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Cass County Extension Report 3-15-2023

Ag/Outdoor, Podcasts

March 15th, 2023 by Jim Field

w/Kate Olson.

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AUDRIE L. WEDE, 86, of Audubon (Svcs. 3/16/23)

Obituaries

March 15th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

AUDRIE L. WEDE, 86, of Audubon, died Monday, March 13, 2023, at the Friendship Home, in Audubon. Services for AUDRIE WEDE will be held 11-a.m. Thursday, March 16th, at the Gray United Methodist Church (Gray, IA). Kessler Funeral Home in Audubon has the arrangements.

Friends may call at the funeral home, where the family will greet friends on Wed., March 15, 2023, from 5-until 7-p.m.

Burial is in the Valley View Cemetery, near Persia.

AUDRIE WEDE is survived by:

Her son – Mike (Linda) Wede, of Gray.

Her daughters – Lisa (and friend Jeff Moreland), of Audubon, and Sue Wede, of Gray.

11 grandchildren, 18 great-grandchildren; her brother-in-law Alfred and wife Genevieve Wede of Atlantic, other relatives and friends.

HARVEY JAMES ANDERSEN, 90, of Exira (Svcs. 3/17/23)

Obituaries

March 15th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

HARVEY JAMES ANDERSEN, 90, of Exira, died Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Exira Care Center. Funeral services for HARVEY ANDERSEN will be held 10:30-a.m. Friday, March 17th 2023, at the Brayton Lutheran Church. Kessler Funeral Home in Exira has the arrangements.

Friends may call at the funeral home, where the family will greet friends on Thursday, March 16th, from 5-until 7-p.m.

Burial is in the St. John’s Lutheran Cemetery, west of Exira.

HARVEY JAMES ANDERSEN is survived by:

His sister – Bertha Schroeter, of Exira.

His step-son: John (J.R.) and wife Nancy Crosby, of Tulsa, OK.

His step-daughter: Jamie (Bill) Tucker, of Austin, TX.

5 Step-grandchildren; His first wife: Kay Andersen, of Las Vegas, NV; other relatives and friends.

MARJORIE LuANN CHRISTENSEN, 83, of Hamlin (Celebration of Life gathering 3-17-23)

Obituaries

March 15th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

MARJORIE LuANN CHRISTENSEN, 83, of Hamlin, died Sunday, March 12, 2023, at the Audubon County Memorial Hospital, in Audubon. A Celebration of Life Memorial Gathering for MARJORIE CHRISTENSEN will be held from 4-until 7-p.m. Friday, March 17, 2023, at the Exira Event Center. Kessler Funeral Home in Audubon has the arrangements.

Friends may call at the Exira Event Center

A private family burial will take place.

MARJORIE LuANN CHRISTENSEN is survived by:

Her Special Friend – Jim Ellefson.

Her sons – Brad (Kelley) Christensen, and Tom (Teresa) Christensen.

Her sister – Marilyn Munch

10 grandchildren, 16 great-grandchildren and 1 great-great grandchild; her in-laws, other relatives and friends.

Rough winter leads DOT to allocate money for pavement pothole fixes

News

March 15th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

(Radio Iowa) – If you’ve hit some rough stretches on state highways, you are not alone. The Iowa Transportation Commission has approved amending its budget to spend 15 million dollars on weather repairs. The D-O-T’s Stuart Anderson says there’s been an above normal number of freeze-thaw cycles this winter that are causing issues. “We are seeing some significant impacts on some pavements,” he says. Anderson says they checked with maintenance districts across the state and believe this money will help take care of some of the issues. “It certainly won’t address all the damage we’re seeing — but it’ll get the worst of it,” Anderson says. “The last time, we had something like this was about four years ago, March 2019, we came out of a pretty unique winter season and saw the same kind of damage.”

