Stories from Monday, January 19, 2015

The economic development organizations in northwest Iowa are teaming up to bring the statewide Dream Big Grow Here business grant contest to our region for the first time. The Dream Big Grow Here contest is an opportunity for Iowans to fulfill their dreams of self-employment or expansion of their current business. ...

Professional musicians, members of the Jim Oatts Quintet, gave demonstrations as part of the Music Clinic given to area school jazz bands, including the Cherokee Washington High School Jazz Band, seen in the photo at the left.. The event on Friday at the Cherokee Middle School Band Room was the start of the Cherokee Jazz and Blues Fest weekend. Look for Jazz Fest photos in the Wednesday edition of the Chronicle Times...

The owners of 101 Loft at at 101 North 2nd St., Denny Paltz and Karen Peterson, cut the red ribbon Friday morning and hosted a Cherokee Chamber of Commerce Coffee. Later that evening, the newly -opened business was a venue for the 2015 Cherokee Jazz & Blues Festival. The business stepped up when another venue became necessary...

The Thiel Sanford Museum and Planetarium, 117 East Willow St., Cherokee, has printed brochures describing the special events and regular events for the 2015 year. All of the special presentations occur on Saturdays, except for the Perseid Meteor Shower on Thursday, Aug. 13...

Sheetrock is now up on part of the Scout House Project. The crew, led by Tim Peterson of Cleghorn, made short work of it on a bright, very cold Saturday morning. Help for him included Scout Parent Richard Schmidt, Acting Scoutmaster Andrew Krebs, Scoutmaster Perry Groepper, and Assistant Scoutmaster Mike Moats...

The Rev. Natalie Freese, artist and owner of Salvation Glass Art in downtown Storm Lake, will return to Galva and teach an Easter-themed mosaic stained glass art class at The Meeting Place on Saturday, March 7 starting at 10 a.m. No experience is necessary, and adults and children ages 7 and older are encouraged to attend this hands-on class...

Why is it, whenever I see a little baby...I immediately begin talking in a high pitched voice and before I know it my vowels are streeeetched...and I hear myself saying, "What a darliiiing baaaybeeee? Child development experts call this musical cadence of talking "parentese" and more and more researchers are telling us how important "parentese" is to the development of infants and their future learning success. ...

The Meriden Fire Department called for mutual assistance from Cleghorn and Cherokee on Jan. 12 when a fire was reported at a rural family residence at 1285 540th St. Extensive fire and smoke damage reportedly occurred, but no one was injured. The cause of the fire was undetermined at the time of this report...

Cherokee County VA Director Dana Evans made his annual report to the Cherokee County Supervisors on Jan. 12, providing a summary of activities in 2014. Evans stated that his office helped get 38 veterans into the VA Health system, partly because of the Tyson plant closing...

Jessica and Andrew Rathe of Marcus are proud to announce the birth of their baby boy, who was born on January 3, 2015. Harley Scott Rathe was born at 10:34 a.m., weighed 7 lb. 15 oz., and measured 20 inches long. He was welcomed into the family by his brother Parker, and his grandmother is Darla Hanrahan of Cherokee...

Matt and Lacy Freeman of Marcus are happy to announce the birth of their baby girl, born on January 12, 2015. Kinsley Arlene Freeman was born at 8:06 a.m., weighed 7 lb. 4 oz., measured 19 inches long, and she was welcomed home by her big sisters, Kalya and Kyndall...

Bob Hanson of Cherokee, 66, passed away on Friday, January 16th at the Cherokee Regional Medical Center. A memorial service will be held at the Greenwood - Schubert Funeral Home in Cherokee on Monday, January 19th at 2 p.m., with Father Dan Guenther officating. Visitation with the family will be one hour prior to the service. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.greenwoodfuneral.com. The Greenwood-Schubert Funeral Home in Cherokee is assisting the family with the arrangements...

Bruce and Cindy Godberson of Cleghorn and John and Marcia Kelley of Sioux City are happy to announce the engagement of their children, Russ Godberson and Sara Kelley. Russ graduated from Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn High School in 2010, earned a degree in agronomy from Iowa State University in 2014, and he presently works as a Sales Agronomist for Farmers Coop Society in Ireton...

A proposal by Gov. Terry Branstad to close two of the state's four mental health institutes is a bad idea. Although we are relieved that the two institutions mentioned do not include Cherokee, that doesn't change our view that the move to consolidate acute mental health care at two locations that are far away from a large segment of the population...

The Ridge View wrestling team continued to show improvement and growth as it traveled to Cherokee and competed against Cherokee and Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn on Thursday. Ridge View defeated Cherokee by the score of 45-33 and then defeated MMC by the score of 48-36. The two victories improved Ridge View's overall dual meet record to 10-8...

REMSEN - The Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn boys held a one point lead at the end of the first quarter of their basketball game with Remsen St. Mary's here Tuesday, but the Hawks outscored the Eagles by 10 points in each of the next two quarters on their way to a 56-33 War Eagle Conference win...

REMSEN - The Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn girls placed four players in double figures on the way to a 61-55 basketball victory over Remsen St. Mary's here last week. The Lady Eagles had a nine point advantage at the end of the first stanza, but the Hawks chipped four points off that lead with a 20 point second quarter effort, then added another point to their margin in each of the final two quarters to finish with the final six point win...

1. Waverly-Shell Rock; 2. MOC-Floyd Valley; 3. Le Mars; 4. Spirit Lake; 5.Dubuque Wahlert; 6. Williamsburg; 7. Dallas Center-Grimes; 8. Central Clinton, De Witt; 9. Pella; 10. Gilbert 1. IKM-Manning ; 2. Regina, Iowa City; 3. Western Christian; 4. Aplington-Parkersburg; 5. Cascade,Western Dubuque; 6. New Hampton; 7. Monticello;...

1. Mediapolis; 2. Pocahontas Area; 3.Hampton-Dumont; 4.Spirit Lake; 5. Sioux Center; 6. Red Oak; 7.Nevada; 8.Crestwood ; 9.Osage; 10.Shenandoah; 11. Kuemper Catholic; 12. Mount Vernon; 13.Saydel; 14. Cherokee; 15. PCM 1. Western Christian; 2. Unity Christian; 3 North-Linn; 4. ...

STORM LAKE - The Alta-Aurelia boys picked up a Twin Lakes Conference win here last week when they bested Storm Lake St. Mary's, 72-59 Josh McCormick led the Warriors' attack with 25 points on 9 of 13 shooting and he also snared eight rebounds. Sean Berg had 16 points and five boards for the Warriors and Ross Friedrich had 12 points and seven assists...