Stories from Friday, February 2, 2018

A Windbreak Seminar will be held on Monday, February 26, from 10 a.m.-12 p.m. at West Iowa Bank in Laurens located at 202 W. Main St. ISU Extension Forester, Jesse Randall, will be presenting on species selection, site considerations, windbreak design, disease updates, and planting, establishment, and maintenance. This seminar is provided by BV & Pocahontas County Soil & Water Conservation District...

On the evening of Tuesday, January 30, at approximately 8:35 p.m., the Storm Lake Police Department was dispatched to the area of the 1000 block of West 5th Street in reference to a reported impaired driver. Upon arrival in the area police located the suspect vehicle and driver in the parking lot at the Buena Vista Regional Medical Center...

On the morning of Saturday, January 27, at approximately 1:45 a.m., Storm Lake Police conducted a bar check at Mo’s Bar on Lake Avenue. While on location police observed a wanted person identified as John Calandros, age 27 of Storm Lake who was wanted out of Buena Vista County on a warrant charging him with Failure to Pay Fines...

TRAFFIC VIOLATION On January 30 at 5:03 p.m. a Clay County Deputy initiated a traffic stop for a traffic violation. Upon investigation, it was found the driver, Ignacio Negrete-Cuellar, didn’t have a valid drivers license. Negrete-Cuellar was placed under arrest and was transported to the Clay County Jail without incident. Negrete-Cuellar was charged with Speeding, No Insurance and No Drivers License, all Simple Misdemeanors. Negrete-Cuellar was released on a $300 cash bond.

The process of determining teacher salaries at Alta-Aurelia schools will begin on February 7. A special meeting of the combined board of education will be held at 7 a.m. at Alta Elementary. The AA Education Association is expected to make an opening proposal to the board to begin the collective bargaining process, and at the same meeting, the board is expected to respond with its opening proposal. If necessary, further negotiation will follow in future sessions...

The Alta-Aurelia senior class will be sponsoring a Loaded Baked Potato Bar this Friday, February 2, during the basketball games with Newell-Fonda from 5:30-8 p.m. (or until gone.) This is a fundraiser to help with after prom activities. Free will donation. The meal will consist of baked potato with toppings, bar or cookie and bottled water...

On February 13 the Jazz choir will once again be sending out singing valentines. All orders must be in by Friday Feb.9, no later than 6 p.m. Forms can be found online at www.alta-aurelia.org

The Alta Fire Department is down two volunteers, and actively looking for some new members. “We are pretty much always recruiting. I’d rather have a list of people we can draw from as things come open, than suddenly finding ourselves 10 short,” says Fire Chief Kirk “Bubba” Reetz...

A Veterans Sweetheart supper will be offered on February 21 at 6 p.m. at the Alta community building. The public is welcome to attend. The cost is $10 per person. The entertainment for the evening will be Touch of Broadway starting at 7 p.m. The meal consists of ham and cheesy potatoes. Please call Don fisher at 712-200-1761...

Alta-Aurelia Warrior Speech had a great start to the speech season on Saturday, January 20 at District Large Group Speech Contest in Storm Lake. Thirty-six students competed in nine categories. Five entries received I ratings and will move on to State Contest on February 3 in Le Mars...

The historic Roxy Theater served as the backdrop for this year’s National Honor Society Induction ceremony Monday night in Alta. Members of the society noted that since 1921, the honor has stood for four attributes: scholarship character, leadership and service. ...

Moviegoers who come late to the “Maze Runner” franchise, which now numbers three, will doubtless have one very reasonable question: Where, pray tell, are all the mazes I was promised? Alas, the maze of “Maze Runner” — referred to as “the Glade” by the few dozen teenagers who were mysteriously dropped into it — has been in the rearview since the first 2014 installment, a modestly budgeted YA adaption and a bit of a “Hunger Games” knockoff. ...

The Cherokee Symphony Mid-Winter Concert, the second of this Symphony’s 62nd season, will be performed Sunday, February 18, at the Cherokee Community Center, 4 p.m. A full orchestra, members representing twenty communities, will be under the direction of Ted Hallberg, Le Mars, where he is a cellist, teacher and 4-12 orchestra director and music coordinator for the Le Mars Community School District...

A community fundraiser for The 4th Annual Pete Goede Memorial for ALS awareness will be held February 11 at 1 p.m. live at Hard Rock resort in Sioux City. The admissions fee is $10 and 100 percent of the proceeds will benefit local people with ALS...

The nation’s farmers have another record soybean crop to sell, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) reports released today. Iowa Soybean Association (ISA) leaders are up to the challenge. “We know there’s plenty of work to do,” said Kirk Leeds, ISA CEO. “I’m confident the initiatives and projects funded by the soybean checkoff to build demand aboard and domestically are working.”...

DES MOINES, (AP) — Iowa bankers have launched an advertising campaign calling for an end to credit unions’ nonprofit status, which they say gives an unfair competitive advantage. The move comes as Iowa’s credit unions increase their market share. The Iowa Bankers Association has released digital, radio and television ads pushing for a leveled playing field between for-profit banks and nonprofit credit unions, the Des Moines Register reported...

Why plant a windbreak? There are many reasons to plant a windbreak but there are still many rural homesteads that do not have any trees/shrubs and need protection from the elements of the weather. Some people plant windbreaks to control wind erosion. ...

Bryan Baumhover from the Storm Lake Fareway store receives the Patriot Employer Award from ESGR Volunteer Steve Waller. Baumhover was recommended by his employee Teresa Hernandez, who is a member of F. CO 334 bsb, IAN6, Storm Lake thanking him for his understandings and work scheduling to achieve Basic/AIT Training requirements. Baumhover also worked with Hernandez with employment during holiday breaks from UNI...

