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Support our schools: Vote yes on September 8

Improvements to the Webster City High School are needed. As has been documented in this newspaper over the past several weeks, the facility is outdated, impedes student learning, makes recruiting and retaining educators more difficult, and no longer reflects the quality of education our community expects and deserves. As employers, business owners, and community members, we see the impact firsthand. Our ability to recruit employees and families to Webster City is affected when prospective residents compare our educational facilities with those available in other communities. The ...

“Life Gets Tee-Jus (Tedious,) Don’t It?”

Ever since I was a young boy I have had an interest in electronics. With a patience and a lot of luck I repaired our family TV set when I was 11 years old. Then, in sixth grade, I read a story about a young boy riding his bike along a country road when he was passed by an automobile. The driver of the car was talking on a telephone. This was in 1960 when a phone in the car was a rare sight. The story explained that a mobile car radio operated from a trunk-mounted transmitter to a regional tower that covered a radius of about 40-60 miles. More than a decade later I read a related ...

Share the Loads laundry ministry launches in Webster City

Share the Loads Laundry Ministry Launches in Webster City A new community ministry is coming to Webster City with a simple message: everyone feels better in, and deserves clean clothes. The Webster City Ministerial Association is launching Share the Loads, a community-wide laundry ministry designed to provide free access to laundry services for anyone who needs it. The program is built on the belief that clean clothes are more than a basic necessity—they can help people feel better about themselves, face the day with greater confidence, and experience the support of a caring ...

Hamilton County Dispatch Center: the heartbeat of safety

The last time I wrote, it was about the importance of the Hamilton County Jail and why a strong, properly staffed jail, with great leadership is such an important part of keeping our community safe. But the jail is only one piece of the public safety puzzle. There is another part of our operation that works around the clock, often without proper recognition and is just as critical to protecting the people of Hamilton County. The Hamilton County Dispatch Center. Someone has to answer the phone. Someone has to listen. Someone has to determine what is happening. Someone must get ...

I miss the dime stores of years ago

By the time one reaches his late 70s there are things from his past that are missed. I miss dime stores. Dime stores were also known as five-and-dime stores. They sold low-price merchandise at fixed prices of five or ten cents and were introduced to American shoppers in the late 1800s. One of the dime stores’ attractions was openly displayed merchandise so shoppers didn’t have to ask a clerk to view the items. Early American dime stores were started by Franklin Winfield Woolworth and Sebastian Spering Kresge. Many cities had both an F.W. Woolworth’s and an ...

Midwest Fishing: Fall for crappies

Many very accomplished and well-known anglers have made the observation that crappies are a mysterious fish. In mid and late summer in a good number of lakes, they seem to disappear from areas where they were abundant just a few weeks earlier. But if you keep a few things in mind, you can catch’em when they re-appear in the fall. Crappies are crepuscular. This means that they are most active early and late in the day much of the year. In the fall though, they’ll often bite all day. Depending on where you’re fishing, there are a couple of very good ways to catch crappies right ...