U-S Highway 218 (IA DOT Photo)

Anderson says the Transportation Commission took the same action and spent 12 million in winter repairs in 2019. He says there are issues across the state and the money will be spread evenly among the maintenance districts. He says each district will get two-and-a-half million dollars to do the repairs. The D-O-T’s chief engineer, Mitch Dillavou says the conditions have been the worst you can get for pavement. “It’s the uniqueness of this winter where you get those fluctuations in temperatures, plus we’ve had a lot of moisture,” Dillavou says. He says his perfect winter conditions for pavement are when the temperature drops and stays the same and there’s not a lot of melting water or rain that gets into pavement cracks. Dillavou says the older pavement has more problems.

“Our newer roads have a good drainable base and better infrastructure. So, it’s our older pavements that you’ve heard just talked about quite a bit,” he says. “it gets down in there, and then it freezes, and then it just starts cracking. and things move.” Anderson says the 15 million dollars will be moved out of the next fiscal year budget to allow them to handle the repairs as soon as they can.

Drake prepares for Friday’s NCAA Tournament game against No. 16 Miami

Sports

March 15th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

Drake takes late season momentum into Friday’s start of the NCAA Tournament in Albany, New York. Winners of 13 of their last 14 the Bulldogs play 16th ranked Miami Friday evening.

That’s Drake coach Darian DeVries. The Bulldogs have an experienced team that won an NCAA Tournament game two years ago.

The 12th seeded Bulldogs are the underdog but DeVries is confident the Bulldogs will make a good showing.

Drake senior point guard Roman Penn says the Hurricanes will provide a tough challenge.

For Penn it is a return to the city where his college career started. He played his freshman season at Siena College.

The Bulldogs turned it on the second half of the season. Named the preseason Missouri Valley favorites the Bulldogs stumbled out of the game to a 2-3 start to conference play.

Iowa State eyes another deep NCAA run

Sports

March 15th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

Iowa State coach T.J. Otzelberger says this season has been another step in the right direction for the program. Otzelberger took over a program that went winless in the Big 12 in 2021 and led the Cyclones to the Sweet 16 a year ago. They head to Greensboro with a 19-13 record and open the NCAA Tournament Friday against the winner of tonight’s First Four game in Dayton between Pitt and Mississippi State.

The Cyclones reached as high as seventh in the national polls during the season.

One reason for the immediate turnaround was a group of transfers who bought in to what Otzelberger was selling. One of those is senior guard Gabe Kalscheur, who began his career at Minnesota.

Kalscheur says he felt the ISU program was poised to enjoy immediate success under Otzelberger.

Kalscheur says he chose Iowa State because of the winning culture Otzelberger was building.

Former Iowa coach leads Nevada to the NCAA Tournament

Sports

March 15th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

Former Iowa coach Steve Alford will lead his fifth different school into the NCAA Tournament Wednesday night when Nevada plays Arizona State in the First Four in Dayton. Three Hawkeyes teams played in the tournament during his eight seasons as head coach.

Picked to finish near the bottom of the Mountain West Conference in the preseason the Wolfpack head into the tournament with a 22-10 record.

Iowa State’s Bill Fennelly prepares to face his former school

Sports

March 15th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

The 17th ranked Iowa State women open the NCAA Tournament Saturday afternoon in Knoxville, Tennessee against Toledo. Iowa State’s Bill Fennelly coached at Toledo for seven years and led the Rockets to three trips to the NCAA Tournament.

Fennelly posted a 166-53 record at Toledo before taking the Iowa State job in July of 1995.

Toledo is 28-4 and coming off the Mid-American Conference Tournament championship.

Fennelly says Toledo is skilled on offense.

Tennessee and St. Louis meet in the other first round game.

Pitt edges Mississippi State and next plays Iowa State

Sports

March 15th, 2023 by Ric Hanson

Iowa State will take on Pitt in the NCAA Tournament Friday in Greensboro, North Carolina. The Panthers held off a late rally by Mississippi State for a 60-59 win in Dayton as part of the First Four. Pitt coach Jeff Capel.

Pitt played without standout center Federiko Federiko. He suffered a knee injury during the ACC Tournament.

Tip time for Friday’s game has been set for 2:10pm.