Stories from Wednesday, May 22, 2019

On the evening of Sunday May 19 at approximately 11:13 p.m., Storm Lake Police Officers were called to the Super 8 Motel for a report of a subject who was in the lobby causing a disturbance. Officers arrived and located Juan Gustavo Martinez Jr, age 38, of Storm Lake.  Officers determined Martinez was intoxicated and arrested him. ...

Billy Joe “B.J.” Stevicks, age 57, died Thursday, May 16, at the Buena Vista Regional Medical Center in Storm Lake. Memorial services took place Monday, May 20, at 2 p.m. at the Alta-Aurelia High School Gym in Alta. In lieu of flowers, a memorial fund has been established. The Fratzke & Jensen Funeral Home in Alta is in charge of the arrangements...

Mike Westphal, age 67, of Storm Lake, died Thursday, May 16, at the Buena Vista Regional Medical Center in Storm Lake. Memorial services took place Monday, May 20, at 1 p.m. at the Sliefert Funeral Home in Storm Lake. The Sliefert Funeral Home in Storm Lake is in charge of the arrangements...

On Monday, May 20 Brent Smith from Mission Central in Mapleton, Iowa gave a power point tour of the world pointiing out where Mission Central Personnel were at work bringing the knowledge of Jesus Christ to various groups of people. Next week (on Tuesday due to Memorial Day) Matt Pearson will be talking about the Storm Lake Municipal Band and the concerts in the park that will be beginning the first Sunday of June...

Sunday, May 27, 1:30 p.m. The program will honor Vietnam veterans and will be held at the Historical Theater, Main Street. Sioux Rapids. Free will offering to be taken.

Everyone is invited to a bridal shower for Kylie Moffit, bride elect of Nick Sievers of Albert City, on Saturday June 1, at 2 p.m., at Zion Lutheran Church, rural Storm Lake. Kylie is the daughter of Bridget and Travis Vaudt, Sioux Rapids and Jill and Trent Sievers, Albert City. The couple is registered at The Straw horse, Sugar bowl, Amazon, and Bed Bath and Beyond...

Happy 14th Birthday Lily Anna Reeves, Love Dad, Mom, Mary, Kyler and Aubrey

State Treasurer Michael L. Fitzgerald wants to remind Iowans May 31 is their last chance to celebrate 529 College Savings Day by registering for a chance to win a $529 College Savings Iowa account for a child in their life. “This year, we’re celebrating 529 Day with a College Savings Iowa account giveaway along with an informational video to go along with the contest,” Fitzgerald said. ...

First Cooperative Association, headquartered in Cherokee, Iowa with 23 locations in Northwest Iowa has awarded 24 $500 scholarships to chosen graduates in their trade area. Since 1997 in excess of $178,000 has been given to local graduates to further their education in a variety of fields...

College graduates will be hitting a hot job market this spring if they’re ready to begin their careers, counselors and recruiters said. “The market’s pretty phenomenal for our students right now,” said Bill Watts, the University of Nebraska-Lincoln’s director of advising and career services. He said graduates have better chances this year to land good jobs than he’s seen in 20 years...

Storm Lake St. Mary’s held their annual Baccalaureate Mass last week for the St. Mary’s High School graduating seniors as part of a school Mass. Parents of seniors were on hand to give their students their caps and mortarboards as part of the moving annual “capping ceremony.” After the Mass, the student body, faculty and staff lined the school hallways as an “honor guard” to bid farewell to the departing seniors on their last walk through the school hallways before commencement. ...

Five siblings gathered in Storm Lake this weekend to watch their youngest brother graduate from high school, decades after their parents emigrated from war-torn Sudan to the United States. Cham Deng received his diploma Sunday from Storm Lake High School with a 3.4 grade point average, ranking him 28th in his class of 190 students, the Sioux City Journal reported. Storm Lake is a city in Buena Vista County with a population of roughly 10,600...

The May Planetarium Program at Sanford Museum in Cherokee will be Molecularism, Sunday, May 26, 4 p.m. The show ties in with the spring exhibit at the museum, “You Matter.” Welcome to Molecularium: a magical, musical adventure into the world of molecules.This show is an exciting new animation created to spark interest in the atoms and molecules that constitute our world. Kids will love enjoying the exhibit and then seeing the planetarium...

