High school students at least 15 years of age and interested in becoming a nurse have the opportunity through Iowa Lakes Community College (ILCC) to get a head start on a career.
High school students can enroll in the C.N.A program and earn college credits as well as high school credits without any extra cost. 

S&B Farms Distillery has started a major expansion that is expected to be finished by November.
“We have been in a rapid growth. This allows us to keep up with our demand,” said Sara Winkleman, owner of S&B Farms Distillery. “We’ll be able to triple the volume of what we’re currently producing.”
 
See the Oct. 15 Kossuth County Advance for more information.

The 100th birthday celebration of the Lakota Public Library is taking a different twist in 2020 because of the COVID-19 pandemic. Letters are being sent to patrons and friends of the library asking for donations to make sure the library continues operations.
“We had big plans before the pandemic,” said Gwen Good, vice president of the library Board of Trustees. “Since 2000 we’ve had a salad luncheon each year to help benefit the library because we were short of funds.”
 

The clinic at Kossuth Regional Health Center (KRHC) will receive a facelift this year to continue to address issues involving those with respiratory symptoms.

Saturday, Oct. 3, came and went. There were no lawn chairs filling the streets the night before. There were no drums beating down the main street. There was no sound of horns bursting through the surrounding neighborhoods, no buses lining the streets, and no crowds of kids filling the parks while waiting for their turn to march. What would normally be an exciting, fun-filled Band Day for Algona and high school bands from all over northern Iowa was just like any other day.

The state of Iowa has issued a fire ban in Kossuth County. The state fire marshal investigated conditions in the county at the request of David Penton, emergency management/911 director, pursuant to Iowa Code 100.40(1). A proclamation was issued on Tuesday, Oct. 13, that prohibits fire burning in the county because the fire marshal finds that conditions in the county are such that open burning constituted a danger to life or property.

ALGONA—Jury selection begins Tuesday, Oct. 20, at the Columbia Events Center in Algona for the first-degree murder trial of Chad Dietrick.
Dietrick, 47, of Lakota, was charged on March 3, 2018, with first-degree murder in the death of Krista Lynn Hesebeck, 38, also of Lakota. 
Jury selection is slated for Oct. 20-21 with opening statements and testimony to follow on Oct. 22. 

    “Dar, you have breast cancer.” A few simple words that have changed my life forever. Even though I had administered chemotherapy as a nurse many years ago, I never expected to be the recipient of chemo. I never once thought I’d be the one with cancer. I had yearly mammograms. I ate a well-balanced diet, exercise regularly, walking several miles every day and was in general good health.

   ALGONA—To mask or not to mask? That was the big question at the Algona Community School District Board of Directors meeting Monday night. 
The meeting was moved to the Wilcox Performing Arts Center because of the increased number of people who attended.
Superintendent Joe Carter said from Friday, Sept. 25, until Friday, Oct. 2, the district had 63 students who were quarantined. Of those, 60 were healthy, showed no symptoms and went home for 14 days.

Here is a summary of a few of the news items in the Oct. 8 Kossuth County Advance. Other items may be in other entries on the website. Full stories are in the Oct. 8 print edition, on sale at newsstands or by subscription.

In 1966, brothers Alvin and Wilbert Ruhnke each received a letter from the cemetery board for St. John’s Lutheran Church in Fenton, asking if the Otto Ruhnke family would like to give a donation for the cemetery’s upkeep. The cemetery records showed that Otto and Alma Ruhnke, parents of Alvin and Wilbert, had an infant born in 1920 who was buried in that cemetery.

Algona High School celebrated homecoming during a pandemic and students and staff still had a lot of fun. See the photos on page 22 of the Oct. 8 Kossuth County Advance.

Read the profiles of the candidates for a Kossuth County Board of Supervisors seat in the Oct. 8 Kossuth County Advance.
 
 

It’s Fire Prevention Week. See the salute to area firefighters from local businesses – pages 14-17 in the Oct. 8 Kossuth County Advance.
 

ALGONA—Who and what is on the ballot, and when can people begin voting, and where will they be voting are questions on the minds of voters throughout Kossuth County. 
There are local races for county government, regional races for the Iowa Statehouse and the national races for the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate and the presidency. There is also a ballot question about whether the state should hold a constitutional convention to revise the document.