Stories from Friday, August 13, 2021

Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds, Lt. Gov. Adam Gregg, Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig, Deputy Secretary of Agriculture Julie Kenney and Department of Natural Resources Director Kayla Lyon are scheduled to recognize 89 farm families for their environmental stewardship during the Iowa State Fair...

The Iowa Department of Human Services (DHS) announced today the distribution plan for Summer Pandemic Electronic Benefit Transfer (P-EBT) food assistance benefits for eligible Iowa children. The federal Summer P-EBT program allows states to issue emergency food assistance benefits this summer to all children who were eligible to receive free or reduced-price meals during the 2020-2021 school year...

The Clay County Regional Events Center recently hosted the Iowa Technology Roadshow, featuring technology industry experts who provided mini lectures on relevant technology topics and conducted a Q&A; for attendees after the panel. The Technology Association of Iowa brought the IT Roadshow and its four panelists to five cities in Iowa, with Spencer being the third stop. The event also took place in Sioux City, Fort Dodge, Waverly and Decorah...

The Whimsical Wine Trailer will return to Wood, Wine & Blues in Storm Lake’s Sunset Park. The family-operated, Boone-based trailer overflows with fun atmosphere, and travels the midwest for small-town events, billed as “Iowa’s first mobile wine bar.” Whimsical works with a half dozen Iowa wineries and several breweries...

Veteran crossover group The Marshall Tucker Band will play the Roof Garden ballroom in Arnolds Park, Sunday, August 15, at 7:30 p.m. Doors open at 6:30. Tickets are $40 in advance, $45 at the door. In the early fall of 1973 The Marshall Tucker Band was still a young and hungry group out to prove themselves every time they hit the stage. Their debut album had already spawned numerous hits...

Daredevil stunts, performing pigs, roving circus stars and a brand-new stage are just a few examples of the more than $150,000 in entertainment that will be offered free to fairgoers during the 2021 Clay County Fair, Sept. 11-19. This year’s fair will offer a new performance venue, called the Midway Stage, along with classic strolling and grounds acts...

Voters in November will have the opportunity to reduce the number of Storm Lake Library Board Trustees. The trustees had proposed cutting the number from nine to seven, and city officials opted to further reduce the number to five. Like other boards and commissions, the library has had trouble recruiting enough members to fill the terms, and attaining a quorum for monthly meetings...

The Bridge of Storm Lake and Storm Lake Police Department announced a collaboration to serve the community by the means of coffee. Through The Bridge of Storm Lake’s youth-run enterprise, Endless Sea Coffee, coffee will be available to purchase to support Storm Lake Police Department’s community outreach efforts...

Nemaha history buffs are creating a new museum on Main Street in the small community. The town was home to a Sac County Historical Society Museum in a former bank building since the 1950s, but that building became structurally unsound, and the collection had to be moved into storage, according to Lance Wedeking, one of the organizers of the current project...

Eleanor Reed Nielson has done many things during her life. She taught elementary school for 30 years, started a family and picked up golfing and fishing after retirement. But one of her biggest — and certainly longest — accomplishments is turning 104 years old on Monday, Aug. 9...

The Witter Art Gallery in Storm Lake celebrated a Grand Reopening Friday evening. An enthusiastic crowd enjoyed the Iowa Artists 50th Anniversary Reboot Traveling Exhibition, and the first in a new series “Witter After Hours” with musicians Candy Clough, Mick Polich and Mary Beth Andrews performing. Gallery Board President Patricia Hampton said the gallery is rebounding from COVID with its doors open, live classes again scheduled, and some new ideas coming up...

February 21, 1958 - August 5, 2021

The Iowa State Fair Blue Ribbon Foundation and Cookies Food Products are pleased to present Kris and Steve Gunderson of Odebolt as Iowans of the Day for the 2021 Iowa State Fair. The Gunderson duo demonstrates the epitome of service. After Kris retired from teaching in 2012, she became a founding member and chairperson of the Community Basket, a traveling food pantry in Sac and Ida counties working to fight food insecurity in rural communities. ...

Storm Lake (incl Little Storm Lake) Water temperature is around 80 degrees.  Water clarity has lessened this week due to an increase in algae growth. Channel Catfish - Fair: Use cut bait or dip baits fished on the bottom along shore and near rocky structure. Walleye - Fair: Pick up walleye mid-lake while trolling along the dredge cuts using crankbaits or bottom bouncers. ...

Storm Lake High School students are helping deliver food to community members in need who are homebound and do not have access to transportation. Students have been assisting the Friends with Food Delivery program, which serves individuals throughout the Storm Lake community...

A dozen days before the school year begins, hundreds of parents, educators, and doctors called on Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds to rescind the ban on mask mandates. Iowans for Universal Masks gathered Wednesday on the West Capitol Terrace with signs and banners, pleading with Reynolds to take executive action and allow localities to mandate masks. One of the speakers at the event, Dr. Glenn Hurst, said the decision to only allow the state to enforce a mask mandate was a failure in leadership...

Two environmental groups have petitioned a state panel to protect waterways from threats such as a cattle operation in a geologically sensitive area near a trout stream in northeast Iowa. The Iowa Environmental Council and Environmental Law & Policy Center have filed a petition for rulemaking with Iowa’s Environmental Protection Commission. They asked the governor-appointed commission to protect drinking water, groundwater, and karst terrain from pollution...

Buena Vista County recorded 35 new cases of COVID-19 during the period from July 28-August 10 - 22 new cases in the seven days ending August 10. To date the county has 4,345 confirmed cases, and 40 deaths. Test positivity for the county is at 15.8 percent, up slightly from the previous week and well above the statewide percentage of 11.7. Test numbers for the county are also up, at 215 in the past week...

Two men were rescued from a grain elevator Monday afternoon in Marcus. According to police in the Cherokee County community, Marcus police, fire and rescue departments were called to the 300 block of East Railroad Street for a reported emergency shortly before 4 p.m...

As the United States celebrated Independence Day on July 4, Cayli (Newton) Harrod toasted herself as she reached a milestone in her academic and personal journey, that of a Buena Vista University graduate. Her celebration was a quiet one, an evening spent watching fireworks where she and husband Zakry Harrod relocated this spring, in Hawaii...

Spinal Muscular Atrophy Awareness Month was declared for August in Storm Lake, by Mayor Mike Porsch, during a council meeting last week. The action came at the request of Audrey Wiley. After the proclamation, she shared her family’s personal experience with SMA...

Storm Lake just became Lighthouse City, USA. A ribbon-cutting ceremony was held Wednesday to dedicate the new Storm Lake Lighthouses art installation, realizing a dream two years in the making for two local art educators. Ten nearly seven-foot-tall fiberglass lighthouses painted in a wide range of styles by selected local artists have been placed around the community in public locations. ...

Major League Baseball set up a once in a lifetime event for the Field of Dreams game last night in Dyersville and Marlene Morrow decided to make it the best day ever for eight-year-old Kolton Iehl. Marlene worked at the Buena Vista Regional Medical Center for 47 years before retiring this past December. While working there she met Anne Iehl, who is Kolton’s mother. Kolton and Marlene became fast friends with Marlene describing him as kind of a grandson to her...

ALTA - The Buena Vista Raceway hosted races for the Modified Madness event on Wednesday evening. The raceway held races for the International Motor Contest Association modified, IMCA hobby stocks, IMCA northern sportmod, IMCA sport compact and IMCA stock cars...