Akron Hometowner serving the communities of Akron, IA and Westfield, IA with Local News, Sports and What's Happening in the community. Designed by River City Digital Design www.rivercd.com
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March 14, 2007 What's Happening? Spud Bake New Horizons Church is holding a Spud Bake March 17, 11 a.m.-2 p.m., at the church, 141 Reed St., Akron. (Loaded baked potato with your choice of toppings and a drink) Fish Supper Westfield Congregational Church's Fish Fry is March 16 and 30, 5-7:30 p.m. at the church. All you can eat fish & chicken supper. Clubhouse dance The Akron Golf Course has scheduled and a St. Patrick's Day Supper & Dance March 17. Corned Beef and Cabbage served 6-7:30 p.m. Dance 8 p.m. to midnight at the Akron Golf Clubhouse KC Brunch The Akron Knights of Columbus are sponsoring a St. Patrick's Day Brunch March 17, 8:30 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. at Parish Hall. Free will offering. Membership night Membership Night at the Akron Golf Course is March 16 beginning at 6 p.m. March 16, 6 p.m. at the clubhouse. Free will offering for ribs or fish supper. Discounts for signing up on or before that date. FFA Banquet The annual Akron-Westfield FFA Banquet is March 17 beginning at
5:30 p.m. in the A-W school cafeteria with awards to follow in the
auditorium. Free will donation taken for banquet. The Plymouth County Pork Producers' Banquet is March 20 beginning at 4:30 p.m. at the K.C. Hall in Le Mars. Speaker on Dircovirus. 6 p.m. social, 7 p.m. supper. Dodgeball Tourney A Dodgeball Tournament will be held March 22, 7 p.m., at A-W. Proceeds will go to the Gant family who lost their Westfield home in a fire. For more information and/or to make donations, contact A-W guidance counselors Shawn Hoffman and Krista Weiland.Hawarden Home Show The Hawarden Home Show is March 16, 5-9 p.m., March 17, 10 a.m.-3 p.m., at West Sioux High School in Hawarden. The Akron Hometowner and Koala-T Printing will be there. Legislative Forum Rep. Chuck Soderberg and Sen. Dave Mulder will be hosting Legislative Forums March 17 at 9 a.m. at Hawarden City Hall, 10:30 a.m. at the Akron Public Library, and noon at the Westfield Community Center to discuss various issues concerning the Iowa Legislature. The public is invited to attend and address any issues.
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A-W readers theatre performs well at All-State Akron-Westfield's All-State readers theatre had a truly outstanding performance of their selection, “Alky” at the Large Group All-State Festival held on the Iowa State University campus Saturday, Feb. 17. All 12 student performers and Coach Susan Anderson felt that they gave their best performance of the season at All-State. The critic judge for the readers theatre room was Rick Anderson from Kirkwood Community College. Mr. Anderson had wonderful comments for the students on their performance. He complimented Anderson on the selection of such an 'edgy' piece and the students for their mature and articulate handling of such a serious teenage topic. He also felt their presentation was very professional and they developed their characters in a very realistic and believable manner. The students returned home with a new understanding of the importance of their recent accomplishment as Large Group All-State Speech Performers. Pictured are the speech students who attended All-State. Front row from left, Susan Meerdink, Kara Reed, Becca Meerdink. Middle, Austin Willer, Annie Kjar, Jessica Horton, Jordan Hohenstein. Back row, Kalib Heeren, Shelby Johnson, Coach Susan Anderson, Kyle Hughes, Savanna Bice, Michael Oetken.
Third spec house sells Plans for fourth underway By Julie Ann Madden The City of Akron's third spec house has sold. Joel Iseminger, son of Steve Iseminger of Westfield, is the owner, according to Akron Housing Committee Chairperson Mike Hohenstein, who made the announcement the March 6 Akron Housing Committee meeting. With the successful sale of three spec houses in the city's Portlandville Heights subdivision, the committee discussed building a fourth spec house on Ridge Road Drive between Orville Feauto's new home and the fire station. Ideas include creating a slightly larger L-shaped spec home with the garage and home connected by a breezeway. Laundry facilities may be placed in the breezeway. In addition to new spec house plans, the committee discussed hosting a community-wide open house similar to what the city of Whiting holds each year.
