Stories from Wednesday, March 25, 2020

Don A. Royer, age 90 of Cherokee, IA passed away Wednesday, March 18, 2020, at the Cherokee Regional Medical Center in Cherokee. Funeral services will be held at a later date in the spring. The family requests that memorials be made to the Memorial Presbyterian Church or the Cherokee Golf and Country Club. The Greenwood-Schubert Funeral Home in Cherokee is assisting the family with arrangements. Online condolences may be sent to the family at www.greenwoodfuneral.com...

Business Owners, Managers, and Friends, these are unprecedented times, and I know that many of you worry about the long term impact COVID-19 is going to have on your business and you personally. Nobody has all of the answers right now, but we continue to work on it...

Students at WHS competed in their last Speech competition in Cherokee just in the nick of time.  Speechletes performed in a contest for three qualified IHSSA judges in Cherokee on March 14 in lieu of their regular contest.  The students did an amazing job. 37 students competed and 28 straight ones were earned, 7 mixed ones were earned, and 2 twos were earned.  ...

On Monday, March 23, Governor Reynolds announced a new Iowa Small Business Relief Program that will provide financial assistance to small businesses and tax deferrals to any Iowa businesses that have been economically impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. Applications will be available on this website on Tuesday, March 24, at 8 a.m. Application deadline is Tuesday, March 31, at 12 p.m. http://www.iowaeconomicdevelopment.com/our-agency-detail-resources/6710...

The U.S. Food and Drug Administration is aggressively monitoring any firms marketing fraudulent coronavirus (COVID-19) test kits. The agency is beginning to see unauthorized fraudulent test kits marketed to test for COVID-19 in the home. At this time, the FDA has not authorized any test available to purchase for testing yourself at home for COVID-19. ...

COVID-19 has a lot of us freaked out. I had written this column earlier on to assure everyone the library had a plan to address concerns about the illness and steps we had been taking to minimize transmission. Some of the steps we had taken were to remove toys and begin sanitizing surfaces as they were used by patrons. ...