News

Sheldon, Iowa — When the Sheldon Community School District’s Board of Education meet for their regular April meeting, one of the items on their agenda will be whether or not to build “Snow Make-Up Days” into the 2016-17 school calendar.

As adopted, the calendar for the 2016-17 school year has August 24th listed as the first day of school, with May 26th the last scheduled day of classes.  However, the calendar also lists May 30th and 31st, along with June 1st and 2nd, etc., as Snow Make-Up Days.  This school year, classes have been extended into June to make up for the days missed due to weather this past winter.  Recently, the Administration of the Sheldon Schools distributed a survey to District staff regarding their opinion on the possibility of building some potential “Snow Make-Up Days” into the school year, should they be needed.  The results of that survey will be shared with the Board at Wednesday’s meeting.

The Board will also hold a Public Hearing on the District’s Fiscal Year 2017 Budget, and set the date and time for the Budget Amendment Hearing, as well as consider a proposal to re-sand and re-paint the floor in the high school gym.

In other action, the Board is scheduled to receive and approve the list of members of the Class of 2016 who have qualified for graduation, deal with an Open Enrollment Application, and approve a half dozen summer coaching contracts during Wednesday’s meeting.

The April meeting of the Sheldon Community Schools Board of Education will begin at 6:00 pm Wednesday in the high school library.

Hospers, Iowa — The Hospers Fire Department was called to a barn fire on Monday, April 11, 2016 near Hospers.

According to Hospers Fire Chief John Schwartz, about 9:40 PM, the Hospers Fire Department was called to the report of structure fire with smoke coming from the roof of the barn at 3727 Kingbird Avenue, two and a half miles north of Newkirk. Schwartz says that’s Rod Korver’s place.

The chief says the fire department saw smoke coming from the roof as they approached the scene. He says they used water both inside and outside of the building to fight the fire.

Schwartz says no injuries were reported.

He says the property owner had been tearing the roof off of the barn, and was burning the old shingles. He says that fire got out of control and started the barn on fire.

Chief Schwartz reports that there was minimal damage.

He says they used about 300 gallons of water to fight the fire, and crews were on scene for about an hour.

Northwest Iowa — The U-S-D-A crop report released Monday showed high winds and frequent showers kept many northwest Iowa farmers from getting the planting season underway.

Iowa State University Extension Crops Specialist Joel DeJong says despite the cooler temperatures most of the signs are positive.

DeJong says the four-inch soil temperature was 35 on Saturday and up to 41 on Sunday, so it is moving in the right direction.

Many farmers are still applying anhydrous ammonia for fertilizer. DeJong says conditions are still favorable, if farmers make certain they are applying that anhydrous ammonia at deep enough levels.

While some farmers in southern Iowa are into the fields, he says here in northwest Iowa farmers may want to wait a few more days, even though research studies indicate better yields are obtained with early planted seed.

He says each farmer can decide what they want to do, but there is no rush.

The U-S-D-A report shows west-central and southwest Iowa had the best conditions last week for working in the fields.