The Storm Lake Police Department reports that it has had some reports of citizens getting calls from someone pretending to be a Social Security Administration officer soliciting personal information and threatening forfeiture of assets. The SLPD advises that people should never give out personal information over the phone until they have verified the identity or legitimacy of the caller...

Storm Lake High School will send 47 performers to State in large group speech Saturday, following a successful district showing. The students also showed off their talents at the annual Showcase of Speech at SLHS. The success comes despite some illness issues that caused some students to miss performances, according to speech director Sara Carlson...

U.S. Rep. Steve King hopes a high-profile appearance by Iowa’s Secretary of Agriculture Tuesday night will restart a stalled USDA nomination process in Washington, D.C. Iowa Ag Secretary Bill Northey of Spirit Lake has been nominated by President Trump to serve as Undersecretary for Farm Production and Conservation at the U.S. Department of Agriculture. The fourth-generation corn and soybean farmer was King’s guest at Tuesday night’s State of the Union address...

SIOUX CITY, (AP) — Police say a northwestern Iowa teen accused of stabbing his ex-girlfriend and another teen to death has told investigators he wanted the girl “to feel the pain he was feeling.” Television station KTIV reports that 18-year-old Tran Walker, of Sioux City, is charged with two counts of first-degree murder in the early Sunday stabbing deaths of 17-year-old Paiten Sullivan and 18-year-old Felipe Negron Jr., also both of Sioux City. Walker remains jailed on $1 million bail...

Monday, January 29, the Faust Institute of Cosmetology had their All-Schools Competition. A total of nine groups, three students each, came together to prepare for the state competition just shy of two weeks away. Students from both the Spirit Lake and Storm Lake locations competed. The students were judged in three different categories: hair, makeup and nails. The students were not able to talk much but had to work together to create the look they wanted. They had one hour to create their look...

The Global Fellows Program aims to open substantive dialogue on issues of sustainability and geopolitics from a global perspective.Buena Vista University’s Global Fellows spent Interim near the southernmost city in the world, Puerto Williams, Chile, reexamining how the world treats its ecosystem and making global environmental connections. ...

Bold Iowa and Indigenous Iowa groups will join a coalition of organizations from across the upper Midwest this Saturday, February 3 for a rally and action in advance of Sunday’s Super Bowl game at US Bank Stadium. Native communities, farmers, landowners, and environmentalists fighting Energy Transfer Partners and the Dakota Access Pipeline are using the event to pressure US Bank to stop financing oil pipelines...

Nathan Vohs, Cherokee County, has been ordered by the Department of Natural Resources tao pay a $500 penalty and comply with Iowa regulations on burning solid wastes. A consent order indicates that the DNR has voluntarily entered into a legally enforceable agreement with the other party...

FORT DODGE, (AP) — A Fort Dodge woman has been charged with attempted murder after police say she hit another woman with her car. Police on Wednesday arrested 27-year-old Leah Cervene. Officers say she was drunk when her car hit a 34-year-old woman who was crossing a Fort Dodge street around 1 a.m. Saturday. The victim was taken to a hospital for treatment...

January 25 the Alta Community Library presented a program called come and be cozy. Program participants were encouraged to wear their pajamas. The children were read three stories. Llama Llama Red Pajama, Time to Sleep, and Fancy Nancy’s Pajamas Party. ...

The community is invited to a Stand With Our Neighbors event on Sunday, February 11 at 2 p.m. at Our Place multicultural center, 114 E. 3rd St. in Storm Lake. Sol Varisco-Santini, newly named Executive Director of Iowa Justice For Our Neighbors (JFON), Sonia Reyes-Snyder from Iowa Office of Latino Affairs, Storm Lake Chief of Police Mark Prosser, Storm Lake Superintendent Carl Turner and Storm Lake Immigration Attorney Marie Sennett will make up a panel addressing immigration issues and recent proposals in Congress that affect many of our immigrant neighbors.. ...

January proved to be an unusual month in Iowa weather - bitterly cold for the first half, unseasonably warm for the second. According to State Climatologist Harry Hillaker, the statewide average temperature worked out to be just under 19 degrees, about half a degree colder than normal...

The Iowa Department of Public Health says it’s received numerous reports of norovirus illnesses in the past few weeks. Norovirus cases occur all year but are usually higher in the colder months because people are indoors more and in closer contact. The virus spreads easily when people don’t stay at home with diarrhea or vomiting and when they don’t wash their hands after going to the bathroom. The illness also spreads when people prepare food while ill with vomiting and diarrhea...

The price tag for the next Storm Lake Superintendent of Schools will be $170,000-$180,000 per year, topping out near what current Superintendent Carl Turner is paid in salary and insurance benefits in his sixth year with the district. The board of education held a special meeting Wednesday night to strategize for its search process, following Turner’s announcement that he will resign in June. The board projects to have a new superintendent chosen on April 7...

The Storm Lake Water Advisory Board reviewed several current commercial projects around the city at a meeting this week. City staff member Scott Olesen told the board that the Methodist Manor construction is nearing interior completion. When the new structure is finished next summer, that will make way to remove some current wings, allowing for the storm water portion of the project to begin, including rain gardens, settling basins and planting of vegetation around the site to help control water runoff.. ...

The moon put on a rare cosmic show Wednesday: a red blue moon, super big and super bright. It’s the first time in 35 years a blue moon has synced up with a supermoon and a total lunar eclipse, or blood moon because of its red hue. Hawaii and Alaska had the best seats, along with the Canadian Yukon, Australia and Asia. The western U.S. also had good viewing, along with Russia...

August 31, 1932 - January 31, 2018