The Wright County
Monitor
Sports Page 8 Conlon signs with Drake Page 12
Wright County Monitor welcomes new reporter
CLAE GOATER Clae Goater is a 2007 graduate of Clarion-Goldfield High School. Growing up in Goldfield, he always knew he wanted to be a writer. Most recently he has been a part-time writer with the Eagle Grove Eagle newspaper. Now, he will be working covering beats in both Clarion and Eagle Grove. “Clae has earned the opportunity to take a step forward in his career,” said Mid-America Publishing President Ryan Harvey. Goater said his interest in writing was sparked by Cecil Adams, a popular question and answer columnist known as The Straight Dope, for The Chicago Reader since 1973. After being crowned Homecoming King and graduating from high school, Goater attended the University of Iowa with a major in journalism and mass communications with a focus on sociology. “I know he looks forward to the challenge of covering Clarion and the surrounding areas. With his background in the community,
having attended school here, he is a natural fit to return home and become a reporter for the paper,” said Harvey While he looked for work in the writing industry, Goater held down a job at Clarion Packaging, LLC. When he read that there was an opening for a writer at the Eagle Grove Eagle, he jumped at the chance. Clae began writing for Mid-America Publishing, the parent company of Wright County Monitor and Eagle Grove Eagle, in July of 2012. “It’s been a great opportunity for me to get my start in the field of journalism…and I’m working for publications I’ve read my entire life,” Goater said. In addition to covering city government and school board, Goater will lend a hand in general news reporting, feature stories and event coverage in order to bring more to the hometown newspaper. “I’m a friendly guy,” Goater said lightheartedly. “If there’s a story idea (you have), call. I’ll be interested. I promise.” Goater said of his new position that he is most looking forward to researching information for his stories, to him, it’s thrilling, satisfying, and exciting to see the finished product of his efforts. He added, “This newspaper is (the community’s), if there’s something you want to see, you just need to tell us.” Harvey said, “Clae’s passion for the news is strong. By assigning him to Clarion, it allows us to present even even stronger news product to our readers. Plus, it allows for another voice in the newspaper.” Goater is the son of Richard and Helen (McKean) Goater. In his free time he enjoys comic books, reading, and watching movies.
September is Recovery Month in Wright County
By: Clae Goater The county supervisors have declared September of 2013 as National Recovery Month in Wright County. Dawn Doerr with Community Family Resources (CFR) came before the board on Monday, Aug. 26, to tell them about how CFR makes a difference in the lives of people dealing substance abuse issues. “We’re still focusing a lot on the issues of underage and binge
drinking. We’re looking at social hosting laws, and working with youth development,” Doerr said. “I’ve been out this morning, setting up meetings with the schools, getting ready to start the new school year.” Supervisor Stan Watne has been a member of the CFR board since January, and he says that CFR is making great strides. “It’s been very difficult the past two years. To be honest, I was very continued on page 2
144th year Number 35
Thursday, August 29, 2013
Official newspaper of Wright County
homemade candies, socks, t-shirts, magazines, puzzle books, cards, chips, dip, and “a lot of things that we don’t normally get over there.” “It meant a lot to the people who received them. A tremendous amount. Tremendous,” Zimmer said.
www.clarionnewsonline.com
The birdmen of Hagies By: Clae Goater
Forty employees from Hagie Manufacturing became daredevils for a day on Friday, Aug. 23, during a team building exercise held at the Clarion Municipal Airport. A skydiving company out of Brooklyn, IA took them up to a height of nearly 9 thousand feet and let them experience 55 seconds of complete freefall before parachuting gently to the ground. “We do a lot of team building events at Hagie, to push us out of our comfort zone and help us grow as individuals and as a team,” said Teresa Lancaster, talent development coach at Hagie. “This is just one more thing that somebody
had brought up at one point, so I decided to see if we could get some people in skydiving.” Lancaster heard that Skydive Iowa was the premiere skydiving service in the state, and contacted them. They promised to give a good rate if Lancaster could get 20 volunteers. After announcing the exercise, they quickly doubled that quota. The event was called “Jump for Jackie,” in memory of the recentlydeceased Jackie Reyna. According to Reyna’s husband, Mike, skydiving was something that she would have loved to try. Plenty of people at “Jump for Jackie” agreed that skydiving was the experience of a lifetime “It was incredible. Incredible. The freefall is fantastic … I’ve never been skydiving b e f o r e . Bucket list checked off,” said Diane Kampen. “It’s not what I
expected. I expected like when you’re on a rollercoaster and you go to the top, and everything just drops. It’s not like that at all. The adrenaline is awesome, but it’s extremely peaceful … You just take it all in. You’re just looking, and you can’t b e l i e v e you’re actually doing it It’s surreal. “ They jumped all day long, from 9-5. As of noon, not a single person had gotten cold feet and dropped out. “Alan Hagie was the first one out of the plane. I went after him, and I tell you what, I was scared to death. I was up until three o’clock in the morning, just nonstop nerves. I know a lot of people have been the same way,” said Lancaster. “Before you know it, you’re up there and you’re out. They kill the motor, they tell you to step on the platform, and -boom- you’re falling. When I landed, it was just an incredible sense of pride of what I had done.” Lancaster said that the anxiety
of waiting to plummet thousands of feet was eased somewhat by the knowledge that she was in the hands of seasoned professionals. “The one gentleman I jumped with, Junkyard was his name, he has over like 8,000 jumps. And over like 4,000 tandem,” Lancaster said. “So hearing that definitely helped with the security level. “ Dave Maxheimer, suited up in his harness and awaiting his turn, showed steely resolve. He even joking gave a eulogy for himself to a nearby video camera. “I’m excited to try it. It’s something new. Something different,” Maxheimer said. “I’m at that age in my life where I don’t fear a whole lot, so why not go out and try something different. “ All in all, there were a lot of broad grins, wild whoops, and highspiriting cheers from the assembled group. “We’re always looking to raise the bar at Haigie Manufacturing. We’re always trying to have higher expectations for ourselves,” Lancaster said. ”I’m excited for what’s next. A lot of people are. We just jumped out of damn plane. What’s next?” Editors note: Parachuters are: Keerthi Kalivarapu top right, Curtis Trulson bottom left.
