Stories from Wednesday, March 20, 2013

Already into college but not yet out of high school. That is the burden of more than a few 12th graders struggling to reconcile the increasingly incongruous tasks of finishing childhood and starting adulthood -- perhaps making senior spring feel to them like, well, the duration of childhood all over again...

Vurnace "Bud" Slechta, age 91 of Cherokee passed away Wednesday, March 13, 2013, at the Cherokee Regional Medical Center. Abiding by his wishes, cremation will take place. There will be no public services. The family will have a memorial in his honor at a later date. The Greenwood-Schubert Funeral Home in Cherokee is assisting the family with arrangements. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.greenwoodfuneral.com...

Esther C. Hagey, 91, of Marcus passed away on Saturday, March 16, 2013 at the Happy Siesta Care Center in Remsen, Iowa. Funeral services were held at 11 a.m. today at Faith Lutheran Church in Marcus, Iowa. Rev. Liz Pfeifle will officiate. Burial will take place at a later date at Marcus Amherst Cemetery. ...

Neil Edmund Jacobe passed away peacefully in Long Beach, California on March 8th, 2013, just five days short of his 89th birthday. He was born March 13th, 1924 in Hawarden, Iowa to Elwood "Hap" & Mae Jacobe. The family moved from Hawarden to Souix City and next onto Cherokee, Iowa in 1939. Neil graduated from Wilson High School in the class of '42...

SIOUX RAPIDS - The eighth annual Bald Eagle day will be held Saturday, March 23, at the American Legion Building in Sioux Rapids. Registration will begin at 8:30 a.m. with refreshments being served. Programs will begin at 10 a.m. with the Buena Vista County Naturalist. At 11 a.m. the DNR will present a program. Lunch will be served for a free will donation...

The Cherokee and O'Brien Soil and Water Conservation Districts will be holding a meeting to "kick off" the Mill Creek Watershed Project on March 27 at 9:30 a.m. at the Oakdale Church located on HWY C16, 1207 450th St., Meriden. The districts have been awarded a Water Quality Development Grant to thoroughly evaluate the watershed area with a goal to develop, write and submit a grant application for state and federal assistance to implement the identified needs in the watershed at a better rate than is typically offered.. ...