Crowned at Saturday night’s Winneshiek County Dairy Banquet in Ossian were Dairy Princess Bailey Miculinich (left) and Alternate Dairy Princess Stacia Sexton. See more photos inside of Dairy royalty and award-winners from the annual banquet. (Zakary Kriener photo)

2018 Winneshiek County Dairy Banquet

South Winn Board sets tax levy rate

Zakary Kriener

News Writer
zkriener@fayettepublishing.com

The South Winneshiek school board voted to approve its FY18-19 budget during Monday night’s regular meeting. The budget includes a tax levy rate of $12.45 per $1,000 valuation.

Superintendent Kris Einck noted that the district’s levy rate has remained very consistent over recent years, as the new rate is slightly lower than the FY17-18 rate of $12.52 per $1,000 valuation.

The board also approved wages for nonbargaining staff, which includes a 6 percent increase for the superintendent, 4 percent raise for the principals, and a 3 percent raise for the business manager.

Hunter Cummings (right) accepts a check in the amount of $10,000 on behalf of the City of Clermont from Terry Gaumer from the Community Foundation of Northeast Iowa at the Fayette County Community Foundation’s Grant Awards ceremony on Friday. The grant money will go toward a Clermont community and Opera House digital sign. (Zakary Kriener photo)

23 local organizations receive over $118,000

Zakary Kriener

News Writer
zkriener@fayettepublishing.com

The Fayette County Community Foundation (FCCF) awarded $118,859 in grant funding at its annual Grant Awards Ceremony on Friday in Hawkeye. A total of 23 area nonprofit agencies and organizations will receive grant funding this year for which they have combined total project budgets of over $2 million.

The cast of West Central’s spring play “Finn McCool and His Fearless Wife” includes (front, l-r) Preston Shannon, Kaitlin Richards, Cam Wollschlager, Kailee Rochford, Hailey Bergfeld, Ashley Powers, Rosita Hepperle, Gabby Willfong, and Erin Hamlett; (back) Arryian Harsen, Dawson Wirtz, Dylan Conner, Taylor Hepperle, Cortney Rohde, Dale Tenney, Cooper Ingles, Mary McDonough,  Sydney Hiems, Cameron Rohde, Hailey Weidemann, Mikaela Kime, Dana Denney, Rachel Walenceus, and Amanda Becker. Students from Starmont High School joined West Central students to present the comedy.  Chris DeBack photos

WC's spring production brings Ireland to life

By Chris Deback
cdeback@thefayettecountyunion.com

For every boastful man, there is typically a clever wife right next to him, ready to help him achieve whatever outlandish claim he has made. 

At least, that is the premise of West Central’s spring play, “Finn McCool and His Fearless Wife,” which will be presented at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday, April 20-21, in the auditorium at West Central High School. The cost to attend the play is $6. There will be a bake sale during the intermission of the Saturday evening performance. 

The Fayette County Sheriff’s Office was responding to a report of an assault in progress on Saturday, April 7, at Prairie View Residential Care Facility, rural Fayette. The Sheriff’s Office has arrested five former staff members and two residents over the course of the past couple months at Prairie View. (Jerry Blue photo)

More calls to Prairie View

By Chris Deback

cdeback@thefayettecountyunion.com

Five former certified nursing assistants (CNA) at Prairie View Residential Care Facility in rural Fayette have been arrested in the last month, accused of sexual exploitation of patients.

CNAs Paige Johanningmeier, 23, of Elgin and Megan Panney, 26, of Clermont were arrested on March 5 for allegedly having sexual relations with patients. They were also accused of helping the two court-ordered patients with whom they had relations to escape the residential care facility. Both CNAs are no longer employed by Prairie View Management, Inc.  

Further investigation by the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office led to the arrest on March 23 of three more CNAs for sexual exploitation — Carolyn Wiedrich, 44, and Jamie Pagel, 32, both of Sumner; and Shelby Sebring, 24, of Hawkeye. The three women weren’t employed by the residential care facility at the time of their arrest. 

Hawkeye’s Keith and Marilyn Westpfahl were recently presented a $100,000 grant through the Community Catalyst Building Remediation Program to help renovate the former DanDi’s Dollar and Variety Store. The lifelong Hawkeye-area residents will use the grant dollars to completely remodel the front of the store with an all-glass storefront similar to the one that graced the front of the Main Street business long ago. (Zakary Kriener photo)

Westpfahls get $100K grant

Zakary Kriener

News Writer
zkriener@fayettepublishing.com

Less than a year ago, Keith and Marilyn Westpfahl officially took ownership of the downtown Hawkeye building that was once the home of DanDi’s Dollar and Variety Store. With the betterment of their lifelong hometown in mind, the couple have since been working to restore the over 100-year-old structure to its former glory.

Last week, the renovation project received a significant contribution in the form of a $100,000 Community Catalyst Building Remediation Program grant.

“We knew that the building was going to need a lot of work when we took it over last May,” said Keith, who was born in and spent that majority of his lifetime in Hawkeye. “One of the biggest areas in need of attention is the front wall. One of our goals was to return the look of the building to the way it was many years ago with a storefront window and new brick.”

It is a team effort as family friends Stephanie Birmingham (far left) and Mike Birmingham (far right) join Team Neviah with  (l-r) then 2 -year-old Neviah, mom Rana (Murphy) (expecting Kendrick) and dad, Danny Webster during an annual American Heart Association Heart Walk a few years ago. 

Heart Hero

By Meagan Molseed
mmolseed@thefayettecountyunion.com

“God has big plans for Neviah,” Rana Webster said of her 6 year-old daughter, who recently underwent her second open-heart surgery since birth.  

“We have relied on our faith and the support of family and friends, as well as our daughter’s strength.  She has been through a lot in her six years, but she continues to thrive.” 

The first child of former high school sweethearts Rana (Murphy) a 2003 North Fayette graduate, and her husband, Danny Webster, a 2004 Valley graduate, Neviah was diagnosed with the congenital heart disease, dextro-transposition just hours after her birth in 2011. It is a heart condition in which the two main arteries carrying blood away from the heart are reversed 

“When Neviah was born, things seemed good,” the young mother remembered. “Her oxygen levels were low at first, but we knew she had swallowed some of my water during the birth, so we and the doctors thought the levels may have been off from that.” 

Shortly after Neviah was born, however, the new parents would soon learn that they were about to face a journey with their brand-new daughter that neither one would have been able to anticipate.

“I was able to go up to the “Mommy and Me” floor with Neviah in my arms for recovery shortly after she was born,” Rana recalled of the hours after the infants birth.  

“Shortly after that, the nurses came in to took Neviah for a couple of routine checks.  They took her out of my arms and said they’d be right back,” she related softly, noting that it wasn’t long before she and husband Danny started to worry.