Local and Area News

It’s been a challenging few months for Makenzie Connor, but recently the 8-year-old Spencer girl has benefited from a great deal of community support as she has navigated her hurdles. In February, Connor was diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia after she began experiencing flu-like symptoms at the end of January 2020...

The Robert D. and Billie Ray Center at Drake University will recognize 12 Iowa individuals and groups with awards for exceptional character. The 2020 Iowa Character Awards celebration will broadcast on KDSM Fox 17 in Des Moines on Tuesday, August 4, at 8 p.m...

The 8,000-acre Dewey’s Pasture complex, in northwest Iowa, is one of the best representatives of pre-settlement grassland-wetland ecosystems in the state and one of Iowa’s premier public areas. That high-quality habitat was recognized when Dewey’s Pasture was named one of Iowa’s Bird Conservation Areas in 2006, citing its importance for grassland, waterfowl and shore birds. ...

Iowa State University Extension and Outreach in Pocahontas and Sac County will hold meetings to discuss the effects of the current drought on crops and livestock. Speakers will discuss: • Paul Kassel, Extension Field agronomist -crop moisture use, the US Drought Monitor, crop staging, yield prospects...

After assessing the evolving needs of the Diocese of Sioux City, Bishop Walker Nickless has restructured the duties of staff members Susan O’Brien and Dawn Prosser. Effective immediately, Dawn Prosser will assume the position of Director of Communication, along with her current communications duties, including serving as media director for The Lumen newspaper and social media platforms...

On Sunday, July 26, Storm Lake Police received a belated report of a domestic assault. A female victim alleged that on July 20, near the intersection of 610th St. and Hwy. 110 in Storm Lake, a male subject identified as Branlis Moreno Gonzalez, age 29 of Storm Lake, struck the victim in the head with his fist. ...

Storm Lake High School students celebrated a unique “Prom Not Prom” recently. With COVID-19 ending the school year early, and making it impossible to hold a traditional dance, students instead traveled the town one carload at a time to stops set up by volunteers and community organizations, including this ‘80s themed “photo booth” outside Witter Gallery. See more photos, page 6B. / Pilot photo by Dana Larsen...

=With the dredging era behind Storm Lake, attention turns to what to do with the drying dredge spoil land near the lake. The Lake Improvement Commission which owns part of the land met this week in a phone-in session, but did not have a quorum and was unable to take any action...

An interest in travel nurtured at Buena Vista University helped put Makensie (Brown) López on a career arc stretching tens of thousands of miles from her native Iowa. “BVU stood out for the opportunities it provided and for its prevalence of scholarships, which was also key,” says López, a 2014 BVU graduate who majored in Spanish and graphic design...

There were a lot of first Friday, as a better-late-than-never graduation ceremony was held for the Storm Lake High School senior class. They became the first to celebrate the milestone in July, and the first in memory with commencement outdoors, and at night...

Working in Ireland and working in every county in Iowa serve as highlights for the Buena Vista University academic career of Lena Gripp, a member of the BVU Class of 2020. “I wasn’t sure about my major until I went with a group and Dr. Andrea Frantz (BVU Professor of Digital Media) to Ireland at the end of my sophomore year,” says Gripp, a native of Lehigh. “During that trip, I realized I should be a digital media major. I became one and everything fell into place.”...

The Storm Lake Community School District has named Megan Richardson as the next principal of Storm Lake Middle School. Richardson, who is currently an instructional coach in the district, will assume the role upon receiving her principal licensure. This is expected to occur within the next several months. In the meantime, current SLMS Assistant Principal Jaymie Bral will serve as the official interim building administrator...

An inmate in the Sac County Jail escaped Friday night around 7:30 p.m. Dylan Lee Pedersen of Lake City, age 28, was fist booked in to the Sac County Jail on July 23 on a domestic abuse charge out of Calhoun County. Video surveillance shows Pedersen kicking a fire exit door. ...

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds signed a new proclamation Friday extending the Public Health Disaster Emergency for another 30 days, including hygiene rules for businesses and requirements for social distancing at the state’s bars and restaurants. However, many restaurants are going un-checked...

Donations to the Buena Vista Regional Healthcare Foundation recently purchased the latest in oncology chemo pump technology. Care, treatment, and at-home comfort is critical to patient outcomes. The new pump delivers medication trouble-free without any intervention from the patient. ...

In an effort to protect its customers and employees from COVID-19, Hy-Vee will distribute free masks to those entering its stores starting this week. The company will hand out more than 3 million free masks in an effort to help support the CDC’s recommendation to wear masks in public by launching a new initiative called “Mask It Up To Shut COVID Down. It’s Your Choice.”...

With most of western Iowa experiencing some form of drought, specialists with Iowa State University Extension and Outreach are partnering with the United States Department of Agriculture and Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship to offer a series of webinars on Thursdays...

