Recreation And Leisure

Haak raises beetle cleaning crew (03/18/10)
Some people keep collections of preserved bugs as a hobby. Derek Haak, of Maurice, keeps live ones. Thousands of them. But the colonies of dermestid beetles Haak raises aren't just to look at. They've got a job -- a messy one. The beetles clean off animal skulls and bones so hunters like Haak can preserve them...

Optimist Club impacts 25 years worth of children (03/12/10)
Twenty-five years ago this week, a group of locals came together to make a difference for youth. Since then, thousands of young people in Le Mars have been reached by the Le Mars Optimist Club. "We've made an impact," said Jerry Haack, founding president of the club. "Over the past 20-some years, we've touched every kid in this town in a positive way."...

Museum to preview all-school reunion (03/09/10)
"Decades of Excellence," a preview of the Le Mars Community High School All-School Reunion, will be 2 p.m. Sunday, March 14 at the Plymouth County Historical Museum. Carolyn Vance, director of the Le Mars Community School District's Alumni Association, will share details of the coming reunion. Some reminiscing by alumni is also planned...

City approves Historic Preservation grant match request (03/03/10)
Le Mars City Council members Tuesday agreed to give the local Historic Preservation Commission $10,000 throughout two years to help place portions of downtown Le Mars on the National Register of Historic Places. The money, which will be paid $5,000 per year in 2011 and 2012, will be the local match of a grant...

Auditions for 'The Hallelujah Girls' are next week (03/03/10)
Six women and two men are needed in the next Le Mars Community Theater's side-splitting comedy. Auditions for the "The Hallelujah Girls," are next week from 7-8:30 p.m. Monday, March 8 and Tuesday, March 9 at the Postal Playhouse. "The Hallelujah Girls" will run two weekends with a total of seven performances: Friday, April 23 through Sunday, April 25 and Thursday, April 29 through Sunday, May 2...

Never losing heart (03/02/10)
BiblePhyliss Masters' husband Philip was killed by a group of remote Indonesian tribesmen. Now she's returning to the same region for a celebration. The Le Mars woman and her husband had been living as Christian missionaries with another nearby tribe and working to record the group's spoken language for the first time in writing in the 1960s...

LCHS dance exhibition Friday (02/24/10)
Dozens of dancers will light up the floor in the Le Mars Community Schools Dance Exhibition Friday. The exhibition will be held at the Le Mars Community High School Gymnasium. The show will include performances of the LCS dance team's dances from this year, a co-ed dance with boys from the high school, solos performed at the state solo contest, and dances from four other teams...

Actor's ghost takes the stage in 'I Hate Hamlet' (02/18/10)
Hollywood actor John Barrymore was known as "one of the greatest" to play Hamlet in the 1920s. Barrymore's ghost will return Friday with the opening of the Le Mars Community Theater's production of "I Hate Hamlet." Actor Andy Linn, of Pierson, has taken on Barrymore's persona which he says is different than delivering lines in a more modern style...

Museum plans 'Spring Preview of Authors (02/16/10)
"Spring Preview of Authors" will put the spotlight on Kingsley during the Plymouth County Historical Museum's first 2010 program Sunday, Feb. 21. The book signing and program will begin at 2 p.m. in the museum's Music Room on the main floor. Doors to the museum will be open from 1-5 p.m...

Local jazz bands qualify for Iowa Jazz Championships (02/12/10)
Jazz bands at Le Mars Community High School and Gehlen Catholic High School qualified for the Iowa Jazz Championships April 13 in Des Moines. Both placed second in their respective classes at the NW Iowa District Jazz Competition in Sioux City Feb. 3. LCS will compete in Class 3A and Gehlen Catholic in Class 1A...

Wolf to reveal design elements through flower arranging course (02/11/10)
Dennis Wolf has been arranging flowers for over 30 years. As a master level judge for flower arrangements, he used his skills to examine the flower arrangements during the Plymouth County Fair last summer. Wolf's time spent at that fair made him realize there was a need for basic flower arrangement training...

