Shannon Fiecke of the Shakopee Valley News reports:

Minnesota’s No. 1 pest isn’t visiting us quite as early as usual, but it will be arriving in greater numbers.

The cold, wet weather the state has brought both bad and good news for mosquito season. While it has created a great deal of breeding ground for mosquitoes to grow the cool temperature has also slowed the larvae development process, providing a greater window for larvae to be killed before they can hatch into adults.

Seventy years ago, a Works Progress Administration crew built a roof on the Scott County Fair's grandstand.

For more information, read the Looking Back column in the May 29 issue of the Jordan Independent. Read it online in the Print Edition section, or subscribe by going to www.jordannews.com/subscribe.

Here's what's been going on in and around New Prague lately, according to the New Prague Times:

- An unreserved fund balance of $300,000 is the New Prague school
board's goal. That's 1 percent of its 2008-2009 budget -- far less than
the state recommends and far more than the $30,000 projected fund
balance at the end of this school year.

- Thirty-nine people applied for the position of New Prague city administrator, which will be vacated by 33-year veteran Jerry Bohnsack in July. 

The Mill Pond officially reopened to the public after an $838,000 restoration project that included draining the recreational lake in Jordan's Lagoon Park.

Jordan Mayor Ron Jabs spoke about a ribbon-cutting ceremony on Wednesday, May 7. Here's some of what he said:

- Lagoon Park was originally dedicated to the city in 1929 by the flour company International Milling.

- The flood of 1960 deposited sediment in the Mill Pond that was many feet deep.