Kent Mueller is featured in the 5-Minute Interview published in this week's Courier. Here it is.

JEREMY WALTNER - PUBLISHER Just a few Sundays ago, as the church service at the Freeman Missionary Church was drawing to a close, a couple from Illinois showed. They were having car trouble and wondered if there was anybody in town that could offer some assistance. So the church’s longtime pastor, Stephen Roussos, made a call to Blaine Saarie, owner of Saarie Auto Body, on behalf of the Freeman Ministerial Association.

As is obvious in this photo of Bob Pidde clearing snow in front of his Main Street business, Jamboree Foods, the area was hit with another round of weather late Tuesday night and into Wednesday morning as several more inches of snow, coupled with high winds and cold temperatures, made for tough conditions. Driving was difficult if not impossible late last night (there have been many reports of cars in ditches), prompting schools in Freeman and Menno to cancel classes for the day. Additionally, the city of Freeman's rubble site and Heritage Hall Museum & Archives are closed.

Dawn Walz, owner of Vintage Vault Floral and Fashion in Freeman, prepares an arrangement for delivery Tuesday morning, Feb. 14 on what is among her busiest days of the year.

The sun shines through Old Glory atop the fire and ambulance hall in Freeman on a mild Monday morning. Highs were expected to reach into the mid 40s on Monday before the weather turns; moisture is in the forecast for the next two days, with a good chance of snow on Wednesday.

This is looking south toward what was then South Dakota Mennonite College; the building that is today known as Music Hall is pictured in the distance.

This photo is from 1979 — 19 years after Calvin Kleinsasser started Kleinsasser Plumbing & Heating. The business is now in its third generation of operation; Morgan and Mitch Kleinsasser, grandsons of Calvin and sons of the late Collin Kleinsasser, run the business with their mom, Jane.  

This is a photo of Freeman looking to the northwest taken Friday morning, Feb. 10. The intersection pictured at the bottom is the corner of Highway 81 and the South County Road. The greater Freeman community was settled by pioneers who immigrated here from the Russia/Ukraine area beginning in 1874 and the town was named in 1879 with the expansion of the Chicago, Milwaukee, St. Paul and Pacific Railroad Company. The city was incorporated in 1883.

This photo is without context and was brought to The Courier by a reader who thought it would be of interest. Members of the Freeman Fire Department appear to be taking part in an exhibition of sorts in which they are strapped up and ready to pull equipment. The local department was organized in 1902.

LaRuth Kramer, a Freeman resident and hobby seamstress, is featured in this week's 5-Minute Interview for a project she's been working on since fall. Read it online this afternoon and in print tomorrow.