The Spencer Hospital Board of Trustees convened for their monthly meeting on Thursday morning and in a similar fashion to previous months, took some time for discussion over the current state of the COVID-19 pandemic in the region and beyond. Spencer Hospital President Bill Bumgarner said right now the state of Iowa is trending on a small increase to a plateau for positivity rates...

The Iowa Department of Public Health has announced expanded funding of 5-2-1-0 - Healthy Choices Count!, which began in 2017 in Iowa. Five new communities will receive grants, while eleven communities currently funded for the initiative will receive additional grants...

Well, it’s Groundhog Day at the movies...again. But instead of the icy winter of Punxsutawney, Pennsylvania, the time-loop romantic comedy has been transported across the country to the desert resort city of Palm Springs where Andy Samberg is permanently stuck as a plus one at a wedding...

Buena Vista University students returning to the Storm Lake campus this fall are being required to complete student COVID-19 training and take a mandatory quiz on the pandemic situation online by August 1, before coming to the campus. In a message to students, the University says it will work closely with students who have self-identified as high risk for illness caused by COVID-19, and these individuals will work with Disability Services and Health Services as necessary to modify schedules, minimize presence on campus, work remotely, and/or learn remotely.. ...

While the Buena Vista County Courthouse reopened to the public this week, the Board of Supervisors has decided to continue their meetings using the GoToMeeting app, in case individuals don’t feel comfortable attending the meetings in person due to COVID-19. ...

Standing on a vista overlooking the expansive Cayler Prairie, it’s easy to imagine bison - the icon of the open prairie - at home on this historic area. The 1,200-acre rolling prairie complex in Dickinson County, a short three miles west of West Okoboji Lake, boasts some of the highest quality and diverse virgin prairie in Iowa...

In a county nearing the grave milestone of four million COVID-19 infections, masks have become a socially-charged and politicized debate. Nearly 40 states have declared some form of face covering policy - with Iowa not among them. Even President Trump, who had long declined to wear a mask in public, tweeted a photo of himself covered Monday, suggesting he is “patriotic” to mask up. The administration has resisted a nationwide mask mandate, Trump wanting people to have “a certain freedom.”...

A voluntary plea for water conservation in Storm Lake hasn’t slowed public usage levels - in fact, consumption went up after the city requested the measures. With drought conditions continuing into this week, the city council acted to make conservation mandatory...

“What an adventure,” reflects Ashley Hammen Hoff, the Storm Lake native who has for the past few months been feverishly manufacturing “2020 Relief Ribbons” and selling them to help support frontline workers in the pandemic and programs for seniors impacted by it...

Buena Vista County hopes to push off its flood plain planning for a while. Like the rest of the state, the county is required to produce and adopt new flood plain maps to reduce potential impact in future flood events, but zoning official Kim Johnson told county supervisors Tuesday that the timing isn’t right...

Rik Zortman, of Coralville, runs like a man on a mission. He is. Zortman, also known as “the human etch-a-sketch,” first began running as a connection to his son Armstrong, who loved to run and had passed away after battling cancer in 2009. Experimenting with his cellphone GPS and a running app in 2017, Zortman found that he could sketch out words as the GPS followed his route through city blocks and his calling began...

Due to Covid-19, the Hayes School reunion for August 8, has been canceled. It is rescheduled for August 14, 2021. If there are any questions, call 712-275-4322 or 712-732-3491.

Olivia Wieseler, the shy freshman who wrote a documentary script, landed a national journalism honor, and interned in Washington, D.C., now heads west to start her career as a copy editor at the Star Herald, the newspaper serving Scottsbluff, Neb. “The official position is copy editor,” says Wieseler, who, in 2019, was named the national Arthur H. ...

A hefty frog basks in the sun in a small pond at Sunrise Pointe Golf Course on a hot July day. / Photo by Dana Larsen

Storm Lake isn’t going to let its collection of chainsaw carvings weather away without a fight. The carvings that grace the parks, lakefront and downtown are beginning to show their age, some dating to 2012. One of the most elaborate, on the shoreline at King’s Pointe, has completely rotted away at the base. A bear-themed piece nearby at the Awaysis lighthouse had to be removed...

Buena Vista University plans to return to face-to-face classes this fall, with campus closed to all but students and staff, and a host of protective measures in place including required masks. Students will be moving in from August 20-23, with classes starting on Monday, August 24. Fall sports are expected to take place as scheduled, with spectator limitations...

Following some parent focus group meetings last month, Storm Lake school officials looked at some minor academic year calendar changes during their monthly meeting last week. The normal professional development “no school” days will be removed from dates during the school year, with some of those efforts at the beginning and end of the year instead...

