Stories from Monday, July 21, 2014

One picnic table equals 32,000 plastic shopping bags! Yes, the equation does work! Those bags that you often see blowing in the wind or caught in the fence or tree, or taking up space in your storage area, can be transformed into useful products that help beautify the places that we enjoy. Simply take them to your local grocery store for recycling into outdoor furniture...

WASHINGTON, D.C. - The National Committee for Quality Assurance (NCQA) recently announced that Stephen J. Veit, MD PC, of Cherokee has received recognition from the Patient-Centered Medical Home 2011 program for using evidence-based, patient-centered processes that focus on highly coordinated care and long-term participative relationships...

You're invited to the Cherokee County Relay For Life on Friday August 1st at Gillette Park/Bacon Aquatic Center in Cherokee. Come help the American Cancer Society celebrate this year of hope. A special part of the Relay For Life of Cherokee County, a team event to fight cancer, will be a luminary ceremony at dusk. Candles, inside of luminary bags which have a message of remembrance, a prayer of thanks, or words of hope attached, will illuminate the walking path...

Funeral services for Clifford E. Carlson of Aurelia, 88, will be Thursday, July 24, 2014, at 10:30 a.m., at St. Paul Lutheran Church in Aurelia, with Pastor Larry Lemke officiating. Burial will be in the Memory Gardens Cemetery in Cherokee, with Military Honors by the L. A. Wescott Post # 2253 of the VFW in Cherokee. There will be no visitation. A memorial fund has been established. The Redig Funeral Home in Aurelia is in charge of arrangements...

Four NW Iowa counties, Lyon, Sioux, O'Brien and Cherokee, and four Midwest states are in the crosshairs for a proposed 30-inch diameter, high-pressure pipeline carrying Bakken crude oil from the Williston, N. D. oil producing basin to southern Illinois. Oil could either go to the East Coast via rail or south by pipeline to the Gulf Coast for processing into refined petroleum products like gasoline, diesel and jet fuel...

This coming Sunday, the Cherokee VFW L.A. Wescott #2253 Post will be honoring a former Cherokee County resident, the late LeRoy Reinert, a fireman first class with the U.S. Naval Reserve who was lost at sea on July 30, 1945 as the result of the sinking of the U.S.S. Indianapolis...

The 2014 Cherokee Cavaliers 4-H District Horse Show was held on June 29 at the Cherokee County Fairgrounds. The Cavaliers were host to their annual Horse Show , which is open to all 4-H members entered in the horse project area within our district. Organizers are happy to say that not only Cherokee County 4-H'ers but also exhibitors from Ida County were here as well, with a total of 28 exhibitors participating in many classes...

PAULLINA - The South O'Brien softball team started its last week of regular season play against Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn/Remsen-Union on June 30th. MMC-RU led 1-0 until the 5th inning when SOS scored four runs, collecting five of its seven team hits that frame...

LeMARS - The 3rd ranked Woodbury Central softball team advanced to the State Tournament Monday with a 4-2 Class 2A regional final victory here over South O'Brien. South O'Brien outhit Woodbury Central, 7-3, in a contest that saw seven combined errors - four by Woodbury Central and three by South O'Brien, and the Wildcats capitalized on their opportunities, including plating an insurance run in the bottom of the sixth...

The War Eagle All-Conference softball teams were recently released, and Marcus-Meriden- Cleghorn/Remsen-Union's Beth Specht was tabbed for the All-WEC first team. South O'Brien 's Kendra Rohlfsen, Taylor Paulsen, Bret Struve and Rachel Struve were also first-team selections, and Rohlfsen was selected as the conference Defensive Player of the Year as well...

ROCKWELL CITY - The Twin Lakes Conference has released its 2014 All-Conference softball team, and conference runner-up Alta-Aurelia placed three players on the 1st Team All Conference and another on the second team. Pitcher Tayler Rohwer was named to the first team as a Utility Player, and she was joined on the first team by infielder Christena Heschke and outfielder DJ Flores. Rohwer and Heschke were the only seniors on the Warriors' squad this season, and Flores is a sophomore...

ALTA - The Alta-Aurelia boys found themselves trailing North Union,4-0 after four innings of play in their Class 1A Regional semi-final baseball game here on Thursday, but Coach Dan Wendel's gritty Warriors scored five runs in the bottom of the 5th, and then held on for a 5-4 win...