Stories from Wednesday, February 15, 2017

I am sad to see Valentine’s Day end for another year. It is a little like Christmas, because everyone seems so kind to each other. I know that there have been some unpleasant connotations, too, such as those people who have had the distinction of break-ups on that day or worse yet, have received terrible news or had a bad experience. ...

We live in a throw-away society. We're wasteful. We must all change our lifestyles to reduce, reuse, and recycle. Although we may think we can't make a difference individually, small steps taken on an individual level can and do make a difference. We must each do our own small part to minimize the waste and excess consumption in our society...

Jordan and Malinda Alm of Battle Creek announce the birth of their first child, a girl. Chloe Lynne Alm was born at 11:57 a.m. on February 9, 2017, and she weighed 6 lb. 10 oz. and measured 19 inches lonng.

Jillian and Eric Purgett of Aurelia are happy to announce the birth of their baby boy on February 7, 2017. Ashton Wesly Purgett was born at 4:16 p.m., weighed 5 lb. 5 oz., and measured 18 1/4 inches long. Ashton was welcomed home by his big brothers Carson and Landon and his big sister Mya. Grandparents are Kent and Becky Lewis of Aurelia, Cinda Purgett of Holstein, and Gary and Bonnie Lewis of Aurelia...

Charles “Edward” Gross of rural Meriden, age 84, passed away peacefully at home on Monday evening, February 13, 2017, surrounded by his family. Funeral services will be held on Friday, February 17th, at 1 p.m. at the Boothby Funeral Home in Cherokee with. Rev. Jeff Harris officiating, and burial will be in the Afton Township Cemetery in rural Cherokee. There will be military rites at the cemetery by L.A. Wescott Post #2253 of the V.F.W...

This Friday’s Chamber Coffee at 9:30 a.m. will be hosted by Bright Beginnings, 400 N. Roosevelt Avenue, and it will also be a Red Ribbon Cutting.

The 12th annual Cherokee Educational Foundation dinner will be Friday, February 24, at the Cherokee Community Center. Doors open at 5:30 p.m. The evening begins with a social time when a wide variety of silent auction items can be viewed, features a prime rib and pork roast dinner at 7 p.m., followed by a live auction of about a dozen unique and special items...

The Cherokee Chapter of Alpha Delta Kappa Sorority is offering a scholarship to any college senior who has completed, or will be completing during this school year, his or her student teaching. This scholarship is awarded each year to a student who is an education major. Alpha Delta Kappa, Honorary Sorority of Women Educators, is seeking to encourgae prospective teachers through this award...

Titan Machinery Inc. plans to close its Case IH farm machinery dealerships in Cherokee and Anthon, Iowa, as part of a broad restructuring plan. The Northwest Iowa locations are among 15 dealerships in Iowa, Nebraska, Minnesota and South and North Dakota that will be consolidated with nearby Titan dealerships, the West Fargo, North Dakota-based company said...

SPENCER - Two Cherokee Braves qualified for Iowa’s State Wrestling Championships beginning Thursday at Wells Fargo Arena in Des Moines after competing in the Class 2A Districts at Spencer Saturday. Cherokee’s Tyler Zeimen made state for the third time at 170 pounds, and Matt Stines earned a coveted State berth at 145 pounds...

MILFORD - Two Alta-Aurelia wrestlers traveled to Milford on Saturday, February 11th to compete for a chance to go to the Iowa High School State Wrestling meet, and both Warriors, Skylar Solko (152) and Nick Gaes (195) qualified.   Skylar Solko finished as District champion, and this will be Solko’s fourth appearance at the State Meet. ...

CORRECTIONVILLE - The red-hot Alta-Aurelia boys finished their regular season here Friday with an 83-40 non conference win over River Valley - the 18th consecutive victory for the Warriors, which gave them a final regular season record of 19-1. The Warriors again displayed a balanced scoring attack, with four players hitting in double digits. ...

The Alta-Aurelia varsity basketball girls saw their season come to an end Saturday when the Warriors fell to Hinton (9-13) , 50-43, in opening round tournament play. Lily Peterson scored 17 points for alta-Aurelia, including 3-3 three point attempts, and the junior also stole four passes. Erin Lockin scored nine points and Laney Stanton eight . Mary Barnes had seven assists and four rebounds for Coach Adam Rapp’s Warriors, who finished their season with an 8-12 record...

The Cherokee Washington High girls opened Class 3A Regionl Tournament play with an 80-17 thrashing of (4-17) Southeast Valley-Gowrie Saturday on their home floor. The Braves got right to work on defense causing Southeast Valley to turn the ball over repeatedly and opened the game with an insurmountable 21-0 scoring run in their favor. Cherokee led 26-6 at the end of the first quarter and led 51-9 heading into halftime and a continuous clock the rest of the way...

PAULLINA - The South O’Brien boys finished their regular basketball season here Friday, and the Wolverines fell to visiting Gehlen Catholic, 41-33, in a low scoring game. Jackson Louscher led South O’Brien with 10 points, and his brother Carson chipped in with eight points. Case Moemond had six rebounds, while Carson Louscher and Drew Faust each had five boards...

In their last regular season game of the year, the Cherokee boys basketball team was able to grind out a 58-54 victory over gritty Woodbury Central. Woodbury Central took a early advantage on the Braves, leading 16-12 at the end of the first quarter, but the Braves were able to gain the lead 27-22 heading into halftime...

MARCUS - The Marcus-Merdien-Cleghorn/Remsen Union varsity boys finished their regular basketball season with a non conference game aginst Kingsley-Pierson here Friday night, and the Royals were unable to come all the way back from a first quarter nine point dfeicit, fslling to the Panthers by a final score of 52-48...

Sioux Central defeated Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn/Remsen Union 54-45 Monday night in opening round play of the Class 1A Boys Basketball Tournament. Hunter Tentinger had a big game for MMCRU, scoring 24 points and hauling down seven rebounds, while Devin Lux grabbed 10 rebounds, and Chris Schmid scored nine points...

The Woodbury Central girls beat Marcus-Meriden-Cleghorn/Remsen Union, 67-41, in first round post season tournament play Saturday, bring the Royals’ season to a close. Rae Tucker, with 16 points, Emily Moser, with 10, and Kayla Alesch, with nine, led the MMCRU attack, and Moser, with nine rebounds and Alesch, with seven, led the team on the boards...

HOLSTEIN -The Ridge View boys basketball team closed out its regular season Friday with a 67-46 non conference win over Newell-Fonda, Jake Tokheim and Jaxon Franken both distributed the ball well for the Raptors. Franken was very aggressive, which led to 11 free throw attempts , and he conertrd successfully on nine of thos attempts an the way to an 18 point night. ...

The Ridge View boys pasted River Valley 81-21 in Class 1A District Tournament Basketball action Monday. The 9-12 Raptors plasy at le Mars Gehlen Thursday. Coach Dake Tokheim said, “Logan Cuthrell, Jacob Tokheim and Jaxon Franken had some real nice passes.  But of course the story of the game was Jaxon Franken's hot shooting hand as he went 10 for 13 from the 3-pt line.  The whole team knew he was feeling it and they kept finding him and we were all telling him to keep shooting.  That is a school record. . ...