A statewide council of Iowa civil rights, public health, faith, and labor organizations launched a public petition recently calling on Tyson managers in Storm Lake, Waterloo, Columbus Junction, Perry, and across the state to immediately pay all employees who have missed work due to COVID-19 infection, exposure, symptoms, quarantine, or COVID-19 related child and family medical care - and to maintain COVID-19 related paid leave throughout the pandemic. ...

A public referendum updating the Storm Lake Community School District’s revenue purpose statement for state Secure an Advanced Vision for Education Fund (SAVE) revenue was approved at the July 15 Board of Education meeting. School boards across the state must take that action by July 24 in order to put the question on the Sept. 8 school board election ballot...

Gov. Kim Reynolds is ordering all Iowa schools to begin the process of “preparing to safely welcome back students and teachers” to the classroom next month. Reynolds said that “the expectation is, especially with core subjects, that over 50 percent of those subjects (will) be offered in the school building.”...

Every Friday during the school year, Storm Lake Elementary School (SLES) students line up for High Five Fridays. Community organizations greet students and parents with encouragement and, of course, high fives. “The idea for High Five Fridays came from a class I took in my master’s program,” says Melanie Brashears, guidance counselor at SLES. “My professor had done something similar, and I decided to adapt the idea for our school district.”...

As a Buena Vista University student, Ida Rogers-Ferguson traveled to Poland, Austria, Germany, Greece, Israel, and the Czech Republic. She made her way to Auschwitz, Jerusalem, and Bethlehem. As winner of the University’s prestigious J. Leslie Rollins Fellowship, she journeyed to the University of Edinburgh in Edinburgh, Scotland, last summer to learn all she could about place-based learning...

J.D. Scholten, candidate for Iowa’s 4th congressional district, announced last week that he had raised over $620,000 in the second quarter, including $349,000 since the primary, marking what he says is the best second quarter fundraising record of any Democrat in district history. ...

The Buena Vista County Courthouse will reopen to the public at 8 a.m. on July 27, according to the county board of supervisors. “The goal of Buena Vista County government is to serve our citizens as efficiently and safely as possible. The current appointment system is working well, so we are requesting that the public continue to make appointments for driver’s licensing, and passports through the recorder’s offices,” county officials said. The numbers to call for appointments are:...

Senator Joni Ernst and Sec. of Ag Mike Naig visited Marcus last week for the groundbreaking of an upcoming solar install at the MMCRU High School, and also toured a large solar system already installed at Dorr Farms near Marcus. The school project is estimated to save the equivalent of 430 tons of CO2 annually and contribute more than $700,000 in energy savings to the school’s budget over 25 years...

Alicia Heuton, BSN, RN, CWON, and Amber Shupe, BSN, RN, MSN, employees of Buena Vista Regional Medical Center, have both been awarded a $3,500 scholarship from the Iowa Hospital Education and Research Foundation (IHERF), which is supported by the Iowa Hospital Association (IHA). 62 outstanding students from all over Iowa received assistance this year from the IHERF Health Care Careers Scholarship Program...

An area family is looking for immediate housing, after struggling to find a location that would accept a support animal. The family - a grandmother, daughter and grandson - will be losing its housing in a former rectory after the closing of an area church. They are hoping to find a two or three-bedroom house to rent in the Storm Lake/Alta area...

Approximately 13,000 Iowa State University students have been recognized for outstanding academic achievement by being named to the Spring Semester 2020 Dean’s List. Students named to the Dean’s List must have earned a grade point average of at least 3.50...

Although statewide precipitation was near normal in June, northeast Iowa experienced extra wet conditions while western parts of the state have entered moderate drought, according to the latest Water Summary Update. The U.S. Drought Monitor shows abnormally dry conditions in about 35 percent of the state, with eight west-central counties classified as being in moderate drought...

“We need to be sure we are not creating a Petri dish experiment with COVID. The single most important thing we can do as a community is commit to wearing masks, keeping our social distance, washing hands and all of those things we know we should do. Places that thought they were done with it are getting it again because they opened too soon… If we can keep our COVID rate down and keep the spread rate down, we will be more likely to be able to keep our kids in school.”

The COVID-19 test site in Storm Lake has been extended to at least August 7, and will be moving to the Sunrise Pointe Golf Course parking lot. Today will be the final day at the Storm Lake High School parking lot site, with moving to take place over the weekend and the golf course location opening Monday...

For the Class of Quaran20, high school careers came to an end with a whimper, not a bang. But wait… Storm Lake school district officials promised the departing seniors that if there was any way to safely have an in-person graduation ceremony or a prom, they would pursue it...

Valued partners for years, Buena Vista University (BVU) and Buena Vista Regional Medical Center (BVRMC) agreed to terms recently within BVU’s new Strategic Partnership initiative, which will enhance both entities while further strengthening the region...