Volunteer firefighters are the backbone of Iowa’s emergency response system, especially in rural areas. As the state faces a growing crisis in recruitment and retention, it’s time to take a closer look at the current state of Iowa’s volunteer fire service and why support is urgently ...
Let me preface this story by saying: I am no hater of animals. I love animals and generally live with a deep respect for all creatures. That being said, I do not take well to surprises, I can and will hold a grudge, and I like things in order. Now that I’ve made myself sound completely ...
Well, after the week of July 6-13 with all the turmoil it sounded like Tama County might be going in the right direction to save some money. Supervisors Mark Doland and David Turner were ready to stop litigation. So it was placed on the agenda for the Monday, July 14 meeting. But they decided ...
I hope you are having a great summer! My family has been enjoying extra time together during summer break. The Tama County Board of Supervisors had been made aware that the Landfill and Economic Development departments in Tama County have been paying higher insurance premiums than other ...
I don't care how many of these articles I write; I don't think anyone ever will truly understand the inner workings of my family. I was watching a screwball comedy from the 30s the other day about a madcap rich family that was always going from one farce and insane wild antic to another. I ...
Ahhh, where did I leave off last week? I believe I had mentioned the idea of helping our community reach higher levels of civic pride through a few ideas. My main point was: through a sense of shared identity between everyone that lives here, we can achieve more. Right off the bat I think of ...
Has it really been 45 years since our middle daughter, Annie, was born? Impossible, I say, 'cuz I'm only around 61, ain't I Deb? What? I'm how old? Holy smokes, that almost puts me at the red tees in "Geezer Golf." Ok, to be honest, I've been at those tees for about four years now. Where ...
My birthday was last Friday, and to tell you this story, I have to rewind to Thursday afternoon. It all connects eventually, trust me. So, the day before, Thursday, June 26, my birthday eve, the last day of my 28th year, I wanted to take it relatively easy. One of the few things I needed to ...
The dictionary defines civic pride as a feeling of satisfaction and positive regard for one's city or community, often stemming from a sense of belonging and shared identity. Recently, I’ve been really thinking about how our two towns line up with that definition. Both what we do well to ...
We’ve launched over 4,000 satellites into space and now have huge numbers of operable and defunct satellites along with other human-sourced junk continually and densely orbiting our planet. We’ve badly polluted and over-fished our massive and irreplaceable oceans. We’ve managed to poison ...