Record

Aug 23, 2023

A Cathedral defender looks to touch tackle the runner as the JV football team practices at the New Ulm Rec Center Tuesday. Coach Paul Hazuka said he is hoping the team can get back to practicing outdoors Thursday.

NEW ULM — Southern Minnesota is in the midst of a heatwave that started Monday and is expected to continue through Thursday.

The National Weather Service (NWS) has issued an excessive heat warning for the region. The forecast is for temperatures in the 90s and high 80 through the weekend. Tuesday evening in New Ulm, temperatures reached 97 degrees by late afternoon.

Residents were seeking ways to beat the heat. The most popular way to avoid the excessive heat was to remain indoors.

Thankfully, those looking to do so have some options.

The New Ulm Library will continue to stay open for their normal hours. Director April Ide said business picked up Monday but stayed fairly normal Tuesday. “We wondered if maybe people were coming in and doing errands,” she said. “Picking up books before they plan to stay home for a couple days.”

Eloise Koch plays under the water umbrella at the North Park splash pad.

Ide said they have plenty of comfortable spaces for people to stay cool, wifi, computers, and board games people can indulge in alongside a good book or two. The library will be open 9:30 a.m. to 8 p.m. Monday through Thursday and 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Friday and Saturday.

An indoors location with some unfortunate circumstances is the New Ulm Rec Center. Right before this bad heat wave called for it, the Rec Center pool suffered a mechanical issue. Assistant Director Cheryl Kormann said the pool will be out of commission for the rest of the heat wave.

“[It’s] really unfortunate because we’re finding a lot of people wanting to use it,” she said. “Many of our neighboring pools are already closed for the season.”

Kormann said many athletes and area sports teams are using the different spaces to practice and train for the upcoming school sports season. This includes the New Ulm Cathedral JV football team, who held their practice on one of the multi-purpose courts. Coach Paul Hazuka said the heat wave has provided an odd start to their season, but it has a silver lining.

“For junior high we got started this week,” he said. “It’s already limiting our time outside. We moved it inside today because of extreme temperatures and humidity. It’s nice the kids will be able to go full go and go for a full two hours and get in a nice workout without having to worry about the heat and humidity.”

Ann and Peter Koch took their grandchildren Melvin and Eloise to the North Park splash pad Tuesday to beat the heat. Ann eventually joined her grand kids. She said “it sure felt good.”

While the team usually practices daily, Wednesday will have no practice due to the seventh graders having an open house. Hazuka believes they will be able to practice on Thursday, as long as the temperatures and humidity have gone down enough. “[With any luck] this is the only practice we [will] have inside this year,” he said.

The sidewalks on downtown New Ulm were deserted most of Tuesday. Downtown shop owners reported slower business than normal.

Jerry Chamberlain of Bookshelves and Coffeecups said during the extreme weather, excess heat or winter blizzard, customers tend to stay home. He did note the customers coming in Tuesday were gravitating toward the “iced drinks.”

He said there were a couple customers who took their drinks on the back patio, but that was in the early morning when it was still only 80 degrees.

MN Eis was doing brisk business, with many people seeking a cool treat. The staff confirmed they sell more ice cream on the warmer days. They expected the biggest surge in customers around 7 p.m. after the dinner hour.

Melvin Koch waits to be hit by a stream of water. Melvin said his favorite feature of the splash pad is it was always changing. It is hard to predict when the water will hit you.

The splash pad at North Park saw use from the Koch family. Ann and Peter Koch brought their grandkids Melvin and Eloise to the splash pad to beat the heat in the early afternoon.

“I am cold on a hot day,” Melvin said as the splash pad’s water features sprayed him the face.

Melvin said is favorite part of the splash pad was how the water features kept changing. The splash pad is on a timer with certain water features program to turn and off at different intervals.

Melvin and Eloise were even joined by their grandmother Ann, who decided to walk through sprinkler features.

“It sure felt good,” Ann Koch admitted.

The splash pad will remain open 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. through Labor Day.

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