News

Scholten, Feenstra vie for District 4 seat

Published by editor on Wed, 10/14/2020 - 9:35am

 

             For the first time in eight years, voters in Iowa’s 4th Congressional District will hit the polls to choose a new representative for the seat.

            The race pits Democratic candidate J.D. Scholten, who narrowly lost to Republican incumbent Steve King in 2018, against Randy Feenstra, former Iowa Senator who unseated King in the primary election in February.

Council hears about audit and ambulance reimbursement program

Published by editor on Wed, 10/14/2020 - 9:29am

               At the Tuesday, October 6 meeting of the Clarion City Council, the group heard from accountant Larry Pump regarding the city’s audit findings for the last fiscal year. Pump noted that the process went better this year, thanks to the staff having more experience. He did highlight various “comments,” which are areas the city needs to work on. For more detailed information on the audit, see the press release on page 4 of the Monitor.

The Wright County Monitor is getting a new page width

Published by editor on Wed, 10/14/2020 - 9:26am

     A big change is coming for your hometown newspaper.

     Starting in the last week of October, Mid-America Publishing's newspapers will be slimming down from their current 25-inch width pages to a new 22-inch page.

     The process of transitioning to a different width of paper has been a long journey for the company, as coordinating the change for 22 individual newspapers requires a lot of advanced preparation.

COVID-19 activity on the rise in Iowa

Published by editor on Wed, 10/14/2020 - 9:23am

     COVID-19 activity continues to spike in Iowa, driven by an increase in spread across the rural Northwestern part of the state.

     The spread, particularly among the older population, has resulted in a rise in cases that result in hospitalization. The upward climb of hospitalizations continued for a third week, as 438 Iowans were hospitalized as of Sunday with the virus with 100 in an ICU.

Supervisor candidates answer questions

Published by editor on Wed, 10/07/2020 - 8:48am

 

The Monitor invited the four candidates for Wright County Board of Supervisors to answer questions to help inform voters before the upcoming election. The candidates for supervisor in district 1 are incumbent Rick Rasmussen and challenger Jason Wessels. For district 3, the candidates are incumbent Karl Helgevold and challenger Mike Boyd. All answers were submitted by the candidates, unedited and in their own words. The general election is November 3, with mail-in voting already taking place.

 

Jason Wessels

Wright County Public Health focusing on community-based programing

Published by editor on Wed, 10/07/2020 - 8:45am

“Public Health is not going away,” stated newly named Wright County Public Health Administrator Sandy McGrath who has been with the organization since 2004.

This comes after a difficult decision was made this summer to decertify the Home Health Care portion of the operation.  

“We just couldn’t compete with the private sector,” said Board of Health Chair Mickey Cooper when this happened.  “A lot of Public Health agencies are going this way.”

Rockin’ out: Clarion youth builds own electric guitar

Published by editor on Wed, 10/07/2020 - 8:43am

When a video of 13-year-old Dietrich Woodley of rural Clarion playing a fancy-looking guitar circulated on social media recently, it was pretty impressive. He was playing the old rock classic “Smoke on the Water” on an electric guitar. The video was notable not just for the fact that a young person was expertly wielding his instrument, but because Dietrich had built the guitar himself!

County over 600 mark for COVID cases, board hears

Published by editor on Wed, 10/07/2020 - 8:41am

                In a short Wright County Board of Supervisors meeting on Monday, Sandy McGrath gave her regular COVID update for the county. In all, she noted there has been 616 positive cases with 80 currently active cases. There were 17 positives over the last week, which she said were scattered throughout the county and not related to a single event or location. Right now, schools in the county are at around a 7.2% positive testing threshold, which McGrath says keeps them at the same level of alert that they have been at. Eagle Grove schools resumed in person this week.

Local scout leaders earn leadership badge

Published by editor on Wed, 10/07/2020 - 8:39am

Last month, two local scout leaders were recognized by their peers of the Winnebago Scout Council for having completed the Wood Badge. Scoutmaster Andrew Tew (left) and Assistant Scoutmaster Jonn Nebbe (right), leaders of Clarion Boy Scout troop 1047, both earned this honor. Tew explains that Woodbadge is advanced leadership training.  He and Nebbe attended two weekends of training at Ingawanis Adventure Base outside of Waverly back in the fall of 2018 to start this journey.

Plenty of people and pups enjoy Lap the Lake

Published by editor on Wed, 10/07/2020 - 8:34am

 

This year’s dog walk was the largest turnout ever as approximately seventy-five people and sixty dogs attended the Humane Society of Wright County’s annual “Lap the Lake” event held at Lake Cornelia Saturday, September 19. It was a brisk autumn walk as the humans and dogs started their trek around the lake. 

Wright County Monitor

P.O. Box 153
Clarion, IA 50525
Phone: 515-532-2871
Email: news@wrightcountymonitor.com

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