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Editorial

Work of many made for softball tournament success

The 2022 Girls State Softball Tournament did not end the way the Fort Dodge Dodgers and their fans had hoped that it would, but it still showcased our community and its outstanding sports complex. The fact that Fort Dodge has hosted the tournament for more than 50 years is a tribute to the work and the partnerships created by essentially a generation’s worth of local leaders. These are leaders that have seen the value in both having a world class facility in Harlan and Hazel Rogers Sports Complex, and maintaining a close relationship with the Iowa High School Girls Athletic ...

School garden will produce lots of benefits

The Manson Northwest Webster Community School District schools are obviously closed in mid-July, but there is an outdoor learning area in use that will continue to have an impact when classes resume in the fall. It consists of raised planting beds built by students in the district’s ag construction class. High school students Brody Poppen, Reece Olson, and Jeremy Bailey then helped fill the beds with soil. Fifth grade math teacher Amy Brown along with Jodi Jacobsen and Heather Wittrock, planned the effort. Elementary students Brody Bush, Brooklynn Dornath, Kathleen Hildreth, Bella ...

New trail segment promises safety, connectivity

People who like to walk, run or ride their bicycle in the northeastern part of Fort Dodge will have a new safer location for doing all that. That new option will be a 10-foot wide paved trail on the east side of North 22nd Street between roughly the 1600 block and the 2500 block. This will be a great addition to the already well-developed trail system for two reasons: safety and connectivity. Safety is perhaps the most compelling reason for building this trail link. This link will get people out of the road in an area with no sidewalks. North 22nd Street is about 40-feet wide up ...

Girls softball returns to Fort Dodge

One of summer’s most enjoyable events gets underway today. The Girls State Softball Tournament will be the highlight of the season for the teams that made it to state-level competition, including the Fort Dodge Dodgers. All the teams are outstanding. Making it to this final event of the season means that none will have any reason for more than a brief lament, no matter what their final standing. Making it to state is itself an accomplishment that marks a season as one to remember with pride. This event has become a major feature of the summer sports season in our town. Fort Dodge has ...

Socks for the Sole effort meets a community need

It’s an automatic part of daily life for many people: when you get dressed, you put your socks on. Clean, dry socks make the feet feel good. Putting socks on is so routine many folks do that without even thinking about it. Unfortunately, there are children in the Fort Dodge community who don’t get to put on a good pair of socks every day. Family financial problems mean that they don’t have enough socks or the ones they have are pretty threadbare. To make sure that as many kids as possible go back to school this year with good socks on their feet, the Community Health Center of ...

VA makes an investment in area veterans’ health care

When someone joins the United States military they essentially volunteer to give their lives, if necessary, for our country. Fortunately, few have to make the supreme sacrifice. But they perform hard work and selfless service that goes beyond what those of us who have never served can possibly imagine. Providing medical care is one of the ways our country says thank you to its veterans. In Fort Dodge, that care will be provided in a new facility that enables doctors and nurses to do more examinations and treatments in one place than was possible before. The new VA Health Clinic at ...