Budget shortfalls challenge county-wide ambulance coverage

By Joanne Roepke Bode

Guest writer

KOSSUTH COUNTY—The field of emergency medicine is facing a great challenge in Kossuth County and across the state: how to continue to provide timely ambulance service in the communities and rural corners of Iowa with fewer volunteers, a handful of staff and no sustainable source of funding.

SWEA CITY—Swea City trick or treaters will be treated to a Texas gallon size bag of treats this Halloween courtesy of Steve and Jean Fisher. The Fishers have filled 120 gallon bags of treats to give out on Halloween night, October 31.

ALGONA—Candidates were invited to a forum at the Tietz Entrepreneurial Center at Iowa Lakes Community College on Tuesday, Oct. 11 by the Algona AAUW Chapter to answer questions. AAUW member Julie Murphy acted as  moderator. The event was livestreamed by KLGA and Broadband. Phone lines were open for voters who couldn’t attend to call in with questions.

ALGONA—Nine Algona Middle Schoolers were accepted into the ICDA District Honor Choir to be held in Mason City.

AMES—Six 6th graders from Bishop Garrigan have been chosen to represent the school at the 36th Annual Opus Honor Choir Festival. Opus Honor Choirs will perform on November 17 at 4 p.m. in C.Y. Stephens Auditorium in the Iowa State Center in Ames.

More than 2,100 students were nominated by their directors for 720 positions in the four Opus Honor Choirs. Selections were made by recorded auditions.

Head Start Awareness Month is being celebrated in October.

Algona Head Start head teacher Jacey Schutjer said the Algona Head Start preschool classroom provides preschool to 11 children (ages 3 and 4) Monday through Friday.

In addition to the preschool curriculum, children have breakfast, lunch and snacks each day at Head Start.

Iowa State Bank staff created this scarecrow to alert people to the bank’s remodeling project near the display of scarecrows at the corner of State and Jones streets in Algona. Kim Wegener photo

Mrs. Creighton and Mrs. Charbonneaux kindergarten classes at Seton School recently went on a field trip to Call State Park. Students participated in stations led by Kossuth County Naturalists Billie Wille and Julie Fosado.

Students learned about trees and mammals that might be found at Call State Park. They also looked for animal tracks, made animal tracks out of clay, enjoyed a s’mores station and went on a hike around the park. Submitted photos

Fifth grade students from Bishop Garrigan went on a field trip to Water’s Edge Nature Center on October 5. They had a lesson on canoeing from Naturalist Billie Wille and then went canoeing. They also toured the trails and spent time exploring the inside exhibits. One group of the students are front, from left: Grayson Morse, Connor Plathe, Landon Bormann, Tate Bartolo, Brynlie Erpelding and Karina Chen.

ALGONA—People were able to get their hands on an early copy of Sonya Mack’s book “This Changes Everything” at her first book signing last weekend. Mack’s book will be available on Amazon Dec. 6 but you can pre-order now. Photo shows Mack signing a book for Amy McGuire. Amy Frankl-Brandt photo

Wendell Steven of Lakota grew a watermelon 23 1/2 inches long, 32 1/2 inches in diameter and weighing 40 pounds. Steven was on his way to donate the Charleston Grey variety to the Law Enforcement Center. Amy Frankl-Brandt photo

The annual fundraiser meal for Kidstop Childcare and Preschool in Bancroft was held on Wednesday evening, October 12 at the Summit Center Cafeteria in Bancroft. All proceeds from the event go toward new learning materials for Kidstop.

ALGONA—The Algona Fire Department presented an educational program at the Algona Senior Center on Friday, Oct. 24. Right photo: Representing the AFD were left to right Jarrod Weichert, Carl Lane, Zach Keith and assistant Chief Tony Rahm.

Left photo: The Lu Verne (CWL) Elementary students all received a smoke alarm for their homes and goodie bags from the Lu Verne Fire Department in recognition of Fire Prevention Week. Submitted photos

ALGONA—Mediacom Communications recognized Phil Shellenberg of Algona and Zach Wiltse of Burt as employees who achieved high-level performance rankings during the past year and earned the company’s regional awards for excellence in customer service.

Shellenberg was named Regional System Technician of the Year and Wiltse was named Regional Installer Technician of the Year.