Stories from Wednesday, December 12, 2018

On the evening of Saturday, December 8, at approximately 11 p.m. the Storm Lake Police Department was dispatched to the Lake Avenue Lounge located on Lake Avenue in reference to an assault. Upon arrival of police they met with the reporting party who alleged that he was physically assaulted inside of the lounge by another patron who subsequently fled from the scene in a vehicle...

Gasoline prices in Iowa have fallen another 3.7 cents per gallon in the past week, averaging $2.18/gallon to start the week. This compares with the national average that has fallen 2.7 cents per gallon versus last week to $2.41. Storm Lake pump prices continue to come in below average, at $2.11 at many stations on Monday - a dollar below the price on this date in 2013, but above the modern low for this date of $2.01 in 2015...

Lavon Richardson, age 75, of Storm Lake, died on Friday, December 7, at the Methodist Manor Retirement Community in Storm Lake.  Funeral services were held on Tuesday, December 11, at 10:30 a.m. at St. John Lutheran Church in Storm Lake. Burial is in the Storm Lake Cemetery. ...

Norman P. Fritz, age 88, of Fonda, died on December 7, at the Methodist Manor Retirement Community in Storm Lake. Memorial services will be held on Saturday, December 15, at 10:30 a.m. at the United Church of Christ in Fonda. Burial will be in the Cedar Cemetery in Fonda. The Mahaney Funeral Home in Fonda is in charge of arrangements...

Wayne Robb, age 91, of Storm Lake, died on Friday, December 7, at his home in Storm Lake. Private family services will be held. Interment will be in the Buena Vista Memorial Park Cemetery. The Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake is in charge of the arrangements...

Phyllis Toiberg, age 85, of Storm Lake, formerly of Laurens, died on Thursday, December 6, at the Sunset Knoll Care & Rehab Center in Aurelia.  Memorial services were held on Tuesday, December 11, at the Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake. Visitation took place one hour prior to the service at the funeral home. Burial will be in the Buena Vista Memorial Park Cemetery in Storm Lake. The Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Storm Lake is in charge of the arrangements. ...

5th Grade 4.00 Eli Franken Zach Kolpin 6th Grade 4.00 Brookelynn Cudaback Emma Mentzer Nora Pickhinke Addison Voge 7th Grade 4.00 Abby Else Jayley Endrulat Jesus Mendoza Noah Shepherd Leanna Vincent Jaycie Vohs Kenna Wiese Morgan Wright 8th Grade 4.00...

DES MOINES - State Treasurer Michael L. Fitzgerald recently awarded nine College Savings Iowa accounts, over $22,000 in total prizes, to finish College Savings Iowa’s 20-Year Celebration. Iowans across the state with children and grandchildren under the age of 18, were encouraged to sign up for the celebration giveaway. ...

AMES – Amy Powell started working to help 4-H’ers throughout Iowa understand the basics of animal care when she came to Iowa State University in 2014. To find out how those youth acquire information about animal care Powell set up focus groups with extension professionals, volunteers and parents in five Iowa counties. She found that there were no guidelines in place for acquiring and disseminating information about animal care...

Kids got the chance to do some holiday shopping for their family at an affordable price of $1-5. Volunteers Thursday night helped the kids check their list twice and wrap the gifts while their parents waited in the other room. Santa’s Secret Workshop will be open again on Saturday, December 15 from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. at 1515 Lakeshore Drive...

Sioux Rapids P.E.O. Chapter GJ announces that applications are being accepted from area women post-secondary students for $300 and $500 scholarships to be awarded in February 2019. To be eligible for a scholarship the applicant must be from, or living in, the Buena Vista or Clay County area. They must have completed one year of post-secondary education and currently be enrolled in a college, university, community college or va-tech school. All applications must be postmarked by January 15, 2019...

Local businesses shopped at Bomgaar’s Thursday morning to help make Christmas special for needy kids in the area. Five businesses each worked with a budget of $375 to buy toys and needed items for kids. All items will be donated to Upper Des Moines Opportunity, where families who missed the cut-off deadline for the “adopt a family” program will be able to go pick out something they know their children will love. Bomgaar’s contributed a 30 percent discount to the purchases...

Happy 13th Birthday to Ashley Hinkeldey of Alta.

DES MOINES — Sen. Chuck Grassley says he will not support any Republican challenger to President Donald Trump in the primary ahead of the 2020 election. Grassley confirmed that he will be supporting Trump. He says anyone is welcome to campaign in Iowa, which holds the first in the nation caucus, “but Chuck Grassley won’t be appearing with them.”...

A Storm Lake man was jailed twice in a matter of hours Saturday after incidents in two different bars, the last ending with a death threat against an arresting officer. Shortly after 2 a.m., police were called out for a disturbance at Mo’s Bar, where a man had refused to leave at closing time and began shouting obscenities at the staff. ...

Chicago tribute band Transit Authority will perform January 25 at the 39th Annual Winter Games weekend. Fans will want to get their tickets early for this 7:30 p.m. show at the Pearson Lakes Art Center in Okoboji, before they sell out. Tickets are available at box-office.diamondticketing.com...

The Marathon Public Library will host a music event on Thursday, Dec. 20. Christmas duets on clarinet will be performed by Kacie Cox and Stephen Bray, Music Education and Performance majors at the University of South Dakota. Coffee and cookies will be provided...

Mace Hathaway and Friends will be performing New Year’s Eve at Byron’s in Pomeroy. Showtime is 8 p.m. on Monday, December 31. The singer/songwriter/multiinstrumentalist and Council Bluffs native offers a soulful voice, energetic delivery and lyrics that touch the listener. He has written over 200 Americana, folk, bluegrass and country songs...

