Stories from Friday, May 24, 2013

As Memorial Day Weekend, the official start of the summer grilling season arrives, we remind outdoor cooks not to forget about grill fire safety as the peak months for grill fires appear. People with gas grills should take extra precautions. Although gas grills are used approximately one-and-a-half times more often than charcoal grills, they were involved in five times as many fires. The leading cause of these fires was something that could burn being located too close to the grill...

Stephanie Gravenish, daughter of Dale and Karen (Cline) Gravenish of Cherokee and A.J. Werthman, son of Tony and Darla (Papenhausen) Werthman of Cherokee, announce their engagement and upcoming marriage. Stephanie and A.J. are both past graduates of Washington High School in Cherokee, he in 2006 and she in 2007. ...

Maggie Peterson and Jesse Siegel are pleased to annouce their engagement and up coming wedding. Maggie is the daughter of Steve and Anne Peterson of Norwalk, IA and is a 2002 graduate of Estherville Lincoln Central. She earned her Bachelor of Science from Iowa State University in 2006 and her Masters of Physician Assistant from the Univeristy of Iowa in 2010. She is currently employed at the Mercy Medical Center...

Arlene Sophia Ethel Shade (Perry), age 90, left the bonds of earth on April 27, 2013 at Mesilla Valley Hospice in Las Cruces, New Mexico. She was born November 8, 1922, in Gaza, O'Brien County, on a farm owned by Dr. Johnson, who attended her birth. She was the oldest of three children born to Charles Austin Perry and Matilda Marie (Menke). Robert and Arlene were members of the Evangelical and Reformed German Lutheran Church at Calumet...

Mary Thelma Dawson Kludas, 83, of Monticello, IL, passed away May 21, 2013 at OSF St. Joseph Medical Center, Bloomington, IL. Mary was born on December 16, 1929 in Hawkinsville, GA, the daughter of Thomas Sheldon and Mary Lou (Mays) Dawson. She met the love of her life, James Ralph Kludas, in Atlanta, GA and they married on March 22, 1953 in Hawkinsville, GA. He passed away December 23, 2000...

The Cherokee County Board of Supervisors held a public hearing for the proposed 2012/2013 Budget Amendment at their weekly meeting Tuesday morning. There were no questions or concerns raised by those in attendance, and the Supervisors approved the Budget Amendment as published in the May 8, 2013 edition of the Chronicle Times...

MANSON - The Ag III class at Ridge View High School successfully defended its title as the champion in the "junk yard war " competition staged recently at the State Industrial Technology Fair. The contest is loosely based on the TV show "Junk Yard Wars", and the challenge for competing teams is to build a pulling tractor from salvage material. The engine must be 8 hp or less...

FONDA - The Ridge View softball team opened its season by travelling to Fonda to play a tough Newell-Fonda team on Tuesday night, and the Raptors came out on the losing end of an hard - fought game, 9-6. Ridge View coach Scott Phelps said the coaches were happy the way the kids competed and kept battling inning to inning...

NEWELL - The Ridge View baseball team opened its 2013 season here on Tuesday with an 8-3 non-conference win over Newell-Fonda, scoring four runs in the first inning and adding two more in the second to take a 6-0 lead before the host Mustangs could get on the scoreboard...

The Ridge View softball team evened their record at 1-1 with a 5-0 win over Manson-Northwest Webster on a wet and cold Wednesday night. The Ridge View coaches felt that their players had made progress from their first game, especially at the plate...

IDA GROVE - The Ridge View boys played a doubleheader with Odebolt-Arthur/Battle Creek-Ida Grove here on Wednesday, and the two Western Valley Conference rivals each came away with a win, with the Falcons winning the opener, 12-8, and the Raptors coming back to take the nightcap by a similar score, winning 13-8...

The annual exhibit of the Cherokee public schools held last Friday and Saturday in the city hall chambers was by far the largest and best showing ever made in this city. The halls were filled with people both afternoon and evening on Friday and Saturday. ...

DES MOINES -- A Northwest Iowa group that buys lottery tickets together was just one number away from having a share of Saturday's record Powerball jackpot, and ended up winning a $10,000 prize. Mike Fry of Aurelia claimed the $10,000 prize Monday at Iowa Lottery headquarters in Des Moines on behalf of the Alta-Aurelia "Warrior Club."...