July 04, 2025
Local NewsState & National

Throwback Thursday

Shown here, looking north on Maple Street, is a part of the large crowd that took advantage of bargains by Creston merchants July 26, 1967, as part of the annual Crazy Day. Creston merchants were well pleased with the turnout and termed the crowd larger than that of last year. (CNA file)

Today is July 27, the 208th day of the year. So, there are 157 days left in 2017. Below are news items from the Creston News Advertiser for this week (July 24-30) in history:

10 years ago

Dr. Peggy Whitson was to command Expedition 16 scheduled to launch in early October 2007 from Baikonur Cosmodoma, Kazakhstan. As a 9-year-old watching Neil Armstrong and Buzz Aldrin walk on the moon, Whitson had dreamed of going into outer space. She graduated from Mount Ayr High School in 1978, the year NASA started accepting women. Whitson had been with NASA since 1996 and had logged 184 days, 22 hours and 14 minutes in space aboard Expedition-5.

After dropping the immensely profitable TouchPlay games, Iowa Lottery sales decreased by 31 percent in fiscal year 2007. Sales totaled $235 million, down from $339.5 million in fiscal year 2006.

The city of Creston was eyeing 44 acres of undeveloped land that was to be auctioned on Aug. 2. The property ran directly north of Adams Street and east of Cottonwood and Creston Mayor Mike Tamerius said the land was needed for future development of housing in that area.

Seniors on Creston’s 19-14 state tournament baseball team were honored at the team’s postseason banquet. Senior members were Steve Myers, Kyle Pals, Keith Peterson and Caleb Brus.

20 years ago

Creston Sanitation Inc. was under new ownership, but former owner, Bob Marquart, said it was “business as usual.” Marquart had owned the company since 1973 and sold it to United Waste Systems of Greenwich, Connecticut, effective July 1, 1997. He stayed on as part-time consultant, his wife Sylvia was still employed in the office, son Bob was named general manager and two other sons, Jim and Tom, were in charge of maintenance and the company’s portable toilet business. There were no rate changes and contracts were still done with Creston Sanitation Inc.

Manolis Galanakis, 15-year-old from Greenfield, had to overcome one obstacle after another in order to survive, after being in a comma for 23 days. Manolis and his bother Gabe, 17, sons of John and Joni Galanakis, were visiting their grandparents in Greece. Shortly after they arrived, Manolis fell 12 to 15 feet from a porch, landing on his head and right shoulder. A pickup had to be used to meet an ambulance due to the remote location, and it took an hour to reach a non-modern hospital. Once his parents arrived, they could only see him for 20 minutes a day and the language barrier made it nearly impossible to communicate with the doctors. After Manolis regained consciousness, the doctors refused to release him until the bills were paid, Joni’s emergency passport expired and their flight was delayed so they had to stay in a hotel for two extra days.

Creston baseball lost four seniors from its team as they were honored at the end of the season. They were Nick Jannings, Todd Stalker, Ben Gerleman and Brady Steenhoek.

50 years ago

Phillip J. Tyler of Creston, special agent of the Northwestern Mutual Life Insurance Company, was cited for outstanding life insurance sales among the company’s more than 2,500 agents coast-to-coast during the 1966-67 honor year at the annual meeting in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Tyler won the silver section award, presented to an agent who had previously received a bronze award, and increased his sales over the the past year’s volume.

A large piece of steel, a refinery vessel, measuring 195 feet in length and 8 feet, 8 inches in diameter, was enroute via Burlington flat car from Joliet, Illinois, to Laurel, Montana, as it passed through Creston. The train carrying the vessel had a speed restriction of 45 miles an hour.