Annual Lawn and Garden edition Friday
April 15, 2016 OFFICIAL NEWSPAPER OF HARDIN COUNTY
E L D O R A, I O W A
641-939-5051
Make the most of Mother Nature on your mobile phone
by Rick Patrie News Editor STORM LAKE—This issue of the newspaper brings the annual lawn and garden specials, and while on the subject, a one time AGWSR high schooler has been involved in a project which promises to make the great out doors your garden. Someday when you’re out hiking in the woods, a little hungry or not feeling just right, pull out your trusty mobile device and check the cuisine – or the cure, whichever applies – growing right there at your feet. Everyone sort of knows there are edible plants in the wild, and that select species also have medicinal properties, but since great-great Granma’s day there’s been no one around who knew which was which. Now, thanks to four Buena Vista
Seniors invited to take a walk
ELDORA – May is Older Americans Month – to celebrate the strength and vitality of older Americans and to encourage healthy lifestyles Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging is hosting its 7th annual Older Americans Month one mile walk. The walk will take place on Thursday, May 26 starting at Dorothy’s Senior Center located at 1306 17th Avenue in Eldora. Checkin begins at 9:00 a.m. followed by a short program at 9:45 a.m. The walk will start at 10:00 a.m. The Older Americans Month Walk is FREE and open to all ages. In the event of inclement weather the walk will take place inside the Senior Center. Register today! Get your registration in before May 2 to be guaranteed a T-shirt! Registration forms are available at the Senior Center or you can register online at www.nei3a.org in the news and events sections. If you have questions call Northeast Iowa Area Agency on Aging at 319-874-6840 or toll-free at 1-866-468-7887. NEI3A is a private, not-for-profit corporation serving older persons in Allamakee, Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan, Butler, Chickasaw, (continued on Page 2A)
Newsbriefs Free Take Away Event April 16
Medicap Pharmacy and the Eldora Police Department are offering a free Medication Disposal event. Bring your expired or unused medications to Medicap Pharmacy for proper disposal on Saturday, April 16th, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Controlled substances will be accepted from 10 a.m. until noon. Help keep our waters clean and medicine out of the hands of children by participating in this important community event. Any pharmacy’s prescriptions, over-thecounter medications and vitamins will be accepted. No sharps accepted. (continued on Page 4A)
University students, including one from Eldora, you are just an app away from great-great Granma’s long lost store of recipes and cures. The app developers, two computer science majors and two biology majors, include Brady Clark an AGWSR graduate, one of the computer specialists. Clark is now a junior at Buena Vista in Storm Lake, He thanks a professor who noticed his facility for computer applications and steered him away from engineering and into his current area of study. It has proved a profitable move, as he and the three other researchers now share $1000 given by the BVU Stine Endowment for academic achievement. They developed a mobile app they presented during an on-campus competition and part
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of its usefulness lies in the way it makes easily available the library of edible plant life found in any of the four quadrants in Iowa, and in the way it offers background on species and profiles those with medicinal values. It is a good field identification system, and also has a wider range of information on nature in Iowa and its conservation. Clark, a junior computer science major, was a member of the team that created the winning app named “Iowans Eat”. He and fellow computer science student Loc Pham designed the framework and platform for the technology, and the other collaborators handled the biology. (continued on Page 2A)
Winners of the Buena Vista mobile science app competition, left to right, Loc Pham, Brady Clark, Eldora, Ethan Wilson and Joshua Fortmann.
School charts next year finances By Rick Patrie News Editor E L D O R A - N E W PROVIDENCE – When the Legislature and the governor were able – this year – to agree on a supplemental funding increase for Iowa’s schools, it relaxed the finance screws on a lot of small rural districts. Eldora New Providence was one of them. As a result, taxpayers will find that the levy rate dips slightly his year. It would have dipped anyway, but now the dip is more. The 2.25 percent increase in state supplemental aid essentially made a nearly 50 cent per thousand differences in the local levy. That was part of the finance news to come out of the school board meeting Monday night. The rest concerned specifications for new contracts with staff next year. Support staff are mid way though a multi year contract so they didn’t negotiate anything new, but they will nonetheless receive the already agreed upon 2.9 percent increase in overall pay and benefit’s Teachers and the district agreed on a 2.14 percent increase and the administrative team will receive a 2.12 percent increase in overall pay and benefits. School superintendent Jay Mathis said the administration was gratified with the restraint by teachers in their pay asking this time around. Meanwhile, the legislature’s state aid increase came without the struggles that have characterized setting funding for schools in the last couple of years. School districts have to set their own budgets in the very early spring, and in the last couple of years the statehouse hasn’t been able to agree on what if any increase in supplemental aid it would approve until well after the district’s own deadlines. For that reason, when the ENP district drew up and approved its budget for the coming year, it had to anticipate the possibility that the (continued on Page 3A)
The green is back in Eldora Sara Hobson and her mother-in-law Wanda Hobson combine in the new Hobson Greenhouse located a couple miles northwest of Eldora. They offer annuals, perennials and some vegetables. There is a long line of experience in Sara’s own family. The story of the Hobson move into the business joins several other related topics in the B section of this paper. It is the annual spring Lawn and Garden supplement sponsored by a list of advertisers who will welcome your business when spring finally arrives.
Well Remembered
By Rick Patrie News Editor HARDIN COUNTY – Charles Clough was nowhere near forgotten. A week ago the newspapers published a story about a group from Holland that was looking for photographs of young American servicemen buried in a national cemetery in the Netherlands. The inquiry comes from loyal caretakers at the American Military Cemetery outside Margraten. Residents of that community have spent all the years since the war adopting the dead in a military cemetery, individuals and families tending the graves throughout the year and then coming for a special tribute on each Memorial Day. Charles Clough was among the adoptees. He was the son of Charles and Eldona Clough and he died nearby in Germany on Thanksgiving Day back in 1944. His mother would die the following year. His father would live until 1969.
The caretakers of their son’s grave in the Netherlands wanted a photo of the 21 year old to place with the stone monument at his gravesite. Terry Hirsch of Indianapolis, Indiana had contacted the newspapers here, seeking help uncovering a photo. It turned out there was little searching needed. We received numerous calls from Clough’s fellow classmates at the Union Schools. All had kept the annual from their graduating year and each had a photo to share. The photo will be placed next to his marker. In this way the Dutch visitors will be invited to see the faces of their liberators. Last year, 25,000 people accepted that invitation and came to the cemetery. Photos can be submitted through the project’s website, www.TheFacesOfMargraten.com. All submitted photos as well as other information
Charles Clough
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