A double celebration is happening in Hancock this weekend. The city is hosting the annual Old Settler’s Picnic while Botna Bend Park celebrates their 50th anniversary. The party begins Friday night with a free teen dance on the streets of Hancock from 7pm to 10pm with soda for sale on site. Saturday begins with a Men’s softball tournament at the ball diamond at 10am and poker run registration in the beer garden. Vince Guyer, President of the Hancock Old Settler’s Association, says he gets a kick out of the kid’s games.

“The Kid’s races are something we have done for years. There are foot races. They have a shoe kick and several other small events like that. The kids get something whether they win or not. The children really enjoy it. The shoe kick is always my favorite to watch with the kids. It is funny to watch them try and kick their shoes as far as they can.”

The kids faces are held north of the white shelter in Hancock. A dance in the beer garden with live music from ‘Mr. Hand’ finishes off Saturday’s events. On Sunday, the Old Settler’s Picnic serves a pancake breakfast in the Hancock Fire Station at 8am with church service at 10 followed by a parade, a tug of war event and more live music. The picnic finishes with a benefit auction.

If you are more of an outdoor enthusiast Botna Bend Park outside of Hancock is digging in for their 50th anniversary in conjunction with the Saturday fun during the Old Settler’s Picnic. Jon Fenner, Park Ranger at Botna Bend, says activities start at 1-pm “We’re going to have the rededication of Botna Bend Park. It will be a short presentation. We’ll have some things to look at. We’re going to offer some refreshments of root beer floats and soft pretzels, kind of a nice treat on a summer day.”
Following the rededication, visitors will be able to learn all about Botna Bend Park.

“We have Jim Pease with the Iowa Department of Natural Resources is going to come out and do a river critter program at 2pm. We will have some guided walks with park staff and talk about the park and bison and elk. It will give people an idea why we exist and what we do around here and why the (Pottawattamie County) Conservation Board exists and why Botna Bend exists. We will have those on going for a couple of hours. Our environmental education staff will do some tree identification programs. They will also have some ongoing activities for kids. They are going to do a beak matching program and there is a nature quest, it’s kind of like a scavenger hunt around the park.”

All activities are free at the park. You also can access the Nishnabotna River to canoe, kayaking, raft or tube down the river or fish at the park. There are only a few openings to go down the river. If you are interested or need more information, contact the Botna Bend Park Office at 712-741-5465.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

A celebration for one giant bull is happening in Audubon this weekend. Albert the Bull’s 50th birthday bash is happening in conjunction with the annual Operation T-bone Day’s. Duane Sloth, head of the T-Bone Committee, says there are some special activities planned for Friday night. “We serve hamburgers and birthday cake at Albert the Bull Park (Friday evening). After that, at 7:30 there are figure 8 races at the fairgrounds with fireworks at dusk.” A teen dance will also be held on the city park stage.

Albert the Bull

Saturday morning, T-bone days starts with a breakfast and bake sale in the memorial building, craft vendors open up as well as a 5k fun walk through the streets of Audubon. Sloth says tractors of all types are welcome to come and be on display. “We also have a tractor show at 10-am on Saturday morning. Farm tractors, show tractors, pedal tractors, garden tractors, lawn mowers, anything you want to bring in and display. We have always had a great show in the past and hopefully this one is great as well.”

The Audubon City Park will host kid’s games and food throughout the day and over the noon hour live music will be performed by several local bands. The Operation T-bone parade goes through town at 1-pm. Sloth says there is a street dance with another local band near the beer garden this evening “This year’s band for the street dance is Mason’s basement. They have been here in the past, local talent and sure to please.”

The Audubon Fire Hall hosts a big breakfast Sunday morning before taking a break until Tuesday. “The Fat Cattle auction is at the Anita Livestock Auction in Anita. This auction is open to fat cattle from surrounding areas, you do not need to be from Audubon County to participate. If you have a few fat cattle to sell, it’s an excellent place to sell fat cattle. We have all the major packer buyers there. They do a great job for us. Directly after the auction, the T-bone committee will be serving hamburgers to anyone free that shows up.”

