News

Hook, line and sinker

Published by admin on Mon, 02/08/2021 - 12:44pm

ELLSWORTH – Joe Sweeney, of rural Buckeye, and Paul Skartvedt of Radcliffe, go way back. Sweeney’s mom (Sen. Annette Sweeney) was Skartvedt’s 4-H leader, and Skartvedt later helped young Joe Sweeney as his youth soccer coach.

“Our families go back several generations,” Sweeney said.

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Evening beauty

Published by admin on Mon, 02/01/2021 - 10:39am

The short winter days have been ending with glorious sunsets lately, like this one captured north of Eldora last week. The red colors deepened for about 10 minutes, then faded as the sun dipped below the southwestern horizon. A pale pink hue was left in the sky, which slowly transitioned to dark blue, then black.

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Vaccine distribution questioned

Published by admin on Mon, 02/01/2021 - 10:34am

ELDORA – Rocky Reents of Greenbelt Home Care reported on COVID numbers during the Jan. 27 Hardin County Board of Supervisors meeting, noting that the number of positive cases in Hardin County was 1,588 as of Jan. 25, with 1,436 of those individuals considered recovered. “So that leaves us with about 152 active cases,” Reents said. She also noted that as of Jan. 25, 640 vaccines had been provided, and 1,079 Hardin County residents have been vaccinated.

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Senate bill could impact schools

Published by admin on Mon, 02/01/2021 - 10:30am

ELDORA - The Eldora New Providence and Hubbard Radcliffe school boards were joined by Republican Sen. Annette Sweeny for a joint Zoom meeting on Jan. 25 during their joint meeting. Two bills, which were voted on in the Senate last week, could have major effects on rural community schools, and E-NP and H-R schools Superintendent Dr. Adam Zellmer has been working closely with Senators to ensure the results are the best for South Hardin schools.

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Wrestling back after horrific car accident

Published by admin on Mon, 02/01/2021 - 10:27am

ELDORA – Right before 8 a.m. on an October 2019 morning, EMT Director and Paramedic Maile Carter, and EMT Owen Spencer, employees at Eldora EMS, were called to a one-vehicle accident on the curves west of Steamboat Rock. When they arrived, they found a mangled car, which held two Grand View University students, passenger Jasmine “Jas” Alexander and driver Justin Portillo, who had fallen asleep at the wheel.

Alexander and Portillo were heading into Steamboat Rock to get fuel, Carter later found out, as they were on their way to help at a wrestling event in Waterloo.

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This old barn

Published by admin on Mon, 01/25/2021 - 10:18am

Perched on a hill southeast of Eldora, this former frame of a building sits untouched in the fresh snow. Ike Rooks, whose family owned the surrounding farm ground in the early 1960s, said it was a barn with a large wooden top, but that has long disappeared, leaving the stone basement and brick first floor. Although the Rooks never used it, it may have been an old milking barn back in the 1940s or 1950s.

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Keeping it in the family

Published by admin on Mon, 01/25/2021 - 10:05am

CONRAD - Joel Steckelberg knew that the door would always be open when he was ready to join the family business. Now that he’s back in Conrad and working with his father at the veterinary clinic that’s been in the family for three generations, he’s glad he made the decision.

“I always kept my options open in vet school, and the opportunity came to come home,” Steckelberg said. “I thought the opportunity was right. I wanted to do the mixed animal, large and small. I was kind of excited about that… I came back here because I like the town, like the community, like the people.”

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Feeding the hungry

Published by admin on Mon, 01/25/2021 - 9:52am

ELDORA – The South Hardin Future Farmers of America (FFA) has a tall order to fill. They are partnering with Meals of Hope, whose mission is “to inspire and empower communities to come together to end hunger,” with a goal of packaging 50,000 meals.

Greg Pfantz, agriculture teacher at South Hardin High School, and Eli Hoversten, FFA President, will gather other students in the high school gym on Feb. 24 to work in shifts, packaging the meals which will be either macaroni and cheese or spaghetti. The meals are enriched with vitamins and are meant be eaten as the main portion.

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Writer’s gift came back from the dead

Published by admin on Mon, 01/25/2021 - 9:47am

IOWA FALLS – Shawna Stewart-Lowther had her self-published children’s book Earl the Crazy, Stinky Cat, hit number one for three weeks on the Amazon charts recently, and is looking forward to her follow-up Earl the Crazy, Stinky Cat at the Farm to be on the website in the near future.

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Fog at sunrise

Published by admin on Mon, 01/18/2021 - 11:06am

Fog rose with the sunshine and hovered above the ground just south of Eldora last week, the first sunshine spotted after clouds had lingered for several days. Fog forms when warm, moist air passes over a cool surface and we’ve seen a lot of foggy days this winter.