Rewind time at 1960s bash (02/05/10)
Ready to turn back time to the day of hippies, the Beatles and psychedelic grooviness? It's time to bust out your bellbottoms and love beads, the 1960s are making a comeback in Le Mars. The Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce is inviting you to spend an evening in the '60s at 6 p.m. Saturday, March 27 at the Willow Creek Golf Course banquet hall...

Hotel/motel tax dollars may boost fairgrounds, chalk festival (02/03/10)
Twelve local agencies and organizations and the city are likely to be the beneficiaries of $36,033 in local option Hotel/Motel Sales Tax dollars this year. The Le Mars City Council received the requests for annual allocations of the sales tax revenue from the Hotel/Motel Sales Tax Advisory Board at its Tuesday session...

Are we sending bald eagles back to endangered list? (02/01/10)
Bald eagles are being attacked by an emerging predator. It's in the food they eat. Eagle protection agencies have been seeing eagles that are oddly sick, explained Plymouth County Naturalist Victoria De Vos. "They started testing the blood and they are finding out that they had very high levels of lead -- a neurotoxin," De Vos said. "It was basically paralyzing them in different ways."...

Got a hobby? 75 students present favorite activities (02/01/10)
What do Legos, hamsters and cake decorating all have in common? They are three of the many hobbies presented by 75 fourth graders at Kluckhohn Elementary School during their annual hobby fair. The hobby fair, now in its 13th year, is organized by Kelley Johnson, one of the fourth grade teachers who brought the idea to Kluckhohn. She has actually been doing the fair 17 years...

RAGBRAI to start in Sioux City (02/01/10)
It was close but no banana seat bike for Le Mars for the northwest Iowa overnight stop of RAGBRAI. Announced Saturday, the route of this year's Register's Annual Great Bicycle Ride Across Iowa will kick off from Sioux City and run 442 miles with overnights in Storm Lake, Algona, Clear Lake, Charles City, Waterloo, Manchester and the final overnight in Dubuque...

Jetting off to Cancun? County passport numbers up (01/26/10)
Plymouth County residents have decided it's time for a vacation according to passport numbers at the Plymouth County Recorders office. From the Oct. 1 to Dec. 31, 2009, residents applied for 173 passport books, which is up from the 80 passport applied for between July 1 to Sept. 30...

County budget cutting begins with conservation, sheriff, fair (01/22/10)
The chopping has begun with the Plymouth County Supervisors starting cuts to make the 2011 budget work. Tuesday, the board agreed to trim back dollars from requests made by county conservation, the sheriff, the county fair, the county libraries and the county museums...

Adults play BINGO, win prizes for library reading challenge (01/21/10)
BINGO: that's the name of the game for the second annual Adult Winter Reading Challenge, which begins Monday, Jan. 25 at the Le Mars Public Library. The challenge, which ends on March 28, is open to ages 18 and older. "We wanted to provide a challenge for people during the winter; we wanted to have them do something they don't normally do," said Sue Kroesche, Director of the Le Mars Public Library...

Cross country skiers head to Le Mars' parks (01/20/10)
Temperatures in the teens, no sun and 24 inches of snow on the ground isn't the ideal setting for most. But for Curt Strathman and Barb Becker, both of Le Mars, those conditions add up to the perfect setting for cross country skiing. Cross country skiing is a winter sport in which participants propel themselves across snow-covered terrain using skis and poles...

Supervisors consider fair, museum requests (01/15/10)
Plymouth County Historical Museum and county fair board officials presented their budget requests for 2010-11 to the board of supervisors Tuesday. Both officials kept their asking amounts the same as those requested for the current 2009-10 fiscal year...

Rewind 2009: The good, the bad and the blizzard (12/30/09)
Editor's note: This is the first of two stories recapping 2009's top stories in the Daily Sentinel. Mother Nature put a wet (or white) blanket on Plymouth County's Christmastime plans, nailing northwest Iowa with more than a foot of snow and winds that lowered visibility and drifted roads shut. ...

Chamber, Museum offer New Year's Eve entertainment (12/29/09)
Two New Year's Eve events will offer area residents an opportunity to ring in the new year and also raise money for comunity projects and the preservation of the area's history. New this year is the Le Mars Chamber of Commerce New Year's Eve Dance at the Le Mars Convention Center upper level...

