Stories from Friday, April 24, 2020

Iowa Lakes Electric Cooperative’s board of directors voted to pay out $1.77 million in capital credits to its member-owners! Member-owners will receive these credits on their billing statement that will arrive around the first week in May. Iowa Lakes Electric Cooperative buys its power from two generation and transmission cooperatives - Corn Belt Power Cooperative and Northwest Iowa Power Cooperative. ...

For John and Karen Keenan, the idea of having a nice little coffee shop in their hometown, maybe two of them, was an entrepreneurial dream that took years to build into a local institution. So, when a crisis comes along that you might plan for, hoping that it never happens, yet it does anyway, what do you do? John and Karen, like a few Storm Lake area employers, were deemed an essential business, before the shuttering of many establishments happened roughly a month ago in the state. ...

Music snobbery is making a comeback. On the heels of the excellent serial remake of “High Fidelity,” about a tasteful Brooklyn record store owner, comes “Trolls World Tour,” in which different pixie clans each representing a music genre vie for sonic domination. Both are quaint in their own way, pretending that our musical borders didn’t years ago disintegrate into a digital soup...

The Night Watchman by Louise Erdrich is a captivating novel by Louise Erdrich, based on her grandfather Patrick Gourneau’s successful fight to ward off efforts to “emancipate” the Turtle Mountain Band of Chippewa of North Dakota. At the heart of the story is Thomas Wazhashk, humble night watchman in a jewel bearing plant. Thomas unearths the real intent of federal legislation that would disenfranchise the Turtle Mountain Chippewa from their land and way of life...

Celebrating their 10th annual season this year, the Stone Pier Summer Concert Series at Blackhawk Lake plans four free shows on the historic Stone Pier stage, pairing a storied setting with renowned acts from around the country. Perhaps the biggest show of the run is on Saturday, July 4, with Blue Water Highway and Flying Buffaloes, plus well known area performers Todd Partridge and Chad Elliot...

While the Storm Lake Public Library is closed for quarantine, the staff is giving it a deep cleaning. “ I truly believe this is the first spring cleaning the library has ever had,” Director Elizabeth Huff says. Shampooing of the carpeting is taking place is stages three days a week. Bookshelves and other surfaces are being disinfected, and windows washed and polished...

On Sunday April 19, at approximately 12:47 p.m., the Storm Lake Police Department responded to a report of a belated domestic assault.  Police spoke with a female victim who alleged that on April 18, at a residence in Storm Lake they engaged in an argument with a male subject identified as Benjamin Bravo Gonzalez, age 37 of Storm Lake.  The female victim alleged that during the argument Bravo Gonzalez armed himself with a steak knife and held it to the victim’s neck.  The victim was able to escape the incident unharmed.. ...

The negotiations process began Monday for the Storm Lake Board of Education and the Storm Lake Education Association that represents the teaching staff. Each side presented its offer in an electronic meeting. Representing the teachers association, Kim Johnson proposed a 5.55 percent salary increase as part of a total package increase of 4.95 percent, with few changes in benefits or scheduled outside of pay. The education association proposed a five-year contract...

Buena Vista University will not require the ACT nor the SAT exams for admission to the University for the high school Class of 2021, an outcome of the University’s adoption of a test-optional approach to admission that had been under consideration for some time...

A massive crane begins the job of erecting the new Tyson Foods feed mill, in the Radio Road and Expansion Blvd. area. The $37 million project is expected to be completed later this year, followed by demolition of the existing mill on Seneca Street. Twelve additional jobs are being created. The site was voluntarily annexed into the city. / Pilot photo by Dana Larsen...

April 11, 1929 - April 17, 2020

Tyson Foods trucked a large donation of food into Storm Lake to help the community during quarantine. Members of the Storm Lake Police and Buena Vista County Sheriff’s departments handed out the frozen foods in front of the closed Storm Lake High Schools Tuesday until the supply was exhausted. / SLPD photos...

On April 20, Victor Aviles-Carcamo, age 25 of Storm Lake, was sentenced in the Iowa District Court by the Honorable Charles Borth. On March 24, Aviles-Caracmo entered a guilty plea to the charge of sexual abuse in the third degree, a class C felony. He was sentenced to a prison term not to exceed 10 years with the Iowa Department of Corrections. He will also need register to be on the sex offender registry for the rest of his life...

J.D. Scholten, candidate for Iowa’s 4th congressional district, says he is the first political candidate seeking federal office in Iowa to host a COVID-19 town hall conducted entirely in Spanish. “The conversation between Dr. Rossana Rosa, M.D., an infectious disease specialist, and Jose Ibarra, Storm Lake councilman, shared valuable information and resources for the Latinx community in Iowa,” Scholten said...

Local health leader wants contact limited to immediate families, says it’s too early to open up state.

A restrooms building is lowered into place this week at Bel Air Beach, Lakeside. The DNR project has been in the works since a porta-potty at the popular recreation beach was removed. /Photo submitted

Criminal charges are pending on a Storm Lake man who led police on a high-speed chase before losing control and rolling the SUV he was driving several times. Shortly before 3 a.m. Sunday, an officer attempted to stop a vehicle that was driving without headlights in the 1200 block of Lake Avenue. ...

Storm Lake city officials are stepping in to continue boat slip rental at the marina, after a letter from the operators’ attorney informed the city that the operators would no longer provide the service. At a city council meeting by phone this week, the council also agreed to take on repairs to the docks that have been needed around the marina area, at an estimated cost of $10,000, so they will be useable for this summer...

If there’s anything good to come out of the COVID-19 crisis, it is a sharpened focus on food insecurity. But will a new desire to help continue after people’s lives return to whatever “normal” was? “It’s been a really good time to talk about this, with so many of the usual distractions shut down,” says Di Daniels, a founder of The Hunger Dialogue in Storm Lake...

Construction will begin soon on a community welcoming area on the lakeshore at the foot of Lake Avenue, a gift from a family with a deep appreciation for that view. The project includes a large Storm Lake sign, bench seating, lighting and landscaping, and funds set aside to maintain the site, donated by the Spooner family...

Farmers long for that rare perfect storm - perfect weather and the ideal soil temperature, short supplies heading into a strong harvest, and profitable market prices to reflect it. The weather is here, the markets, not so much. “The conditions are the best we’ve had in years to plant, people have been able to get into the fields way earlier than last year. I think we’ll have a lot of planting done this week,” said Kris Kohl, ag engineering specialist with the Buena Vista County ISU Extension...

Convincing students that they should do school work by choice is proving to be a challenge for Storm Lake educators, and their peers around the state. Some Iowa school districts are reporting that only half their students are participating in voluntary school work while their school buildings are shut down for the rest of the year...

The Buena Vista County Recycle Center is hoping to resume accepting yard waste on a limited basis sometime next week. Details are currently being worked out. “We just hope that everyone will be courteous and bring their patience with them,” said Manager Lori Dicks. “It’s going to be very busy, and we will still have to limit access in and out of here somewhat to make sure our staff and facility can keep operating.”...