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(Radio Iowa) – A movie based on the World War Two German POW camp near Algona will premiere Friday in Algona and Forest City. The movie “Silent Night in Algona” focuses on the prisoners in Algona from September through December of 1944. Forest City’s Jim Brockhohn appears in the movie as Uncle Joe. “These three producers from Wisconsin they’ve had to threaten for several years where I’d take it and so they finally got produced. They did film for days here in Forest City and Heritage Park and Heritage Park was gracious enough to donate some uniforms and let let them use the buildings and then we found majority of it in Algona and Whitmer and so is a three week shooting every day except they’re off on Sunday. So we actually started the end of October and then we finished up into towards the end of November”
Brockhohn helped director director Tony Hornus cast the parts for the movie– leading to many locals in the cast. “So what I do is I call that person up, see if you’d be interested in doing the film and then I got that actor in contact with Tony and they went from there then,” he says. “They then auditioned for Tony and Tony would select them and the people I did send to him, he did select them all and put them in the movie.” He says they also asked him to bring some extras and he did that, so there are some of them from Forest City in the movie. Much of the movie was filmed in Heritage Park in Forest City and the original barracks were also in the movie.
“The barracks they use have been at Heritage Park for all these years and so — or for many years I’m not sure when they got them — but Heritage Park acquired them, so they took the barracks from here and took them Algona and built the barracks house there and use the original barracks,” Brockhohn says. Brockhohn says there was a tremendous amount of work put into the attention to detail from uniforms to cars. He says Forest City residents didn’t fill all the spots in the movie. “Even though we had some from Forest City they’ve recruited people from Texas from L.A. from New York and all the states around, and even Wisconsin. And so they had professional actors from all over, it is wonderful,” he says.
The Algona camped housed around 17-hundred prisoners. A nativity scene created by some of the prisoners while in captivity in Algona in 1945 has drawn visitors to the community for many years.
(Radio Iowa) – Volunteer firefighters are vital in Iowa, especially in our rural areas, but they’re retiring in droves and new recruits are direly needed to join the ranks. Members of the Iowa Firefighters Association plan to appeal to state lawmakers in the upcoming session to help get more people interested in volunteering. The association’s past president Jason Barrick, who serves on the Iowa Falls Fire Department, says new incentives are needed at the state and local level. “You’re not going to get rich off of being a volunteer fireman,” Barrick says. “That is not why anybody does it. Most departments in Iowa are absolutely unpaid. There are some volunteer fire departments that do have the benefit of getting paid but even at that, they’re averaging probably, each fireman, maybe $1,000 to $1,500 a year.”
(KJAN File Photo – Atlantic Volunteer Firefighters on the job.) [Photo courtesy Cass County EMA Director Mike Kennon]
The Iowa Firefighters Association has about 15,500 members, while there are 269 volunteer firefighter departments in Iowa.
(Audubon, Iowa) – Officials with the Audubon County Memorial Hospital have announced their newest primary care physician. Dr. Jon Swanson is joining ACMH’s team of family physicians. Born and raised in Omaha, Dr. Swanson is double board-certified as a family medical physician.
He attended Iowa State University, and is married to his wife, Alka. When visiting Audubon County Memorial Hospital and Clinics, Dr. Swanson was encouraged to learn of the care the staff offer to the patients in the community. He said the level of care, community spirit and patient-first attitude ACMH staff offer, were significant factors in his decision to join the facility. “The administration’s vision for ACMH,” he said, “fits in with my desire to reach underserved patients.”
Dr. Swanson and Alka relocated to Audubon and are excited about participating in community events. He is currently accepting new patients. Contact ACMH Clinics in Audubon to schedule an appointment at 712-563-4611 or Exira at 712-268-5348.
WILLIAM R. TURPIN, 88, of rural Brayton, died Sunday, Dec. 4, 2022, at the UNMC in Omaha. A Remembering and Rejoicing Service for WILLIAM TURPIN will be held 2-p.m. Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022, in the Bethany Evangelical Free Church and Camp, in rural Brayton. Kessler Funeral Home in Exira has the arrangements.
Friends may call at the funeral home, where the family will meet with friends from 5-until 7-p.m. Friday, Dec. 9, 2022.
A private distribution of cremains will be held at a later date.
WILLIAM R. TURPIN is survived by:
His wife – Treva Turpin, of Brayton.
His daughters – Cheryl (Mike) Kelley, of Arnold, MO., & Susan (Kendall) Jordan, of Brayton.
His sons – Paul (Ceil) Turpin, of Van, TX., & Tim (Marsha) Turpin, of Elgin, IL.
His brother – John (Jan) Turpin, of Jefferson (IA).
13 grandchildren, 5 great-grandchildren, other relatives, in-laws, and friends.
(Radio Iowa) – The Iowa Lottery Board has approved a change that will cut the time players in multi-state lotto games have to claim their prize from a winning ticket from 365 to 180 days. Iowa Lottery vice president, Mary Neubauer, says Iowa is one of only 14 states which have a one year claim period — while 33 states have 180 day time limits. Neubauer says they started looking into the issue after continually seeing unclaimed prizes of all amounts. She says there are around one-point-two and one-point-five million dollars worth of tickets that expire in Iowa each year without the prize being claim. The change would impact the Powerball, MegaMillions, Lucky for Life, and Lotto America games. The claim periods for other Iowa Lottery products will not change. Neubauer told the Lottery Board they started studying the issue by looking at one single drawing day and its prize redemptions.
