Stories from Friday, December 21, 2018

Hope Haven Inc. of Rock Valley, providing care and services throughout the region, including Storm Lake, announced the launch of the new company logo and visual brand identity. The transformation is streamlined and modern, while preserving a connection to its prolific history...

Electric vehicles (EV) have hit a critical milestone of over 1 million EVs on the road. As demand increases that number is expected to grow to 18 million by 2030.Federal tax credits and a discount for Alliant Energy electric customers are available for buying most electric vehicle models...

Storm Lake Rotary Club hosted a Storm Lake United Coffee on Tuesday morning to deliver its annual distribution of funds to deserving community organizations. A total of $11,500 fundraised from annual events like the Rotary Barbecue was distributed to 11 organizations: Stars mentoring, Storm Lake Music Boosters, Storm Lake School District Foundation, Hope Haven (Faith, Hope, and Charity), Community ED, Storm Lake Tornado Booster Club, Ready Set GROW!, St. ...

Security Trust & Savings Bank of Storm Lake held a No Shave November Event during the month of November. $700 was raised from the event and given to BVRMC A.W.A.R.E., where funds go directly to help with uninsured expenses for patients receiving cancer treatment at BVRMC. ...

The Sanford Museum in Cherokee will host Wilderman’s Treetop Tales with Chad Elliott, Saturday, Jan. 19, 10 a.m.-1 p.m. The event is open to all ages, free. Wilderman’s Treetop Tales is a collection of whimsical lyrics and paintings created by international award-winning songwriter, Chad Elliott. ...

The best Christmas movies you’ve (probably) never seen

The Storm Lake City Council this week unanimously approved an increase in the family season golf pass price at city-owned Sunrise Pointe Golf Course. The pass will increase from $450 to $550 for the coming season. Other fees will remain unchanged. The course is managed by King’s Pointe resort. KP executive Jason Bjerk told the council that the increased price will still give the course a competitive advantage over others in the area including Lake Creek and Alta...

The Storm Lake Board of Education has hired recent Buena Vista University graduate Heather Speers as an elementary special education teacher to start with the spring term, a position the district had been unable to fill for the current school year. The district, and many of Iowa’s schools, continue to struggle to find staff for special education classrooms...

Jane Hill, Human Resource Assistant with the City of Storm Lake, has announced her retirement after 40 years in city government. She was honored with a proclamation read by Mayor Mike Porsch and a standing ovation during the city council meeting this week. ...

In a report on math curriculum, Storm Lake Elementary Principal Barb Lang told the school board this week that while results have not yet been what the school wanted to see, the mindset is headed in the right direction. She said the administration wants teachers at the school to be “risk-takers,” because that’s what they want the children to be...

Storm Lake School District will continue to opt against requesting the maximum amount of allowable growth for dropout funding. Superintendent Stacey Cole told the board of education this week that the programs and people the district has in place are working well, and reminded the board of the need to keep property taxes which partially fund the program lower...

Tera Brown led Heidi Larsen’s third grade class in the National Hour of Code at St. Mary’s last week for a fun exercise in computer coding. Fortunately through the efforts of generous donors and a technology drive at the 2018 St. Mary’s Ball and Auction, there are new laptops for the students to use throughout the school...

Santa’s Castle in Storm Lake is in full swing for the holidays, with happy crowds of visitors daily. Among the attractions are free books autographed by Santa for the children, an ever-growing scale model railroad, one of the nation’s largest collections of antique holiday animated characters, a shop full of gift ideas, and lots of reminders of the past, including a model of a Mobil station that once stood in Storm Lake and served as a blueprint for stations around the U.S. ...

December 22: Santa visits. 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. December 23: Santa visits. 2 p.m. - 4 p.m. December 23: Public Planetarium Show (theme: Life on the North Pole), 4 p.m. December 24-25: Closed for Christmas No Coffee with the Curators this month, see you in January...

By MELINDA MYERS Special to The Pilot Gardeners know the benefits of digging in the soil. It elevates a person’s mood, improves mental and physical well-being and the outcome is always good — added beauty or tasty nutritional food. But many of us are stuck indoors for the winter, have a lack of space to garden outdoors or just can’t get enough of this healthful activity. Adding greenery indoors expands our gardening opportunities and provides the many benefits of living with and tending plants...

The waters of the Iowa Great Lakes may be frozen now, but they were high enough to all but halt boat traffic five months ago. And while wave and erosion control are on the back burner this winter, the Iowa Great Lakes Association is taking the first steps to get a scientific handle on the local water system. ...

Updates from the Storm Lake Police Department, Buena Vista County Sheriff and the Storm Lake Fire Department.

July 1, 1927 -December 16, 2018

Several months have passed since the public was last briefed on a project meant to beautify the Lakes Area’s main roadway, but now Imagine Iowa Great Lakes, the group heading up the improvements on behalf of its anonymous donor group, is seeking bids for work on the project’s first phase. ...

After removal of three representatives from the Board of Compensation due to conflicts of interest, a new board met Thursday to negotiate recommendations of raises for elected official salaries again, effectively rescinding previous recommendations that granted a 2 percent raise to County Attorney-elect Paul Allen...

Santa Claus visited the preK-3 grade classrooms recently to read the story of the Nativity of Jesus to the Storm Lake St. Mary’s Elementary School students.

SL school board regroups, pledges to listen, after $29m Early Childhood vote falls short A former Storm Lake School Board leader approached the current board Wednesday night with some unexpected advice: consider skipping another bond issue try, and go to year-around school instead...

Hunger Dialogue fights on against poverty - and stagnation Below the surface of a comfortable rural Iowa community, the gnawing pains of hunger remain a reality, and keep a loose confederation of volunteers chipping away toward solutions. The Hunger Dialogue began three years ago, as a platform for communication and collaboration between nonprofits, religious groups, civic organizations, governmental agencies and others working to feed those in need...

ALTA - It was a rough night on the mats for the Alta-Aurelia grapplers on Tuesday night as they took on three other schools. The Warriors went without a dual win on the night, falling to Okoboji, South Central Calhoun and Woodbury Central. The Warriors narrowly fell to Okoboji, dropping the dual on a tiebreaker, 42-41. ...

SIOUX RAPIDS - Sioux Central senior Hunter Decker kept up his hot streak on Tuesday night as he nearly outscored Ridge View by himself, dumping in 30 points in a 61-36 win for the Rebels. “We got off to a bit of a slow start. I liked that we were pushing the ball but we made some poor decisions in transition and we missed some close looks around the rim that we normally make,” Sioux Central Coach Stephen Tjaden said...

SIOUX RAPIDS - Momentum has been on the side of the Sioux Central girls in the past handful of games, bringing a four game winning streak against slumping Ridge View on Tuesday night. The two schools went back and forth for all 32 minutes, but Sioux Central’s strong second half allowed them to take a five game win streak into their winter break after a 64-57 win...

HULL - The first half was not a half to remember for the Storm Lake girls on Tuesday night as they looked for their first win in the Lakes Conference this season. They were held under 10 points in the opening half against Western Christian, the Wolfpack using that to springboard to a 47-32 win...

STORM LAKE - It was the second home dual of the year for the Storm Lake wrestlers on Tuesday night as they welcomed in a solid Humboldt Wildcat squad to the Tornado Fieldhouse. The green and white were unable to get the better of Humboldt to defend their home mat, falling 45-27...

HULL - The Storm Lake boys basketball team entered their game on Tuesday night against Western Christian looking to snap a 21 game losing streak to the school as well as earn their first ever win at Hull. The Wolfpack broke the heart of the Storm Lake faithful with a shot falling with no time left on the clock to take a 68-66 decision...