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To the community support for the Homecoming parade this week.

We were pleasantly surprised to see the abounding community support Wednesday afternoon for Albert Lea’s homecoming parade.

The downtown streets were packed with families and others who were excited to cheer on Albert Lea students participating in the parade and to show their Tiger spirit.

We hope the other events happening this week have had the same support, including the football game Friday night.

It’s fun to come together as a community for a cause, particularly when it involves our youth.

To an unexpected $1.2 million increase in the refrigeration equipment for City Arena.

Though it doesn’t look like anything could have been done to reach a different outcome, we were disappointed to hear Monday at the Albert Lea City Council meeting that the bid for the replacement of the refrigeration system at City Arena came in $1.2 million higher than expected.

According to the firm overseeing the project, the increase in price was due to materials.

It sounds like city staff are already at work looking to bring down costs in other areas to make up for the difference in cost, as this would go over and above what was approved by voters as part of the recreation facilities project.

Unfortunately, this might mean scaling back on a few other areas when all is said and done.

We hope there are no other surprises before this project is finalized.