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Opinion

When Hometown Pride calls, say yes

Local Columns

I’ve heard this before, probably first from my mother, then later from friends or family. But I am identifying more and more with this. Sometimes there just isn’t enough of me. I don’t mean physically, I just feel mentally there isn’t enough brain power to keep all the plates spinning in the air. Especially as the harder I try, the more behind I get. I’ve always been a doer, and I know how to do many things, but no one can expand the hours in the days, no one can give us an eight day week, and months that should always be 32 days long, just don’t exist. It’s my ...

Polio anywhere is a threat to children everywhere

Letters to Editor

Letter to the Editor: I’m writing to explain why Webster City Rotarians are inviting you to participate in Saturday morning’s World’s Largest Polio Walk at Wilson Brewer Park. All ages and fitness levels are welcome to join us at 9:30 am for the walk beginning at 10:00 am. Stop in anytime between 10:00 am and noon. Your freewill offering will be donated to Rotary International to help fund PolioPlus, the organization’s mission to eradicate polio from the world. A donation of just $20 will buy 133 doses of the oral vaccine. Rotary’s PolioPlus program began in 1985. The ...

Road safety during harvest and year round

Local Columns

The world is moving too fast now, and no place do we see this more than on our roads. It’s time to slow down and be more aware, as farmers are moving farm equipment, trying to get their crops harvested before the weather takes another turn. But it’s also the time of the year, when the wildlife are running, as their shelters and food are disappearing as farmers hit their fields. It seems obvious that with fall, we should all be paying more attention to the roads and how the weather conditions impact not only people, like the farmers, but the animals that we share our world ...

Our kindest and tenderest emotion

Local Columns

Do you remember the day you left home to strike out on your own? I do. It was in October, 59 years ago. The oldest of six children from a large close-knit family, I was the first to cut the apron strings and move into a place of my own. It was time to leave. That spring my father, at the age of 40, was diagnosed with Parkinson’s disease. Dad ran the feed mill in town and it was obvious his working years would be cut short by the illness. One less mouth to feed, I figured, would help the situation. Equally obvious was the fact that Dad and I didn’t see eye-to-eye ...

Questions rail feasibility study

Letters to Editor

To the editor: City council is treating local taxpayers like boiling frogs, blind to what is happening right in front of us at Gateway Industrial Park. Last week, council approved a $120,000 rail feasibility study, backed by a $100,000 Iowa DOT grant and $20,000 in local tax dollars. They are planning a branch spur off the line west of the river into the east side of our empty industrial park. The official cover story leans on local operations like Vantec or Custom Meats, even though officials admitted neither business actually needs this rail spur. Developers rely on tried and ...

Be grateful, be safe, thank those working around us

Local Columns

This week across Iowa, harvest is in full swing. After a long rainy September, our farmers can finally get into the fields. If you have been in Iowa a few years, you know what is involved. People are working long hours using large equipment. Our roads are having entirely different traffic patterns. Even the deer are more erratic as corn fields are leveled. Despite all of the September rain, there is even a risk of devastating field fires. I grew up on a family farm in Greene County. As soon as I could walk, my parents and big brothers were telling me to stay away from the bull ...