Tickets are on sale now for Ashley McBride, rising county crossover artist, in concert at the Hard Rock Resort in Sioux City. The show is June 28, 8 p.m. in the Anthem arena. “I hear the crowd, I look around, and I can’t find one empty chair. Not bad for a girl going nowhere” sings McBryde on “Girl Goin’ Nowhere,” the seminal title track from her debut LP. ...

Thunderstruck, the county’s best-known AC/DC tribute band, will be performing Saturday, July 20, at the Preservation Plaza in Arnolds Park. Showtime is at 8 p.m. Recreating the “Thunder From Down Under,” the Louisville, Kentucky band faithfully recreates the songs you know and love from all eras of AC/DC...

Iowa singer-songwriter, artist and author, Chad Elliott, will be in concert at Byron’s in Pomeroy, Sunday, May 26, starting at 5 p.m. Elliot’s latest is an independently released “Rest Heavy: The Sun Studio Sessions.” His writing weaves love, loss and forgiveness into well-worn lyrics with timeless melodies...

Presidential candidate John Delaney will take part in an immigration roundtable discussion today, 4-5 p.m. at King’s Pointe Resort. The session is open to the public. The former Maryland congressman - who holds the distinction of being the first of the Democrat stampede to declare his campaign, back in July 2017, has called for a moderate approach to comprehensive immigration policy reform. He previously took part in the Heartland Forum in Storm Lake...

Trepson Preschool in Storm Lake has been awarded a $20,000 grant from Tyson Foods for child care/preschool expansion and to support the first Day of the Child Multicultural Festival in Storm Lake this September. This is in addition to Tyson approving turkey and pork products for free child multicultural food tasting at the Day of the Child Multicultural Festival...

Storm Lake schools leaders continue to look for inspiration behind bars. Thirteen educators recently traveled to the state penitentiary in Fort Madison, to meet with several prisoners who are all serving life sentences. “We wanted to hear their stories about the choices they had made,” elementary Assistant Principal Michael Sullivan said. ...

Alan Maldonado didn’t participate in student government or take a Spanish class in high school. Ironic then, as the Buena Vista University Student Senate president prepares to graduate, he’s heading to graduate school, intent on earning his doctorate in Spanish literature...

The Iowa Department of Natural Resources (DNR) reminds all boaters and anglers to “Clean, Drain, and Dry” their boats and equipment this Memorial Day weekend to protect Iowa lakes and rivers from aquatic hitchhikers. Aquatic hitchhikers are invasive species – everything from zebra mussels to Eurasian watermilfoil – that move from one waterbody to another by hitchhiking on boats, in bait buckets and on other equipment used in the water. ...

For the final time, the Clay Central-Everly High School gym filled with parents, friends and family to witness a group of graduating CC-E seniors walk across a stage and receive their high school diplomas. The gravity of the class of 2019’s status was not lost on the students, who reminisced about their history as CC-E Mavericks and were hopeful for the future of themselves and fellow CC-E classmates and teachers, who will adjust to the high school’s closing at the end of the school year...

A proposal to buy property from the school district to make way for a 4th and Oates stormwater project passed the Storm Lake City Council unanimously Monday, after being defeated in a split vote two weeks earlier. Two members of the council had then expressed concern that the City isn’t maintaining the rain gardens and other outdoor facilities, and voted against the project until the city could show a maintenance plan for all the facilities...

Plans to resurface the Storm Lake High School parking lot will be pushed back, in order to resurface the stadium track instead. The tough decision was made during a special meeting of the school board Tuesday. Originally, plans were to begin the parking lot project this summer. Hopes for a track project were going to take a back seat to a necessary middle school roof project...

Efforts toward building a new Storm Lake Middle School gym will begin immediately. After learning that the project will take 18 months to complete, plans have been changed to separate that project out from the proposed Early Childhood Center kindergarten phase that will go to voters later this year...

Habitat for Humanity of Buena Vista is sponsoring its 3rd annual charitable golf fundraiser. “Holes fore Habitat” will take place on Wednesday, July 17 at Lake Creek Country Club in Storm Lake. It will be a four person best ball with a shotgun start at 10 a.m. ...