Local classic rock cover band The Senders, still going strong after more than half a century, has been tapped to take part in the 2019 Cherokee Jazz & Blues Festival. They will perform Saturday, Jan. 19 at the Western Iowa Tech Conference Center, 6-9 p.m...

Spencer Community Theatre welcomes audiences to the second show of its 59th anniversary season, “Almost, Maine.” Almost, Maine, is a place that’s so far north, it’s almost not in the United States. It’s almost in Canada. And it’s not quite a town because its residents never got around to getting organized, so it almost doesn’t exist. ...

It was a cold, wet morning when Allied leaders boarded a railroad car near Paris to sign an armistice with Germany. The time was 5 a.m. on Nov. 11, 1918, and the ceasefire brought an end to hostilities on World War I’s Western Front effective at 11 a.m. that same day — “the 11th hour of the 11th day of the 11th month.”...

Families packed Oneota Park Friday night for Clay County Conservation’s Winter Woodland Frolic event which featured activities like snowshoeing in the woods and taking a tractor ride through the park. Inside the Oneota cabin, attendees witnessed the unveiling of the plans for the Oneota Environmental Learning Center. The center will be constructed from the former horse barn the conservation board hauled to the park in April...

CORRECTIONVILLE — The famous “jog” through the heart of Correctionville suffered a bit of a stumble in recent days. Make that stumbles. Plural. On Nov. 23, and again on Nov. 28, vehicles slid or rolled straight south on Driftwood, failing to negotiate the “correction” on Fifth Street before the road heads south again. The town is named for a surveying “correction” that mappers used because the earth curves toward its top. The east-west correction line runs along Fifth Street, at Driftwood...

DES MOINES — A judge said Friday it will take up to 60 days to consider whether to declare Iowa’s fetal heartbeat law unconstitutional or allow a legal challenge filed by abortion providers to proceed to trial. A decision to strike down the law before trial would likely be appealed to the Iowa Supreme Court...

Students pose for Instagram while they’re dressed to the nines for the holiday season at the BVU Winter Formal.

Storm Lake Police were called to the scene of a crashed, abandoned car in the roadway on East 4th Street late Saturday night, the driver’s seat soaked with blood. It didn’t take long to track down the driver, as shortly after that, the sheriff’s department a short distance away notified police that a man with fresh facial injuries was there trying to bond out an inmate...

Storm Lake High School’s newest musical group, Mariachi Los Tornados, made their first-ever public appearance during the school’s Holiday Concert Monday, to the delight of the crowd. See the Pilot-Tribune’s Facebook page for video of the concert highlights...

The Storm Lake Police Department is reporting package thefts this holiday season, with two calls in the last week—a new occurrence for Storm Lake, according to Assistant Chief of Police Chris Cole. “This is the first year I can recall where they’re getting stolen,” he said, as opposed to mistaken placement or items delivered to the wrong house...

Buena Vista County Supervisors gave the OK for County Engineer Bret Wilkinson to move forward with initiatives to improve safety at two railroad crossings, one of which saw a fatal crash in June. The railroad’s crossing at 170th Avenue in Newell, where a man driving an agricultural sprayer was killed, was scrutinized for its lack of east-west visibility, impeded by grove of trees to the southwest corner of the intersection and high mounds of dirt on the northwest corner...

Supervisor-elect Kelly Snyder, who won a three-way race for the county’s only contested seat in November, will be stepping down from the courthouse’s security detail, pending an opinion from the state’s Attorney General. Previous recommendations from County Attorney-elect Paul Allen recommended that Snyder step down from his security position due to salary issues...

Arlene Sundell has been an artist for almost all of her 93 years, never selling a single piece of work, and never once exhibiting her art. In fact, until now she’s never signed any of her work. “I wouldn’t want it to seem like I was bragging,” she smiles humbly...

Voters Tuesday defeated the $29 million Storm Lake Early Childhood Center proposal. Two measures were necessary to fund the construction. Measure A had 56.8% approval and measure B 55.2%, with 60 percent “yes” votes needed on both for the project to proceed...

MANSON - The Sioux Central Rebel girls basketball team was in a fight on Friday night against the Manson-NW Webster Cougars. The 32 minute contest needed an extra period to determine the winner as the Rebels took charge in the OT frame for a 64-56 win...

HOLSTEIN/CHEROKEE - The Ridge View boys used a strong second quarter on Friday night to create enough distance from Kingsley-Pierson to pick up a Western Valley Conference win, 66-47. “It was a fun game to coach when your team plays as well as we did Friday night against K-P. We shot very well and we followed our defensive plan very well,” RV Coach Mike Smith said. “The boys were focused and ready to play.”...

SIBLEY - The Alta-Aurelia and Ridge View wrestling teams both took part in the Sibley-Ocheyedan wrestling invitational on Saturday. The Warriors came away with a second place team finish as Ridge View took fifth out of the six teams. Hinton took first place...

ALTA - The Alta-Aurelia girls continue to attempt to get over the hump this season as they try to get that elusive first win. On Monday night they played host to Kingsley-Pierson and fought hard, but bowed at the final horn, 66-29. “We played a good K-P team on Monday night, a very talented team that is coached well,” A-A Coach Adam Rapp said. ...

ALTA - It was the third game in just a handful of nights for the Alta-Aurelia boys basketball team. After splitting a pair of games on Friday and Saturday, the Warriors had another non-conference game on Monday night as they welcomed in Kingsley-Pierson. Using a key run in the second quarter, Alta-Aurelia picked up their fourth win of the season, taking a 65-36 decision from the Panthers...