VAN BUREN COUNTY REGISTER

THURSDAY, JANUARY 7, 2021 B1

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Year in ReviewContinued from page A1

July 2

A wind storm on June 26 toppled several trees in Bonaparte, including a 160-year old tree on the property of Marie Hainline. It caused power lines to break, leaving the area without electricity until restored by Alliant En-ergy crews.

A crane reaching over 200 feet was in Van Buren County last week doing work upgrading cell towers to 5G.

A Winneshiek County hail storm contractor, left at least six Keosauqua hom-eowners and one business, in addition to Van Buren County, possibly holding the bag for more than $134,000, after he declared bankruptcy in April.

Obituaries for this week, Selma L Parker, 78, of Douds, Carol A. Douthart, 70, of Keosauqua and Todd Curtis Williams, 55, former-ly of Cantril.

July 9Kylie Peck, of Stockport,

Faith Neeley, Bonaparte and Myriah Baker, Douds, are this year’s Van Buren County Fair Ambassador contestents. Editor’s note: Van Buren County Fair is calling the award an ambas-sador, instead of fair queen, because of the cancellation of the Iowa State Fair. The winner will have an oppor-tunity to compete again next year for fair queen and the chance to go to the Iowa State Fair. Logan Schmitt will remain official fair queen until she passes her crown to the 2021 winner.

Josephine Nichols of Keo-sauqua submitted a drawing of the Hotel Manning to the Iowa Architectural Founda-tion’s 2020 student art con-test. More than 150 students around Iowa participated in the 2020 youth architecture contests, sponsored by Pella Corp. Joey won the South-east Iowa K-3 award for her drawing “Hotel Manning.”

Because of COVID-19, the Keosauqua Lions Club decided to have just the fire-works display for the Fourth of July celebration in Keo-sauqua.

The Midwest Old Set-tlers and Threshers Board of Directors met on June 23 to decide the fate of the 2020 Old Threshers Reunion on September 3 – 7. At that meeting, the Old Threshers Board of Directors voted to cancel the 2020 Old Thresh-ers Reunion. They will now shift their direction to work-ing on the Old Threshers Re-union to be held on Septem-ber 2 – 6, 2021.

Obituaries for the week, Bruce Edward Riegel, Sr., 68, of Birmingham.

July 16, 2020A federal judge has or-

dered the Dakota Access pipeline shut down for ad-ditional environmental re-view, a decision that could have large economic impli-cations for Van Buren Coun-ty and looks to be an issue in the upcoming presiden-tial election. The pipeline pays nearly $900,000 annu-ally (or nine percent of the total) to local governments in property taxes since it was constructed three years ago. About half of that goes to Van Buren County CSD, which depends on the in-come for facilities and gen-eral fund expenditures. The rest goes to the county, hos-pital, townships and other governmental bodies. Da-kota Access said it would appeal the ruling.

Van Buren County War-riors had a great week in the first round of baseball and softball tournaments. Van Buren County girls won the first round regional game, 4-3 and advanced to meet Louisa-Muscatine.

Van Buren County boys’topped West Burling-ton, 5-2, in district quarterfi-nal and advanced to the sec-

ond round against Central Lee July 14.

Obituaries: Rodney M. Warner, 76, of Bonaparte, Joann Robertson, 88, Keo-sauqua, John David Schakel, 76, of Spring Green, WI, formerly of Farmington and Mary Maxine Kokjohn, 96, of Ft. Madison.

July 23Van Buren County Com-

munity School Board ap-proved its return to learn plan for this fall. There will be in-person classroom learning and an online op-tion will be made avail-able to parents, according to superintendent Jeremy Hissem, during last week’s school board meeting.

Van Buren County re-corded its first death asso-ciated with COVID-19. It was posted on the Iowa De-partment of Public Health website last week. The Van Buren County Public Health Office confirmed it. Since the pandemic began, Van Buren County has had 529 individuals tested and 22 tested positive. One posi-tive report was added to Van Buren County’s total on July 18. Prior to that, there had been no active cases, as of July 15, according to the Van Buren County Public Health Office.

