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Thumbs up to improving. After its season came to an end against Kasson-Mantorville Wednesday night, we hope the Austin volleyball team still understands how important this season is. It’s hard to turn around a program and it’s been no secret that the Packers volleyball team has had its fair share of difficult seasons, but this year’s team has taken yet another step in turning things around. This was the first season with a winning record since 2009. Not only should that be something to be proud of, but it’s another building block towards the future.

Thumbs up for risk prevention. Announced this week, Mower County dairy and poultry farmers can now get free, seasonal influenza shots on their farms thanks to a new initiative that is designed to break vaccination barriers. Mower County Community Health is working with Fairview’s Minnesota Immunization Networking Initiative to make this possible in the face of concerns coming from the high severity of the H5N1 avian influenza virus. Farms with too much staff to transport or can’t step away from a busy operation can now bring vaccinations to their site.

Thumbs up to Riverland success stories. Congratulations to Riverland Community College agriculture teacher Nick Schiltz and 2014 Phi Theta Kappa International Poet Laureate Katherine Eliason. Their achievements were announced at the beginning of this week and show once again that good things continue to come out of our hometown college.

Thumbs up stop signs. Of recent concern have been a number of intersections in Austin that are uncontrolled, raising safety concerns among residents. On Monday night, the City Council approved an effort to start approaching this issue and at a good time as major road construction projects both now and in the future will bring unfamiliar drivers to unfamiliar areas in Austin, raising the risk at these intersections.