Museum ball tickets now on sale (12/23/09)
Tickets are now on sale at Lally's East Side Restaurant in Le Mars for "New York! New York!," a New Year's Eve Ball sponsored annually in "Old Central" gym by the Plymouth County Historical Museum in Le Mars. Tickets also can be purchased at the museum during open hours, every day from 1-5 p.m. except Mondays. Tickets are available at the door on the night of the dance...

Storm brewing: Meteorologist discourages Christmas travel (12/22/09)
Travelers planning to leave Plymouth County this Christmas may likely be stuck. A major winter storm is expected to blow into northwest Iowa and surrounding areas Wednesday and continue through Christmas Eve (Thursday) and into Christmas Day (Friday)...

Le Mars man injured hunting deer in Taylor County (12/22/09)
A Le Mars man was injured while hunting deer in Taylor County Sunday when a shot missed its target. A piece of slug ricocheted, striking him in the upper chest area. Mathew Fedders, 41, was taken to Clarinda Regional Health Center, then transferred to the University of Nebraska Medical Center in Omaha, where doctors were removing the slug fragment...

Try out for "I Hate Hamlet" comedy next week (12/21/09)
Auditions for the Le Mars Community Theater's production of "I Hate Hamlet" are next week. Tryouts are from 7-8:30 p.m. Monday and Tuesday, Dec. 28 and 29 at the Postal Playhouse, 105 First St. N.E., Le Mars. Three women and three men are needed for the cast, and no preparation is needed prior to auditions...

Museum plans New Year's ball (12/10/09)
"New York! New York!" once again will be the theme for the New Year's Eve Ball at the Plymouth County Historical Museum Thursday, Dec. 31, in Le Mars. This year's ball is being billed as a family event. The evening will include a children's movie in the Music Room for those wishing to bring children or grandchildren...

Six selected for 2009 Drake Honor Band (12/04/09)
Six Gehlen Catholic students are among the 200 musicians from Iowa and Nebraska who will perform this Saturday during the 2009 Drake Honor Band Festival in Des Moines. They include seniors, Sarah Jentz and Josh Schreiner; juniors, Christopher Eral and Matt Klein; freshman, Elisabeth Niebuhr; and foreign exchange student, Yerin Seo...

Museum to host 'Tree Skirts and Tea' (12/04/09)
After completing a record-breaking "Great Garage and Bake Sale," the Plymouth County Historical Museum is preparing for its annual holiday open house, "Tree Skirts and Tea," Sunday. The open house at the countywide museum in Le Mars will feature a program at 2 p.m. in the Music Room about historic Christmas tree skirts...

When life was simple: Fitzgerald recalls pony carts and hand-me-downs (12/03/09)
Editors Note: This story is the first in a weekly series looking back at life decades ago and remembering a time when people's lifestyle was very different than today. Was life simpler when $1 bought four gallons of gas or during the Great Depression when it cost less to use corn as fuel than sell it or when children played baseball instead of computer games?...

Winter day camp at Hillview (12/01/09)
A day camp for fourth through eighth graders will be hosted at Hillview Park in Hinton Dec. 30. Plymouth County Conservation is hosting the 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. camp, offering a range of activities including snowshoeing, cross country skiing, tracking, shelter building, ice fishing, Dutch oven cooking and more...

$85,000 awarded for ECO Center (11/13/09)
An environmental learning and meeting center in Hillview Park is officially less than $7,500 away from being built. The Iowa Department of Economic Development awarded an $85,000 Community Attractions and Tourism (CAT) grant to the project Wednesday...

LCS actors draw from experience in 'I Remember Mama' (11/10/09)
The year is 1910. In the spotlight is a Norwegian immigrant family, just scraping by in America. But the Hansons are not your average family. Before the curtain falls on Le Mars Community School's fall play "I Remember Mama," the audience will get tangled in the family's wayward family tree...

Gehlen, LCS students selected for Opus Honor Choir Festival (11/09/09)
Students from Le Mars Community Schools and Gehlen Catholic School have been chosen to participate in the 23rd annual Opus Honor Choir Festival. Gehlen Catholic eighth grade student Sara Roder will make her fourth appearance in an Opus Honor Choir. She also received the high honor of being chosen as a solo finalist for the song, "Benedictus" in the 7th & 8th Grade Girls Honor Choir...

