Stories from Tuesday, September 1, 2015

Competing at the 2015 Windy City AAU Beach Volleyball Tour Championships held in Chicago on Aug. 1, a girl with local ties went undefeated en rout to a first-place finish. Ashley Margetts is the daughter of Mike and Jill (Eich) Margetts of Brownsburg, Indiana. She, along with partner Jenna Hill, won the girls 12 and under division of the tournament...

Mike Bosch has been named the head softball coach at Syracuse University. Bosch, who has been the interim head coach of the program since June 2015, was an assistant at Syracuse for two NCAA Tournament teams and had a successful 14-year stint as the head coach at Iowa Lakes Community College...

The Top 10 teams in the Associated Press Iowa high school football polls of the 2015 season with first-place votes in parentheses and won-loss record, total points and position last week at right: Others receiving votes: 13, Southeast Polk 8. 13, Ankeny 8. 13, Council Bluffs Lewis Central 8. 16, Cedar Rapids Prairie 6. 17, Iowa City West 2. 18, Dubuque Senior 1...

It was a clean sweep for Dickinson County prep football teams in week one, as the Indians, Pioneers, Wolves and Titans each earned victories to start the season on a high note. Week two certainly brings with it some challenges, but area squads enter Friday with hopes of repeating the sweep...

Several members of the regional media paid an early visit to the Clay County Fair, two weeks in advance of the annual event which will bring more than 300,000 to the grounds for the nine-day event. Jeremy Parsons, manager of the "World's Greatest County Fair," told those in attendance, "This truly is a regional event. We appreciate your coverage."...

Early morning arrests Sunday in Royal placed two Cherokee residents in the Clay County Jail on burglary-related charges. Local authorities are calling the arrest a major break in a string of burglaries involving more than 10 northwest Iowa counties...

William Asberry, 46, Spirit Lake, was charged with driving while barred at 2:07 p.m. Monday, Aug. 31 at Sunner Avenue and 23rd Street in Spirit Lake. Joshua Dyhrkopp, 30, Spirit Lake, was charged with driving while suspended, child endangerment, eluding, speeding, and failure to stop at a red traffic light at 11:22 a.m. Monday, Aug. 31 at Hill Avenue and Lake Street...

Iowa Lakes Community College announces the University of Okoboji EMS Conference on Saturday, Oct. 3 from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. and Sunday, Oct. 4 from 8 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. This is a date change from earlier announcements. The conference is at the Dickinson County Expo Building in Spirit Lake...

On a hot summer day, it's easy to throw back a few drinks while enjoying the beach or fishing on the dock, and it's easy to forget that driving home with a buzz is drunk driving. As summer winds down, Iowa and South Dakota and southern Minnesota law enforcement plans to crack down on drunk drivers during a nationwide Driving While Intoxicated (DWI) enforcement effort...

Labor Day Weekend is not an ordinary holiday weekend in the Iowa Great Lakes Region. It is Iowa RockNRoll Music Association (IRRMA) Hall of Fame Induction Spectacular weekend bringing visitors from all over the United States to this area. The annual Hall of Fame weekend begins on Friday night with the kick-off concert in the Roof Garden at Arnolds Park. ...

Polls will be open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. Tuesday as voters in the Okoboji School District consider a tax levy proposal to finance a new middle school in Milford. Residents can vote at the Milford Community Building (806 N Avenue) on the day of the election. Early voting is available at the Dickinson County Auditor's Office at the courthouse in Spirit Lake...

At the Carstens Financial Group Pro-Am Golf Tournament and Auction at Emerald Hills for the Wounded Warrior Project, my wife and I purchased the golf flag with the Wounded Warrior symbol for a considerable sum. Being an Air Force veteran, we considered it money well spent on a worthwhile endeavor. ...

In the spring of 2014, we were contemplating a relocation of our family for a number of reasons. There were many factors that we considered while trying to determine where we might relocate. While contemplating these factors, one consistently ranked toward the top, and that was the school system...

Our middle school is small, and our student numbers are growing. Many of our classes are combined, and many times there are over 35 kids in one room and only one or two teachers. Our STEM lab, which focuses on Science, Technology, Engineering and Math, usually has 40 kids in it and only two teachers. This restricts the time that the students get to ask questions and get one-on-one time with the teachers. This leads to the amount of attention in the classroom to decrease...

The pending Okoboji School District PPEL vote(s) scheduled in September and February are perplexing for several reasons, but most notably, they ask you to vote to abandon a school complex that has been expanded, updated and very well maintained since the district's inception. In other words, the facility can continue to service the needs of students and staff with modest changes that can be done for a fraction of the cost of the proposed referendum...

I think most people know something needs to be done at the middle school. However, I am encouraging all to vote "NO," -- not this time, not this plan -- for the following reasons: 1. I don't feel the board has spent the time necessary to understand the ramifications for the north end of the school district. ...

We have a long history in the area that is currently the Okoboji School District. Four generations of our family have attended schools within our district for nearly 100 years. One parent started school in 1919 and graduated from the "original" Okoboji School, southwest of Milford in 1932. ...

The Dickinson County Nature Center will be buzzing with activity Friday, Sept. 4. The annual Bee and Butterfly Festival returns from 4-8 p.m. -- a fun way to learn about the lives of two of nature's most important insects. "This first started as a butterfly festival and then we added the bees," said Dickinson County Naturalist Charles Vigdal. ...

Six candidates met the filing deadline to appear on the ballot for three seats on the Okoboji School Board. The seats held by Joe Conover, Brad Droegmiller and Markham D. Hale had terms set to expire. None of the incumbents met the filing deadline to return to the ballot...

If brief remarks and a dry audience impact poll numbers, then Mike Huckabee and Carly Fiorina added support at Thursday's Republican Summer Picnic at Parks Marina. Both candidates finished their comments before rain arrived in the area and both are trying to establish a spot in the upper-tier of a crowded GOP race for the White House...

In her only home cross country meet of the season, Spirit Lake freshman Kourtney Delperdang put on a show for the home crowd. The first-year runner, coming off the first win of her career in the Indians' season-opening meet in Spencer last week, blew the competition away at Brooks National Golf Course on Tuesday with her winning time of 20 minutes, .05 of a second...

The Class 1A No. 13-ranked Harris-Lake Park volleyball team split a pair of matches at a triangular hosted by West Sioux on Tuesday evening. The Wolves defeated the host Falcons in straight sets (25-10, 25-16 and 25-23), but fell to Class 2A No. 1-ranked Unity Christian (25-5, 25-15 and 25-13)...

Spirit Lake showed why they are one of the top teams in Class 3A on Tuesday evening, as the No. 14-ranked Indians swept Sioux Central, Graettinger-Terril/Ruthven-Ayrshire and host Okoboji to win the 2015 Okoboji Invitional held in Milford. "Going into this tournament, a big focus of ours was playing with intensity all of the time," Spirit Lake coach Beau Dielschneider said. ...