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The 4th of July is over, but there are a lot of celebrations coming up in the area. People who attended the Mineral Point City Band Concert in the evening of the 4th said it was possibly the best they had been too. There was a great mixture of youth and "oldsters" in the band. The music was fantastic!
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I went to the Arena 4th of July celebration which was held Friday and Saturday (not Thursday the 4th). Overall it is the 15th Annual Yolanda Peterson and Mary Jones Memorial Fireworks Celebration. We were in Mount Horeb for breakfast and it rained a lot between 9 and 10 a.m. We stopped to see Dan Roble at Ingleside and were back to Dodgeville by 10:15 and that's when I called Grandma Mary's in Arena to make sure the parade was still on schedule. They said it had cleared up and everything was a go. I made it to Arena at the stroke of 11:?00 and the parade started a few minutes later. There were a lot of fire trucks (from Plain, Lone Rock, Spring Green, Mazomanie and Arena that I can remember) and a lot of entries with people having a good time. I made it over to the park to catch some of the ball games going on and then headed back to Dodgeville, getting pretty tired. The only thing missing in the parade was music, but it still was a very good one!
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This week at Harris Park will be both an 11u and 12u Cal Ripken Baseball Tournament. Saturday and Sunday there will be the Dodgeville Chamber of Commerce Softball Tournament that features 14u teams from Wisconsin. There are two La Crosse teams competing. Play will be at Wilson Park starting at 9:30 a.m. Saturday. Sunday games begin at 8 a.m. with a break for the Farmers Appreciation Day parade. You might be able to catch me in the concession stand at Wilson Park, but I'm not sure how long I can make it!
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Upland Hills Health will hold its "Sip 'n Savor" event on Friday from 4-8 p.m. at Harris Park. This is a feel good fundraiser for the hospital. They decided to partner with Farmers Appreciation Day this year. It promises to be a lot of fun!
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The Farmers Appreciation event is Sunday with a parade kicking things off at 11 a.m., followed by a lot of events at Harris Park. Look for Alice in Dairyland there and the UW "Echoes of Camp Randall" Marching Band that will perform. There is always fantastic food and entertainment for the entire family!
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Next week staring on Wednesday will be a Wisconsin Babe Ruth 15u State Baseball Tournament at Centennial Park. At this point I'm not sure when it starts, but check elsewhere in the paper for updates. There will be a fantastic concession stand there!
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There are other events around the area in July like the Iowa County Cattleman's Steak Feed on the 18th, then Highland holds its "Our Town" celebration July 18-20 and Linden will hold its annual "Frolic" the last weekend of July.
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It's great to see work being done on the laundromat building that will open soon in Dodgeville near the fire station and to Schurman's Cheese that will open soon in the former Aztlan Mexican Restaurant building. It's also good to have Kathryn and Phil Heimerl doing screen printing in part of the Kozelka Wall building!