Stories from Wednesday, April 9, 2014

Richard "Dick" J. Hirschman, age 81 of Cherokee, passed away unexpectedly at his home on Friday, March 28. Funeral services will be held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, April 1, at the Immaculate Conception Catholic Church in Cherokee. Father Dan Guenther will officiate. ...

James Westholm, age 83, of Albert City, passed away Friday, March 28, at the Trinity Regional Medical Center in Fort Dodge. Funeral services were held Monday, March 31, at the Evangelical Covenant Church in Albert City. Burial followed in the Fairfield Township Cemetery in Albert City. The Sliefert Funeral Home in Albert City is in charge of the arrangements...

Phyllis Hale, age 80, of Sioux Rapids, died March 27, at her home in Sioux Rapids. Funeral services were held Monday, March 31, at the First United Church of Sioux Rapids. Burial was in the Oakland Cemetery in Peterson. The Sliefert Funeral Home in Sioux Rapids is in charge of the arrangements...

Funeral Services for Arlene Boettcher were held Monday, March 31 at Warner Funeral Chapel in Spencer. Burial was in the Riverside Cemetery in Spencer. Warner Funeral Home in Spencer was in charge of arrangments. Arlene Mata Boettcher, the daughter of Ernest and Lilly (Grote) Boettcher was born July 6, 1920, in Grant Township, Buena Vista County. ...

Robert Driver, age 84, of Linn Grove, died Sunday, March 30, at St. Luke's Regional Medical Center in Sioux City. Funeral services will be held Saturday, April 5, at 10:30 a.m. at Riverside Evangelical Free Church in Linn Grove. Burial will be in the Barnes Township Cemetery in Linn Grove. Visitation will take place Friday, April 4, from 5-7 p.m. at the Sliefert Funeral Home in Sioux Rapids. The Sliefert Funeral Home in Sioux Rapids is in charge of the arrangements...

Graveside services for Bonnie Shank, 93, of Spencer, formerly of Aurelia, were held Tuesday, April 1, at the Pleasant Hill Cemetery, rural Aurelia, with Pastor Bruce Rapp of the First Congregational Church in Aurelia officiating. Visitation will be from 1- 2 p.m. at the Redig Funeral Home in Aurelia...

Donna Scheiber, age 83, of Spencer, and formerly of Sioux Rapids, died Sunday, March 30, at Avera Heart Hospital in Sioux Falls, S.D. Funeral services will be held Thursday, April 3, at 10:30 a.m. at First United Church in Sioux Rapids. Burial will be in the Lone Tree Cemetery in Sioux Rapids. Visitation took place Wednesday, April 2, at the Sliefert Funeral Home in Sioux Rapids. The Sliefert Funeral Home in Sioux Rapids is in charge of the arrangements...

Michael "Mike" Howard Stille passed away March 30, at Israel Family Hospice House in Ames, at the age of 71 years. Visitation will be Thursday, April 3rd from 5 to 7 p.m. at Salem Lutheran Church in Roland. Funeral service will be Friday, April 4th at Salem Lutheran Church in Roland and a military burial will follow at the Roland Cemetery...

Joanne M. DeMartini, age 80, of Storm Lake, died Monday, March 31, at North Lake Manor in Storm Lake. Memorial services will be held Saturday, April 5, at 1 p.m. at the Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake. Burial will be at a later date. The Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake is in charge of the arrangements...

Lyle A. Grubb, age 67, of Marathon, died Monday, March 31, , at his home in Marathon. Funeral services will be held on Thursday, April 10, at 10:30 a.m. at the Sliefert Funeral Home in Albert City. Interment will be in the Poland Township Cemetery at Marathon. Visitation with the family present will take place one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. The Sliefert Funeral Home in Albert City is in charge of arrangements...

Ronette D. Carnall, 66, of Arlington, died after a tough battle with cancer on Tuesday morning, April 1, at the Dennis and Donna Oldorf Hospice House of Mercy in Hiawatha. Memorial Service will be11 a.m. Saturday, April 12, at the Jamison-Schmitz Funeral Home in Oelwein with Chaplain Greg Boyle officiating. ...

Joanne M. DeMartini, age 80, of Storm Lake, died Monday, March 31, at North Lake Manor in Storm Lake. Memorial services were held Saturday, April 5, at 1 p.m. at the Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake. Burial will be at a later date. The Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake is in charge of the arrangements...

Memorial services for Lorne R. Gano, 63, of Alta, will be 11 a.m. Thursday, April 10, at the First United Methodist Church in Aurelia, with Pastor Thomas Petersen officiating. Inurnment will be at St. John's Cemetery in rural Peterson at a later date. The family will be present for visitation on Wednesday from 4 p.m. until 8 p.m. at the First United Methodist Church. The Redig Funeral Home in Aurelia is in charge of arrangements. A memorial fund has been established...

Virgil Ray Olerich was born on February 27, 1920 to William and Bertha Woodyard Olerich in Carroll County. Virgil grew up on the farm southwest of Auburn and attended country school through the eighth grade. He then helped with the family farming operation until his marriage. ...

Hongthong Laksamee, age 57, of Storm Lake, died Friday, April 4, at the Buena Vista Regional Medical Center in Storm Lake. Funeral services will be Saturday, April 12, at 10 a.m. at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Storm Lake. Burial will follow in the Storm Lake Cemetery. Visitation will take place Friday, April 11, from 4-6 p.m. at the Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake. The Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake is in charge of the arrangements...

Glen Arthur Jesse, 88, passed away April5, in Scottsdale, Ariz. Services are pending.

