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Editorial

Safety is driving construction of roundabouts

One of the various construction projects impacting local drivers this summer is north of Fort Dodge, where Nelson Avenue and 170th Street intersect. That road juncture just south of Fort Dodge Regional Airport is being converted from a traditional one in which the roads meet at right angles to each other to a circular one called a roundabout. If it seems like you are seeing more and more roundabouts as you drive around, it is because there are more of them. There are 150 roundabouts in the state, according to the Iowa Department of Transportation. The local inventory already ...

Shellabration Inc. is asset to Fort Dodge

Jim Reed and all the other volunteers who make up Shellabration Inc. have done it again. On Saturday night, about 4,400 people crammed into the intersection of Central Avenue and Ninth Street for this year's Fort Dodge Country Jam concert. They were treated to rousing performances by Travis Tritt, Blake Jack & 35 South and Fort Dodge’s own Stadium Dr. Local volunteers worked behind the scenes for months to make the show possible, then shifted into really high gear a couple days before the concert to get everything set up. Because of major road construction projects, the concert ...

Nothing compares to the Iowa State Fair

The time for eating all kinds of food on a stick while gazing at a cow sculpted in butter has arrived. Yes, we are talking about the Iowa State Fair, which begins Thursday and continues through Aug. 23. It may well be the grandest of our nation’s state agricultural festivals. Iowans gathered in Fairfield for the first state fair in 1854 — just eight years after achieving statehood. That fair boasted an attendance of about 8,000. In the early years, the fair’s venue changed frequently. It wasn’t until 1879 that Des Moines became its home. It took up residence at the present ...

Hard work of many made Iowa Central program first in the nation

Iowa Central Community College is leading the nation’s education system in a new and exciting direction. This new development was significant enough to draw Gov. Kim Reynolds, U.S. Education Secretary Linda McMahon and U.S. Acting Secretary of Labor Keith Sonderling to the Fort Dodge campus on Tuesday. Why? Because the college is the first one in the nation to offer a new form of federal student aid called Workforce Pell. And it is offering that student aid in a program that literally saves lives: the emergency medical technician course. Think about that for a second. Of all the ...

Iowa Sales Tax Holiday starts Friday

Area families are already beginning to think about the items that will be needed to send young people back to school properly equipped and looking good. According to the National Retail Federation, families with children in school will spend about $43.3 billion nationwide on back-to-school clothing and supplies this year. Surveys by the federation have shown that clothing and shoes account for about half of a family's back-to-school spending. Finding bargains is part of the fun of back-to-school shopping every year. Clothing and shoes are among the necessities that will be on just ...

Choose Iowa promotes high quality food and drink from our state

People across the United States increasingly want to know where their food comes from. It just makes sense to know where something you put in your body comes from. And a problem like the recent wave of stomach trouble caused by a parasite on lettuce only adds urgency to the desire for knowledge. The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship has a program that lets consumers know when they are getting wholesome food from our state. It’s called Choose Iowa. The distinctive Choose Iowa logo on a package, bag or bottle means the food or drink inside came from Iowa. State ...