Stories from Tuesday, November 9, 2021

If your holiday season is beginning to shape up with more angst than joy, you need a humbug guru. Zena Olerich, a social worker at Buena Vista Regional Medical Center, shared ideas for de-stressing the season, during the medical center’s November Young at Heart presentation...

Megan Morenz took a Zoom call in the summer of 2020 with representatives from Admissions at Buena Vista University. She heard Director Conner Ellinghuysen detail an initiative called the Invest in Rural Iowa Scholarship. Ellinghuysen indicated Morenz wouldn’t have to write an essay for the scholarship or fill out a lengthy application. In fact, he said, Morenz had already qualified and earned the $5,000 annual renewable scholarship...

During a strategic planning retreat in October, the city council and mayor discussed Storm Lake needs for several hours, and conducted an exercise to identify their highest-priority goals moving forward. The goals were approved by resolution last week. In order of ranking, the chosen issues are:...

The area’s state senator, Craig Williams, announced in writing Friday that he will step down at the end of his term. The announcement comes a week after the area’s state representative, Gary Worthan, announced his retirement at the end of the term. Both Republicans made their decisions after redistricting threw them into new districts with fellow Republican incumbents...

COVID-19 case levels remain low in Buena Vista County, with 17 new cases reported last week, down from 20 each in the previous two weeks. No new deaths were reported last week, with one reported the week before. County Public Administrator Julie Sather said she expected some increase after Halloween, when many people were grouped together for events. “I expect an ebb and flow of increased cases as the holidays near and all the events that go with them,” she said in an online meeting Friday...

With refugees from Afghanistan streaming into the country, Storm Lake diversity proponents are beginning to prepare for what they assume will be in inevitable arrival. “We know they are heading this way,” said Di Daniels, a leader of the SALUD multicultural program in Storm Lake, during a Zoom meeting Friday. “It’s a whole different ball game than we’ve seen in the past.”...