The Bonaparte Events Committee hosted lunch for the Red Rock Thresh-ers tractor club during their summer ride in Southeast Iowa July 17 and 18. More than 160 tractors took part.

The Van Buren County Warrior girls softball team gave second-ranked Louisa Muscatine everything it could handle before falling, 7-4, in the second round of Class 2A regional softball tournament there July 16. The Warriors finished the season 9-8.

Central Lee and Van Bu-ren County boys baseball teams tangled in a Class 2A district quarterfinal July 14 there and the Hawks came out on top 9-6. Van Buren County finished the season 4-8.

Van Buren County CSD welcomes Melanie Col-lora, assistant principal of the Harmony Elementary Center. Collora grew up on a family farm near Fairfield and graduated from Fair-field High School.

July 30The 2020 Van Buren

County Fair, which con-cluded with Monday’s 4-H/FFA livestock sale, was one of the most successful in fair history, an officer with the fair board tells the Van Bu-ren County Register. “It went very, very well,” said Rachel Smith. “It is one of the big-gest fairs Van Buren County has ever seen. The grand-

stands were full and we had to turn people away.”

Van Buren County CSD graduation is scheduled for August 2. Graduation had been postponed in May due to the governor’s proclama-tion. The stage will be set up on the track with audience members spread on the foot-ball field. The student speak-ers will be Madison Bar-tholomew (Valedictorian), Catherine Lowe and Chloe Davidson (Co-Salutatori-ans). The commencement speaker will be Greg Jones.

Van Buren County CSD school board held a special meeting July 22. The board approved a motion to pur-chase internet routing sup-plies and Wi-Fi hot spots to assist its online learning platform to assist parents and students should it be-come necessary this fall.

Villages Folk School’s third Annual PAINT THE FAIR, a plein air competi-tion, was held Wednesday, July 22 through Friday, July 24 at the Van Buren County Fairgrounds. Winners were: First Place-Larry Siwek; Second Place-John Pres-ton; Third Place-Jessica Kirby; Honorable Mention-Rob Caputo and Honorable Mention- Carlene Ding-man.

Birmingham Fire De-partment recognized Bir-mingham Manufacturing for its support of the fire depart-ment. Birmingham FD tries to honor at least one busi-ness every year.

Obituaries:Stephen R. Pacha, 74, of

Birmingham, Leo, E. “Al” Turner, 93, Keosauqua and David L. Weller, 60, of Oak-land Mills.

August 6Van Buren County Hospi-

tal, an affiliate of MercyOne, announces Garen Carpenter joined as Chief Executive Officer beginning July 31. A native of Iowa, Garen Carpenter brings nearly 15 years of experience to his role as chief executive offi-cer. His experience includes both rural and urban health care environments including emergency care, specialty care and family medicine. Carpenter previously served as the interim chief execu-tive officer of Van Buren County Hospital from 2013 to 2014.

Rick and Sandra Coff-man of Douds will be in-

ducted into the Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame during a vir-tual ceremony on Sunday, August 23. Eighty-six Iowa counties are participating this year and have selected 117 inductees for their out-standing service and dedica-tion to 4-H.

Southeast Iowa Super Conference has released their all conference soft-ball and baseball teams and the results are: Van Buren County softball first team: Chelsey Huff, junior, Lexi Jirak, senior, Isabel Man-ning, junior, Ally Campbell, freshman. Second team: Ella Jirak, junior. Honor-able Mention: Brooklyn Cormier, junior and Anna-bel Cormier, freshman.

Van Buren County base-ball first team: Ryan Wolf, junior, and Jonah Hecken-berg, senior. Second team: Taylor Sprouse, freshman, Treyton Bainbridge, ju-nior, and Tony Davison, se-nior. Honorable mention: Tommy Adkins, senior, and Cory Bunnell, senior.

Obituaries: Joan “Joey” W. Summerwill, 99, of Iowa City, formerly of Keosau-qua.

