News

By KENT THOMPSON
The Humboldt Fire Department needed backup and wasn’t shy about asking for it at a fire that broke out around 11:45 a.m. Monday morning at Yacht Club Trailers located at 1419 11th St. N. in Humboldt.
“The (paint) system blew a motor and the main breaker and there was smoke exiting the roof of the building when we arrived,” Humboldt Fire Chief Jim Gronbach said.
“There was a lot of fire and heat build-up without a lot of door openings inside,” he said.
“We tried to keep shifting and finding openings to get access. It was more of an external attack than an internal because of the intensity of the blaze and the collapse of a portion of the roof. It was too hot and smoky for our firefighters to be inside. We played it safe and kept everyone outside. We were done fighting the fire around 5 p.m.," Gronbach reported. The Humboldt Fire Department returned a few times Tuesday to put out remaining hot spots.

The 4-H and FFA livestock shows were held last week at the Humboldt County Fair with animals, exhibitors and spectators.
Lauren Erickson of Humboldt showed the Grand Champion Market Beef. Ryland Morgan had the Grand Champion overall in the Swine Show. Jaxon Kampen showed the Grand Champion Market Lamb. Samuel Bohan and colton Monson, both of Humboldt, showed the Champion Dairy and Meat Goat respectively. Summer Zwiefel had the Grand Champion Mare and Ava McIntire Showed the Grand Champion Gelding in the horse show. Morgan had Best in Show in the Poultry judging with Zwiefel exhibiting the Best Other Bird. Holly Kirchhoff was the 2020 Humboldt County Fair Queen and won Best of Show in the Rabbit Show judging.
See all of the results and the photos in this week’s Humboldt Independent.

By Phil Monson
With some minor changes, the Return To Learn plan of the Humboldt Community School District was unveiled in last week’s regular monthly meeting.
New school superintendent Jim Murray provided an in-depth outline on the options the district will use depending on the dynamics of the continuing coronavirus pandemic gripping the state and country.
“We don’t have all the answers yet but we are working diligently for the safe return of our students and our staff. For a few weeks now we have had sub-committee staff working on instruction, building, technology and mitigation strategies,” Murray said.
“Again, we won’t have all the answers but we are basing this on all the recommendations from the Iowa Department of Public Health, Humboldt County Department of Public Health, American Academy of Pediatrics, The Iowa Department of Education, Governor Reynolds and surrounding school districts,” Murray said.

As business grew, Carbon Boutique ran out of space at their location on 5th Avenue North.
After looking at four different possible locations, owner Michelle George found a building with space for current needs and room for future expansion.
“I always thought it would be nice to be on Main Street. I liked the extra storage space, the storefront window and the room for expansion this location offers,” George said.
The new location at 630 Sumner Avenue was remodeled with new paint and a doorway was created for new dressing rooms.
On the weekend of July 18-19, family and friends moved everything to the new location and Carbon Boutique opened for business in downtown Humboldt on July 22.

By KENT THOMPSON
The Humboldt Fire Department is fighting a four-alarm fire that is was called to around 11:45 a.m. this morning at Yacht Club Trailers located at 1419 11th St. N. in Humboldt.
Firefighters are still on the scene at this hour battling the blaze.
“The (paint) system blew a main breaker and there was smoke exiting the roof of the building when we arrived,” Humboldt Fire Chief Jim Gronbach said.
“There was a lot of fire and heat build-up without a lot of door openings inside,” he said.
At 1:20 p.m., Gronbach reported that the fire was about 60 percent contained.
“We are trying to break in and punch holes and give us more ventilation to get heat and smoke exiting the building,” Gronbach said.
Manpower and equipment from at least seven area fire departments were called in with more arriving.
“We are in need of water and air packs,” the Humboldt chief said.

Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds made a stop at Humboldt Engraving and Gifts on Tuesday afternoon, July 14. Lt. Governor Adam Gregg and State Senator Tim Kraayenbrink also were on hand.
Governor Reynolds said she wanted to see how rural businesses were doing during the pandemic and how it had affected their business.
Renae Dreyer, owner/operator of Humboldt Engraving and Gifts, also known as The Biz, said she received a small business economic development grant from the state of Iowa, and also participated in the Small Business Administration’s Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) to bring her employees back to work.
Dreyer said her business closed to the public on March 27, but continued to take orders online. Dreyer laid off her staff and continued to fill orders on her own.
Dreyer showed Governor Reynolds a chart that outlined how business dropped off and then rebounded to the point where her June sales were bigger than June of 2019.

By KENT THOMPSON
Cabin fever can drive some people stir crazy. This year, just when spring was peeping around the corner, the Novel Coronavirus hit, which threw a wrench into everyone’s lives.
How have families dealt with the changes of altered work schedules, students learning at home and parents either working from home or having employment curtailed?
To get an idea from one nuclear family in the area, we sat down with Chad and Lisa Theesfeld and their two teenage children, daughter Lily, 14, and son Carter, 17.
Read about their story exclusively in this week's Humboldt Independent, along with other news, sports and advertisements from around the county, along with all of the legal notifications. Get the Humboldt Independent delivered every week in the format you prefer by clicking on the link at the top of this page.

Throughout the month of June, Hy-Vee honored high school graduates with surprise, contactless gift deliveries across its eight-state region. This included a delivery to the home of recent Humboldt High School graduate Mady Lange.
Employees from Humboldt Hy-Vee honored Lange with a gift that included balloons and a custom-designed bakery item, as well as an array of pantry, household and general merchandise items.
The giveaways took place recently as part of Hy-Vee’s Surprise Graduation Giveaway Sweepstakes. The promotion ran from May 18-24. During the contest, nearly 6,000 high school graduates throughout Hy-Vee’s eight states were nominated by friends, families, school district staff or community members.
Nearly 150 winners were randomly selected to receive a surprise graduation gift. Read more about this story in this week's Humboldt Independent.

By KENT THOMPSON
Humboldt County has a new way of helping the most vulnerable in our community during times of declared disasters.
The Humboldt County Community Foundation (HCCF) has established a Disaster Recovery Fund (DRF) to support the most negatively impacted populations as they face the effects of COVID-19.
“The flexibility of the fund will ensure that the community will be able to respond to needs that are not being met by existing non-profit, local, state and federal programs,” Humboldt County Community Foundation President Alissa O’Connor said in announcing the program.
To kick-start the effort, the Community Foundation’s Advisory Board has committed an immediate $50,000 to the DRF. Those funds come from a percentage of endowed funds to the Foundation and about $10,000 from the general grant funds.

Being an active part of the community means pitching in to help when the town needs a hand.
Such was the case this summer in the Humboldt County town of Livermore.
Team Livermore, which has annually sponsored the Livermore Daze community events and large street dance, decided it would be too difficult to have a possible mass gathering event given the COVID-19 pandemic situation in the state.
Enter William “Will” Smith, dual business owner of AC/DC Welding and Sweet Water Spirits, and member of the Livermore City Council.
“I understand the committee’s concern. Everyone was cancelling everything all around. I just thought, come on, we can do something, even on a smaller scale,” Smith said.
So, Smith decided to organize the town celebration himself, and it will have many of the traditional Livermore Daze activities on Saturday, July 18.