Obituaries

The Midwest Old Threshers Reunion dipped in attendance by 4,000 guests this year compared to the last two years, making the year ahead ?tough? financially for the nonprofit organization, which largely relies on revenue made over the five-day reunion.CEO Terry McWilliams chalks it up to the weather. ?This year, Mother Nature ran the show,? he said.Attendance during the reunion was around 31,000 guests, compared ...

By Grace King, Mt. Pleasant News New outdoor pickleball courts at Mt. Pleasant Middle School are more reality than dream at this point.The project is almost 50 percent funded through private pledges, members from the pickleball committee announced during a Healthy Henry County Communities meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 4.?Hopefully people will be playing on it this time next year,? committee member Freddy Prellwitz...

Mt. Pleasant Arts IMPACT is spearheading a wintertime communitywide project to decorate some 8,000 paper lunch bags to be used by the Fellowship Cup for their 2019 Summer Sacks program.In January, residents in Mt. Pleasant attending any organized committee, board or club meeting will be asked to decorate a sack provided by Arts IMPACT. Assisted living facilities are invited to participate. Artistic talent is not ...

The City of Salem is adopting a new way to organize the books.At the prompting of city counselor Mary Hoyer, the Salem City Council approved switching from their current system to ClerkBooks to organize their finances during a meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 4.?It may not seem like we have the money, (but) we'll never figure out why we don't have the money unless we get our accounting system sorted out,? Hoyer ...

A man with an active warrant for his arrest was taken into custody by the Mt. Pleasant Police Department on Tuesday, Sept. 4.Kevin Fleming, 26, of Mt. Pleasant, was observed at 200 E. South Street Tuesday. Officers had a short foot pursuit with Fleming and, after a brief struggle, he was taken into custody.Fleming received an additional charge of Interference with Official Acts.The Mt. Pleasant Police Departmen...

\CEDAR RAPIDS ? Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer has promised to oppose federal Judge Brett Kavanaugh ?with everything I've got,? but Sen. Chuck Grassley expects the Supreme Court nominee to be confirmed with bipartisan support.The key, however, is for U.S. Senate Republicans to stick together, the chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee told reporters Wednesday. If the majority party puts up 50 or 51 ...

By John Butters, Mt. Pleasant News The millennials have Steve Jobs. The boomers have Larry Raid.A tool and die man, Raid belongs to that class of machinists capable of making dies, molds, machine tools, cutting tools and almost anything needed in a manufacturing process. A true American craftsman, he can fix anything but a broken heart and the crack of dawn.What Jobs did for the computer age, Raid and his ...

By Gretchen Teske, Mt. Pleasant News NEW LONDON ? The storm that raged through Henry County on Tuesday, Aug. 28, effected not only Mt. Pleasant, but emergency vehicles offering assistance.During the regular meeting on Tuesday, Sept. 4, the New London City Council announced their 2010 Crown Victoria police car was totaled during the storm. An officer was driving the car to Mt. Pleasant to help with damage when ...

By John Butters, Mt. Pleasant News It might have been raining Saturday on the Old Threshers grounds, but it wasn't raining inside the family tent where the Wissmann Family performed their signature blend of bluegrass and gospel.The Wissmann family was one of several bluegrass groups entertaining on the Old Threshers grounds this past weekend.The 11-member family group traveled from their home in Milford, ...

David Schmitz Every week, the Mt. Pleasant News will feature a Henry County resident in a profile snapshot. The questions will appear in bold.This week's friend is David Schmitz, who is the Director of International Programs and Assistant Professor of ESL at Iowa Wesleyan.Are you originally from Mt. Pleasant/Henry County? If not, what brought you here? I was born and raised in Rolla, Mo. We moved here last ...