August 13 Korean War veteran Her-

bert Junior Saunders was awarded a Quilt of Valor on August 5, Saunders served as a PFC from 1953-1955, stationed at Kaiserslautern, Germany. Lola Marsh of Farmington, selected the patriotic pattern, stitched the pieces together, and pre-sented Saunders with his quilt as a gift of love and appreciation for his service. The Iowa Patriotic Stitchers performed the quilting.

Milton Creamery launch-es Iowa Victory cheese box. The Musser family has been making cheese in South-east Iowa for over 14 years, winning numerous blue ribbons for their authentic cheddar-style cheeses all made with milk from small, local farms. “Our business was hit by 50 percent in April and May, forcing us to quickly develop a new strategy to get our cheese to consumers,” said Rufus “Ju-nior” Musser IV, co-CEO of Milton Creamery. He shares that the company launched an e-commerce site at the end of March and has now joined forces with several other Iowa-based artisan companies to launch the first

Iowa Victory cheese box. The Iowa Victory cheese box contains Milton Cream-ery’s Prairie Breeze™, Old Style Cheddar, Four Alarm Cheddar, Cheese Curds; La Quercia Prosciutto Ameri-cano and ‘Nduja Prosciutto Spread; Frisian Farms Aged Gouda.

The Villages of Van Bu-ren County will be hosting the 34th year of Bike Van Buren on August 15 and 16. Bicycling enthusiasts will pedal their way through our historical villages during the two-day event in Southeast Iowa.

Van Buren County Fair Southeast Iowa Showdown winners: Champion Breed-ing Ewe: Wyatt Gilbert. Champion Market Lamb: Emily Sprouse. Champion Breeding Doe- Zane Smith.Champion Market Goat- Alicia Cumberland. Cham-pion Breeding Gilt- Kelyn Grimm. Champion Mar-ket Hog- Logan Schmitt. Champion Breeding Heif-er- Kelyn Grimm. Champi-on Market Beef- Madison Murguia.

Obituaries: Scott William Eland, 64, of Keosauqua and Jane Ellen Zane, 65, of Don-nellson.

August 20Milton man charged by

U.S. Attorney with receipt and distribution of child pornogra-phy. Joshua Emil Sullivan, Milton, was charged in fed-eral court with receiving and distributing child pornog-raphy. A judge in the case stated that Sullivan faces a “lengthy sentence”, accord-ing to federal court docu-ments filed.

Kent Muntz switches back to his agricultural roots.On September 1, 1985, Kent Muntz switched from a career in agriculture seeds, to insurance. Thirty-five years later, Muntz switched back. Muntz, who grew up in the agricultural business, is returning to Merschman Seeds, where he worked for five years in the 1980s, establishing their Missouri seed territory.

Former Van Buren Com-

munity baseball star, Robby Laughlin, was named assis-tant coach of the Dawson Community College, Glen-dive, MT.

Obituaries:David D. Drummond,

64, Farmington, Shirley Ann Burger, 87, of Burl-ington, Velva Jean Brere-ton, 80, Fairfield, formerly of Stockport, Wilma Lou Greenig, 78, of Fairfield, Rick Charles Campbell, 58, of Keosauqua, John Charles Westercamp, 82, of Bonaparte, Emma Lou Carter, 97 of Keosauqua and Patricia Irene Shaw, 81, of Birmingham.

August 27 The First Baptist Church

of Farmington is having an open house celebrating the ministry of Pastor Chad Welch. Pator Welch ac-cepted the call in January of 2010. Pastor Chad Welch and his wife Michal have four daughters, Kylee, Codi, Kelsey, and Cadi.

On Sunday, August 30, Bethel Bible Church of rural Argyle will have an instal-lation service for their new pastor. Pastor Aaron Hand and his wife, Mindy have two daughters.

Starwest to terminate cable service. Starwest Inc. will stop all transmission of cable TV service, just before midnight, Monday, August 31. They issued this statement: “With the con-tinued increases of cost in every aspect of providing cable TV service and our promise to keep our rates as low as possible, we cannot maintain this business any longer without incurring substantial debt.”

Continued to page B6