Andy Hallman

Washington Title and Guaranty Company has a number of new cubicles in its office thanks to Iowa Prison Industries. A crew of three inmates from the Newton Correctional Facility installed desks and partition walls over a three-day period beginning Monday.    The crew supervisor is Dan Crook, who is also an Iowa Prison Industries technician. He said that Prison Industries does work primarily for governmental and

Mid-Prairie School has secured roughly $300,000 for foreign language programs from the U.S. Department of Education. The Department of Education announced Monday that Mid-Prairie will receive nearly $150,000 to expand Chinese language courses and another $153,000 to expand Spanish classes.    School Superintendent Mark Schneider said Mid-Prairie has received similar federal grants in the past. He said his school?s

Bill Walker wants to change the direction of county government. Walker is running for the Washington County Board of Supervisors in District 3, currently represented by Steve Davis. Walker is a Republican and says that high taxes are a problem in Washington County.    ?We are the fifth-highest taxed county in the state of Iowa,? he said. ?We don?t bring businesses to town by taxing people. I believe businesses

A group of residents and city officials is cooking up a plan to celebrate the downtown enhancement project this summer. A cadre of about 10 people met at city hall Wednesday afternoon to begin planning a celebration tentatively scheduled for June 10, which is also the date of the first band concert of the year.    The purpose of the celebration is to recognize the people who helped with the downtown enhancement

Wednesday was the last day to register to run for an elected office in Washington County for the 2010 election. The county treasurer, recorder and attorney are all up for re-election, as are two of the five supervisor positions.    Republican Steve Davis represents District 3 on the County Board of Supervisors and is running for re-election. District 3 runs along the east side of the county and contains

Easter Sunday is quickly approaching. People will be get together to celebrate the holiday with their friends and relatives, and many will find outdoor activities now that spring has arrived. Washington resident Catfish Keith said that he is excited to get in his garden.    ?I?m raking and playing with my flowers,? said Keith. ?I grow vegetables, and I love to see the new sprouts come up. We have daffodils, tulips

The Washington County Board of Supervisors passed a zoning ordinance early this month, much to the chagrin of the anti-zoning group known as Free County. Since the passage of the ordinance, Free County has vowed to continue to fight against county zoning and to educate the public about the effects of zoning.    James Graham is the spokesman for Free County and is one of the two co-chairpersons along with Mary Leedy.

A group of about 20 people gathered in the Washington Public Library Tuesday evening to talk about issues that affect downtown businesses. Main Street Washington put on the meeting to get feedback about the organization?s programs and how it could better serve the shops in the super-square.    Parking was the problem that received the most attention at the meeting. Heather Leyden, who owns a business downtown, said

The Wellman Fire Department extinguished a string of ditch fires along Highway 22 Monday afternoon. Assistant Fire Chief Jared Kinsinger said that there were three separate fires west of Wellman between Dogwood Avenue and the county line. He said the fires were probably not started purposefully. An eyewitness reported that a car dragging a trailer was shooting sparks from one of its wheels, and that this may have

The Iowa Association of School Boards (IASB) has fired its executive director for allegedly raising her own salary without the approval of the board of directors. The Associated Press reported that the IASB voted unanimously to terminate executive director Maxine Kilcrease, and is now investigating why she was being paid $367,000 a year when her salary was set at $210,000.    Mid-Prairie Superintendent Mark

Washington bid farewell to an iconic house last weekend. The Leffler farmhouse that stood a block north of Case Field was burned to the ground in a controlled burn early Saturday morning. For many decades, the farm was a local tourist attraction for the people in town, who took their children to see and pet the animals on the farm.    The farmhouse was built in 1939 by Darrell and Florence Leffler, who moved to

A great deal of the new federal health care legislation relates to health insurance. The law includes new regulations, taxes, and subsidies for health insurance, most of which are still being digested by the insurance industry. Ron Goodwin is an insurance agent for MAX Insurance Agency in Kalona, and said that he knows the main points of the legislation, but not quite every detail.    ?I know that it will cover a

The Washington Street Committee has recommended that the city change posted speed limits on East Washington Street. The committee voted 2-1 at its meeting Wednesday to raise the speed limit from 30 to 35 on East Washington Street between Seventh and 15th Avenue, while lowering it from 55 to 50 for eastbound traffic from the airport road to the Walmart entrance. Committee members Merlin Hagie and Karen Wilson-Johnson

Information about the new health care legislation is slowly making its way from Washington, D.C., to the rest of the country. The bill that became law Tuesday is over 2,000 pages long, and there is still much uncertainty in the community about what is in it.    Halcyon House Executive Director Chris Marshall said that she hasn?t read through the bill completely, and said that it is difficult to know what is in the

The health care bill that was signed into law Tuesday by President Barack Obama will have many repercussions for local residents. What those repercussions are is still unknown by many of them. Washington County Hospital CEO Don Patterson said that the affect the bill will have on the hospital is up in the air.    ?It?s hard to predict what the bill will do in the long term,? said Patterson. ?In the short term, I