Local News

Purchases, new position approved by FD council

Some new municipal vehicles were ordered by the Fort Dodge City Council Monday. The council ordered two Dodge Durangos for the Police Department from Fort Dodge Chrysler Dodge Jeep Ram for $84,486. Those will replace two older, high mileage patrol vehicles. The council also bought a Ford Ranger pickup for the Recreation Department from Fort Dodge Ford Lincoln Toyota for $35,496. The council also created a new, part-time records and support technician in the Fire Department. This individual will assist with billing for the ambulance service provided by the Fire Department. They ...

Principal: FDMS reading marks are up

The Fort Dodge Community School District, striving for student literacy improvements, saw more impressive results at the board’s Monday meeting. Middle School Principal Shawn Chesteen presented the group with a look at what sixth through eighth grade students have been accomplishing. “We have a building goal to increase by 8 percent on the state’s student readiness program charts,” he said. “There are several avenues in which we are working towards this.” Chesteen said those avenues are a reading achievement program in place for special education students, several RAPs ...

FDSH National Honor Society holds ceremony

The orphans of spring

’Tis the season. All critters in the wild, great and small, are having babies. Sometimes, they leave those babies, then people find them. Then the trouble starts. That’s when Matthew Petersen, Iowa DNR conservation officer for Webster and Humboldt counties, gets involved. ...

Big projects, animal control agreement on council agenda

The Fort Dodge City Council will consider awarding contracts for a couple of big projects when it meets this evening. The council meeting will begin at 6 p.m. in the Municipal Building, 819 First Ave. S. The elected officials will consider awarding a contract for the complete reconstruction of Third Avenue Northwest between Seventh and 10th streets northwest. Rasch Construction, of Fort Dodge, has submitted the apparent low bid of about $2.1 million. Also on the agenda is a proposed contract for building a parking lot and picnic shelter near the boat ramp at the former Sunkissed ...

Former Eagle Grove officer sentenced

EAGLE GROVE — A former Eagle Grove police officer will serve jail time after pleading guilty to sending obscene images to a minor. Colt Richardson, 28, was fired from the Eagle Grove Police Department in December 2024 after he was accused of repeatedly sending inappropriate Snapchat messages to a teen and of sending an inappropriate image to her. According to court documents, at least one of those messages was sent while he was on duty. Richardson pleaded guilty in January to two counts of disseminating obscene materials to a minor and one charge of first-degree harassment. ...