Former Riverside mayor Bill Poch was re-elected Tuesday by 198 voters to incumbent Brian McDole’s 169 in an election that saw a 51 percent voter turnout with 376 of the city’s 737 registered voters casting ballots.
Incumbent council member Christine Kirkwood with 194 votes won her first full four term and will be joined by newcomers Robert Schneider, Jr., 177 votes, and Nate Kasdorf, 161.  However, Kasdorf edged out Tom Sexton by only one vote with Sexton receiving 160 votes.  Incumbent Rodney Waldschmidt received 154 votes, Larry Simon, 151 and Joette Armbruster, 86. Highest vote getter was Poch, followed by Kirkwood.  The close votes for two could lead to a request for a recount.
The ten year local option sales and services tax (LOSST) passed by 221 yes to 120 no.
The newly elected members will take office in January.
In Ainsworth, Teresa Hazelett and Troy McCarthy, unopposed, were elected to the council with 41 and 38 votes, respectively.  Brad Brown was elected by 39 votes to fill a vacancy, and the LOSST passed by 37 yes to 7 no.

Polls open Tuesday, November 8 from Noon – 8 p.m. in Riverside City Hall.
In next week’s election, without question, the major contest for offices is in Riverside with a total of nine candidates: two seeking the mayor’s office and seven seeking one of three council seats.  Incumbent Mayor Brian McDole and former mayor Bill Poch are matched again (both were among three mayoral candidates in the last election), and incumbent council members Christine Kirkwood and Rodney Waldschmidt are running with (or against) Joette Armbruster, Nate Kasdorf, Robert J. Schneider, Jr., Tom L. Sexton and Larry R. Simon for one of three council seats.  The third incumbent Todd Yahnke did not seek re-election, which no matter how the voting goes, means there will be at least one new council member.  There would have been a slate of 10 but former council member Sam Torrey withdrew as a candidate for mayor.  Still, there is no doubt that Riverside’s 737 registered voters definitely have some choices.

Ainsworth election
In Ainsworth, there are three council seats, including one to fill a vacancy for a term expiring in December 2013, and all three incumbents, Teresa Hazelett, Troy McCarthy and Brad Brown are running.  In Brighton, the three seats have three new candidates: Bill Farmer, Scott Hughes and Ron Rich, with a similar situation for two seats in Crawfordsville with Larry Black and David Neff running.

Sandra Jean Mallory, 63, of Riverside, passed away on Sunday, November 6, 2011, at Mercy Hospital in Iowa City.

A Celebration of Life Mass will be held at 10:30 a.m. on Tuesday, November 8. 2011, at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Riverside.  Burial will be in the Hampton Cemetery in Hampton, Iowa on Wednesday, November 9, at noon.

Memorials may be directed to Iowa City Hospice or the Nature Conservancy in memory of Sandy.

The Sorden-Lewis Home for Funeral and Cremation Services is caring for Sandy’s arrangements and her family.

By Mary Zielinski
He’s ticketed friends who later would not talk to him, been offered “a bribe or two,” was the first officer at a murder scene and in 21 years as a deputy sheriff never had to fire his gun.
Major health problems forced Tom Ulin to retire, but he has hopes of returning at least part-time because being a law enforcement officer is what he really wanted to do and still does.
The Wellman native and graduate of Mid-Prairie High School turned in his badge and gun August 31, but there is more than a slim chance he “could go back” to serving with the Washington County Sheriff’s Department.
Ulin started his career with the Reserves, serving from 1986-89 and attended the Cedar Rapids Reserve Deputy Academy. He began part-time and went full-time in 1989, graduating from the Iowa Law Enforcement Academy in 1990.
Although he did some other things after high school graduation, at age 30, “I decided I wanted to do it,” that he had thought about for “quite a while” and talked with Deputy Jack Seward about what would be involved in being a cop.
(Read the completed article in the Riverside Current)