Play brings Helmers back to the stage (11/05/09)
Marilyn Helmers began acting in Le Mars Community Theatre productions 30 years ago. "In the early years there was hardly a play I wasn't in," said Helmers, who moved to Le Mars in 1959. That was before a medical condition sidelined her performances a few years ago...

LCS musicians selected for All-State Festival (11/03/09)
Thirteen Le Mars Community High School musicians have been chosen to be part of the 2009 Iowa All-State Music Festival with another five chosen as alternates. District auditions were held Oct. 24 at Storm Lake. Four students were selected for the All-State band...

Brig. Gen. Jack Nicholson awarded Silver Star for action in Vietnam (10/30/09)
Dec. 27, 1963 had already been a devastating day. Of the 240 men then-Capt. John "Jack" Nicholson was with, only 39 were able to walk away from an eight-hour battle with the Viet Cong. But for Nicholson, the night wasn't over. He would lead his men to save the lives of nine people...

Faber's hobby wine earns high rank (10/28/09)
A Le Mars man's wine, made from grapes grown in his backyard and fermented in his basement, was picked champion in its class last weekend. Wayne Faber entered his dry red wine in the Schleswig Wine and Bier Contest last weekend, an annual event for Schleswig, 45 miles south of Cherokee...

Who's 'In the Moood for Fun?' (10/23/09)
What's the best part of the Halloween season? Trick-or-treating and having fun. Both are offered for elementary school-age children and their families from 6-8 p.m. Monday and 4-6 p.m. Friday, Oct. 30, at the Ice Cream Capital of the World Visitor Center/Museum in Le Mars during "In the Moood for Fun!" which also includes brief museum tours...

Museum to host railroading program, ethnic food fair (10/19/09)
Railroading in Plymouth County and ethnic foods of the area will be the focus of a program Sunday at the Plymouth County Historical Museum. The Rev. Gary Landsness of St. John's Lutheran Church, ELCA, Le Mars, will present a program on railroading at 1:30 p.m. in the museum's Music Room on the main floor...

Loess Hills golf course plan denied permit (10/13/09)
Concern for Loess Hills preservation was at the top of a list of reasons why the Plymouth County Board of Adjustment denied a man's request to turn his land into a golf course. John Denney, of Rural Westfield, came before the board Monday seeking a conditional use permit to build and operate a nine-hole golf course on his 20.92 acres near North Ridge Road in western Plymouth County...

Quilters cut and stitch for wounded military personnel (10/06/09)
A one-time quilt project turned into a bit more for Becky Wiersma and a group of quilters from the Le Mars area. In May, 30 quilt tops were shown as part of the Red, White and Blue Challenge's American Hero Quilts project. Wiersma had heard of the project, which provides quilts for injured soldiers at Fort Lewis' Madigan Medical Hospital in Washington state and other military hospitals, from quilting friends on the Internet...

On the hunt: Geocachers storm Plymouth County in search of 'treasure' (09/28/09)
You might have bumped into them around town this weekend. People walking around looking down at a hand-held GPS unit in their palm. These 130 geocachers from across the Midwest were in a race against time. Competing in the Plymouth County Hike 'n' Seek Geocache, they had 24 hours to find as many tiny hidden objects at specific coordinates as they could...

A different kind of scavenger hunt in Plymouth County (09/23/09)
This weekend, Plymouth County will host an outdoor activity that maybe not too many people are familiar with. However, that is likely going to change as the sport of "geocaching" is gaining more and more popularity in the United States. Hillview Recreation Area near Hinton will host the Iowa Geocachers Organization's annual Hike 'n Seek event Friday-Sunday...

Families' chalk drawings color downtown Le Mars (09/21/09)
Moms, dads, children, sisters, brothers, grandparents having fun together -- that's what the Le Mars Chalk Art Festival was all about. Families, like the Murphys, were already hard at work Saturday morning, the first day of the weekend festival. "Grandma had a fun idea for us to come down and draw," Mia Tardive said of her mom. "We do a lot of things together as a family."...

