Andy Hallman

Washington and Riverside will hold Veterans Day ceremonies this Thursday. In Washington, the day begins at 9 a.m. with a ceremony at the All Veterans Memorial at Orchard Hill. This will be followed by a meeting at the Blair House at 10:30 a.m., which is also where the American Legion Honor Guard will render a salute to veterans at 11 a.m. That is a special time on Veterans Day because that was the hour when Germany

The Brighton City Council met Tuesday night at city hall. Michael Pringle asked the council for permission to hold a flag football game at the Brighton Ball Park on Friday, Nov. 19. Permission was granted. The game was originally scheduled for Oct. 23 but was postponed due to rain.    Pringle said when he first approached the councilabout holding a flag football game under the lights of Brighton Ball Park, it would

As winter marches ever closer with each passing day, Iowans have had to turn on their heaters. Some of them are employing one of the state?s most abundant resources ? corn ? and turning it into fuel for their homes. Corn stoves are popping up all over the place as an alternative form of home-heating.    Loren and Linda Huber live on a farm a few miles south of Wellman, and have been burning their own corn for 15

Paving began on South Ninth Avenue Wednesday but had to be shut down later that day when the tracks on the paving machine broke. Washington City Engineer Rob McDonald said the road crew will try to resume paving Friday and continue next week.    The paver started its work on Van Buren and was heading north to Washington Street. It paved about 30 feet of concrete before breaking down. The distance from Van Buren to

Washington County Supervisor Steve Davis was elected to four more years in county government. Davis, running as a Republican, defeated his Democratic challenger Rodney Stogdill 61 percent to 39 percent in the District 3 race. Davis won 1,118 of the 1,846 votes cast.    Davis awaited the election results in the Washington County Courthouse Tuesday evening, along with a few dozen other candidates and activists from

Washington County voters turned out Tuesday to vote overwhelmingly for Republican candidates. They also voted to continue the Riverside Casino and the $1.50 monthly telephone surcharge for 911 equipment. The casino vote passed with 78 percent support and the surcharge vote passed with 56 percent.    The other two ballot measures county residents voted on were statewide initiatives. One of them asked voters if there

RIVERSIDE ? The Riverside City Council debated whether to approve a $2,000 change order to a drainage project, and ultimately decided to delay the decision to another meeting. The city is trying to provide better drainage on Railroad Street on the south side of town. DeLong Construction sent a change order to the council, asking to install another intake and to raise the existing intakes near the intersection of

A local crop specialist says the crop yield has been fair and that the harvest has been great. Jim Fawcett, an Iowa State University crop specialist who works in Johnson County, remarked that yields have been especially good for north central and northwestern Iowa.    ?In general, the northern part of the state has done better than the southern,? he said.    Fawcett said farms south of I-80 were not nearly as good

Washington County has won its judgment against the city of Riverside over the repayment of TIF bonds. District Court Judge Joel Yates handed down the judgment Friday after deliberating for one month. The ruling asks that Riverside pay the county its two outstanding debts of $175,000 each ?as soon as practicable,? and that Riverside continue making such payments for the life of the agreement. Riverside has 30 days to

The E911 Board and Communications Commission have made progress toward finding an architect for the new dispatch center, wherever it may be. The board and commission met at the former Washington Library Thursday and discussed the issue of a new dispatch center at length. At the end of the meeting, the commission decided to get a small group of people together to craft a request for proposal (RFP) to send to

Motorists have noticed a larger number of deer moving about in the past month than over the summer. Jason Gritsch, who works for the DNR office in Sigourney and who is also a deer hunter, remarked that the increase in deer movement is not an illusion. He said October is the start of the breeding season, which explains the greater activity.     ?You see bucks moving more, searching for does. The does are being pushed

The last Farmers Market of the year was held on a brisk and blustery Thursday evening. Although the final market was uncomfortably cold for many, most of the vendors and customers agreed that the weather on market days had been very good in 2010.    Susan Gavin was at the market perusing the aisles. Gavin said she is a regular marketer, having missed only one or two markets all year.    ?I shop for fresh fruits,

In the last year, Washington County HACAP has provided almost 600 families with assistance on their heating bills. The families receive the funds through a federal initiative known as the Low Income Home Energy Assistance Program (LiHEAP), which is administered by the state. Washington County HACAP distributed approximately $350,000 to those families. The average household received about $560 from the program.   

Democrat Chet Culver is running for a second term as governor of Iowa. Culver defeated Republican Jim Nussle to become governor in 2006, and is now facing former governor Terry Branstad in the current race. Culver was in Washington Tuesday afternoon to speak to local voters. He visited several businesses on the square before ending up at the Democratic Party Headquarters, where he spoke to party activists and other

Washington County employees are slowly but surely making preparations for the coming winter weather. County Engineer David Patterson said that they usually start getting ready for snow and ice in early November. He said the county workers are still in construction-mode because a rainy summer hindered building and road projects on the county?s agenda.    ?We?re still using our equipment to do our summer construction