“Less than three percent of the prizes from those drawings were claimed after 180 days so if the prize I was going to be claimed, it was claimed in the first six months,” Neubauer says. She says they then expanded the research to several more days and got the same result. “Time and time again, we saw that less than three percent of the monetary value of the prizes that had been won in those particular drawings were claimed after the six month mark. In some cases, it was a tiny percentage like one point-two percent. For some other drawings, I think the biggest amount that was involved was two-point-nine percent,” according to Neubauer. Neubauer says decreasing the amount of time players have to cash in tickets will allow them to get the unclaimed money back into the prize pool.
“There is no monetary advantage to the lottery from making this change. We don’t keep the money, the state doesn’t keep the money from prizes…that expire without being claimed,” she says. Neubauer says they don’t have a firm date for when they will change the prize expiration time limit, because there has to be a transition period. “So if someone has a ticket today, the price claim period for that ticket would not change, we would have a very definite countdown to the point when the price claim period change will take effect,” Neubauer says.
Neubauer says they need to complete testing on the statewide gaming system before the change can be implemented. The lottery anticipates making the change in the first quarter of calendar year 2023.
(Red Oak, Iowa) – A man from Red Oak was arrested twice Tuesday afternoon. According to Red Oak Police, 56-year-old James Kent Otte was arrested at around 4-p.m. for Public Intoxication and Disorderly Conduct, both of which are Simple Misdemeanors. Otte was arrested earlier in the day, at around 12:12-p.m., on a charge of Public Intoxication. He was being held in the Montgomery County Jail on a $300 bond.
A record-tying second quarter helped lift the UNI Panthers women’s basketball team to a win over the North Dakota State Bison on Tuesday evening 79-70.
UNI had a 30-point second quarter, matching a program record for most points in a quarter, to propel them to victory. The Panthers had 36 points in the paint and got a big lift from the bench with 27 points.
Grace Boffeli led the team in points with 17 and grabbed eight rebounds. Cam Finley was the only other Panther in double-figures with 12.
The Panthers get over a week of rest before their next game against the No. 16 Iowa Hawkeyes. UNI will travel to Carver-Hawkeye Arena in Iowa City on Sunday, Dec. 18 for a midday matchup with Iowa. The 2 p.m. matchup is set to be broadcast on Big Ten Plus.
LAS VEGAS — University of Iowa senior linebacker Jack Campbell was awarded the 2022 William V. Campbell Trophy. The presentation was made during the 64th National Football Foundation Annual Award Dinner, presented by Las Vegas, at the Bellagio Resort and Casino.
The Campbell Trophy is the premier scholar-athlete award that annually recognizes an individual as the absolute best in the nation for his combined academic success, football performance and exemplary leadership. As the 33rd recipient, Campbell will receive a $25,000 postgraduate scholarship.
“This is a very deserving honor for Jack,” said Moon Family head coach Kirk Ferentz. “Jack is the ultimate teammate and a highly respected leader in our program. His athletic and academic success is the direct result of his strong work ethic. Jack is an outstanding representative of our football program, the University of Iowa, his family, and the Cedar Falls community.”
Campbell, a native of Cedar Falls, Iowa, was earlier named the Nagurski-Wooden Big Ten Defensive Player of the Year and the Butkus-Fitzgerald Big Ten Linebacker of the Year. He is one of five finalists for the Butkus Award, which is awarded to the best linebacker in the nation. He was named a semifinalist for the Bednarik and Rotary Lombardi awards.
Campbell (6-foot-5, 246-pounds) has led Iowa’s defense all season. He has totaled 118 tackles, which are second in the Big Ten and tied for 13th nationally. He also recorded two interceptions, one recovered fumble and one forced fumble, along with 3.5 tackles for loss. He has 295 career tackles to rank 19th in program history.
Campbell, who will earn his degree in December, carries a 3.49 grade point average with a major in enterprise leadership and a minor in sport and recreation management. He earned Big Ten Distinguished Scholar recognition in 2021, has earned Dean’s List honors three semesters and is a two-time Academic All-Big Ten honoree. He has been a member of Iowa’s Player Leadership Council for three years.
Iowa (7-5, 5-4) will face Kentucky in the TransPerfect Music City Bowl on Saturday, Dec. 31 in Nashville (11 a.m. CT, ESPN). The Hawkeyes earned their 20th bowl invite over the past 24 seasons under Ferentz.
VERMILLION, S.D. –Drake women’s basketball earned their fifth win of the 2022-23 season with an 83-54 blowout win on the road at South Dakota. The Bulldogs improved to 5-2 and continued their streak of scoring 80+ points in each game this year.
Megan Meyer, the game’s leading scorer with 16 points, scored the first five of the game with a triple and a driving layup. Grace Berg broke Meyer’s hot start with a lefty hook shot of her own. South Dakota eventually made two-straight threes to start their scoring efforts.
Katie Dinnebier dished out four assists in the first quarter on her way to a game-high six assists. Four Bulldogs netted double-digit points led by Megan Meyer’s 16. Maggie followed with 14 points and was just one rebounds away from her 10th career double-double, and second of the year, with nine boards. Grace Berg added a dozen points while Katie Dinnebier chipped in with 11.
Drake will remain on the road for their next matchup when they visit 18th-ranked Creighton on Saturday, Dec. 10. This weekend’s tilt with the Bluejays will be Drake’s third contest against a ranked opponent this season.