Thank you to everyone who sent a birthday card to Esther Neidt, making her 90th birthday very special. Esther was pleasantly surprised on Sunday, June 28th, when she learned she was guest of honor at a birthday party that included 36 members of her family from various parts of Nebraska, Missouri, and Iowa. After spending a few months with her daughters, Esther now is residing in Bethany Heights, an independent & assisted living facility in Council Bluffs where she is making new friends and enjoying many of the activities it has to offer. Her new address is 11 Elliot Street, #201, Council Bluffs, IA 51503.
The Truro Fire & Rescue Association and the fire department held their annual Street Dance and Dinner on Saturday, August 1st. The weather was perfect and there were a good number of supporters in attendance. Special plaques of recognition were given to fireperson, Fran Hoffman, who has been with the fire department for over fifteen years but came down with meningitis this spring and is still recovering. Everyone on the fire department and the Association was touched by her speech and we could see the old Frannie talking to us like always. We have missed her. Another plaque was given to the Truro Lion's Club for all the times they have donated the use of their building free of charge to the fire department for their fundraisers. The last plaque was given to Ivyl & Kathy Ransom who have done so much for the fire department and has supported them in everything they do. Their son, Jeremy, is the fire chief of the Truro Fire & Rescue and has been for a number of years.
The pork loin served at the dinner was cooked by Rick Finley, Jeremy Ransom and Chet Darst. It sure was delicious. A special thank you to Rick for volunteering to cook the meat.
This year again we had a children's raffle along with the regular raffle and the children's raffle was again a big success. Thank you so much for the businesses or people who donated a prize for this raffle.
The Barrelhouse Rockets band played for everyone's enjoyment but were a little late in starting up. They were twenty minutes late in starting to play but once they started playing people were dancing in the street and having a great time. When the band took a break prizes were given away in the raffle. The gas grill that was donated by I-35 Communication Systems was won by Karl Korte and the cash prize of $250 was won by Wendy Smith of St. Charles. I remember hearing names called out like Norman Rockey, Dusty Rucker, Abbey Mease, Bill Lorenzen, and Fran Hutton to name a few but don't remember the prizes they won. There were a lot of prizes and a lot of winners.
There was an auction and Allen Brommel was the auctioneer. A balloon ride, ten homemade pies made by Naomi Johnson of St. Charles, a stone garden decoration with the fire logo on it, fire boots decorated with flowers and garden lights and art work drawn on a piece of wood were auctioned off. Special thanks to these people who bid on them and won them.
The dance played until 1a.m. and I was amazed at how many people were still out on Main Street dancing. It was a beautiful evening for the event. The only thing that went wrong was that the two kybos weren't delivered. We can laugh about it now but it wasn't funny at the time. A big thank you to everyone who came to the dinner/dance, or who bought a raffle ticket or helped supply the food for the dinner. Most of all we thank all the businesses that provided a gift for the raffle that was held and the special donations by Union State Bank and Farmers & Merchants State Bank of Winterset and by some very special individuals.
It just amazes me how many people come together to help the fire & rescue when they need it. There are people who help us with our fundraisers by donating either money or their time or both. We the fire & rescue are very thankful for all of you.
I would like to take this time to also recognize Mark & David Mease who have been helping the fire department with their project of getting ready for a remodeled fire house. They donated their time and equipment to spread dirt that was dumped from the ditching being done by the City and filled in all around the fire house where it is low. He also is doing the work of putting in the new culvert for the fire department. Mark does very good work so it is looking really nice.
Mark's parents, John & Joan Mease, helped the fire department out a few months ago when there was a real need. What they did was very special and again the fire department is very appreciative.
You can see it takes a lot of help from citizens, too, to make the fire & rescue department a success in what they do. It is not just the firemen and the EMT's.
I apologize for writing so much about the fire & rescue department but as you can see I am very proud not only of what they have accomplished but also what people in the community have done to make it a success. A little over a year ago our ambulance went from being a non-transporting EMT-B unit to a transporting EMT-I unit which is an upgrade. As of last Friday our ambulance has become what they call a conditional Paramedic transporting unit which can provide even more services for their patients The reason it is called conditional is because it can only run as a Paramedic unit when a paramedic is on board. This is very exciting to the rescue team and good for our community. Paramedic, Joe Sciarrotta, who is the rescue Captain, has been working very hard to upgrade and improve the rescue service of Truro which has been a dream of the rescue for many, many years. Joe worked hard and sometimes it was an up hill battle. We the community and the rescue team appreciate all his efforts on behalf of our community. Thanks Joe!!
City Hall had wall to wall people at Monday night's City Council meeting. It was good once again to see so many people show interest in what is happening in their town. After spending quite a bit of time going over the bills to be paid the council finally moved on to other aspects of the meeting. The meeting was long but quite interesting and had a lot of business to go over and discuss and several visiting speakers. New council member, Karl Korte, was sworn in and it was his very first council meeting. Look for the City Clerk's minutes of the meeting in another section of the paper.
Nancy (Parker) Hagan and children, Connor, Nicholas and Lauren drove to Colorado to visit with Nancy's sister, Rachel, for a few days. They had a great time white water rafting, shopping, eating out, going to the movies and swimming in Rachel's pool at her apartment complex. Nancy said driving through the mountains was just beautiful.
Garna Rebik is feeling under the weather so please be in prayer for her.
I-35 open house for preschoolers through 12th will be at the school on Aug. 20 from 7-8 p.m.
School officially starts at I-35 on Aug. 21