Sloth says he hopes those that show up appreciate Albert the Bull. “It is a great tribute to the community and to the cattle industry. There is 20,000 visitors stop to see Albert the Bull every year from every where around the U.S. and foreign countries as well. It is a neat deal to have such a statue on display in our town.”

For more information on Operation T-bone Days, contact the Audubon Chamber of Commerce at 712-563-3780. See the schedule at http://www.auduboncounty.com/webres/File/county%20-%20misc/2014%20T-BoneSchedule%20.pdf

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

GLENWOOD, Iowa (AP) – The state Department of Human Services says a resident of the Glenwood Resource Center swallowed three batteries and had to be treated at a hospital. The agency on Thursday says it agreed to pay a $2,000 state fine because of the incident, which happened June 2 at the facility for people with intellectual disabilities. The resident was treated at a hospital before being released a few days later.

After the incident, the center notified the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals about the matter and submitted a self-correction plan. The agency on Thursday cited Glenwood for failing to provide required supervision as specified in the resident’s individual service plan.

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) — Organizers of the annual Iowa by the Sea Picnic in California say they have stepped up their organizing efforts and expect a bigger crowd this year. The picnic began in 1900 in Pasadena and at one time drew more than 100,000 transplanted Iowans and their families. From the 1940s through the 1960s, Iowa governors and celebrities with Iowa roots often attended.

The Sioux City Journal reports attendance dwindled over time, and last year only about 70 people gathered. Retired Navy and Cedar Rapids native Cmdr. Don Swenson is working to change that. He helped create a picnic website and encouraged university alumni groups to send information to graduates living in California.

Swenson estimates 200 people will attend the picnic Saturday near the battleship USS Iowa in San Pedro.

MISSOURI VALLEY, Iowa (AP) – A western Iowa state park has reopened after three years of work to repair and improve the park after devastating flooding in 2011. The Council Bluffs Daily Nonpareil reports the Wilson Island State Recreation Area near Missouri Valley will reopen Monday morning.

The state spent about $3 million to clean up and rebuild the park, which was damaged during months of flooding by the Missouri River.  The work included eliminating many flood-prone sites, changing the “first-to-flood” sites to nonelectric, and bringing electricity to other sites. The park also has a new shower house, two new dump stations, two new picnic shelters and a new park office.

The reopening was delayed by a June 3 storm that slammed the park with 4 inches of rain, high winds and baseball-sized hail.

Visitors to Cold Springs State Park near Lewis will find it a little easier to get around these days. In his quarterly update, Cass County Conservation Director Micah Lee reported to the Board of Supervisors during their meeting this (Thursday) morning, that the south driveway was graded and graveled this past Spring, and the road re-opened. He says the park has been getting a lot of use. New signs indicating a one-way direction of travel were installed. Other signs have been ordered that will be placed along the highway, informing people the south access road is available. When they arrive, Cass County Secondary Road Department crews will install them.

Lee says they’ve already received several compliments on the new road. He said the plan for this fiscal year is to continue to upgrade the camping site electrical outlets to 50-amps, which should help to draw more visitors. He said the current outlets aren’t capable of handling the needs of camper air conditioning units. That caused the breaker switches to pop on the older, voltage boxes.

Micah said also badgers have been creating problems on the sub-surface along T-Bone Trail, but the Conservation Department is battling the feisty little critters.  He said badgers chase the ground squirrels and cause damage to the trail bed trying to get to them. The department has been working at filling-in cave-in’s on the trail bed with concrete, but they might have to find another way of attacking the problem in the future.

In other business, the Supervisors approved the purchase from the Schneider Corporation, of “Ripple,” a tool that allows the Assessor and GIS office to cross-check public records systems, thereby improving the accuracy of the data in each system, and it’s hoped, better manage property information. The program costs $6,000 ($4,500 for the program, plus $1,500 for a set-up fee), and $1,125 every year thereafter for maintenance and updates.