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4-H is about helping youth achieve

Editorials

Editorial: National 4-H Week, which began Sunday and concludes Saturday, is a good time to celebrate the enormous contributions 4-H makes to our community and nation. It's hard to imagine anyone in Iowa who doesn't know a bit about 4-H, but this week is an appropriate occasion to reflect on the important contribution this organization makes by helping young people develop skills and values that will serve them well for a lifetime. 4-H got its start in Iowa in 1901. Today it is the largest youth-development program in the state. About one-quarter of the state's young folks are ...

It’s sad to see them go

Local Columns

While driving around Iowa I have noted a continuing decline in the number of barns. Once the monarch of every Iowa farmstead, the barn has given way to more efficient metal buildings and, in some cases, no buildings at all. Things change. As with threshing machines, windmills, the outhouse and the horse-drawn wagon the wooden barn is rapidly becoming a part of our past. And that’s okay, I guess. Things change and we have to learn to change with them. Still, I feel some sorrow in the loss of the barn. So much of what made a farm a farm several decades ago centered on ...

Leadership is a process, so it's time to start

Local Columns

Hamilton County needs you! Webster City needs you. Every city in the county needs their residents to take up the charge to help make their city into a place where we all want to live. We need new people to step in and learn how to become leaders in our communities. It's the only way our communities can grow and thrive. We need to work together to find our younger leaders and recommend them for positions where they can learn to take on roles that are important to all of us. This past week, we have run the lists of committees and boards that have openings in both the city and the ...

Employee appreciation is more than empty gestures

Local Columns

I have always believed that if you want good people, you must treat good people like they matter. That sounds simple. It should be simple. But too often, employee appreciation becomes nothing more than words. We tell employees they are valued. We tell them they are appreciated. We tell them they are the backbone of an organization. Then we go right back to doing things the same way we have always done them. And those employees see it, they feel it and they are tired of it. Words matter. But words without action eventually become empty. That’s where we are, already. Real employee ...

Not a Jimmy or Debbie in the bunch

Local Columns

Having spent the past 70+ years spelling my name for people who have never heard it before, I am particularly observant of unusual given names. Though I wanted to be a Billy or Tommy when I was a kid, I’m okay with Arvid. It has served me well over the years. My ancestors came to the United States from northwest Germany’s East Friesland region and from the Netherland’s Groningen and Friesland provinces. My mother, named after an aunt, was given the Old Country name Harmina (hahr-MY-nuh.) Harmina Catherina. Mom claimed she didn’t like her name but I thought it was ...

Preserve the downtown feeling

Letters to Editor

To the Editor, As a historic preservation enthusiast, I am glad to hear of the efforts to continue restoration work on historic buildings downtown while also being disappointed by the recent news that several of the old buildings must be demolished. I applaud the efforts to save as much as possible, especially given that restoring an entire structure is a huge undertaking. I also understand that restoration is not always feasible, and what cannot be restored must be removed for public safety. On that note, when the buildings themselves cannot be preserved, I propose that we, as a ...