LOCAL 10 | March 30, 2026: Sun on the Levee, Shop Windows in Bloom, and Summer Starting to Stir
Daily Local 10s are made locally by the team at HastingsNow.com, celebrating community news and people.
Some days in Hastings arrive with their own pacing. This one opens warm and bright, with a mostly sunny high near 73, then moves naturally into the kind of day that sends people downtown, back onto the river walk, and into conversations about what spring and summer might look like here. By the time you get to the bottom of today’s Local 10, you have weather worth savoring, small shops worth stopping into, a school event worth showing up for, and a summer market already calling for makers.
1) Start outside.
The National Weather Service says Hastings is looking at a mostly sunny afternoon with a high near 73 and an east-southeast wind around 5 mph. Tonight drops to about 40 under partly cloudy skies, and Tuesday cools down sharply, with a 20 percent chance of showers before 9 a.m., which means today is the day to linger a little longer on the levee, the sidewalk, or the drive home.
2) Squeaky Wheel Pottery is making a strong case for a spring reset.
Visit with Babett, the owner of Squeaky Wheel Pottery, in historic downtown Hastings, Minnesota, for a warm, hands-on pottery experience.
Babett opened the shop in spring 2022, and Squeaky Wheel describes itself as a pottery gift store, studio, and workshop filled with handmade pieces and goods from local makers. The spring pitch in today’s brief leans into color—Easter tables, easy entertaining, hostess gifts, the kind of objects that make a room feel less like it survived winter and more like it belongs to somebody again.
SC Toys, located in downtown Hastings, Minnesota, carries a thoughtful selection of toys and essentials for babies and young children in the local community.
The store calls itself a family-owned classic toy shop focused on educational, developmental, imaginative play, and today’s featured pick is Wigglitz—those wiggly collectible creatures the brand itself markets as nonstop fun. In the brief, SC Toys packages the idea simply: 15 fit in a bag for $24.99, which is exactly the kind of local detail grandparents remember and parents appreciate.
Infographic by HastingsNow.com
Justin prepares a fresh new paint color at Hometown Ace Hardware in Hastings, Minnesota, carefully mixing and labeling the can.
Today’s brief calls it a painting weekend at Hometown Ace Hardware, and the official Hastings store page explains why that makes sense: the location has paint color matching, a full paint-and-sundries department, and the dependable practical energy of a store that knows how spring tends to begin in Minnesota—with a burst of ambition and a list on the kitchen counter.
5) The history note closest to home belongs to Minnesota.
MNopedia reminds us that the state approved African American suffrage in 1868, two years before the Fifteenth Amendment was nationally certified, and that Minnesota ratified the amendment on January 13, 1870, ahead of the March 30 certification date. That matters because it shifts the story from distant civics-textbook history to something more local: Minnesota was not just present for the moment, but early to it.
6) A nearby item worth actually forwarding to somebody.
Discover 4-H’s homeschool session, “Healthy Habits: Healthy Lives,” is set for Thursday, April 9, from 2 to 3:30 p.m. at the Dakota County Extension Office in Farmington. The RSVP form says families can attend one or both sessions in the series, that youth will do hands-on activities, and that parents are encouraged to stay and talk with staff about how 4-H can support a homeschool curriculum. The RSVP deadline for this second session is Friday, April 3.
7) The national “on this date” item still earns its place.
The Library of Congress marks March 30, 1867 as the day Secretary of State William H. Seward agreed to buy Alaska from Russia for $7.2 million, a move critics mocked as “Seward’s folly.” Alaska later proved strategically and economically significant, which is another way of saying that the long-view decision often sounds foolish right up until it does not.
Mind map by HastingsNow.com
8) ISD 200 is asking Hastings residents back into the room.
The next School Board Community Collaboration Event is set for April 1 from 6:00 to 7:30 p.m. at the Hastings High School Lecture Hall, and the district’s flyer says the event is meant to build on what residents shared previously after reviewing School Perceptions Survey highlights. The posted discussion questions are exactly the ones a town ought to be willing to sit with: what is working, where communication can improve, and what would help strengthen the relationship between schools, the board, and the community.
9) The international calendar note lands better after a correction.
The source tied to today’s item is the Van Gogh Museum, which notes that Vincent van Gogh was born on March 30, 1853 and decided to become an artist at age 27. That makes for a better March 30 reflection than a generic overseas anniversary, because it carries a human scale: one person’s late-start decision can still change how the world sees color.
10) And then there is the part of the day that looks past March altogether.
Hastings’ Music + Market runs Thursday evening in downtown Hastings, Minnesota. Image HastingsNow.com
Hastings’ Music + Market is already gathering the people who will make summer feel alive. The City says the series runs Thursday evenings from 6:00 to 8:30 p.m. in June through August at Levee Park, with live music, food trucks, a kids’ zone, and artisan vendors, and the 2026 vendor form confirms a $15 per-event fee along with multi-date discounts. It is exactly the sort of announcement that makes a warm late-March day feel like the opening sentence of June.
That, really, is the mood of Hastings today: enjoy the spring preview while it is here, wander downtown while the light is good, pass along the events that deserve a fuller room, and let yourself believe summer is coming because, at Levee Park at least, it already has a form to fill out.
