper on February 29 - nice job journalists. A very lucky feeling came over me as I was honored to represent our town when accepting some of the Palo Alto Casino Grant Awards. Wow what a gift to have this monetary support in our county. There were many innovative grants last year and this year. West Bend resident, Brian Bormann, President of the PACGDC, served as master of ceremonies. I would encourage you to look at their terrific website and application criteria.

I will end my column with feeling very ‘lucky’ to be a resident and Mayor of West Bend.

Please be assured that there is no cost for this column. We are very fortunate to still have an actual newspaper that serves our community. Feel free to contact me at any time at my EMAIL (kjkimtalk2@gmail.com) or you can reach me by phone at 320-241-4770.