Community Briefs

The Johnson County Master Gardeners have opened their seasonal “Hort Line” and are ready to take your home horticulture questions. The Hort Line is available every Monday and Thursday from 9-11 a.m. and can be reached by calling the Johnson County Extension Office at 319-337-2145. At other times, you may call and leave a message for the Master Gardeners and they will return your call.
Email questions are also accepted by contacting Kathy Beierschmitt, Johnson County Extension, at kbeiers@iastate.edu. Please include your phone number and other contact information in the email so materials can be mailed and you can be contacted should the Master Gardeners have further questions. The Hort Line is a public service available to area residents who have questions on gardening, lawn care, landscaping, trees/shrubs, fruits/vegetables, insect/weed pest control, pathology, soil fertility and more.

The Voyage Home History Center in Riverside is seeking any information about or artifacts from one-room school houses in Iowa Township or surrounding townships.
Local history buffs Jan Musser and Mary Jane Stumpf have been researching and working on a one-room school house exhibit. If you have any information about local one-room school houses, please share your information, photos, and stories with Stumpf by calling 319-648-2174. Items may be donated or loaned to the museum.
The Voyage Home Riverside History Center is located at 361 East First Street (also known as Highway 22, Riverside. Hours through mid-April are Thursday, Friday, and Saturday 10 am. to 4 p.m. and Sunday from noon to 4 p.m. The museum’s phone number is 319-648-2226.

Underground Railroad Exhibit displayed at Herbert Hoover National Historic Site
Before the Civil War, men, women, and children seeking to escape slavery in the South often sought refuge among Northern abolitionists in Cedar County, Iowa. “Cedar County, Iowa: A Door to Freedom”, an exhibit on the Underground Railroad, is on display at the Visitor Center of Herbert Hoover National Historic Site daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. The exhibit was produced by a partnership of the National Park Service and the University of Iowa Museum Studies Program.
Herbert Hoover National Historic Site and the Herbert Hoover Presidential Library and Museum are in West Branch, Iowa at exit 254 off I-80. Both are open daily from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. Central Time. Parking is limited so please allow extra time to find a parking space.

The Riverside Community Blood Drive is Thursday, January 15, from 3 p.m. to 6:30 p.m. in the Trinity United Methodist Church, 11 East Second Street, Riverside.
To donate, call Terry Philips at 319-648-2028 or 319-430-8536. Donors who last gave blood on or before November 20, 2008, are eligible.
Blood donation is a safe, simple procedure that only takes about an hour. Donors must be at least 16 years old, in good health, and weigh at least 110 pounds. A Blood Donor card or other photo identification is required to donate. Donors who are 16 years old must present a signed parental consent form available from the Blood Center or for download from www.bloodcenter.org. Controlled high blood pressure and diabetics are acceptable.
The blood drive is provided by the Mississippi Valley Regional Blood Center, which is the exclusive blood provider to Washington County Hospitals and Clinics.