By Ranee Fladung
Running out of patience with Bi-State Contracting, Inc., the Highland Board of Education Monday wanted to set a final completion date for the district’s $3 million project or Bi-State loses the $30,616.36 retainage money.
The project, which initially was to have been done by the end of summer, 2009, still has unfinished bits and pieces, including the library’s air conditioning system that tends to shut itself off at random. There also are still some chipped ceiling tiles in the library and unfinished tile work at the building’s south side, among other things
Superintendent Chris Armstrong noted that the heating,ventilation and air conditioning system is not finished, either.
Construction manager Tim Ruth, provided an update on the project, noting that the contractor “is not making a good faith effort to get things done.”
Board members discussed that the only way may be to withhold the $30,000, all of which is actually Bi-State’s, not the subcontractors. Ruth noted that the retainage could be used to hire someone else to get the work completed.
A completion deadline of November 1 was suggested and if not met, then someone else would be hired. However, the board wanted further discussion with the contractor before setting such a deadline.

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Attention sports organizations and teams in the Keota, Wellman, Kalona, Riverside, Ainsworth and Lone Tree areas – here’s your chance to gain the visibility you desire, the coverage you deserve and the fan network you dream of. We want you to “Tell Us What You Play.”
Three Chicks Publications has teamed up with CommunitySportsDesk, a national sports software and service company, to create EnglishRiverSports.com (ERS), a website designed to further enhance the newspaper’s coverage of youth teams and adult leagues.
Beginning next week, the Wellman Advance and Riverside Current will publish Fall Preview articles – both online and in its print edition – highlighting a number of local organizations and teams. (See “How to Get Started” below for information on submitting your stories and photos to http://englishriversports.com.
In addition to submitting your Fall Preview, please add your organization’s or team’s name and information to the Directory on the website, then regularly submit your game results, announcements, listings, photos and videos to this easy-to-use site. You can share information with family, friends, fans and the community; build a fan base; and share in advertising revenue…all by actively using this new, fun and innovative system.
ERS is not just for sports organizations, teams and participants. Fans are also a big part of the equation. In addition to keeping up to speed on all of your favorite teams’ activities, you now have the opportunity to offer them encouragement with a “High Five,” a “Cheer” and other reactions, as well as sharing the team’s accomplishments with your friends and families.

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It took three tries, but the third one proved a good night for the Riverside Area Community Club’s Demolition Derby. Initially part of the annual Trek Fest in June, it was postponed to July because of weather conditions. Then moved yet one more time to August 28, again because of weather.
The event, held Saturday in Riverside’s Hall Park, had 30 cars competing, an increase of nine from last year’s event. While there is not an exact figure available on attendance, the fact the food ran out at the end is a good indication of success, noted RACC President Carol Riggan.
In addition to delaying the Derby, the postponements also delayed the raffle, something that permitted additional ticket sales.
Winners are Barbara Greene, Iowa City, the lst prize of the 50/50 split of the proceeds; Phyllis Latta, Riverside, 2nd prize of a one night weekday stay for two and two Robert’s buffet meals at the Riverside Casino, and third place had two Whirlybird helicopter rides from Iowa City and were won by Steve Musser, Riverside and Tonia Loving, also Riverside.
As Riggan noted, it was the last event for Trek Fest and the first time it took two months to do it.
The derby is a major fundraiser for RACC which not only sponsors Trek Fest but also brings Santa Claus and the Easter Bunny to town and provides some scholarships for Highand students.
Demo winners
Winners in the August 28 Demolition Derby are as follows:
Compact cars: Cory Sexton, lst; 2nd, TBA, and 3rd, Nick Sexton;
Old Iron, outlaw: David Timm, lst; James Vance, 2nd;
Stock: Jason Burkett, lst; Art Jensen, 2nd and Matt Lenz, 3rd.
There were no entries for the Power Puff, which is for women.

by Ranee Fladung
Getting around Riverside will be a matter of black and white once the city installs some 114 street signs.  The new signs will replace the green and white ones with a more conventional black on white and includes adding some signs where previously there were none. Cost is $18.25 per sign and total estimated cost to -resign the entire town is $4,200.
Large names on the signs will required a 30 inch sign, available from Iowa Prison Industries for $22.80 each.
The new stop signs will be on Kleopfer Avenue, where the street is being extended to the Riverside Elementary School.  The first sign will be on the north edge of Kleopfer at the intersection of Buckeye Lane on the east side of the street, and the second south on Kleopfer at the intersection of Buckeye Lane on the west side of the street.
The council also approved adding crosswalks at the east end of Buckeye Lane and the north end of Kleopfer Avenue and  held a first reading to establish a 15 mile per hour speed zone for Schnoebelen Street,  Buckeye Lane and Kleopfer Avenue.  All three roads are in the vicinity of the elementary school and the changes are related to providing safety measures for students in the area.

