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Today is Sept. 21, the 264th day of the year. So, there are 101 days left in 2017. Below are news items from the Creston News Advertiser for this week (Sept. 18-24) in history:
10 years ago
Creston schools weren’t looking forward to official count day. Superintendent Tim Hood told the school board to expect the drop in number of students to be down anywhere from 65 to 72. The impact was a drop of $5,333 per student.
Meghin Krambeck was crowned Creston Homecoming Queen with Chelsey Abell, Kayli Crittenden, Caitlyn Lesan and Candace Weeda as the other candidates.
Presidential candidate Barack Obama, D-IL, made a campaign stop in Creston where he addressed an audience of about 200 at the Creston Middle School.
20 years ago
Creston City Council received a petition with 220 signatures asking for voters to elect the Gibson Library Board of Directors instead of mayoral appointments. In the past, council members questioned the direction of the current library board, and wanted to be more involved particularly in regard to the renovation project. With an elected board, the city would not have any control.
Red Skelton died Sept. 17, 1997, in Rancho Mirage, California, at the age of 84. He had been an entertainer for six decades with his bumbling, affable comic style. He began entrancing TV audiences in 1951.
Creston High School students were celebrating homecoming and queen candidates included Jessica Beving, Aimee Hilger, Casee Piel, Erica Driskell and Kim Smith.
50 years ago
Franklin Kinkade of Creston won first place out of 44 entries in the industrial division at the Iowa Inventors Congress in Marshalltown. He entered a walking type production for the tile laying machine with which he had won the sweepstakes award at the Inventors congress held in Creston the year before.
Richard Gross was appointed as the new Union County sheriff to succeed George Stroman, who resigned. Gross had been deputy sheriff for almost two years. Gross and his wife and three sons moved into the sheriff’s residence in the county jail.
Semonzio’s Pizza Hut, 207 W. Montgomery St., was damaged by fire early Sept. 18, 1967. Fire Chief Raymond Shrimpton said the fire started in a deep fat fryer that had been left on. The Pizza Hut had been robbed two days before when burglars removed a grating and carried away the cash register. The amount of money taken may have been as much as $50, police said.
Plans for a new access road to the Hills-McCanna plant, in connection with the rebuilding of Highway 34, were discussed. The state highway commission planned to meet with city officials with suggestions for an access road parallel to the highway from the plant into Creston to avoid heavy industrial traffic entering the new highway as much as possible.
A big pile of wood was ready for the big Beef Day barbecue. The pit was dug at the old blue grass yard on E. Howard Street. The 2,400 pounds of prime beef was to be placed on the bed of coals about midnight to cook overnight. Serving was to start 11 a.m. at the covered parking lot of the Iowa State Saving Bank.
Although the U.S. Air Force’s history went back more than 60 years, it was just celebrating it 20th anniversary as a separate military department. Twenty years before, Stuart Symington of Missouri was sworn in as the first Secretary of the Air Force and that ceremony launched it to status co-equal with the Army and Navy under the new Department of Defense.