News

Aplington-Parkersburg FFA hosts award banquet

Published by editor on Wed, 08/05/2020 - 2:19pm

On Sunday, Aug. 2, the Aplington-Parkersburg FFA Chapter pulled out all the stops for their Award Banquet Ceremony. Parents and family were invited to the event to celebrate the achievements made by freshman through senior students working diligently throughout the year to showcase the core values of the FFA. The principle tenets are dedicated to school leadership and community service, work based experiences and learning, and AG experience—which is supervised.

The banquet is held annually on March 24, but, as it was a year waylaid by the pandemic, the celebration couldn’t be held until Sunday night. As it was such an atypical date, Jaime Pudenz, FFA Chapter Advisor and the students decided to change the location to the A-P auditorium, with some unexpected results.

“The students got to engage in some theatrics,” Pudenz explained. “They got to run down and cut loose during the opening ceremony. Parents and families hadn’t seen something like that before. It was a hit, and I think we will continue to do that in the future.”

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Parkersburg's oldest resident

Published by editor on Wed, 08/05/2020 - 2:08pm

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Civil Air Patrol hosts Waterloo open house Aug. 20

Published by editor on Wed, 08/05/2020 - 10:52am

The Civil Air Patrol (CAP) will host an open house Aug. 20 from 7 to 8:30 p.m. at Livingston Aviation in the Waterloo airport, 2814 Betsworth Dr. Waterloo.

The community is welcome to attend and learn more about the CAP's Cadet Program in Waterloo; no registration is required to attend.

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Celebration delayed for Parkersburg Historical Home's 125th anniversary

Published by editor on Wed, 08/05/2020 - 8:50am

The Parkersburg Historical Society (PHS) recently announced that a 125th-anniversary celebration of the Parkersburg Historical Home has been put on hold due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic.

The date of the celebration has moved from Aug. 15-16 to early December. The Lions' Club duck race originally scheduled to be part of this event will now be held at Croell Redi-Mix, 301 Railroad Street, at 2 p.m. on Aug. 15.

Even with the two-day event being pushed back, the Parkersburg Historical Home will still be open for tours on Sunday afternoons from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. through Labor Day. The members of the PHS are encouraging safe sanitary practices during that time, including respecting social distancing guidelines—easy enough with the amount of room within, and providing hand sanitizer throughout the rooms.

To schedule a tour, call the Parkersburg Historical Home at 319-231-0079.

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Aplington-Parkersburg schools taking on COVID-19 face mask challenge

Published by editor on Wed, 07/29/2020 - 10:28am

Aplington-Parkersburg Schools is looking for help in creating 1,000 Falcon face masks for students and staff ahead of the 2020-21 school year.

The school district announced the initiative as part of a July 25 Facebook post, dubbed the "C-19 Face Mask Challenge," as preparations continue for the first day of school on Aug. 26.

Melody Kalkwarf and Jen Nevenhoven have volunteered to lead this initiative, which will create masks in red, black, white and gray/silver colors, with fabric available to pick up at Jen's Needleworks, 900 Parriott Street, Aplington.

If you would like to lend a hand, or donate money or supplies to the cause, please reach out to Melody Kalkwarf at (319) 346-1363, Jen Nevenhoven at (319) 347-2793, or stop in to Jen’s Needleworks.

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A-P School Board ramps up for return

Published by editor on Wed, 07/29/2020 - 10:02am

The Aplington-Parkersburg School Board met in session on Monday, July 20, as part of their regular meeting. The Return to Learn portion of the meeting was covered in the July 22 edition of the Eclipse, but a brief overview of that specific issue is below.

The Board members discussed the necessity of replacing their current facility lawn mower, and the cost that would be involved in acquiring a new unit and selling the old equipment.

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Supervisors mediate deluge debate

Published by editor on Wed, 07/29/2020 - 9:54am

Tensions were high during the Butler County Supervisor meeting on Tuesday, July 21. At the morning gathering, several representatives from New Hartford were present to support the claims by the mayor that there needed to be a new agreement in place between the city and the farm owned by Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley’s family.

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D-NH community runs for fallen Marine

Published by editor on Wed, 07/29/2020 - 9:48am

On Tuesday, July 21, runners took off at 5 a.m. from the Dike-New Hartford High School parking lot. The run was to honor the memory of Tyler Cox, a U.S. Marine and 2019 DNH graduate who passed away at Camp LeJeune in late April.

Dike-New Hartford Superintendent, Justin Stockdale, was the one who organized the event, and saw it as an opportunity to show respect to the fallen soldier, placing the date of the run on Cox’s birthday.

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Butler County Transfer Station remains dedicated to serving residents

Published by editor on Thu, 07/23/2020 - 11:14am

Have you ever wondered what happens to your garbage after you leave it out on the curb?

Your local garbage hauler brings their truck by and picks it up. The garbage truck compresses the trash, and when the truck is full, the load is hauled to the Butler County Transfer Station. At the transfer station, the trash is compacted into 30-35-foot containers. From there, it is trucked to the landfill south of Iowa Falls, where it is dumped into a cell and compressed several more times.

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Parkersburg emergency services see more students

Published by editor on Wed, 07/22/2020 - 12:39pm

Like many small towns, Parkersburg relies almost exclusively on volunteers to staff their ranks of fire and emergency services. Altruistic residents who don’t get a pay check for showing up to a fire at noon, nor for a health emergency in a residential dwelling at 4 in the morning, but they do it anyways.