Stories from Friday, October 25, 2019

Storm Lake United is pleased to announce our Annual Member’s Banquet to be held at Buena Vista University on Tuesday, November 19, beginning at 6 p.m. The Member’s Banquet is a time for Storm Lake United to thank our members for their great success in 2019, to inspire for 2020, and to reward those businesses and individuals that are leading examples in our community. Businesses and business professionals will be recognized for their leadership and accomplishments in 2019...

Area business staff and executives were joined by educators, government officials and Spencer students Thursday morning for the Future Ready Iowa Spencer Employer Summit, which encouraged collaboration in the community to help solve workforce challenges and to learn about utilizing Future Ready Iowa resources. ...

The Witter Gallery and Public Library would like to invite you to our annual Halloween Party. There will be lots of events: crafts to create, face-painting, pumpkin painting, S.T.E.M activities, a costume contest, and conservationist Katie Struss will be there with Luna the owl! Make sure to come to the Witter Gallery and the Public Library for this fun event on Saturday, October 26 from 10 a.m. - noon. This event is free to the public, so make sure to wear your spookiest apparel to celebrate...

The Browns Century Theater has commissioned its first musical to run in addition to The Browns Christmas Show this holiday season downtown Le Mars. Tickets are on sale now for “The Innkeeper’s Wife Musical” and “The Browns A Hometown Christmas Show.”...

Wild Counselor Jim Finucan Lighthouse Point Press ISBN 9780979299834 Writing a coming-of-age novel can be tricky. In the wrong hands, an adult writing of some past event in his or her adolescence can often be self-centered or maudlin or even preachy...

For a moment, “Maleficent: Mistress of Evil” seems poised to turn into a wonderful take on “Father of the Bride” only with fangs and wings. Princess Aurora (Elle Fanning), the beauty who escaped the curse of sleep, merrily accepts the proposal of Prince Phillip (Harris Dickinson), a marriage that could unite the fairy and human worlds. ...

Storm Lake Police were called to St. Mary’s School Wednesday for a reported threat. School officials and witnesses told officers that an 11 year old Storm Lake girl had made a threat to another student that she had a gun at home and was going to kill the victim with it...

Storm Lake High School will stage “Cheaper by the Dozen” at the high school auditorium, Nov. 8 and 9 7 p.m. Based on the real-life family of Frank and Lillian Gilbreth, Cheaper by the Dozen is a classic dramatic comedy about a family of 14.  The story is largely based around their inventor father, who is well-known for bringing better efficiency to factories and keeping his family of 12 children running just as efficiently. ...

The Storm Lake City Council has passed a third and final reading of a zoning change for land northeast of the Radio Road/Expansion Boulevard intersection, planned future site of a new Tyson Foods feed mill. The property, which is being annexed into the city limits, was formerly agland and now will be zoned General Industrial...

Iowa gas prices have fallen 1.3 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.43 per gallon this week. Gas prices in Iowa are 12.0 cents per gallon lower than a month ago, yet stand 36.5 cents per gallon lower than a year ago. Storm Lake pump prices spiked to around $2.45, then fell back to $2.33 at many stations, rbefore dropping to $2.29 late this week. Station prices in Iowa this week ranged from $2.16 to $2.92...

The City of Storm Lake presented Police Department honors to two employees this week, in what has become an annual ceremony. Patrol Officer Gerardo Bravo was named as the SLPD Officer of the Year. A member of the Tactical Entry Team, Bravo has been with the department for three years, and has received commendations twice, including a lifesaving situation. ...

Earl Dorr's love for dolls began around the time of the Vietnam war when he was dating the girlfriend that would go on to become his wife. Dorr said one of the first gifts he gave to her was a Heidi doll that came with a book about the young girl from Switzerland. When he and his wife got married they subsequently had two daughters...

A locally produced documentary film: “Growing Magic, the Mickey Mouse Cornfield Story” will be shown at the Buena County Historical Museum on Sunday November 3 at 2 p.m. This hour long film was produced by Buena Vista University Digital Media students, led by BV professor Jerry Johnson, assistant professor of digital media at BVU, who will be present to discuss the movie...

March 17, 1945 - October 22, 2019

August 25, 1928 - October 8, 2019

July 12, 1968 - October 18, 2019

The October Literacy music event was held at East Early Childhood School on Friday, October 18th. Mrs. Jorgensen’s class helped recite the nursery rhyme, “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. Everyone joined in for the yoga exercises for “Twinkle, Twinkle, Little Star”. ...

The Clay County Board of Supervisors met with Clay County EMS Manager Tammy McKeever and Dr. David Keith, a family physician with Avera Medical Group in Spencer, to discuss the dental needs of the county during Tuesday morning’s board of supervisors meeting...

