Andy Hallman

Scrapbooking is an age-old art that dates back to the 15th century. In the 20th century, scrapbooking consisted of pasting photographs to an ornamented piece of paper. Modern computers have dramatically altered the way the craft is practiced, shifting the workshop from desktop to disc. No matter the century, the purpose of scrapbooks has remained unchanged: to preserve the past for future generations. To that end ...

Maui, Cancun and Barbados are a few places most people would like to spend a week in January. Susan See is not most people. The Washington resident and local piano teacher spent a week in January in an unusual vacation spot: Cambodia. See went there to visit her friend Sherry Lile, whom she has known since childhood. Lile has lived in the country since 1993 and works with women and girls who have been sexually ...

The Washington Finance and Personnel Committee met last week to discuss how the city would replace City Administrator Dave Plyman. Plyman has announced that he will move to Rochelle, Ill. at the end of May to become that town?s city administrator. Plyman said he would probably leave around Memorial Day.Committee Chairman Fred Stark was coincidentally in Rochelle the day Plyman announced his move to the ...

The Riverside Area Community Club (RACC) has received a couple of large donations in the past week to support TrekFest. One week after learning the Riverside Casino would pledge $3,000 to TrekFest, RACC received a donation for $1,500 and then another for $5,000.RACC president Ken McCracken said that the club is making good progress toward its goal of $10,000 but has not yet reached it. He said the club has set ...

Where do my taxes go? That?s the question on every taxpayer?s mind, especially now that it?s time to pay income taxes to the federal government. But let us not forget local taxes. Which local entities consume large shares of your tax bill and which consume very little?The taxes a person pays vary depending on the town he lives in and what kind of land he owns. Agricultural land is taxed differently from land ...

The Washington Athletic Boosters began thanks to the hard work and determination of parents and sports fans. One man who deserves a substantial share of the credit for getting that club on its feet is Dick Paul. Paul helped found the De-Men boosters in the 1960s and was the group?s first president. Through his fine negotiating skills, Paul lassoed the best athletes in the nation to speak at the De-Men Booster ...

The Riverside City Council talked about a plan to build a community center at its meeting Monday night. A committee was formed last month to investigate where a community building should be and what it should offer.The committee is composed of six members: Todd Yahnke (who is also a city councilor), Randy Sexton, Laurie Sexton, Steve Musser, Tonya Smith and Misty Herrig. Riverside resident Kristin Bell spoke ...

The Washington County Board of Supervisors approved a repayment plan for the cleanup of a rat-infested mobile home in Richmond. Last fall, the county demolished the property, owned by Jackie and Sharen TeBockhorst, at a cost of about $18,000. The county now has a lien for that amount of money over the property. The supervisors voted today to charge 6 percent interest on the repayment plan, which will be completed ...

The Washington Street Committee held its third and final meeting to discuss the lanes on West Madison Street Thursday. The Iowa Department of Transportation (DOT) plans to pave West Madison from the intersection with Highway 1 to Second Avenue. That paving would take place in 2012. The DOT has suggested that when it paves the road, it paint new lines on West Madison to turn the street into a three-lane road, ...

The driving range in Washington was sold at auction Friday morning. Bill Huber of Washington won the auction with a bid of $10,875 per acre. Campbell Clan Farms LLC owned the 43 acres, a portion of which has been used by the Washington Golf and Country Club as a driving range. The total bid was about $468,000. Huber could not be reached for comment Friday morning. Auctioneer Greg Giardino said there were a total ...

The E911 and Communications Commission met Monday and learned the cost of remodeling the former jail and former library are nearly equal. The commission is in search of a new home for the dispatch center. Over the past year, the commission has whittled down its choices to those two locations. The commission has yet to pick a location, although at least one commissioner made his preferences known Monday. Commission...

By Andy HallmanThe JOURNAL A group of 50 junior high students gathered Saturday for a day full of games, food and substance abuse education. The event was ?Operation Snowflake,? which is a cooperative effort between youth and adults to prevent alcohol, tobacco and drug use while promoting healthy decision-making. Operation Snowflake began in Illinois in the 1970s. That is where Washington social studies teacher ...

TrekFest is in danger. The annual Star Trek-themed celebration in Riverside will not occur this year, unless the club that puts it on can raise $10,000 in a month. The Riverside Area Community Club (RACC) met Thursday night and decided the club does not have enough money to put on TrekFest as it has in the past. The event is held the last weekend in June, which is June 24-25 this year. It has had a Star Trek ...

The Washington Fire Department was one of only two towns in Iowa to win a Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) grant in the most recent round of applications. The department can now purchase $75,000 worth of rescue equipment, which FEMA will pay for. Fire Chief Tom Wide said he is very pleased his department won the grant. The only thing missing from it is money to train his firefighters in the equipment?s ...

Farmland values in Iowa have reached near record highs. That was the finding of a survey from the Realtors Land Institute released this week. The value of farmland jumped 25 percent since last March. The survey revealed the value of tillable cropland in the state is $5,708 per acre, just a few dollars shy of the inflation-adjusted high of $5,711 set in 1979. Iowa farmland is now more than twice as valuable as it ...