The contract for the Pequot Lakes School District’s new superintendent, Chris Lindholm, was approved at a special school board meeting Monday night, April 22.

Board member Kim Bolz-Andolshek said by phone that the board agreed on the contract unanimously, and Lindholm has also approved the contract. It’s a three-year contract, and Lindholm’s starting day is July 1.

His salary will be $122,003 for the 2013-14 school year, $124,443 for the 2014-15 school year, and $126,931 for the 2015-16 school year.

In other business Monday night, the board:

Shawn Hansen never thought she’d leave the Iowa town where her family lived and where she was raising a family of her own.

Now a resident of Lake Shore and president of the Nisswa Chamber of Commerce, Shawn said she can’t imagine living anywhere else.

Shawn began her work at the chamber part time in the summer and said it was a natural progression to becoming the chamber’s only full-time staff member.

A sharp drop in lake level has produced unsafe ice conditions on Big Pine Lake in Crosslake, said Sgt. Scott Goddard, Crow Wing County Sheriff’s water deputy.

He believes the lake dropped between 1 to 2 feet after the bank washed out at the edge of the rock dam, at the lake’s outlet.

“If the lake has gone down, the ice is going to follow suit,” Goddard said, adding there would be new cracks and air pockets under the ice making it unsafe.

Looking at photos of trees in full, leafy green foliage and bugs flying through the air, sun shining, I wonder if the whole thing isn’t mythical. Was that photo really taken around here? C’mon. Really? That’s Photoshopped. Has to be.

Yes, folks, I hate to be the one to break it to you, but spring is a myth. It doesn’t really exist, it never really has and it never will. All your memories of neon green, fresh leaves were simply last night’s dreams. Those tulips and daffodils? You saw them in the grocery store, but they’ve never been known to grow here.