Stories from Wednesday, April 11, 2018

Friday's Chamber Coffee, at 9:30 a.m., will be hosted by the Cherokee Public Library in honor of National Library Week.

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig visited Cherokee County recently and his visit began at the Cherokee Chamber/CAEDC office where he shared lunch with leaders in agriculture from throughout Cherokee County. In addition to representatives from CAEDC, CIC and the Chamber, attendees at the luncheon/roundtable discussion included residents representing the Farm Bureau, TenCorp, DuPont Pioneer, Cherokee County Soil and Water Conservation, and Cherokee State Bank...

Paul V. Voge of Galva, age 63, passed away on Monday, April 09, 2018 at the Buena Vista Regional Medical Center of Storm Lake.  A funeral service will be held on Thursday, April 12, 2018 at 10:30 AM at the United Methodist Church of Holstein, with the Rev. Doresa K. Collogan officiating. Burial will be at the Holstein Cemetery. A visitation at the church will be held on Wednesday, April 11, 2018 from 4 – 8 p.m. The Nicklas D. Jensen Funeral Home of Holstein is in charge of the arrangements...

At last week’s Cherokee County Board of Supervisors meeting, County Engineer Brandon Billings reported that he plans to promote a current employee in the engineering department and advertise for an additional engineering aide position to assist with project inspections and plan documents...

Lucile Reyer of Cherokee, Iowa, age 90, passed away Saturday March 31, 2018, at Accura Healthcare in Cherokee. A memorial service was held at 7:00 p.m. on Friday, April 6th at the Greenwood-Schubert Funeral Home in Cherokee., with Pastor Robin Thomas officiating, and visitation with the family present was one hour prior to the service. ...

Keith Specht, a resident of Poulsbo, Washington, passed away on April 2, 2018 at the age of 65. Services were held at House of Awakened Culture (Suquamish Community House) on April 8, 2018. Keith was raised by his late parents, Mildred and Chester Specht, in Cleghorn, Iowa...

I’m so glad that this week is my turn to write an article. It’s the best week to be a librarian. The ABSOLUTE BEST! Why? It’s National Library Week! Once a year, we take one week in April to celebrate libraries, library workers, and all things library related. Personally, I think this should be every week (because libraries are the best), but I’ll take what I can get...

Over the last several years, I have had numerous contacts from people regarding mental health issues, and this year has been no different from others. My good friend and colleague, Rep. David Heaton from Mt. Pleasant, chairs the Human Services budget, and is very knowledgeable in the area of mental health and mental illness. He wrote this column, and I thought it gives a good overview of what we are trying to do here in Des Moines, and wanted to share it with you...

Let's get ready to celebrate! We can finally start thinking of spring, warmer weather, the countryside turning green and probably a great deal of litter and trash previously covered in snow on the roadsides and the landscape. With these thoughts we need to start putting plans together for our “Spring Housecleaning” for our community and our state...