Greater Hoyt appeals to public for help
By Julie Ann Madden The Greater Hoyt School Board is asking residents of both the Greater Hoyt School District and Akron-Westfield School District to write, call and/or email South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds -- asking him NOT to sign South Dakota House Bill 1082. This bill forces all South Dakota school districts with less than 100 students to consolidate with an adjoining school district. Across South Dakota, 675 students would be affected by this law - 61 from Greater Hoyt. If Gov. Mike Rounds signs the bill into law, Greater Hoyt and 12 other school districts would have two years to develop a consolidation plan with another South Dakota school district. Board President Greg Heeren broke the news to his school board at their meeting Monday night. Originally, Heeren thought they would be excluded from this law because of their contractual agreement with the Akron-Westfield School District. However, just before the meeting, A-W Superintendent Ron Flynn informed him that wasn't so. Board members are hoping a letter-writing, emailing and phone-calling campaign from the people in the two school districts will sway the governor from signing the bill into law. According to Heeren, the governor was initially opposed to this bill. If it becomes law, Akron-Westfield would lose not only the 61 Greater Hoyt students but almost half a million dollars in revenue annually. “There are a couple of schools along side of us, their mouths are watering,” said Heeren. The number of A-W employees would also decrease, said Heeren, which could also lead to the loss of more students. “This really could happen,” said Board Member Lynn Johnson as the board members sat in stunned silence. “Anybody who can, will move (to Iowa),” he added. It would be the end of Greater Hoyt School District, said Johnson. No one knew if Greater Hoyt's three-year contract with Akron-Westfield that was just signed would be terminated if the bill became law. “It doesn't mean we are done,” said Heeren, adding they could choose to file suit. “We're not done by a long shot.” The Greater Hoyt Board may decide to call a special meeting for its residents.
A-W community appeals to South Dakota governor By Julie Ann Madden Last week, the Akron-Westfield community began a letter-writing and emailing campaign to South Dakota Governor Mike Rounds, hoping to persuade him from signing into law a bill that would dissolve the Greater Hoyt School District. South Dakota legislators passed Senate Bill 157 on Saturday, March 3. Now, Gov. Rounds has 15 days to decide whether to sign it into law. As of press time March 12, the governor had not signed the bill into law. This bill would force all South Dakota school districts with less than 100 students to reorganize with another school district. Greater Hoyt, which has 61 students, would be one of 13 South Dakota school districts given until June 30, 2009, to develop and implement a reorganization plan. Across South Dakota, the education of 675 students would be changed. On March 5, Greater Hoyt School Board members, Akron-Westfield Superintendent Ron Flynn and Akron city officials made an appeal to Rounds and local legislators to try to stop this bill from being enacted. At the March 12 A-W School Board meeting, Superintendent Ron Flynn gave a report to the school board. “The way the reorganization usually works is that the two districts would try to work up a plan that they will then submit to the state for approval,” he said. “The state will either approve it or send it back (for revision).” Once the state Board of Education gives its approval, then the two school districts patrons vote whether they want to approve that plan, he said. If one or both of the districts reject the plan, then the school boards can call for another vote a year later. Both Flynn and Greater Hoyt School Board President Greg Heeren were confused by information given to them by South Dakota Representative Joel Dykstra as to what would happen in that year-long period. “I'm a little fearful that (Gov. Rounds) will sign it because it is a 13-page bill,” said Flynn, “because the part that pertains to the Greater Hoyt and other small school districts only takes up about five lines of the 13 pages.” Flynn said the bill doesn't clearly say what would happen to school districts who already have formed an agreement with a larger school district. “I don't know what's going to happen here,” said Flynn. “There's still time to call, email or write to Gov. Rounds.” The South Dakota legislators don't understand Greater Hoyt's agreement with Akron-Westfield, said Heeren. “We operate just like every other school district operates in South Dakota.” “I can only hope if this would get signed, we could work with our legislators to form some type of an amendment in next year's legislative session,” said Heeren, adding he had received support from Senator Kenneth Albers and Rep. Margaret Gillespie but didn't feel Rep. Dykstra would help in any way. The South Dakota legislators also passed another bill which would allow South Dakota students to open enroll into an Iowa school district if Iowa legislators pass a law allowing Iowa students to open enroll into South Dakota school districts. Even if the latter were enacted by both states, we wouldn't have a guarantee that we could continue our agreement with Akron-Westfield, said Heeren.
A-W advances to state History Day Contest By Julie Ann Madden Akron-Westfield students brought home nearly one-third of the awards from the District History Day competition on Friday. Eight Akron-Westfield entries advanced to the State History Day competition. The District History Day contest changed this year in that with the downsizing of Area Education Agencies in the state, AEA No. 12 and AEA No. 4's territories were combined. Therefore, there were 15 school districts competing instead of just three. Participating were students from Akron-Westfield, Hinton, Kingsley- Pierson, Le Mars Community, Mater Dei Nativity (Sioux City), Orange City Christian, St. Patrick's (Sheldon), Sheldon, Sioux Central, Sioux City, South O'Brien, Spalding Catholic, Unity Christian (Orange City), and Hull-Western Christian. Akron-Westfield students create History Day projects under the guidance of Colleen Westergard and Val Philips. |
Designed by River City Digital, 2007
