News

It was an exciting day for the Humboldt Special Olympics team on Nov. 23 as 16 members competed at the State Bowling competition in Waterloo. The team had a successful trip, with three players placing first at the competition.

Results

1st Place
Will Curry
Gage Pedersen
Stephanie Boyd

2nd Place
Heero Phiouthong
Cooper Peters
Braxton Charon
Cami Pedersen

3rd place
Zeke Winter
Sujiery Venegas

4th place
Cain Burwell
Brad Nelson

5th place
Casey (Eve) Sorensen
Zach Pate
Brent Oberhelman
Jon Nelson

6th place
Monica Sias

Scratch
Brooklyn Summers

By APRIL KELLEY

An upgrade to the current Motorola system used by the Humboldt County Law Enforcement Center was a widely debated issue during the last Public Safety Commission meeting.

Chris Madison, IT Director and Kyle Bissell, EMA Coordinator brought it to the Commission’s attention that the system, which is now five years old, is extremely outdated and needs to be updated, or as Motorola calls it, a refresh.

Madison explained that this refresh is necessary to update the flex servers, MAP servers, and VPN servers which is how the officers connect back to the FLEX server from their vehicles and the back-up server.

All of those servers run on one physical box, similar to different rooms in one house. The box that holds all of those servers is now 5-years-old and very outdated.

By APRIL KELLEY
After a full year of back and forth, there is a strong possibility that the sale of the Reasoner Dam is once again a possibility.

According to Conservation Director Todd Lee at the Wednesday, Nov. 20 Conservation Board meeting, the City of Humboldt is looking into the possible sale or lease of land to the River Development Group (RDG) to allow RDG to obtain insurance on the dam if they buy it.

The Conservation Board has been in negotiations for more than a year with RDG to buy the dam. The largest issue RDG has faced in the purchase of the dam is obtaining insurance, a requirement of the sale.

The RDG members discovered during their research into insuring the dam that the only way any insurance company would cover them is if they owned property next to the dam. In that way, the insurance company would insure the land and as a part of the land, the dam as a structure on the land.

By PHIL MONSON
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig was in Humboldt County last week (Nov. 19) to celebrate the closing of the state’s last remaining agricultural drainage wells.

Naig met with local officials at the David Telford acreage east of Gilmore City to laud the effort of a process that has more than 30 years, the closing of 195 drainage structures.

Naig visited the final project completed earlier this month which involved eight different properties with 13 different landowners who all had to agree for the project to proceed. The project, which has been in the planning or construction phase for six years, resulted in the closing of seven drainage wells with the drainage re-directed into a water quality wetland spanning 137 acres.

On page 6A under the heading Quality of Life, paragraph 17 of the above article, a quote was attributed to Alica Tinken. This is incorrect. It should have been attributed to Alicia Tillie. This paper strives for accuracy, and we apologize to both Alecia Tinken and Alicia Tillie for any confusion this may have caused.

By PHIL MONSON
Jacob Miller, new chief of police for the city of Humboldt, was introduced at the Humboldt City Council meeting on Monday night, Nov. 18, and sworn in by city clerk Amy Zeman.

Miller takes over the reins after the retirement of Joel Sanders earlier this month. Miller, who has been chief at Albia, introduced his wife, Jannay, and baby daughter Eleanor.

Travis Ouverson of Edgar Public Safety and Healthcare Solutions of West Des Moines, who has served as interim police administrator over the last three weeks, provided an update to the council.

“We are really pleased with the selection of the new police chief. We are convinced he is going to be an outstanding chief for this community,” Ouverson said. “We have every confidence you will find that he will serve this community well and get the department back up to speed as soon as possible.”

By PHIL MONSON
The Iowa State University men’s wrestling team, coached by Humboldt’s Kevin Dresser, will face North Dakota State University in a non-conference dual in the Humboldt gym on Sunday, Dec. 15.

Tickets are now on sale through the Wildcat Youth Wrestling Club on a first-come, first-serve basis. Limit four tickets per purchase (https://tinyurl.com/2yq6ntfg).

Last week ISU announced Dresser would receive a contract extension of four years through June 30, 2029. He has been coach since February of 2017.

After leading the Iowa State wrestling program to its first Big 12 Conference title since 2009 and its highest NCAA Championship placement since 2010, head coach Kevin Dresser has been rewarded with a four-year contract extension thru June 30, 2029, ISU Director of Athletics Jamie Pollard announced today.

By KYLIE PORTZ
The results are in for the 2024 General Election in Humboldt County. In total there were 5,123 ballots cast in Humboldt County. Compared to the total ballots cast in the 2020 General Election (5,353), that is a 230 difference.

On the night of Nov. 5, the attention of people across the country and internationally was locked in on their television screens, social media, and news sources as the results came flooding in.

All eyes were on the state of Pennsylvania and its 19 electoral votes. In the days leading up to the election, both parties paid extra attention to the battleground state which ultimately was called as a win for the Trump campaign.

By PHIL MONSON
Jacob Miller is Humboldt’s new chief of police.

The hiring of Miller was announced Tuesday morning by Humboldt City Administrator Cole Bockelmann.

Miller, who has been chief of the Albia Police Department since July of 2023, will resume his duties on Nov. 18. He informed the Albia City Council of his departure at their meeting on Monday night, Nov. 4.

“We had three very qualified finalists and were very happy with the applicant pool,” Bockelmann said. “Jake’s experience with community engagement and experience in building a strong organizational culture stood out to us and we are excited for his start date.”

Miller, a 2008 graduate of Indianola High School, brings 11 years of law enforcement experience to his position.

Read the full story in this week's issue of The Humboldt Independent!

By KYLIE PORTZ
The set has been painted, the costumes fitted, and the lines memorized, the only thing missing is the audience. The cast and crew of HHS’s “The Music Man” has been working tirelessly the past few months to stage and rehearse their fall musical.

On Oct. 29 parents and family members attended an invited dress rehearsal to get a sneak peek at the show before it opens on Nov. 7. Performances of the show will be Nov. 7 and 9 at 7:00 p.m. with a matinee performance at 1:00 p.m. on Saturday to replace the Friday night performance.

The “Music Man” opened on Broadway in 1957 with music, lyrics and book written by Iowa native Meredith Wilson.