Maple Grove's Only Newspaper of Record—Vol. 1 No. 30—Edited by Mr. Ellison, Town Archivist & Historian
FROM THE EDITOR'S DESK
The cold arrived on Sunday and has not left. It came with rain, and the rain came with wind, and the three of them have kept the village company all week. The coolest temperatures of the season were recorded Wednesday night. The warm coats came out of the closets, followed by the hats, followed, on Thursday, by the good gloves. Whatever leaves were still on the trees on Saturday were gone by Monday. The wind has raked the village more thoroughly than the village ever has, and has distributed the results impartially.
Trick-or-treat came off Saturday evening in shirtsleeves, the last mild evening of the year. Several porches report having heard the words.
Otherwise, the village has been quiet. The marking period ended at the schools, which means the students are quiet, which means their parents are waiting, which means everyone is quiet. The diner has been full every morning of people who would rather be there than anywhere with a window.
On Tuesday, the village voted. Readers will recall that the mayoral race divided the town into two camps, the fellowship hall into two sides, and the First Methodist choir into two sections. Both candidates spoke at length. Neither, by the account of at least one resident, answered a question. When the ballots were counted Tuesday night, neither of them had won.
The new mayor of Maple Grove is Mildred, elected by write-in. She did not file a petition. She did not put up a sign. In May, in a letter to this newspaper, she formally declined to vote for either candidate, and she says she kept her word. No one has admitted to organizing the write-in. A great many people have admitted to voting for it. Lisa has admitted to "putting it out into the universe," which this editor is unable to classify as a campaign.
Asked by this editor for a statement, Mayor-elect Mildred said she would be at the Village Hall at seven o'clock weekdays once sworn in. Until then, she said, citizens can find her at her regular table at Brewed Awakenings most mornings, and she welcomes them to stop by.
Charlene, Petunia, and Mabel, who campaigned through the spring and summer for one of the two candidates, have taken the result poorly. Their position, as it was explained to this editor at some length outside the post office, is that it cannot count if she did not run. This editor has checked. It counts.
📜 POLICE BLOTTER
MAPLE GROVE POLICE DEPARTMENT—INCIDENT REPORT
Reporting Officer: Officer Sanchez Week of: October 31–November 6
County Road, East of the Village—Report of a Person in a Sheet. Reported by Officer Wilson. At approximately 6:50 a.m. Monday, a motorist reported a large figure in a white sheet standing at the fence line between the Hemlock and McGregor farms. Officer Wilson responded. The figure was a twelve-foot inflatable ghost that had broken loose from a yard on the east edge of the village during Sunday night's wind and come to rest against the fence. By the time Officer Wilson arrived, someone had stood it upright, tied it to a fence post, and given it a seed cap. One passerby stated that it had looked lonely. Final Disposition: Inflatable returned to its owner. The seed cap can be retrieved at the police station.
Maple Grove Police Department—Report Concerning an Election. Reported by Chief Carter. At 8:05 a.m. Wednesday, Charlene, accompanied by Petunia and Mabel, came to the station to report the results of Tuesday's election. Chief Carter informed them that elections are conducted by the county clerk, not by the police department, and that the police department had no objection to the results in any case. Final Disposition: Complainants referred to the county clerk. The Chief advised them that the clerk's office opens at nine. Officer Sanchez reports they were spotted in front of the building at eight thirty.
📋 COMMUNITY NOTICES
Beech Lane Culvert—Cleared Thursday. The culvert on Beech Lane backed up Thursday morning during the heaviest of the week's rain, as it does. The village crew arrived at nine and found the Mayor-elect already there, in boots, with a flashlight and a notebook. She has not yet taken office. The crew reports that this did not seem to matter to her.
Village Hall—Mayor-elect to be sworn in. Mayor-elect Mildred will take the oath of office on January 6, 2027. The public is welcome. She has asked that there be no speeches, including hers.
Report Cards—Going home this week. The marking period ended at all district schools. Parents are reminded to check backpacks, coat pockets, and the floor of the car.
