Stories from Wednesday, May 7, 2014

Nolte, Cornman & Johnson P .C. have released an audit report on the Cherokee Community School District. The District's revenues totaled $11,847,494 for the year ended June 30, 2013, a 1.22% increase from the prior year. Revenues included property tax of $3,473,697, income surtax of $267,313, statewide sales, services and use tax of $795,305, charges for service of $1,042,800, operating grants, contributions and restricted interest of$1,066,182, unrestricted state grants of $5,029,978, unrestricted investment earnings of$12,916 and other general revenues and transfers of$159,303.. ...

The City of Cherokee and Sanitary Services are sponsoring City-wide cleanup days on Monday and Tuesday, May 12 & 13. Sanitary Services will be picking up anything two men can lift on those days. The city has contracted a local appliance de-manufacturer who will pick up the appliances later in the day...

The Cherokee Rotary Club held a luncheon at Danny's Sports Spot on Monday. Their guest for the event was Iowa State Senator Randy Feenstra (R-Hull), who spoke to the Rotary Club and kept the group informed about recent events from the last legislative session. Feenstra, left, is pictured here with local Rotarians Tony Puffett, center, and Mark Hecox. Photo by Mike Leckband...

These members of the Cherokee Fire Department - Second Assistant Chief Greg Eaton, Fireman Randy Reeves and Fire Chief Gary Chase - show off the department's new saw, which was purchased with money from the Cherokee County Legacy Foundation. Photo contributed...

ESTHERVILLE - The Cherokee Washington High girls blitzed Estherville-Lincoln Central, 8-1, in Lakes Conference varsity only tennis action here Friday in a weather makeup from April 28. Cherokee won five of six singles matches and swept the doubles to claim this decisive win...

The Cherokee Braves handled visiting Estherville-Lincoln Central, 7-2, in boys varsity tennis action here Friday night. Cherokee won four of six singles matches and then swept the doubles competition to claim the Lakes Conference match in a weather makeup from April 28...

STORM LAKE - Humboldt won the team title at Saturday's 12-team Storm Lake Boys Golf Invitational, played at Lake Creek, carding a 18-hole match score of 334, six strokes better than runner-up Spencer's 340. Spirit Lake was third with a 343, followed by Carroll, 346; Carroll Kuemper, 350; Storm Lake, 353; Le Mars, 354; Estherville-LC, 357; Denison-Schleswig, 367; Algona, 388; Alta-Aurelia, 390; and Cherokee, 395...

LE MARS - The Spirit Lake-Okoboji girls won the 2014 Lakes Conference Tennis Meet here Saturday, claiming 17 matches on the day, while the host Le Mars girls placed second in the team chase with 16 matches won. Cherokee placed fourth in the team standings with seven matches won, and Spencer was third with 11 matches on the plus side in the round-robin format. Estherville-LC was fifth with five matches to its credit, and Storm Lake sixth with four matches won...

SPIRIT LAKE - Cherokee's Alec Shultz earned All-Lakes Conference Honorable Mention with his runner-up finish at #2 singles at Saturday's Lakes Conference Boys Tennis Meet at Spirit Lake. Cherokee's #1 player Brett Walker placed fourth at #1 singles to finish just out of the money...

SPENCER - Between the frequent inclement weather, the Cherokee Washington High girls were able to squeeze in a track and field meet at Spencer Friday night, led by Ariana Smith's personal bests in the shot put and discus for runner-up finishes. Smith placed second in the shot put with a 35-05 effort, and was second in the discus with a throw of 109-03. Kaitlyn Parrott was fourth in the shot put with a 34-04.5 throw...

REMSEN - After a wind-blown dual match with the Remsen-Union boys Monday night, South O'Brien boys golf coach Noah DeYager commented, "Every player's score matters - and we proved that tonight." The two teams played to a 191-191 tie and had to go to the scores of their 5th players to decide the match winner. Cordell Tesch was the Wolverines all-important 5th man Monday with a score of 54 and that was good enough to give his team the win...

FORT DODGE - The defending Class 2A Girls Golf champions, Alta-Aurelia, bounced back from a third place finish at Saturday's Kuemper Invitational to capture the Twin Lakes Conference Golf Championship on Monday at the Lakeside Course in Fort Dodge...

CARROLL - The Alta-Aurelia girls faced a tough field at the Kuemper Invitational Saturday at the Carroll Country Club. The girls each played 18 holes, and Atlantic took the team title with 347 team stroke. Host Kuemper Catholic was right behind, finishing second with 351 strokes, and Alta-Aurelia was third, with 374 strokes...

Area residents are reminded that water conservation starts at home and proper applications can save home owners hundreds of dollars and thousands of gallons of water each year simply by following any and all of these tips: *Replace pre-1992 toilets with High-Efficiency Toilets (HETs) to save up to 22,000 gallons of water annually...

I must say we have talented students in Cherokee! I had a chance to go to the art show at WIT last week. The art work these students did was amazing and what a wonderful way to share their works with the community. Way to go everyone. Another group of students I enjoyed during the school year were those who attended the Wednesday early out programs at the library. ...

In my sixty years of listening to popular music, I have always appreciated great vocalists, and with the increasing popularity of musical genres like hip hop and reggae over the last 30-40 years, I have felt that the number of truly great singers of standard, melodic tunes has been on the wane...

The National Association of Letter Carriers will again be participating in its annual 'Stamp Out Hunger' food drive this Saturday, May 10th, when letter carriers across the country will be collecting food for families in need. Residents are asked to collect and bag non-perishable food items and place them by their mailbox and your letter carrier will deliver your donation to the local food bank for further distribution to families in need...

The City of Cherokee has announced that the final day of yard waste pick-up by Sanitary Services is on your regular recyclable service day for the West side of town (and Rock Island/Parkview additions) will be on these Thursday, May 15; and the East side of town will be on Friday, May 16...

DES MOINES - A specially wrapped motor-coach will travel nearly 2,100 miles promoting more than 60 tourism destinations in 33 counties and 46 communities across the state in an Epic Iowa Road Trip this week. Among their many stops throughout Iowa will be Hot Dog Days here in Cherokee on Thursday. The Epic Iowa Road Trip Bus will be at the Cherokee City parking lot on East Main Street...

May 6 Patty Lunders of Cleghorn May 7 Tom Letsche of Cherokee

The Cherokee Chamber Coffee Friday will be hosted by the CRMC Auxiliary at the Cherokee Regional Medical Center at 9:30 a.m.

Bryan Lafleur of Cherokee has received the WITCC TRiO Student Support Services Achiever of the Month Award for May. This award recognizes Western Iowa Tech TRIO students for demonstrating qualities of leadership and citizenship while achieving collegiate academic success. ...

Gayle Ann Gore of Cherokee,61, passed away Sunday afternoon, May 4, 2014 at her residence in the Autumn Park Apartments in Cherokee. Memorial services will be held at 2 p.m. today at the Meriden Evangelical Free Church, with Pastor Larry Ostercamp officiating. It was Gayle's wish to be cremated. and there will be no visitation. The Boothby Funeral Home in Cherokee is assisting the family with the arrangements, and online condolences can be left at www.boothbyfuneral.com...