ROAD CLOSURE
H-10 CROSS COUNTRY
Creston senior Ben Irr and sophomore Brielle Baker earned medals at Thursday’s Hawkeye 10 Conference Meet at Iowa Western Community College. For more on the meet, see SPORTS, page 1S. >>
According to Kevin Kruse, the contractor for Adams Street bridge replacement project has notified the city of Creston that beginning Tuesday, Oct. 18, the intersection of Adams Street and 170th Street and Cottonwood Street will be closed for storm sewer replacement. The closure is expected to last through Thursday, Oct. 20.
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FRIDAY, OCTOBER 14, 2016
Chafa pulls ahead in national pedal pull competition By BAILEY POOLMAN CNA staff reporter bpoolman@crestonnews.com
GREENFIELD — For the past four years, Sophia Chafa has been muscling her way through pedal pulls throughout the Midwest. Sophia, 11, is a sixthgrade student at Nodaway Valley Community School and she participates in pedal pulls in the summer months throughout the local area. She even went to nationals. Sophia started pedal pulls when she was 7 years old in Prescott during the town’s annual Septemberfest celebration. “I did one with my grandma, and then I got first,” Sophia said. “I just started doing them from there. ... I did it just to try it. It was fun.” Recently, Sophia participated in the Clarke County Fair pedal pull July 21 in Osceola, where she got first place and qualified for the state pedal pull. She pulled about 200 pounds. She then participated in the pedal pull in Knoxville before going to the Iowa State Fair in Des Moines, where she also qualified for state. At the state fair, she pulled about 320 pounds 40 feet.
State
‘Please hurry,’ teen tells dispatcher after accidentally shooting sister TOLEDO (AP) — They were, says Denise Kirchner, “the worst three hours of my life” — the agonizing moments after her son accidently shot her and her 14-year-old daughter Madison while cleaning his semi-automatic gun in their Iowa home. Madison skirted death, but survived. She is living proof, her mother says, of what can happen when otherwise responsible gun owners have a safety lapse. Dylan, 18, had been trying to remove bullets from the chamber of the .40-caliber handgun when it fired, Toledo Police Chief Bob Kendall said. The bullet passed through the left breast of his younger sister Madison, narrowly missing her spine but leaving six
holes in her stomach and intestines. It then passed through the thigh of Denise, who was at her kitchen sink doing dishes, before lodging in a cupboard. “My sister just actually got shot. We were cleaning guns,” Dylan told a 911 dispatcher. “Please hurry. She’s having trouble breathing. Please hurry.” The accidental shooting last November was one of three involving minors in their rural Iowa county in roughly a year’s time; the others ended in deaths for two teenage girls. The cases also were among more than 1,000 accidental shootings involving minors nationwide over a 2½-year period. The GUN | 2A
CNA photo by BAILEY POOLMAN
The competitions Chafa participated in are Hawkeye Pedal Pull-sanctioned, allowing her to continue to the state and national levels. The state pedal pull was Sept. 10 at the Coliseum in Marshalltown, and Sophia wasn’t nervous. “I’ve been there before,” Sophia said about her thirdplace win at state in 2015. In Marshalltown, Sophia pulled 315 pounds for
Sophia Chafa, sitting, poses for a photo with her parents, standing from left, Zeke and Courtney Chafa, with her International pedal tractor and the plaques, trophies and medals she earned during her pedal pull competitions at state and nationals.
40 feet. She did a full pull the first round, taking the weight the full 40 feet, and then pulled a higher weight a second time, reaching near the 36-feet mark. “It was cool because last year I got third so it kind of bummed me out. But, this year, I got first so I got to stand at the front of the line and not the end of the line,”
Sophia said. “I like competition. I like trophies.”
Nationals Next up for Sophia was nationals. Nationals was held Sept. 24 at the Corn Palace in Mitchell, South Dakota. Her parents, Zeke and Courtney Chafa, drove her to the palace, where Sophia competed against more children her age than
before. “There were a lot more kids,” Sophia said about being nervous this time around. She participated against 13 other girls in her age group; she was the only one in her group from Iowa. Once Sophia’s turn was up, a person pushed her PEDAL | 2A
New sign:
CNA photo by SCOTT VICKER
Sparks fly Thursday afternoon as a Superior Lighting Incorporated employee welds a new sign into place at the Creston Dairy Queen, located at 201 W. Taylor St. Crews worked to replace both the sign on the side of the building and the standing sign located along West Taylor Street.
CNA photos by SCOTT VICKER
High Lakes Outdoor Alliance: ABOVE LEFT, Southwestern Community College student Stephanie Vandekamp, left, displays feathers painted by Creston artist Chancy Walters as Darwin West auctions them off Thursday night at the High Lakes Outdoor Alliance’s 11th-annual banquet held at Three Mile Lake Lodge in Afton. The fundraising event raised approximately $41,000 for High Lakes Outdoor Alliance. ABOVE RIGHT, Ron Higgins of Creston spins the wheel in a game of “Wheel of Fortune” Thursday evening while Jacob Riley of Lenox looks on during High Lakes Outdoor Alliance’s 11th-annual banquet held at Three Mile Lake Lodge in Afton. WEEKEND WEATHER
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Volume 133 No. 96
2016
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