Gordon's Hardware—Cold-weather goods. Gordon reports that he sold out of windshield scrapers on Tuesday, which is the earliest he can remember, and that the stocking caps went the same afternoon. More are on order. He has plenty of rakes, which nobody needs anymore.
Leaf Collection—Mondays, through the end of November. The village crew notes that the wind has moved most of the village's leaves into the same three yards. The owners of those yards are asked to be patient.
🏛️ HISTORICAL NOTE
Maple Grove has elected a mayor by write-in once before.
In the fall of 1924, the village held its mayoral election with two candidates on the ballot. The Gazette's coverage of their campaigns runs to eleven columns over four months. The Gazette's coverage of the result runs to one paragraph. Neither candidate won. The office went to Mrs. Edna Lund, who ran the telephone switchboard on Main Street and was not on the ballot. She received ninety-one votes written in by hand, several of them spelled differently.
Mrs. Lund had not been asked whether she wished to be mayor. The Gazette reported that, informed of the result, she said "Well," and went back to the switchboard to finish her shift.
She served three terms. In her first year, she had the bridge on the county road repaired, the street lamps on Main Street replaced, and the Village Council's meetings moved from Tuesday evening to Tuesday afternoon, so that members would arrive before supper rather than after it. The minutes from her three terms are the shortest in the bound volumes. She did not run for a fourth. She did not, the Gazette notes, run for the first three either.
This editor notes only that the village has now twice elected a woman who did not ask to be mayor, and that on the first occasion it worked out. This editor offers the record without further comment.
🔍 Fellow Sleuths Worth Following
The Past Is Murder by Cora Finch
Cora Finch was here in September with Daphne Cole and her Old English Sheepdog, Mooney. They're back with a cold case.
Twenty-five years ago, Laurel Mercer left Tansy Ridge in a red coat, and everybody agreed she'd walked away. Then Mooney knocks over a box of donated books at Novel Grounds and turns up her purse, car keys still inside. Hours later, the man who delivered the box is found dead at the bottom of his workshop stairs. If you've ever doubted a story the whole town agreed on, Daphne doubts it too.
Book 9 in the Daphne Cole series, out October 31. $0.99, or free in Kindle Unlimited.
FREE READS—NOVEMBER TITLES
It's dark by suppertime now. The free shelf has been restocked for it.
Browse November's Free Books →
🍽️ THE MAIN COURSE
This week Maple Grove elected somebody who never ran. In Harvest of Shadows and Dark Brews, it's Lisa who gets swept up in something she never saw coming.
It starts when the Grove Collective moves in on the edge of town. Their leader, Eliad, is calm. Too calm. And Lisa, who has never been calm a day in her life, falls for all of it. Within a week she's traded her scarves for linen and is talking about auras at the café counter.
Jenna tries to be supportive. Then a college student overdoses on a tonic that leads straight back to the Grove, and supportive is off the table. So it's Jenna, Mildred, Joe, and one old Jeep, going places none of them should, to get her best friend back.
It's Book 3, and it's set in harvest season. Now that the cold has finally come, it's a good one to read under a blanket.
New to Maple Grove? Start at the beginning.
Book 1, Scones, Secrets & Sabotage, is free →
✍️ Behind the Scenes
It finally turned cold. We had rain and wind all week, and the coolest temperatures we've had all season. The warm coats, hats, and gloves have all come out of the closet, and I'm not expecting them to go back in until spring.
The wind took every last leaf off the trees. The grandkids' leaf piles from a couple of weeks ago are spread across the whole yard again. I've decided that counts as mulch.
Other than that, it's been a quiet week. It was the end of the marking period at school, so everybody's heads are down. I'm taking the quiet while I can get it.
See you next Saturday, fellow sleuths—same town, new trouble.
— Willow 🌿
Meet Willow
Author, School Board member, and gluten-free baker. I write the Jenna McGregor mysteries from my home in Michigan, fueled by coffee and Peloton PRs.
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