Vote on Clarion-Goldfield-Dows nears Olson concerned about voter apathy By: Clae Goater Whether Clarion-Goldfield and Dows merge into a single school district will be decided at school board elections on November 10. According to the Superintendant of both Districts, Robert Olson, the decision will be permanent. If the two districts merge, the state will give the new district a bonus to its headcount and the funds that go along with it. If a district declines to merge, the Dows school district will be gone forever. The bonus to headcount would earn a consolidated district about a quarter million dollars per year for three years after the organization. That money would only go to Clarion, because Dows has already used that incentive money when shared with CAL. However, Olson says that the money would benefit all of his students. “It will benefit the students of both Clarion and Dows, particularly since we’re having (Dows) students 4-12 attending school in Clarion,”
Olson said. That incentive money will only be available to districts through the 2014-2015 school year. If they don’t consolidate this year, there won’t be another chance for Dows to find a district to partner with. “A school district looking at reorganizing with Dows would see that Dows is more of an obligation than an asset,” Olson said. “So I would say for Dows to quickly get a partner ready for consolidation, we’re going to run out of money before that happens.” Besides partnering, Dows’ only option is to dissolve. A study from the Iowa School Financial Information Service indicates that a school needs at least 303 students to fund an accredited school district. With an enrollment of just under 100, the Dows School District is just too small to survive on its own. “Dows cannot stand alone,” Olson said. “There’s no way that
Iowa Specialty recognized for supporting troops
By Clae Goater Sgt. First Class Vance Zimmer presented Iowa Specialty Hospital with an American flag on Saturday, Aug. 24, in recognition of their support of the troops overseas. Iowa Specialty Hospital had been sending care packages to Zimmer for 14 months during his deployment in Afghanistan, which he distributed to other soldiers. “I would take them to different combat outposts to the soldiers who didn’t received car packages or mail on a regular basis,” Zimmer said. “It was a unique thing, because the soldiers would come off patrol after ten or twelve hours. They were hot, they were sweaty, the last thing they want to do is go through mail. But when they start getting packages through Iowa Specialty Hospital, they were swapping items and laughing and joking around. So it put a big smile on everybody’s face. “ Zimmer’s sister Wendy Weidemann helped organize the care package program, along with the internal communications department at the hospital. “They put in Vance’s address in Afghanistan, and said that if anybody was interested in helping these servicemen overseas, they could send packages to Vance and he would make sure that they would get put into the hands of these soldiers who were at these outposts,” Weidemann said. Zimmer said that these packages contained numerous items, including candy, homemade cookies,
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Zimmer presented the flag on behalf of his unit, the fourth brigade combat team, first infantry division, known as “The Big Red One.” Zimmer has just concluded his fourth tour of duty. “Our brigade consists of
Dows cannot make an educational program without a partner and still remain the district.” Should the Dows district dissolve, the land it encompasses will be divided up among nearby districts. “The student body would be broken up among neighboring districts. There would be a process where we decide which parcels of land would go in what direction. That’s part of it,“ Olson said. While partnering with Dows might look unattractive to other districts, Olson says that it’s a good fit with Clarion-Goldfield. Besides the incentive money, Dows and Clarion-Goldfield already have a history together. They’ve been grade-sharing successfully for eight years. “I just feel that the sharing has gone very, very well between the two districts. The programs we’ve been able to do together, the athletics we’ve been able to do together, the activities … by and large it’s worked
out very well,” Olson said. Also, if Clarion-Goldfield and Dows partner, there are a number of things the district could do with the old Dows school building. If the districts combine, it will no longer be economically feasible to use the building to hold classes. However, there are ways the building could generate enough revenue to cover the cost of maintaining it. The Clarion-Goldfield School District does something similar with the schoolhouse in Goldfield, which it rents to the city and Iowa Central Community College. “We do have some groups that are looking at the (Dows school) building for other purposes. We’ve had discussions with the city. They’ve had some interest, particularly the single-story building attached to the rest. We’ve had an organization out of Belmond called Old School Records, and they’ve come and looked at this building,” Olson said. continued on page 2
approximately 6,000 soldiers, spread throughout two different provinces in Afghanistan. Our whole area was about half the size of Iowa,” Zimmer said. ”My job was, basically, I was the bodyguard for the brigade commander.”
Town Hall Meeting in Clarion
Governor Terry Branstad and Lt. Governor Kim Reynolds held a town Sgt. Vance Zimmer presented Iowa Specialty Hospital with an American flag on behalf of the fourth brigade hall meeting at Clarion Public Library on August 27, where they discussed combat team, first infantry division. Left to right: Zimmer, Zimmer’s sister Wendy Weidemann, and CEO of the condition of the state and fielded questions from the public. Look for full coverage of the meeting in next week’s Wright County Monitor. Iowa Specialty Hospital Steve Simonen.