Even without a crowd to perform for, the Alta-Aurelia basketball cheerleaders keep spirits high in the home gym / Pilot photo by Dana Larsen

Alta residents will soon be able to receive communications via text from the city. The Alta City Council, at the Jan. 4th meeting, voted unanimously to purchase a texting service for its citizens. Its purpose is to get the word out to the public, Mayor Kevin Walsh said. The city’s cost will be $1,200 for the first year and $1,000 per year for subsequent years, and the service will be free to residents in the 51002 zip code...

The Alta Park Board conducted a survey that concluded the beginning of this month to gather information about what residents want recreationally. Their goal was to survey citizens of Alta to assist in planning for future park development. “We decided to do the survey to see what the community wants as far as trails, recreation and parks,” Park Board Chair Heidi Reetz said. ...

What would the Alta-Aurelia schools like to see from the state legislature this coming session? Superintendent William Walters said he is hoping for 2 percent in allowable growth money, though he expects the state to be cautious with its funding. “At some point we will have to pay for all this,” he said of pandemic response efforts...

The Buena Vista County Fair Board had a two-fold purpose in coming up with the first-annual Holiday Hootenanny held at the fairgrounds over 4 days in December. It provided winter holiday fun with Christmas light displays, caroling, Santa, a live Nativity scene, hot chocolate and candy canes, letter-writing to Santa, and a fire for roasting marshmallows. ...

Alta Utilities water service reacted Monday to a malfunction in a high-pressure filter. The piece of equipment that was last replaced in 2014 suffered a failure in an air injector that helps in the backwash process of removing manganese, iron, and other items out that is captured by the media in the tank...

Faced with a shortage of teachers, Alta-Aurelia school board had to hold a special meeting to consider going into holiday break a day earlier than planned. Superintendent William Walters said that on the Monday before Christmas, 17 staff members were out sick, many with COVID-19 and some with other ailments...

=Two pickup trucks loaded with food donations were at The Lord’s Cupboard food pantry in Alta on Dec. 11th as a result of the 14th annual No Hungry Neighbors food drive. The event is organized by the City of Alta, Alta Municipal Utilities and the Alta-Aurelia School District’s Student Council and National Honor Society. ...

A new school playground design has been selected for Alta Elementary School, and the plan is to have the playground installed in the spring. The Alta-Aurelia School Board voted unanimously at the December 15th meeting to purchase the playground from Park Planet at an estimated cost of $300,000...

Alta-Aurelia School Board members discussed a proposal from Alta Elementary School teachers that the holiday break be extended by one week at their school. The matter was discussed at the December 15th School Board meeting. Sherry Harms and Sherry DeRoos, 4th grade teachers at the school, presented the board with a letter signed by school faculty and staff who are in favor of the proposal. The request is more for students and families, they said...

From December 21st through January 8th, students from Alta Elementary will be selling six-packs of Scratch Cupcakery cupcakes; delivery is set for Wednesday, January 27th. Money raised will help pay for the Alta Elementary Playground! Each six-pack of Scratch Cupcakery cupcakes sells for $15-20 and contains an assortment of flavors. Love chocolate? Lemon? Mint? Cheesecake?! The selling organization earns 40 percent for every pack they sell!...

Mrs. Husman’s Creative Sewing class sewed 40 Cornhole Bean Bags for the Alta Elementary School students. The class was approached by the Elementary School Principal, Stacy Mueller with the suggestion to make Cornhole Bean Bags for the elementary school students to play with. ...

The Alta-Aurelia High School’s Fusion Dance Team encountered obstacles at state competition this year due to COVID but were pleased with the results and overall experience. The Iowa State Dance Championships was held on November 17-19 at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines...

Alta Fire Department is gearing up to celebrate its 140th anniversary - a bit late. This year is actually the anniversary, but due to COVID concerns, planning for an event has been pushed back to 2021. “When we get past the pandemic, it will give people a reason to get out of the house,” says assistant chief David Suhr...

Alta City Council discussed the city’s proposed playground project at the Dec. 7th meeting. Alta Park Board Chair Heidi Reetz submitted an updated proposal from ABCreative with the cost of $89,192 which includes installation and equipment. The park board will prepare the site ahead of time and has plans to install additional lighting near the park for security and liability purposes, Reetz said...

The American Rivers Conference recently announced its 2020 Fall Academic All-Conference Team and Buena Vista University was recognized with 29 student-athletes on the list. Deanna Schaffer, a native of Alta and a graduate of Alta-Aurelia High School, is among the list of Beavers honored...

Linda Madsen received the local October McTeacher of the Month Award. It was awarded by Storm Lake McDonald’s after nominations were submitted. She teaches 3-year-olds at Little Warriors Preschool in Alta as part of the Alta-Aurelia School District...

The Alta-Aurelia School District is preparing for new playground equipment for Alta Elementary School to be installed in the spring. Superintendent William Walters brought four proposals to a December 1st meeting to begin the decision-making process for the future playground...

The Alta-Aurelia Fusion Dance Team gathered Tuesday for their trip to compete in State Dance at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines. / AA Schools photo

Plans are still underway for a new playground in Alta if the city decides to fund the project. However, it is undecided whether the playground project will continue to be a joint effort between the City of Alta and Alta-Aurelia School District, or will become two separate projects...

Alta Municipal Utilities and the City of Alta are sponsoring their 14th annual food drive to serve the needy people in our community. The winter season is fast approaching, and it hrings additional hardships with it. Together, we can make a difference in the lives of the needy. We can make sure that NO ONE in our community goes hungry during this upcoming holiday season...

