Today is Feb. 7, the 38th day of the year. So, there are 327 days left in 2019. Below are news items from the Creston News Advertiser for this week (Feb. 4-10) in history:
10 years ago
Bargain hunters were ready for Creston Moonlight Madness. The event, in its fourth year, was the winter version of Crazy Days and gave residents the opportunity to shop at local stores during extended business hours. Creston Chamber of Commerce Executive Director Ellen Gerharz said it was an opportunity for people to save some money or go to stores not normally open in the evening.
Creston mealsite at the restored Creston Depot celebrated 35 years of service to senior citizens. The celebration included a program on the history of the site and on some of the sites most prolific individuals like Fanny Luther – manager of the mealsite for 20 years before retiring in 1998. She died in April 2008.
Creston/O-M wrestling cheerleaders were busy at the Class 2A sectional tournament in Red Oak. They included Abbey DeBord, Hailey Lange, Victoria Keeler, Morgan Thompson, Tina Etzen and Kayla Bradley with their coach, Trish Clayton.
20 years ago
Union County Sheriff John Coulter made his meth awareness presentation at Creston High School to a standing room only crowd. More than 700 students, parents, teachers and concerned citizens packed the auditorium for the Youth Plus sponsored event. In the previous year, the state of Iowa had busted 320 meth labs, with 12 busts and remnants of 24 other labs found in Union County.
The city of Creston bought three parcels of vacant railroad ground in Creston from Burlington Northern Santa Fe Railroad. The council approved a $25,000 agreement to buy 11.5 acres north of Bill Sears Complex, 5.46 acres behind Davidson Bowling Center where the city stored snow and 1.42 acres northeast of Medicap Pharmacy. Creston Park and Recreation was interested in the 11-acre site for recreational development as soccer fields or an open field for baseball and softball practice. A fourth parcel in the purchase was located in Chariton and Mayor Larry Wynn offered a quit claim deed to Chariton School District.
An open house was held Feb. 7 for the newly renovated Creston library with a ribbon cutting, introductions of the the library board and city council, remarks by the mayor and an art print sale.
50 years ago
Creston City Council was informed that outdoor burning of rubbish in municipal dumps was to stop by April 10, 1970, in order to eliminate air pollution. They were to devise a plan for compliance by Oct. 10, 1969. Creston had a open type dump east of the city, in which fires were burning most of the time. The open dump had been enlarged two years previously with the purchase of additional land. No action was taken, but the council discussed replacing the dump with a sanitary land fill type disposal ground.
Nearly one-fourth of the pupils in the Creston Community Schools were absent as the epidemic of flu-like illness continued. Superintendent Gene Hertz said the attendance rolls showed 592 students and 10 teachers were absence. Absences had grown over the past week with 243 gone Monday, 249 Tuesday, 291 Wednesday, 319 Thursday and 362 Friday.
