Stories from Friday, October 12, 2018

The City of Storm Lake was recognized for their safety programs for the city’s employees by EMC Insurance, Jester Insurance, Stille Pierce and Pertzborn and The Iowa Association of Municipal Utilities. The city’s insurance agent Mike Pertzborn II of Stille Pierce and Pertzborn Insurance Services was pleased to have the City recognized for their hard work. ...

Supervisor Rob Wells and manager Pat Barnett stand with the new Casey’s staff at the ribbon cutting Friday morning. From left to right: Teresa Gebauer, Vonnie Cords, Brenda Wiley, Zo Ohlson, Pat Barnett, Rob Wells, Reta Hocking. / Photos By Elijah Decious...

Apparently, The King still has the power to inspire romance, at least for these two audience members at the Fonda Arts Center. Impersonator Darren Goslar from Onawa packed in a full house crowd Sunday. Darren has been playing Elvis since being picked for the part in a school program as a high school freshman. ...

Christmas is coming and so is the one and only Moscow Ballet’s Great Russian Nutcracker. Presenting world-class Russian artists, hand-painted sets, Russian Snow Maidens, and jubilant Nesting Dolls – Great Russian Nutcracker brings the Christmas spirit to life for all ages...

The soundtrack to “A Star Is Born” is no slim thing, thank goodness. It contains a whopping 34 tracks, mostly due to the inclusion of brief snatches of songs, dialogues or interludes. It will put fans back into the film in a visceral way. Haven’t seen it yet? With this album, you may not need to...

Auditor of State Mary Mosiman released a report Tuesday on the Status of Findings and Recommendations from the City of Truesdale Periodic Examination Report. The engagement was performed pursuant to the Code of Iowa and covered the period June 1, 2017 through December 31, 2017...

Supervisors for Buena Vista County voted Tuesday to increase their cyber insurance coverage. The Board of Supervisors will allow their current policy with CFC to expire and increase their cyber breach expense coverage cap to $1 million on their policy with the Iowa Communities Assurance Pool...

It’s official! Storm Lake St. Mary’s 2019 Big Raffle is kicking off with new co-chairs, more prizes, more salespeople and an on-line portal right off the bat. This year, veteran salesperson Mary Drey will be partnering with Ralna McVinua to head up the sales! The two dedicated volunteers will be co-chairing the large scale raffle, leading the team to sell 400 bright green $100 raffle tickets from presstime until all are sold or March 23 – whichever comes first. ...

The Witter Art Gallery in Storm Lake is preparing a series of special events during the Halloween season. This year will be the first year the Witter Gallery will be holding its own Day of the Dead celebration. Visit the Gallery between October 30-November 3 for an exhibit of “Ofrendas” made by community members. ...

Buena Vista University 2012 graduate Lindsay Peoples Wagner, currently the fashion editor at New York Magazine and its specialty publication The Cut, has been named editor of Teen Vogue magazine, effective this month. “As a former intern and assistant at Teen Vogue, I’m so excited to come full circle and be back at a time when there is nothing more powerful or important than a young person who is passionate about change,” said Peoples Wagner. ...

Storm Lake St. Mary’s 2003 alumna Ashley (Hammen) Hoff made time to visit her alma mater Monday morning and speak to students in grades 6-12. The Senior Vice President of Creative Services at Critical Content in Los Angeles was caught in the 2017 crossfire of the Las Vegas shooting during a country music concert, but spent more time talking to the students about the positive aspects of that day. ...

April 6, 1927 - October 7, 2018

December 27, 1943 - October 10, 2018

August 28, 1957 - October 5, 2018

On the afternoon of Tuesday, October 9, at approximately 2:29 p.m. the Storm Lake Fire Department responded to the Lakeside Presbyterian Church located at 100 East 3rd Street in reference to a report that electrical wires on the south side of the building were smoking and arcing...

The Hermstad family, formerly of Storm Lake, was among about 1,000 people taking part in another ALS walk last weekend in Des Moines. Alex Hermstad fell ill at age 11, and died at age 17 in 2011 with what was later determined to be a form of ALS. The family, now residing in Spencer, continues to be active in ALS causes to raise awareness in hopes of helping others. The Des Moines event raised an estimated $200,000. / Photo Submitted...

Individuals and couples were honored for their service to Buena Vista University and to their communities at a special luncheon and at halftime of the Homecoming game on Oct. 6. Those honored were: Landon and Alicia (Heiland) Roth, Class of 2000, are the recipients of the 2018 Keith Briscoe Alumni Award. The award is named in honor of BVU’s 16th President, who led the campus from 1974 to 1995 and recognizes recent graduates for their past student achievements and present career success...

Gray days and misty haze have been the norm for many area farmers recently. Many field crops continue to stand in soil still soggy from light-yet-persistent showers. “The ag economy’s pretty tough right now, to be honest about it,” Lake Park area farmer Vince Elser said. “With the weather we had this summer and prices, I think that profits are going to be pretty slim.”...

Those with leftover bottle rockets from the 4th of July in Lakeside will have to find something else to do on New Year’s. The City of Lakeside has banned the use of fireworks within city limits for 363 days of the year, joining other towns in northwest Iowa putting on heavy restrictions after the statewide legalization of sales in 2017...

Storm Lake businessman Jay Butterfield has sold the business SSI Digital Print Services, which had recently relocated to the former Bomgaars building on North Lake Avenue. The business was purchased by Delta Apparel, a national, publicly-traded company, for its DTG2GO (Direct to Garment) wholesale product line, which produces a total of 70,000 printed shirts per day. ...

As farmers chomp at the bit to harvest their waterlogged fields, the Buena Vista County Engineer is issuing a plea for cooperation. “We know they will be dragging mud out onto the roads, it can’t be helped, but we don’t want to create unsafe roads,” explains Bret Wilkinson. ...

A critter peers down from his home in the branches above the Buena Vista University campus, taking a break from storing food for the winter to pose for a portrait. / Pilot photo by Dana Larsen

“As Christians, our mission is supposed to be to care for all people. The beauty here is that we don’t have to send people on mission trips around the world, the world is literally coming to us. To me, that’s a great opportunity.”

Tornadoes unable to get on track against Indians SPIRIT LAKE - The Storm Lake spikers got off to a slow start on Tuesday night against Spirit Lake and was unable to get on track through the rest of the night. They bowed in a three set loss to fall to 3-18 on the season. The set scores were 8-25, 10-25 and 16-25...

Buena Vista University came close last week, oh so close, to their first win of the year in the American Rivers Conference and bringing home a Homecoming victory. Through the first three quarters, everything was going BVU’s way, but football is a four quarter game and they found that out against Loras, giving up 21 points in the final quarter to let a 44-40 game slip out of their grasp...

Storm Lake hits the road to face ranked Heelan The Tornadoes are looking to rebound tonight when they head to Sioux City to take on Bishop Heelan. The green and white enter this 3A-District 1 contest with a 4-3, 1-2 record while the Crusaders are 6-1, 2-1 with their lone loss coming against Sgt. Bluff-Luton...