Andy Hallman

A city councilor expressed doubt about the city?s efforts to annex a portion of Country Club Road at a work session Wednesday. The city has annexed a patch of ground west of Country Club Road which is slated to become a subdivision known as Oakwood Village. Councilor Bob Shellmyer said the city should look at alternative entry points to Oakwood Village other than Country Club Road.Shellmyer said there are two ...

The state of Iowa is celebrating ?Soil and Water Conservation Week? this week (April 29-May 5). Tony Maxwell, district conservationist with Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS) said that soil and water conservation efforts have proven to be very successful in Iowa and Washington County.Maxwell said that there are two principal forms of water and soil conservation that he encourages. One of them is the ...

?I like everything about small towns,? said Jared Widmer, who moved back to rural Washington with his wife Angela (Stauffer) Widmer last July after spending two years in Arizona.The Widmers are both products of southeast Iowa. Jared grew up on a farm south of Washington and Angela grew up in Burlington. The couple moved to Glendale, Ariz., in July 2009, but the hustle and bustle of big-city life left them ...

The city of Washington has no available industrial lots, and members of the city council say this is hurting the town?s prospects for development. City councilor Mark Kendall said at Wednesday?s work session that the lack of openings caused a Keota business to relocate to Sigourney instead of Washington. City Administrator Brent Hinson said the one thing every council member should agree on is the need to create ...

Several businesses in southeast Iowa are having trouble finding enough workers to fill their openings. Many of the owners have remarked that there appears to be a shortage of labor in the area.Washington Economic Development Group Director Ed Raber said he has noticed that many sectors of Washington County?s economy remained fairly strong even during and after the 2008 recession. He said the health care sector ...

Washington County Zoning Administrator Steve Lafaurie gave the Washington County Board of Supervisors an update on the new flood map for the county. The Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) released the new map for Washington County?s flood plain in March, which reduces the size of the flood plain from FEMA?s earlier map in 2010.When FEMA mapped Washington County in 2010, it employed new technology called ...

The city of Washington is attempting to annex Country Club Road into the city limits. The road is privately owned by the Washington Golf and Country Club. In an interview Monday, Washington City Attorney Craig Arbuckle said the city wants jurisdiction over the road for developmental purposes.?The city wants to have a good gateway into developing the area on the south city limits,? he said.Vogel Construction is ...

Portions of Washington?s disc golf course are being torn up in order to install a gravity sewer in Sunset Park. Parks supervisor Tim Widmer said he will not close the disc golf course this year but said that five of the nine holes would be affected by the construction. He expects the construction to be done soon enough to reseed the ground in the fall so that the whole course will be playable next year.?There ...

The Washington County Board of Health received an award at the Iowa Governor?s Conference on Public Health for Excellence in Physical Activity Wednesday in Ames. The board of health won the honor for its obesity prevention task force, which has assisted three towns in the county in promoting walking and biking to school. The Iowa Department of Public Health?s bureau of nutrition and health promotion selected the ...

Golf carts could soon be seen puttering along Washington streets. The city council unanimously approved the first reading of an ordinance to allow golf carts on city streets, under certain conditions. Councilors Fred Stark, Bob Shellmyer, Bob Shepherd and Mark Kendall voted in favor and councilors Russ Zieglowsky and Merlin Hagie were absent.The proposed ordinance requires that golf carts have seat belts and ...

The Washington Police Department is more active in the schools than it has ever been, said police chief Greg Goodman. Goodman said the police are frequently in the schools to teach programs about safety, but they are also there more and more to handle disciplinary problems.?I think there are more problems than before,? he said. ?We?re seeing more problems in lower grades than we used to. The problems we used to ...

A Washington fertilizer plant is cleaning up Wednesday following a release of herbicides and farm chemicals to a creek near the southeast side of Washington, a press release from the Iowa Department of Natural Resources reported. A resident near South 14th Street and East Adams Street reported a strong chemical odor and milky white color in his neighborhood stream Tuesday evening. Upon investigation, the DNR ...

Don?t be surprised to see a crowd of people standing in line in Washington?s Central Park at 8 a.m. Saturday. The Washington Tree Beautification Committee will hold its tree giveaway at that time, and in the past the event has drawn about 100 people. Tree committee president Marde McConnell said the committee gave away 135 trees last year and plans to give away 125 this year. She said the committee has given away ...

The Washington County Sheriff?s Department and Washington County Attorney?s Office have investigated a fight between two men from Washington on March 22 and is charging one of them with operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated (OWI) and not charging the other man. Tim Peterson, 44, is being charged with OWI. The other man in the altercation, Shawn Reimers, 33, is not facing charges.The sheriff?s department ...

A large branch broke off from a tree and blocked part of 12th Avenue near the Immanuel Lutheran Church in Washington Friday afternoon at about 1:15 p.m. Police and city maintenance staff responded to direct traffic and remove the tree.