Page 1 - Clear Lake Mirror Reporter E-Edition 12-30-2015

Bowl Bound pg. 9
Weather
Mostly sunny Fri. and Sat. with a high of 25
degrees on Sunday.
USPS 117-120 VOL. 145 Issue 52
Clear Lake
Mirror-Reporter
CALENDAR
Wednesday
Open house
for Havill
The public is invited to a
recognition celebration for retir-
ing Clear Lake police dispatcher
Barb Havill Wednesday, Dec.
30, from 2-4 p.m. at City Hall,
15 N. 6th St. Havill has dedi-
cated 26 years to public safety
service in the communities of
Clear Lake and Ventura. A pre-
sentation will be made at 3 p.m.
Friday
Mirror-Reporter
sets holiday
hours
The Clear Lake Mirror-Re-
porter office, 12 N. 4th St., will
close at noon Thursday, Dec.
31. The office will also be closed
Friday, Jan. 1, in observance of
the New Year’s holiday.
Snow removal
ordinance
The Clear Lake Police De-
partment reminds the public
that its Snow Removal Ordi-
nance is in effect during winter
weather events. No vehicle may
remain parked on a public street
or city parking lot during snow
removal operations.
Inside
Opinion..................... 6
Weather.................... 7
Sports.................. 9-11
Legals..................... 13
Classifieds.........14-15
Road Reports
Iowa 1-800-288-1047
Illinois 1-800-865-5394
Kansas 1-800-585-7623
Minnesota1-800-542-0220
Missouri 1-800-222-6400
Nebraska 1-800-906-9069
S. Dakato 1-866-697-3511
Wisconsin 1-800-762-3947
Forecasts
Des Moines 1-515-270-2614
Sioux Falls 1-605-330-4444
Waterloo 1-319-234-6600
Call 511 for Iowa,
Minnesota and
South Dakota
non-emergency
weather and road
conditions.
Mail: 12 N. 4th St.,
Clear Lake, IA 50428
Telephone: 641-357-2131
Fax: 641-357-2133
Email: office@clreporter.com
Website: www.clreporter.com
@CLReporter
More weather on page 7.
Dec. 30, 2015 Serving Clear Lake and Ventura since 1869 • Hometown newspaper of Ron & Karen Ressler $1.50
Winter weather
finally arrives
Nine inches blankets area
Clear Lake and North Iowa almost made it through De-
cember without a major weather incident, but Monday the
area received more than a half-foot of snowfall. In Clear Lake,
an estimated nine inches of snow fell.
National Weather Service meteorologist Ken Harding
reported some of the heaviest snowfall totals included 10.5
inches near Fort Dodge and 10.3 inches in Waterloo. All 99
counties in the state received snow, but some locations in far
southern Iowa -- near the Missouri border -- were blasted with
mostly freezing rain and sleet.
A winter storm warning was issued Sunday afternoon, al-
lowing travelers and businesses to make Monday plans. The
snow began to fall by mid-morning, accompanied by 30 mph
winds which made travel hazardous.
I-35 remained open throughout the snow event, however
numerous accidents were reported.
According to the Iowa Weather Network, the year is go-
Taking the oath of office ing to end with cold and more typical temperatures across the
state. After the storm that brought sleet, freezing rain and sev-
City Attorney John Sorensen administered the oath of office to newly elected City Council members (L-R) Jim Boehnke, Mike Callanan and eral inches of snow, temperatures will be in the 20s to lower
Mark Ebeling on Dec. 22. Boehnke and Callanan successfully ran for re-election, while Ebeling won the First Ward seat vacated by Dana 30s. Temperatures are expected to remain mostly below freez-
Brant. The new Council will meet Monday, Jan. 4.-Reporter photo. ing through the weekend. Some of the coldest temperatures of
the season, so far, will arrive on New Year’s Eve.
As the year comes to a close, we take a look back at the stories which dominated the headlines in 2015.
# 1 It’s Chambers at City Hall to hear the announce- # 2 Memorial and Design, of Des Moines, provide design ser-
McKesson! ment of the “mystery company” which will mayhem vices for a proposed veterans memorial at the
create 164 jobs with an average salary of former downtown water tower site. Council
The biggest story of the year was actually the $39,000. The $65 million project is expected What would the proposed veteran’s memo- members stressed they were not approving the
same story which topped the 2014 review. In to have an estimated impact of $310 million rial look like by the Sea Wall? Or where the site, but rather supporting creation of a con-
February the McKesson Corporation, the larg- over the next 10-years. water tower used to stand? Or perhaps near ceptual design which will provide a visual for
est pharmaceutical distributor in North America, City Administrator Scott Flory said there City Hall? Clear Lakers had a chance to see for the amount of space a memorial would occupy.
was introduced as the future tenant of a 340,000 was great due diligence done in pursuing themselves as a task force charged with making The Council approved entering into the con-
square foot building under construction in the McKesson, but recruitment efforts were com- a recommendation to the City Council about cept design agreement with RDG and into a
city’s Larry Luker Memorial Industrial Park. plicated by the company’s insistence that its loan agreement with the VFW on a 5-0 vote.
Clear Lake city officials made the announce- identity remain anonymous. None of Clear
ment to coincide with an agenda released by the Lake’s City Council members knew the com-
State of Iowa’s Economic Development Commis- pany when they approved a local incentive
sion which identified McKesson as an applicant package which included a $1.675 million,
for $4.6 million in state tax credits, as well as a 10-year forgivable loan used for land acqui-
$170,000 forgivable loan. The state incentives, sition and site development, and a property
offered through the High Quality Jobs Program, tax rebate with an estimated cumulative value
were awarded. of not to exceed $7.3 million over a 20-year
More than 100 people packed the Council period.
Officials were notified of Clear Lake’s se-
lection as the location for the warehouse/dis-
tribution center in January 2014.
A mock-up of the proposed Veteran’s Memorial was placed at three potential locations in early 2015.
Clear Lake senior Jacob Hogan is welcomed home after hitting a walk-off grand slam with two outs in the the best location for a memorial placed a rep- # 3 Sharing
bottom of the seventh inning to give the Lions a win and a State Tournament berth. It was the second seventh lica of the proposed structures at three locations ends
inning grand slam for Hogan in the post-season.-Reporter photo by Chris Barragy. and invited public comment.
A proposal to construct a memorial to vet- The Clear Lake School Board voted unani-
erans was first presented in June 2014. Since mously in December to pursue the hiring of
that time the issue has become contentious at its own superintendent for the 2016-17 school
times. year. Anita Micich has served as the leader of
In April, the eight-member task force, the two school districts since a sharing agree-
which met regularly for almost seven months, ment was reached in 2010. Mason City will
told the City Council it was unable to reach a continue to hold Micich’s contract, which runs
unanimous consensus. In the end, members through June 30, 2016.
were split evenly between placing the memorial School Board members had been discussing
at the Sea Wall, or at the intersection of Main the possibility of hiring their own superinten-
Avenue and 8th Street. dent for more than a year and made a conscious
Mayor Nelson Crabb said the City Council effort to study ways to put aside
has always been openly supportive of the be-
lief there should be a veterans memorial in the See YEAR IN REVIEW on page 5
city. However, without a clear recommenda-
tion from his appointed task force, he said there
is no basis for Council action.
In November the Clear Lake City Council
agreed to enter into an agreement with Clear
Lake V.F.W. Post 4868 to have RDG Planning