RUTHVEN - On Friday, May 17, the Alta-Aurelia Trap dream traveled to compete at a two day shoot hosted by the Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Aryshire Bulleye’s Trap team. In the Rookie (4th and 5th grade) girls division: Anessa Johnson finished in second place...

STORM LAKE - It was a cold day on Monday for a 3A regional meet as just one Storm Lake golfer took part in the event. Storm Lake’s Hailey Reimers was the only golfer in the green and white on the Lake Creek course on Monday as she shot a 124 on the afternoon...

Longtime Storm Lake boys swimming coach Roger Peterson submitted his retirement to the Storm Lake school board last week. He stated: “I appreciate to have coached girls swimming (two years) and boys swimming (12 years), and also boys middle school track (12 years). It has been an honor to work with so many young athletes. However, due to my limited mobility, age and my grandchildren, I’m taking this time to resign my swimming and track positions.”...

BRITT - Monday saw a 1A regional golf final that included the Alta-Aurelia girls golf team along with Sioux Central’s Whitney Anderson. At the end of the day, the five A-A girls along with Anderson had all punched their ticket to the State meet next week in Marshalltown. The Warriors were able to advance on due to having a better fifth score than North Union as both schools had a score of 392...

One hundred and seventy-five seniors walked across the stage in the Storm Lake High School gym Sunday, and climbed down the short set of stairs leading to their future. The ceremony was simple and straight-forward, no musical interludes, a single speaker chosen from the class for a brief message, and many warm hugs and selfie-shots shared afterward in the commons decorated with a giant “Commitment to Graduate” banner signed by the students, as a chilly mist fell outside the school...

SPIRIT LAKE - The Storm Lake girls soccer team had one last chance on Monday night to get a win in the regular season. They battled for all 80 minutes against Spirit Lake, but fell short of getting that win in a 1-0 loss. The green and white took 10 shots with seven of those on goal, having chances to break through the net, but fell just shot of it. Sophomore Sandra Alvarez Castro took three shots with all of those on goal. Sophomore Cynthia Rodriguez took three shots with two on goal...

MARCUS - The Newell-Fonda baseball team got their 2019 season off to the right start on Monday night as they traveled northwest to take on MMCRU. The Mustangs got up early and never really let up, taking a 7-1 contest over the Royals. “It was nice to finally get out and play a game. ...

KINGSLEY - On a cool and breezy opening night of softball, the Ridge View Raptors found a whole lot of offense against Kingsley-Pierson. However, they also gave up a good amount on defense. The end result managed to go in the Raptors’ favor as they took an 18-11 contest over K-P...

FONDA - It was the start of a new era on Monday night for the fifth ranked team in 1A as Courtney Darrow was able to coach the Newell-Fonda Mustangs to a 10-1 win over the St. Edmond Gaels in her first contest as head coach. “It was nice to get the first game and win under our belt. The girls did an excellent job staying focused and disciplined at the plate,” Darrow said. “We did a nice job putting the ball into play and putting pressure on the defense.”...

STORM LAKE - The Storm Lake baseball team kicked off their 2019 season on Monday night against the Hinton Blackhawks. The Tornado bats were cold for most of the night as Hinton came away with a 5-3 victory. “First time out of the gate we definitely learned some things about our team. ...

Blistering the “sheer incompetence” of the president and repeatedly accusing Fox News of drilling misinformation into the public’s minds, the latest Democratic hopeful for president Michael Bennet spoke to a small gathering of party supporters Saturday evening...

STORM LAKE - Monday night marked the beginning of the 2019 softball season for the Storm Lake Tornadoes as they welcomed in the South Central Calhoun Titans. Despite a shaky first three innings, the Storm Lake girls were able to rebound and take a 6-4 victory to begin their season on the right foot...

With the trade war with China escalating and no exit strategy in sight, Sen. Joni Ernst acknowledges the impacts on farmers. What’s less clear is the solution to the issue, or how long the conflict will continue. “I’m going to point the finger squarely at China right now,” Ernst said in response to Richard Marshall of Alta asking for details on the way out...