The Little Sioux Orchard south of Milford played host to Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig Tuesday morning. Naig’s stop was part of his 99-county tour of the state, and he said he hoped to learn about agricultural practices for crops outside of the state’s staple corn and soybeans...

The local Building Community Child Care Solutions Committee is conducing a survey on child care in Storm Lake, in both English and Spanish.  The survey should take 10 minutes or less to complete, and responses are completely anonymous. The goal of the survey is to gather information to determine the needs for child care in Storm Lake. ...

A “meet and greet” for  Storm Lake City Council  and  Storm Lake school board candidates will be held Monday, October 28, 6 p.m. at Our Place multicultural center (114 E. 3rd Street). The public is invited. Those on the ballot for the Nov. 5th election for city council are: Tyson Rice, Maria Ramos and Kevin McKinney. ...

Downtown parking continues to be an issue for the Storm Lake City Council, which has newly appliesdregulation banning parking in the downtown business area from 3-6 a.m. in hopes of improving access for snow removal and street cleaning. Landlord Candy Clough told the council this week that its action was badly timed in a season when the large Michigan Street parking lot is closed off for reconstruction...

Job Saunders is the Violin Shredder. His hometown is Aurora, Colorado but he is a senior at Buena Vista University. He has to go way back in order to tell his entire story however. He said he started playing the violin in fourth grade with the idea stemming from exploration. ...

An idea originating with two Storm Lake school art teachers could light the way to a unique community art installment - a series of lighthouse structures placed around the community with individual designs. Superintendent of Schools Stacey Cole says the concept came from teacher professional development events, where a portion of those days is set aside for “passion-driven” projects chosen by the educators...

Rasmussen Ford-Mercury dealerships in Storm Lake and Cherokee are being sold to Holzhauer Motors, Ltd. under a new agreement, the companies announced Thursday. Terms of the deal will not be revealed. The dealerships will open as Holzhauer locations as soon as approval is obtained by Ford Motor Company. ...

A panel representing Storm Lake’s faith community reflected on the city’s cultural - and religious - diversity in a unique gathering this week. In “Standing With Our Neighbors,” the gathering’s speakers suggested that Storm Lake had made a lot of progress as a leader in assimilation, but that there is more to do...

SIBLEY - Attorneys for a child who was sexually assaulted by a teacher at an Iowa school have announced a $650,000 settlement paid by four school districts. Spirit Lake attorney John Sandy says the settlement was agreed to by the school boards of Sibley-Ocheyedan, Sioux City, Akron-Westfield, and Mediapolis districts...

A community performance of Messiah will take place Sunday, December 8, 7 p.m. at the Storm Lake High School Auditorium. The second practice for the performance took place last Sunday, and there are currently 49 singers involved. Others are still welcome to get involved, adding to the Hallelujah Chorus as the rousing closer...

County Engineer, Bret Wilkinson, presented his weekly report to the Beuna Vista County Board of Supervisors Tuesday. He explained to the board that one of his employees is expected to retire by Jan. 2020 and he will need to replace him. Board member, Kelly Snyder, asked Wilkinson if he has found someone who can operate a motorgrader like the existing employee can do, to which Wilkinson replied, “no.”...

The Buena Vista University football team was unable to escape an early 17-0 hole last week against the Central Dutch and ended up falling by that amount, 44-27. This week represents a new chance for the Beavers to get their first American Rivers Conference win as they head east to Dubuque to take on the Loras Duhawks...

SPENCER - It was a rough night on Tuesday for the Storm Lake girls swim team as they took on Spencer and Sioux City Metro. The green and white fell 83-9 against Spencer and then 80-11 against Sioux City Metro. “We faced two very talented teams tonight. Sioux City Metro has achieved automatic qualifier times for the State meet in several events already,” SL Coach Lindsay Brown said. “We really focused on competing with ourselves, but we struggled a little tonight.”...

SIOUX RAPIDS - It was time on Tuesday night to begin the 2A-Region 2 playoffs as two Twin Lakes Conference rivals met with their seasons on the line. The Alta-Aurelia Warriors and the Sioux Central Rebels needed to use all five sets to determine their winner and to see who would advance on to Monday night’s game against Pocahontas Area. In the end, Alta-Aurelia took the fifth and deciding set to send the Rebels home after trailing two sets to none...

NEWELL - It was the opening night of regional volleyball play across the state on Tuesday night as 1A-Region 1 saw Newell-Fonda host St. Mary’s. The Mustangs were able to control the game against the Panthers, ending St. Mary’s season in three sets with scores of 25-18, 25-8 and 25-16...

LE MARS - It was a game of energy on Wednesday night as Storm Lake took on LeMars in 4A-Region 1 action. Storm Lake, fresh off winning their own tournament, was unable to match the Bulldog energy and fell in three sets to end their season. The set scores were 13-25, 6-25 and 10-25...