The City of Alta and Warrior Booster Club will put some dead ash trees to good use near the football field and instill Warrior pride at the same time. At the Nov. 16th special meeting, the Alta City Council voted unanimously to hire artist Jeff Klatt to carve the front and back of nine tree trunks spelling out “Warriors” with one tree carved with a shield and sword...

An audit report has been completed on the Alta-Aurelia School District. Revenues totaled $11.87 million for the year ending in June 2019. Expenses totaled $11.77 million. Auditing firm Cornwall, Frideres, Maher and Assoc. gave recommendations for some found issues, such as a lack of segregation of duties...

Asked to assess his improved golf game, Alta native Chris Glienke isn’t shy about giving at least partial credit to the arrival of the coronavirus. When COVID-19 reached the United States in March, Glienke - the assistant grocery manager at Fareway - admitted he was not hitting the links as much as he would have liked to...

Alta - Aurelia Middle School students competed in the annual VFW Patriot’s Pen essay competition, • five winners were named. The local contest is sponsored by the Alta VFW. Angus Miller won the local VFW contest and will be entered in the regional contest which could lead to his essay being entered in the state contest, English teacher Lesa Heschke said...

COVID-19 positive cases in the Alta-Aurelia School District have spiked, leading to a shortage of substitute teachers and a plan to practice the hybrid model this month in the event the governor calls for stricter guidelines for schools. The matter was discussed at the Nov. 11th school board meeting. At this time, face-to-face classes remain in session...

The Iowa DNR has issued a consent order for Ag Partners LLC of Albert City over ongoing air quality violations at its grain elevator in Alta. The company is required to take preventative actions and pay a penalty of $6,500. “DNR has documentation of multiple instances of corn dust and chaff being emitted from the facility and crossing Ag Partner’s Alta facility property lines since 2016,” according to the case documents. ...

With face-to-face and online options, Alta churches are beginning to resume a normal pace. Rev. Denise Parrello is pastor of two Alta churches - First Presbyterian Church which re-opened in September and Trinity Lutheran Church which re-opened in October. ...

Motivating younger churchgoers to attend services once they assert their independence can prove to be a challenge for church leaders, but studies show they often return when they become older. Pastor Karen Berg is pastor of two United Methodist Churches, one in Alta and the other in Peterson. The Peterson church comprises a wide age range, while in Alta, not so. “My current congregation is an elderly congregation,” she said of the Alta church...

After two years of planning and fundraising, further decisions need to be made before Alta updates its parks with new playground equipment. Heidi Reetz, chair of the parks department, spoke to council members at the Nov. 2nd Alta City Council meeting about the proposed playground project, a joint venture between the City of Alta and Alta-Aurelia School District. The city’s portion of the project is about $90,000...

To all our faithful supporters. We are cancelling this year’s soup and pie supper to keep you safe. We have enjoyed serving you for over 20 years. With all the National Guard Soldiers going overseas, we will be doing care packages. We need your help with getting addresses of soldiers. ...

The Alta-Aurelia Veterans Day program will be taking place on Wednesday, November 11, at 9 a.m. at the Alta-Aurelia High school gymnasium. • Veterans and family are invited for coffee and rolls at 8:15 a.m. in the Gymnasium • Upon arrival, you and members of your group will be seated in the gym where social distancing guidelines will be followed. Servers will wait on your group and assist you in any way possible...

The Alta-Aurelia Community Educational Foundation would like to thank the Buena Vista County Community Foundation for the matching funds grant to make new technology possible. “Thank you so much to the Alta-Aurelia Community Educational Foundation and the Buena Vista County Community Foundation for helping with the expense of purchasing 33 Chromebooks for the Alta Elementary School. This has helped our building have some type of electronic device for every student in TK-4th grade. ...

Local FFA members have endured plenty of ups and downs this year, but thanks to the resiliency of youth, they say overall it has been a great year. They may be nostalgic and have had to adjust to settling for online events and very little face-to-face contact, but have found some silver linings...

The seventh grade art class completed a mural entitled Warriors. Students brainstormed a lot of great ideas, but in the end they decided to propose this mural to Mr. Walters and to Mrs. Henningsen. After receiving approval, they painted their mural in the back hallway by the gym. ...

The old quilt shop building on Main St. in Alta was demolished this week to make room for United Bank of Iowa’s planned construction of a drive-through. /Photo by Stephanie Lynam

The Alta Elementary School playground is out of service due to a recent incident where a child was harmed, and plans continue for the playground’s removal and replacement. The topic was discussed at the Oct. 19th Alta-Aurelia School Board meeting. The playground project involves removing the existing one and replacing it with a new one that is safer and more modern which is a joint project between the Alta-Aurelia School District and City of Alta. ...

At a special meeting this week, the Alta City Council discussed procedures for filling the vacant seat on the council, left by the recent mid-term resignation of Wes Bunjes. The council will give official notice of intent to appoint a replacement to complete the current term, this week, in hopes that a new member can be appointed during its next regular meeting, November 2. The council will need to do some leg work between now and then to approach citizens about filling the vacancy.  ...

The Alta City Council is considering a project to have dead ash tree trunks near the park and football field carved by an artist. The trees have been planned for removal after the emerald ash borer infestation. Mayor Kevin Walsh suggested that eight remaining trees could be carved with letters to spell out the school nickname, “Warriors,” with one tree carved with a shield and sword...