A signal upgrade for a railroad crossing on M50 and Highway 7 near Sulphur Springs township was approved last year and now has an official construction date set for summer. Estimate on the project is $184,822 with an agreement involving three entities; Iowa Department of Transportation, Buena Vista County, CNN Railroad. The county will only be responsible for 10 percent of the costs...

Last year walleye egg production caused dredging to start May 20, a very late start. This year it's not the walleye production, but the weather causing a delay. Storm Lake Infrastructure Superintendent Pat Kelly report they planned to start March 31 and will instead begin dredging on April 21...

In order to keep a foundation like Faith, Hope and Charity moving, it relies heavily on the community to donate money. Community support has been there for Faith, Hope and Charity in the past and they are expecting another year of donations to keep them proving the programs that they offer throughout the year...

Nothing besides American pride and respect was given to the five families honored at Freedom Quilts event "Honoring Our Heroes" this past weekend. The families accepted their quilts, cried, all the meanwhile reminiscing on the brothers, sons, and fathers...

This year's queen during the Ridge View relays was Sydney Kistenmacher, Sydney daughter of Tammy Pauley and Drew Kistenmacher. participated in volleyball, cross country, basketball, cheerleading, track and Girls State. Sydney is a member of St. John's Lutheran Church and is currently the LYF Secretary. She is also a VBS teacher...

This year's queen during the Ridge View relays was Sydney Kistenmacher, Sydney daughter of Tammy Pauley and Drew Kistenmacher. participated in volleyball, cross country, basketball, cheerleading, track and Girls State. Sydney is a member of St. John's Lutheran Church and is currently the LYF Secretary. She is also a VBS teacher...

HOLSTEIN - The first outdoor track meet is in the books for most schools now, and its clear to see who will be battling all season in Class 1A boys track. The Ridge View Raptors and the Alta-Aurelia Warriors seemingly went back and forth in every event on Monday afternoon. The Raptors captured the team title by just 14 points over the Warriors. Ridge View scored 130 total team points with Alta-Aurelia just behind with 116 and Hinton in third with 112 points...

Most middle school students aren't thinking about playing for team USA at that point in their life, most are worrying about what video game they are going to play when they get home, or what friend they are going to hang out with after school. Sixth grader Nick Slight he is practicing to make the Team USA National Volleyball team...

Four area athletes competed in the Iowa Basketball Coaches Association All-Star games in Dallas Center Grimes on March 29th. Renee Maneman, Claudia Larsen, Dalton Anderson of Newell-Fonda and Reed Tellinghuisen of East Sac County all competed. For the girls, on the NW All-Star squad, Maneman scored nine points in the first match-up against the SW All-Star team, Larsen scored 11 points in the contest. ...

AURELIA - The Laurens-Marathon Chargers and Alta-Aurelia Warriors started their 2014 golf seasons on Monday afternoon in Aurelia. The Chargers were unable to field a full varsity roster for the contest, which gave the advantage to Alta-Aurelia, and they capitalized on it. ...

AURELIA - The defending 1A girl's golf champions started right where they left off last year as they defeated Laurens-Marathon Monday night by a large margin. The Warriors ended with a team score of 195 while the Chargers finished with a team score of 237...

STORM LAKE - The Storm Lake Tornadoes girls' soccer team was blanked by the Carroll-Kuemper Knights in the home opener of the 2014 season, as they fell to the Knights 9-0. Despite what the score reads, there were some bright moments for the Tornadoes Tuesday afternoon...

STORM LAKE - The Storm Lake Tornadoes girl's golf team had a solid showing in their first golf meet of the year at Lake Creek Country Club against Denison-Schleswig as they defeated the Monarchs 222 to 255. Individually the Tornadoes were led by Grace Dierenfield who came into the club house with a 48 earning her first medal of the year. ...

ORANGE CITY - The Storm Lake Tornadoes struggled in their first outdoor meet at MOC-Floyd Valley Tuesday afternoon, finishing sixth out of sixth with a team total of 29 points. It's been six weeks since track has started at Storm Lake high school and the girl's team still has not been at full capacity due to other school activities such as band and show choir...

ORANGE CITY - It was a solid start for Storm Lake boys' track season as they finished third in their first outdoor meet on the year. They came in with a team total of 73 points, finishing behind Spirit Lake who finished with 153 points and LeMars who scored 171 points...

The Ridge View boys' golf team didn't have the start they were looking for this season as they finished fourth at the Western Valley Conference Golf meet Monday afternoon in Ida Grove. MV-AO finished on top with a team score of 181, Woodbury Central came in second with a team score of 189 as well as Ida Grove finished with a 189 team score. RV was just two strokes out from claiming second solely as they shot a 190 on the day...

GOWRIE - The Newell-Fonda girls' golf team started the 2014 season off on the right foot as they defeated Prairie Valley very handily Monday night. The Mustangs won with a team score of 206 while Prairie Valley finished with a team score of 248. Individual medalists for the Mustangs were Jade Hess who shot a team low 46 and Abby Christiansen who was a runner-up medalist finishing with a round score of 50. ...

Newell-Fonda will be holding their annual girl's basketball camp again this summer from June 16th through June 20th. The camp will run from 8:30 a.m. until noon. Girls 4th grade through 8th next fall are welcome to sign-up with the cost being $50.00 a girl...

The Storm Lake Whitecaps Swim Team will hold their annual Splash Party on Sunday, April 27th from 5--7:00 pm at the Buena Vista University pool. Swimmers may register for the summer program as well as purchase team suits and supplies. Information about the swim program will be available for parents. There will be no admission for swimmers and their families. Mary Kate Mooney will be coaching the summer team for the 2014 season...