Former teacher turned author returns to Hinton (09/21/09)
Jane Kauzlarich wrote her book "Quack," then she published it and began selling it and now she's written a song about it. Kauzlarich, a retired Hinton Community School teacher, will be reading "Quack" and singing with pre-kindergarten through fifth graders Wednesday at the school...

Pheasants' habitat dwindles by millions of acres each year (09/18/09)
Hunters may face a challenge this season -- the pheasant population is on a downward spiral in Plymouth County and throughout Iowa. Last year Iowa had 100,000 hunters and 383,000 birds, which is four birds per person in the field. Other years there have been 1.5 million pheasants, said John Linquist, Pheasants Forever regional representative. "From the early 2000s to now there has been a steady decline because of weather and habitat," Linquist said. The cold, damp spring this year affected pheasants' nesting habits, said Mike Slota, Pheasants Forever chairman for Plymouth County youth programs. "The weather has to be somewhat warm to produce the insects for the chicks when they're hatched," Slota said. "The hens can't keep the chicks adequately warm and they just die from exposure." The loss of habitat also affects pheasants' nesting because hens have less area to hide from predators, Slota said. Pheasant habitats, which usually require 5 to 10 acres, are areas with a mixture of tall and short grasses and flowering plants that attract insects, Slota said. A major reason that habitat is dwindling is that millions of Conservation Reserve Program (CRP) acres are going away each year, Linquist said. Last year alone 1.1 million CRP acres expired, according to www.pheasantsforever.org. With the price of grain, farmers are finding they can make more money planting their land than putting it into CRP acres, Slota said. "With this economy you can't blame any farmer for squeezing every dollar out of the ground they can," Slota said. "Their job is to produce grain and make money off the ground. We understand that." Farmers began enrolling their qualified land into CRPs to be planted into habitats 10 to 15 years ago and receiving federal compensation, Linquist said. "A lot of people's acres are expiring and there are no new signups," he said. Another 3.8 million CRP acres will expire this fall and 4.4 million acres next September for a total of 21 million acres gone from the program by the end of 2012 without a new signup. The USDA does not have a signup scheduled, according to the Pheasants Forever website. "It's hard to maintain a bird population when we're constantly taking conservation acres out of play," Linquist said. Pheasants Forever hopes to turn that around with its program, Reload Iowa. The intent of Reload Iowa is to establish 1 million acres of new habitat on Iowa landscape. That means $11.5 million will need to be raised and 50 employees hired to go door-to-door to work with landowners to create the habitat, Linquist said. "That program is going to have to pay enough money out to entice the farmer to want to do this," Slota said. "The farmer has to look at the bottom line." There are also national programs like Conservation Practice 38 or State Acres For wildlife Enhancement (SAFE) working to help conserve and create new habitat. SAFE started last year with 200,000 CRP acres that were divided among states. "We had 27,700 acres," Linquist said. "All of those acres have been used up and all within a year." The loss of habitat and dwindling pheasant population in Plymouth County and throughout the state has a trickle-down effect on economy and recreation, Linquist said. "When the population of the birds down so does the population of the hunters," he said. That means less dollars spent shopping, eating and staying locally by nonresident hunters. Fewer hunters also leads to a loss of revenue on licenses, which means less money to help support county and state parks, Linquist said. "That's what buys the land and sees to the upkeep," he said. "We're hurting ourselves by people not going out and hunting." A declining pheasant and hunter population is also detrimental for the next generation of would-be hunters, but Slota's optimistic Reload Iowa and similar programs will turn the numbers around. "I hope we start seeing an increase in the next couple of years," Slota said. "I would love to see it start going back the other way and hopefully we are doing the right things to make it start going the other way."

Chalk Art Festival this weekend (09/18/09)
The Le Mars Chalk Art Festival will take to the streets for the first time this weekend. Starting at 10 a.m. Saturday and running through Sunday, artists from Le Mars to as far away as Ohio will be chalking up the streets and sidewalks of downtown Le Mars and more...

Le Mars ready for chalk artists this weekend (09/17/09)
Le Mars is gearing up for its first Chalk Art Festival this weekend and conditions seem just right for success. The weather forecast promises sunny weather with only slight chances for rain late Sunday night. Several vendors and restaurants will provide a variety of foods for people to enjoy during the festival...

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