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1926/100 years ago
Zitterell Company gets power plant contract
The W.J. Zitterell company of this city has just been awarded a contract for the construction of a $150,000 power plant at Sibley for the Northwest Light and Power company of Cedar Rapids. This job, together with others for this same company are under construction by the Zitterell company will make a total of some $400,000 worth of work the Webster City company will do for this concern this year.
The Zitterell company at the present time has work under construction at Perry, Boone, Correctionville and Peterson, Iowa and at Fairmont, Minn., for the Cedar Rapids company.
The job at Sibley consists of the installation of two 000 horsepower Worthington Diesel engineers, two General Electric company generators, a water cooling pond, a 100,000 gallon oil storage tank and a substation building.
The new plant of the Northwest Light and Power company will be an oil burning plant. It will supply electric lights and power to the town of Sibley and the surrounding territory.
1966/60 years ago
Henry will not be forgotten
"You are not forgotten, Henry."
That is part of the inscription on a timeworn tombstone found this week in the mud about 125 feet south of the Bank St. bridge by three Webster City fishermen, Darwin Larson, his father John Larson and Jerry Freerksen.
The grave marker is partially broken, but enough of the inscription is still legible so that one can read of the tragic death of an 18 year old Hamilton county boy who died Feb. 22, 1874. A reference to his age apparently was cut into the lower portion of the stone which was broken off. The stone is three and one-half inches thick, 14 ½ inches wide and about 22 inches long.
The Hamilton Freeman for Wednesday, Feb. 25, 1874, mentions the death of young Carey in this fashion.
"Henry Carey, son of Daniel Carey, who lived near Lake Cairo, (or Mud Lake) in this county, died very suddenly at Alden last Sunday afternoon. In company with a brother, he was returning home from Minnesota; was taken violently sick Saturday morning and died about 5 the next day.
1971/55 years ago
Slight drop in attendance at schools
Preliminary enrollment figures for the first day of school were released by the superintendent's office of the Webster City Community Schools, showing a slight decrease in the number attending in comparison with a year ago.
Some 2630 students were in attendance on the first day, compared to 2,734 a year ago, Supt. Robert Horsfall said today.
It is expected that the count will be somewhat higher as some students were absent because of vacations, state fair entries, illnesses and other emergency absences, he added.
The kindergarten class has some 165 students, down substantially from the 203 a year ago. The largest class in the system is the seventh grade class with 224 students, with the fourth grade next at 222. The smallest class is the first grade which is at 164.
The junior high school increased in number from 615 a year ago to 636 while the Senior high dropped from 627 to 598 on the first day.
1991/35 years ago
Beautification Committee takes a little flak
The sting of public criticism is beginning to be felt by some members of the Webster City Beautification Committee according to comments made at the group's Monday meeting.
The criticism comes primarily as the result of a tougher city stance on the condition of dilapidated buildings in Webster City.
"If we're stirring things up, I'm not opposed to that. (But) obviously we want to keep things on a positive note," said Chairman Phil Voge.
Committee members were quick to point out, however, that its city personnel and the City Council that is actually going after the owners of the dilapidated buildings. The council has however been buoyed by the support and encouragement of Beautification Committee members throughout the long process.
City inspector Ken Wetzler said that property owners are always given the choice of repairing dilapidated buildings and are not automatically ordered to demolish any structure. Since June, Wetzler has issued 21 dangerous building abatement notices.
Twelve of the abatements have been resolved through the cooperation of the property owners and without action from the Council. The remaining nine are either facing deadlines imposed by the Council or are still working their way through official channels.
Wetzler expects to issue at least 12 and possibly more abatements this week.
1996/30 years ago
Beautification Committee now struggles with declining membership
The Webster City Beautification Committee accepted the resignation of member Bob Erickson, who is leaving the board because his work requires him to be on call Monday nights.
With Erickson's resignation, the committee urgently needs more members, Chairman Ben Snyder. In addition to Erickson and the resignations of Sherry Rindels, Jeanette Walker and the recent death of Robert Veach, the commission is watching it's membership dwindle.
"We used to have two members for every precinct, and now we only have one member," Snyder said.
The committee also voted to continue the downtown cleanup for one more month.