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To all who responded to fires this week in cold temperatures.

We often take for granted the firefighters, law enforcement officers and medical crews who respond each day — 24 hours a day and seven days a week.

It doesn’t matter if it’s 70 degrees and sunny, 90 degrees and humid or below freezing and cold.

They still respond, and many times they even put their own lives at risk to help all of us.

Thank you to these men and women who responded this week to the fires in Freeborn and Albert Lea. We appreciate your dedication to your jobs.

To the sale of 35 acres of the former Albert Lea Country Club.

We were glad to hear that 35 acres at the former Albert Lea Country Club sold last week to the Albert Lea Economic Development Agency for what could potentially be used for a housing development in the future.

The land was initially purchased by the Shell Rock River Watershed District as a staging area for the Fountain Lake dredging, but ended up not being used for that purpose.

The Watershed District will retain ownership of the portion of the land with wetlands.

We look forward to seeing what future development comes out of this land, particularly if it can aid the city’s housing shortage.

To the Albert Lea school board’s hiring of former Austin Superintendent David Krenz as interim superintendent.

We are pleased with the Albert Lea school board’s vote Friday to move forward with hiring former Austin Superintendent David Krenz for the interim superintendent position.

We believe this will be a step forward for the district as it moves forward into the future.

Krenz is known for his calm but personable demeanor during his time in Austin, and we think he will be a good choice for smoothing the recent storms in the district.

We also look forward to the beginning of the search for the full-time superintendent replacement later this month and for an increase in public involvement during that process.