Adult volleyball team registration deadline is Tuesday. If you would like to receive information please call our office. The volleyball leagues play at Ellis Middle School with women on Wednesday nights and co-ed on Friday nights.

Adult open hockey will play from 7 to 8:15 p.m. on Wednesday and Dec. 17 at Packer Arena.  The cost is $6 and you must be in high school and not playing youth hockey, no checking, no alcohol and helmets are required.

Pubic skates at Packer arena are from 5:30 to 6:45 p.m. Wednesday and Dec. 17 and 4:30 to 6:15 p.m. on Saturday, Dec. 13.

The cost to skate is $4, if you need skates, rentals are $1. Check the city website at www.ci.austin.mn.us for the calendar.

There will be two more free open gym opportunities for area youth volleyball players from 6:30 to 8 p.m. on Monday and Dec. 15 at the Ellis Middle School Gym. For more information follow us on Facebook or call our office.

The Austin hockey will host Rochester Century at 7 p.m. on Tuesday. Junior varisty starts at 5:30 p.m.  The Austin girls team will host Red Wing at 7:30 p.m. on Thursday.

The Austin Bruins next home game is Friday against the Minnesota Magicians at Riverside Arena.Puck drop is 7:05 p.m.

The Park Crew will be doing some work along Interstate 90 and the North Side of East Side Lake, cutting back the dogwoods that will grow back in the spring. They have also started preparing the outside ice rink areas. When the weather forecast shows temperatures staying below freezing they will start the ice building process.

You may have also noticed that our crew removed a large cottonwood tree from Driesner Park.   The tree was becoming a danger for anyone using the park. Trees are a very important asset to our community and are not removed from public land unless they are dead, diseased or dangerous.

Did you know: The U.S. Forest Service calculated that over a 50-year lifetime one tree generates $31,250 worth of oxygen.

On Nov. 26 the Minnesota Department of Agriculture posted a news release to host public meetings on a proposed quarantine which would stop people from knowingly or unknowingly bringing the mountain pine beetle into the state on pine wood covered in bark. The following information is from that press release:

“The bug, which is native to the western United States and Canada, spends most of its life in the area of the tree where the bark meets the wood. The adult beetles can release a pheromone to attract other beetles and coordinate an attack on a tree. If enough of the insects burrow into the tree, the tree can die. This makes the mountain pine beetle one of the most damaging forest insects in North America.

“If it’s not stopped at our border, the mountain pine beetle has the potential to have a major impact on Minnesota’s forests,’ said MDA Entomologist Mark Abrahamson. ‘We have three native species of pine covering the northern and eastern parts of the state, and an estimated 370 million pine trees. All are potential targets for the insect.”

“Because of several factors, including climate and forest conditions, the naturally occurring outbreak of the mountain pine beetle in the western U.S. and Canada over the last decade has been unprecedented. The insect has reached farther north and east than ever recorded and has increased concerns for its natural spread into the Great Lakes region — including Minnesota. However in recent years, the MDA has been able to document the human-assisted movement of logs and firewood containing mountain pine beetle into Minnesota.”

“Fortunately in these instances the wood had been aged just long enough for the beetles within the material to be dead,” said Abrahamson. “However, these examples highlight the potential for pine wood with bark to bring mountain pine beetle into Minnesota.”

“The proposed quarantine would limit the import of pine wood with bark from western states with known infestations. Currently, there are 13 states with mountain pine beetle. Full text of the proposed quarantine can be found at www.mda.state.mn.us/plants/insects/mpb.aspx. It is proposed the quarantine go into effect on Jan. 1, 2015.”

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