Stories from Friday, April 23, 2021

Friday April 16, 2021 the Alta-Aurelia Shooting Sports team traveled to a competition at the Palo Alto County Gun Club near Emmetsburg. The meet was host by the Emmestburg Hot Shots Trap Team. The Rookie squad of Landyn Aberson, Gable VanOort, Cale Sievers, Holton Falck and JW Kelsey placed 3rd...

Hope Rolls, a local non-profit organization, is raising money for an inclusive, handicap-accessible park in Spirit Lake. Hope Rolls was founded in 2019 to provide adaptive tricycles to children who are unable to ride traditional bikes. In early January of 2021, the Hope Rolls group decided to expand their mission to include raising money for a park anyone could enjoy. ...

The Buena Vista Regional medical center Lab team made it through the pandemic impeccably and were all willing to take on additional tasks and roles as needed. In 2020, the BVRMC Lab team conducted approximately 89,110 laboratory tests. In addition to the hospital, the department added Test Iowa COVID-19 testing. They performed over 6,660 COVID-19 tests, proving to be an essential part of our fight against the pandemic. / BVRMC photos...

The Make It OK campaign in Iowa, led by the Healthiest State Initiative, has released resources for employers and announced events to raise awareness of mental health and take steps to end the stigma during Mental Health Awareness Month in May. Make It OK is a community campaign to reduce stigma by starting conversations and increasing understanding about mental illness. Mental Health Awareness Month, observed annually in May since 1949, is a globally-recognized mental health awareness event first started by Mental Health America.. ...

If you had been a journalist for 50 years, what stories and columns would you select for a collection of 273 pages? That was the challenge Iowa journalist Max McElwain faced in Sharing a Napkin: Selected Writings 1969-2019. McElwain has succeeded admirably in producing this selection...

The Happy Together Tour returns to the Surf Ballroom and Museum in Clear Lake, Thursday, August 19. The tour brings together bands from the 1960s and ‘70s classic era of rock ’n’ roll for shows featuring familiar hit after hit. Showtime is 7 p.m. Advance tickets go on sale April 21 for $39. Purchase online at www.surfballtoom.com or charge by phone, 641-357-6151...

Interest and demand in trading cards like Pokemon, Magic: The Gathering, and sports cards of all kinds have surged since the arrival of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. Likened by local card-dealing businesses in Spencer to the trading boom of the 1990s, increased demand has also caused prices in the secondary card economy to pick up which has also grabbed the attention of would-be speculative investors...

David Crippin, MD, announced he will be ending his practice at UnityPoint Clinic Family Medicine – Buena Vista, effective May 12. “We are grateful for his years of service and wish him the best,” says Lincoln Wallace, MD, Medical Director, UnityPoint Clinic – Fort Dodge Region...

Storm Lake’s new tourism marketing effort is beginning to pay off, according to the local company hired early this year to undertake the campaign. Joe Kelly, of Kaleidoscope Marketing, said that advertising, videos and social media efforts have so far performed impressively, with nearly 200,000 impressions and good “click-through” rates online as people seek more information...

Facts & Fables From The Buena Vista County Historical Society & Museum

February 27, 1923 - April 14, 2021

May 31, 1948 - April 16, 2021

October 6, 1937 - April 16, 2021

Joshua Paul Davis, age 33 of Odebolt, was arrested by the Sac County Sheriff’s Office at his residence located at 413 Locust Street on Sunday afternoon. Davis is alleged to have assaulted his wife earlier in the day. The two are currently separated...

As a member of the House Committee on Agriculture, western Iowa congressman Randy Feenstra this week participated in a hearing entitled, “Rural Broadband -- Examining Internet Connectivity Needs and Opportunities in Rural America.” Feenstra has made broadband a top priority since taking office in January, quickly joining the bipartisan Rural Broadband Caucus. ...

An Alta woman was arrested Wednesday. The Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office assisted the United States Immigration and Customs Enforcement with a motor vehicle that they had stopped. Immigration officers indicated that the occupants of the vehicle would not comply with their orders...

DMACC has awarded 15 Mark Pearson FFA Leadership Scholarships for students entering the College in the fall of 2021. The scholarship is named after long-time WHO Radio Farm broadcaster Mark Pearson who died in 2012 at the age of 54. The recipients may apply the full-tuition scholarship to any of DMACC’s nearly 200 degree programs offered through the College’s 12 campuses and learning centers...

This is the time of year when schedules in the Legislature get updated, sometimes hourly, in order to accommodate required meetings of the Appropriations Committee and the Ways and Means Committee along with negotiations with the Senate and the Governor’s office. ...

Last week was the fourteenth week of the session, leaving, perhaps, two weeks to go. At this point, I expect session to end on time, but that’s not guaranteed. Please add Senator Lofgren and his family to your prayers. He lost his two-year-old grandson last week...

The Storm Lake schools became the latest battlefield in the cola wars. After Community Education Director Joe Fucera investigated the perks of signing to exclusively offer one brand of soft drink, the school was left to choose between two soda suitors - Coca-Cola and Pepsi...

After months of attempts to negotiate stalled, the Storm Lake City Council voted Monday to end its agreement with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources to operate Storm Lake Marina. The City will fulfill its promise to the public to run the marina with its own employees this summer season, and will terminate the 25-year contact October 1. That will leave the uncertain future of the marina fully in the hands of the state...

Over 6,600 Buena Vista County residents had been fully vaccinated for COVID-19 as of the end of last week, according to county Public Health Administrator Julie Sather. Another 1,500 have received a first shot and are scheduled for boosters. Sather told county supervisors this week that the county has one of the lower testing positivity rates in the region, under 2 percent...

“If you had told me five years ago that I would be writing a book, I would have laughed at you.” Storm Lake Native Phil Queen, after retiring as an undercover narcotics investigator, has turned the seedy underbelly of the midwest drug trade into a thriller novel, “…And Hell Followed,” with two more books on the way...

A sure sign of spring, White American Pelicans have returned to the area on their annual migration. The pelicans stand about four feet tall, weigh 10 to 30 pounds, and can have wingspans up to 10 feet. Pelican populations were decimated in the mid-1900s by chemicals like DDT accumulating in the environment and the fish the birds ate. ...

“We’re not trying to change anybody, we’re trying to educate. We just want people to understand the significance of why this trial is rocking the boat, why every time there is another killing, black people are angry. Instead of screaming, let’s have a conversation, so people can understand why people of color are afraid.” - Khamedriah Grimes