September 2019

If there’s one thing that Dike-New Hartford Superintendent Justin Stockdale wants prospective voters in the district to know before they head to the polls on Tuesday, September 11, it’s that the renewal of the Physical Plant and Equipment Levy (PPEL) is not a tax increase.
           
“We’re not asking for anything more than what we’ve had the last 10 years. It’s still the same 50 cents,” he said. “It’s simply a renewal of what we’ve had for a long time.”
           

With each passing year, I come to love summer less and less. It’s too hot, I don’t have anything resembling a beach body, I can’t find the time or the money to go on a real vacation and with a host of festivals and fairs, it feels like most of my work here is done at night or on the weekends. So, unsurprisingly, Labor Day is anything but a mournful affair: Kellie and I find ourselves excitedly checking the weather forecasts and game schedules as we anxiously await our favorite season of all.
           

Barring a miraculous turn of events, Kim Reynolds is going to win her first elected term as governor in November and continue to do most of the things she’s doing now, and the Democrats are going to wonder aloud why they always manage to squander golden opportunities and find new ways to lose. Well, it doesn’t take a political scientist to solve that equation.
           

REINBECK - Music - and the revival of the Irish Gaelic language - is what brought up-and-coming Irish band Seo Linn to Iowa this week.
 
After their performance at the Iowa Irish Fest in Waterloo this weekend, the group of musicians came to Grundy County early this week and held performances in both Reinbeck and Conrad, in an event sponsored by the Grundy County Library Association.
 
During their performance in Reinbeck, the band packed the Memorial Building and had the crowd clapping, dancing and singing along to songs in Gaelic.