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There will soon be a change to the way the traffic flows in the parking lot at the Highland Middle/High School. The change was precipitated by the newly constructed sidewalk that extends along the length of both buildings.

“This plan allows us to create handicap parking in front of both the high school and middle school entrance and should create a better, safer flow of traffic.”

The plan is to use the northeast entrance on 170th Street as a one way entrance into the parking lot. The northwest entrance of the north parking lot would become an exit only and the southeast entrance in front of the middle school would become an exit only. Cars will angle park in front of the middle/high school building,  facing the south,  and cars will angle park in the north lot,  facing west.
The school hopes to have the front lot redesigned for the week of August 30and the north lot redesigned soon after.
“This change will take a while to get used to,” said Superintendent Chris Armstrong, “but it makes sense considering the changes that we have made at the middle/high school.”
The buses are now loading and unloading in front of the sidewalk so the school needed to create an unobstructed loading zone for them. The parking lot is wide enough to accommodate a lane for a loading zone, two adjacent stalls for angle parking, and a lane for traffic flow along the east side. Armstrong said, “This plan allows us to create handicap parking in front of both the high school and middle school entrance and should create a better, safer flow of traffic.”
This plan allows us to create handicap parking in front of both the high school and middle school entrance and should create a better, safer flow of traffic.

Eric Ulrichs with USDA Rural Development was in Riverside Friday, August 13, to present a certificate to the board and management of Riverside Senior Village for providing quality housing services to residents in Riverside for the last 35 years.

Don Yoder manages the day to day operations at the apartment complex along with site manager Kelly Schwarz.
The complex, built through a community wide effort in 1975, consists of 30 one and two bedroom units for elderly and disabled residents and their families. The original committee members Laura Weimer, Ardee Cushing, Bud Havel, Lester Schnoebelen and Charles Weaver raised $10,000 in 1975 to start phase 1 of the project which included building 15 units with a community room. In 1978, an addition of 15 more units was added.
The board meets monthly with its annual meeting to elect officers held in September.

Among the new faces for the 2010-11 school year in the Highland School District are five teachers and an elementary principal.
Kim Humpal of New Hampton Iowa, is teaching middle and high school mathematics which includes pre-algebra, geometry and calculus. A December, 2009, graduate of Upper Iowa University, she was a long-term substitute at Highland starting in January. Her interests include volleyball, running, Iowa Hawkeye football.
“I look forward to actually starting the school year with the students and teaching for a full term,” she said.
Clay Eaton and his wife, Megan Eaton, are both from Washington. Clay, who will teach elementary physical education, majored in exercise science at Central College, Pella and taught elementary PE for three years in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He also plans to assist with the district’s wrestling program.
Megan, will teach in the preschool program for three and four year old students and is the At-Risk Instructor. She is a graduate of Central College where she majored in elementary education and previously taught at Sigourney Elementary and Webster Elementary in Colorado Springs.
Jessia Gilbertson, originally from Waukon and now of North Liberty, is teaching 8th grade science, reading and computer skills. She is a 2008 graduate of Iowa State University where she majored in Elementary Education with endorsements in science, and reading and coaching. She actually joined the Highland staff in October, teaching 8th grade.

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The Riverside Visioning Committee met August 12 to review its continuing plans for civic improvements. Among them is applying for a $50,000 REAP grant to aid with two miles of a trail system that is part of a countywide plan.
The next major item will be to have a new Riverside sign, which is being considered by the Sign Committee. There also will be a new sign at the main entrance to Riverside from Highway 218.
A recent city survey shows that of 225 responses, more than 85 percent favor the monument sign in concept 1 (the design for the one at Hall Park). There was a more than 83 percent, asked about improvements to Conservation Park, who favored improvements to the park’s restrooms and 871.5 percent who favored putting in a trail.
The Committee is also looking at other improvements such as a sidewalk near the Senior Village and Fire Station, green spaces and landscaping.