Ringgold County IAGenWeb Project

Jack ELLIOTT attended the Mount Ayr city council meeting Monday night to show the council plans made for improvements to the city square as part of a joint effort of the Mount Ayr Resource Commission (MARC) and a state cultural grant. Plans call for setting up 20 flag poles around the square which will fly Iowa and United States flags and putting planter box-garbage container combinations on each corner of the square to help beautify the area. Plantings of garden areas on eht square are also part of the plans for the improvements. After discussing the proposal with Elliott, the council voted to accept the plan for the flag poles and planters as presented by ELLIOTT.

Michelle CAMPBELL, a senior at Mount Ayr Community high school, had a student editorial printed in a recent edition of GRIT, a national publication published in Williamsport, PA. The February 2 issue of the magazine includes her editorial on the value of tapping the resources in local libraries titled "A Resource Worth Tapping." CAMPBELL is the daughter of Mr. and Mrs. Doyle CAMPBELL of Mount Ayr.

Greg SMITH, grandson of Raymond and Bertha SMITH, is a member of the Clinto high school a capella choir that won a gold medal in international competition singing at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C. Greg also has the leading role in "Oklahoma," the next musical the Clinton choir will present in March. The SMITHS are former residents of Mount Ayr where Greg's father, Ray (Buddy) attended grade school and Bertha was a high school math teacher for 15 years. Greg's father, Ray, is a computer science and math teacher at Clinton high school.

Edward FLETCHER of Diagonal has been presented a 20-year service award by the Iowa Department of Transportation. FLETCHER is currently a maintenance operations assistant for the Iowa Department of Transportation in the resident maintenance engineer's office in Creston. FLETCHER resides in rural Diagonal.

Six Mount Ayr community Raider wrestlers this season are seniors. They include Jon TRULLINGER, Roby SHAY, Brian OLIVER, John FORD, Keith TRULLINGER and Rowdy McDOWELL.

Allen ALLEE of Diagonal has traveled all the way from the local Hoop Shoot at Diagonal in the 12-13-year-old division, to the state competition to be held in Ames February 22. ALLEE qualified for state on February 2 when the basketball free throw contests were held at Red Oak. The only other area competitors at Red Oak were Ethan SICKELS of Grand Valley in the 8-9-year-old division and Stacy LARSEN of Clearfield in the 12-13 division, who will not advance to state.

Mount Ayr Community's Raiderette basketball team and leading scorer Kim McGINNIS were mentioned in the statistics released this week by the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Union. The Raiderettes rank 10th in the state in team offense with a 76.27 point per game average after 15 games and are listed among Class 1A leading contenders outside the top 20 ratings. Kim McGINNIS ranks 10th in the state in total points, scoring 554 in 14 games for an average of 39.57 points per game.

Winners of the Mount Ayr Cub Scout Pack No. 165 Space Derby were named recently. Winners were Sterling RHONE, first place; Travis SHAHA, second place; Scott RHONE, third place; Dennis ELLIOTT, fourth place, and Brad POPPE, fifth place. Scout leaders for Cub Schout Pack 165 are cubmaster, Bob SCHAFER, and den leaders, Bob THOMAS, Sue RHONE and Sam VANDER JAGT.

IOWA OLD PRESS
An Iowa GenWeb project that collects articles from old Iowa newspapers. Have a look back at the lives and times of our Iowa ancestors as reported in early newspapers. The home page for Iowa Old Press Project, complete with a searchable database, may be accessed at: http://iagenweb.org/iowaoldpress/

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