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Editorial

PICA has major positive impact on Fort Dodge

The impact of a group of volunteers known as Pride In Community Appearance can be seen throughout Fort Dodge. Usually called PICA, the group makes the town look beautiful by taking care of flower beds and landscaping on public property. PICA members tend to flower beds in parks and around the welcome signs at the gateways to the community. They give the landscaping at Harlan and Hazel Rogers Sports Complex a thorough grooming before the girls state softball tournament every summer. In perhaps the group’s biggest project, its members turned a stub of street off Martin Luther King ...

Unique attractions await along historic Highway 20

If you want to get across northern Iowa quickly and efficiently, by all means take four-lane U.S. Highway 20. Advocates for the highway worked for about 60 years to get it widened to four lanes as a way to grow the economy of the northern tier of the state. But if you want to take a leisurely road trip, see some unique sites, and enjoy some food and beverages, there is a part of the highway that is perfect for that, too. The original U.S. Highway 20 was laid out in 1926, and much of that first route is still intact. The Historic Route 20 Association, a national group, is ...

Donations make new biofuels lab possible

All the ethanol and biodiesel that gets pumped into fuel tanks across Iowa has to meet state standards, and the place where those biofuels are tested against the standards is in Fort Dodge. The biofuels lab at Iowa Central Community College is more than a teaching facility. It is the official analytical laboratory for the state’s Bureau of Weights and Measures.The lab was started in about 2007. A bipartisan effort by federal and state legislators secured the money to get it started. The key players were former U.S. Sen. Tom Harkin, a Democrat; former U.S. Rep. Tom Latham, a ...

Special Olympics volunteers to be honored

When about 150 Special Olympics athletes enter Dodger Stadium this morning for their track and field competition, some of their biggest supporters won’t be present. Tim Flaherty, Donna Gutknecht, Charles Johnson, Laurie Mullen and Lis Ristau will not be in the stadium. But the dedication that they demonstrated to support Special Olympics athletes will be remembered and honored. All of them passed away within the last year or so. They will be honored during the opening ceremonies, set for 9 a.m. today in the stadium. Flaherty was the store director of the Fort Dodge ...

Is your family eligible?

Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig is encouraging eligible farm owners to apply for the 2022 Century and Heritage Farm Program. The program is sponsored by the Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and the Iowa Farm Bureau Federation and recognizes families that have owned their farm for 100 years in the case of Century Farms and 150 years for Heritage Farms. It has been more than 186 years since land that is now the state of Iowa was opened for settlers. The America of the 21st century is far different from the nation presided over by President Andrew Jackson in ...

Tasty fundraiser will support D/SAOC

In January, February and March this year, the Domestic and Sexual Assault Outreach Center served 346 clients with 1,041 bed nights, which means nights spent in its shelter. Compared to last year’s first quarter, those numbers have increased by about 14 percent. Although the Domestic and Sexual Assault Outreach Center in based in Fort Dodge, it is crucial to remember that it provides shelter and support services for 20 counties in Iowa, including Boone, Butler, Cerro Gordo, Floyd Franklin, Greene, Grundy, Hancock, Hamilton, Hardin, Humboldt, Kossuth, Marshall, Mitchell, Story, ...