Siouxland Life - November 2014

Glass studio finds plenty of use for school

Life after school: Superintendent weighs in

Getting at the heart of patients’ problems

A GUIDE FOR LIVING IN SIOUXLAND

REPURPOSING

SCHOOLS SIOUXLANDERS FIND NEW WAYS TO GIVE THEM LIFE COCA-COLA

(AND MORE COCA-COLA)

NOVEMBER 2014

SIOUXLAND LIFE IS ON THE WEB! VISIT WWW.SIOUXCITYJOURNAL.COM/SIOUXLANDLIFE SIOUXLAND LIFE NOVEMBER 2014

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Proud to Live & Work in Siouxland

DOUGLAS A. WHEELOCK, DDS, PC Dr. Wheelock established his own dental practice in 1977. It originally was only 2 blocks from its current location at 4100 Morningside Avenue.

Dr. Wheelock was born and raised in Sioux City graduating from Sioux City Central High School in 1969. He went on to receive his Bachelors of Science degree from Briar Cliff College in 1973. He attended dental school at the University of Iowa and earned his Doctor of Dental Science degree in 1976. After graduation Dr. Wheelock returned to Sioux City.

Dr. Wheelock is involved in his community & church. Dr. Wheelock is married to his college sweetheart, Marilyn, and has three adult sons and three daughters in law. He is the proud grandfather of five incredible grandchildren.

Dr. Wheelock is proud to call Siouxland home and enjoys providing quality dental care to the community.

BRIAN B. BURSICK, DDS Dr. Brian Bursick is a Sioux City native growing up in the Crescent Park area. He attended West High School and graduated in 1986. He earned his Doctor of Dental Surgery Degree from the University of Nebraska Dental School in 1994. After graduation he practiced briefly in Sergeant Bluff, IA. In 1997 he joined Dr. Wheelock as an associate.

In 2004 he became a business partner.

Away from the office Dr. Bursick is busy with his family. He and his wife Kristy have three young sons.

Dr. Bursick is devoted to delivering quality comprehensive dentistry to the people of his hometown, Sioux City, IA.

RYAN JENSEN, DMD Dr. Ryan Jensen was born in Idaho and lived most of his life in Idaho Falls. He earned his undergraduate degree in biology with minors in business management and chemistry from Brigham Young University. In May 2013, Dr. Jensen graduated from Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio with his DMD (Doctor of Dental Medicine). Dr. Jensen and his wife Kara have three children, ages 6, 4, and 2. They welcomed their fourth child in November 2013.

When not practicing dentistry, Dr. Jensen enjoys the outdoors, especially wake boarding, snowboarding, and whitewater rafting. He is also active in his church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Dr. Jensen joined Wheelock and Bursick Dentistry in July 2013.

Our hOme-grOwN prOfessiONals have iNsight aNd experieNce tO make aN exceptiONal cONtributiON tO Our patieNts aNd cOmmuNity

Where Quality, Comfort and Value Meet.

New patients are welcomed!

DOUGLAS A. WHEELOCK, DDS, PC BRIAN B. BURSICK, DDS RYAN JENSEN, DMD 4100 Morningside Ave. • Sioux City, IA 51106 Phone 712-274-2038 Fax 712-274-0648 2

November 2014

Siouxland life

CONTENTS November

2014

What happens to schools when they no longer are needed for education? This month we take a look at several around Siouxland and how they’ve been repurposed. We’ll also meet people who found other careers after they were done teaching.

LIFE AFTER SCHOOL

16 ON THE COVER Diana Guhin Wooley and her husband Russ Wooley founded Lamb Arts Regional Theatre in 1979. After spending the first seven seasons performing in a ballroom at the Sioux City Hilton Inn, they found a permanent home for their business at the abandoned Webster School. PHOTO BY JIM LEE

FEATURES 4 COLLECTION Coke and more 6 REPURPOSING SCHOOLS the background 8 REPURPOSING SCHOOLS Central’s new role 11 REPURPOSING SCHOOLS now it’s home 16 REPURPOSING SCHOOLS place for actors 18 REPURPOSING SCHOOLS time for church 20 REPURPOSING SCHOOLS glass, glass, glass 24 REPURPOSING SCHOOLS industrial changes 26 REPURPOSING SCHOOLS exercising options 28 SPECIAL ADVERTISING SECTION 32 20 QUESTIONS Larry Williams 34 REPURPOSING SCHOOLS after teaching 36 REPURPOSING SCHOOLS different track 39 REPURPOSING SCHOOLS emergency services 42 HEALTH heart help 44 HEALTH doc answers 47 Parting Shot

PUBLISHER Steve Griffith EDITOR Bruce Miller EDITORIAL Dolly A. Butz, Tim Gallagher, Earl Horlyk, Nick Hytrek, Ally Karsyn, Michelle Kuester, Marcy Peterson PHOTOGRAPHY Tim Hynds, Jim Lee, Dawn J. Sagert DESIGN Kathryn Sesser ADVERTISING SALES Nancy Gevik ADVERTISING DESIGN Kayla Fleming

©2014 The Sioux City Journal. Siouxland Life is published monthly by The Sioux City Journal. For advertising information, please call (712) 224-6275.

For editorial information, please call (712) 293-4218.

8 THE APARTMENTS

11 THE HOUSING

16 THE THEATER

18 THE CHURCH

20 THE STUDIO

24 THE BUSINESS

26 THE YMCA

39 THE SERVICE SIOUXLAND LIFE

NOVEMBER 2014

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COLLECTION Coke

and more Coke

THINGS GO BETTER WITH COCA-COLA?

S E Y , E M O H S I H IN T

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Text by Ally Karsyn | Photographs by Tim Hynds

LEADING DOWN TO MARYLEE Brygger’s basement, a sign above the door reads, “Yes, we’re open. Enjoy Coke.” At the flip of a switch, track lights with red domes illuminate a Coca-Cola wonderland.

When Brygger and her husband moved into the Morningside condo 10 years ago, they committed to the theme right down to the black-and-white tile floor.

Part of the entertainment space mimics a diner that only serves Coke, of course, mixed with a museum. Plexiglass protects a wall covered with Coca-Cola ads torn from the pages of Life magazine and National Geographic, providing a backdrop to silver-trimmed tables and chairs.

Brygger’s collection contains cookie jars, countless tins, lots of clocks, handcrafted airplanes made from Coca-Cola cans, plates, plush polar bears and more.

Above the kitchenette counter, her last name is spelled out in red neon lights – a surprise from her husband.

The Coca-Cola collectibles capture the spirit of so-called simpler times. Brygger, who graduated from East High School in 1960, remembers a decade of poodle

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NOVEMBER 2014

Marylee Brygger, of Sioux City, owns commemorative Coca-Cola cans and bottles from all over the world.

skirts, bobby socks and diners.

“I’ve become very fond of that look, that ‘50s rock ‘n’ roll,” she said. “It’s the era I grew up in, the best era ever.”

She can’t quite recall how the collection started. The best she can do is point to a trip about 25 years ago.

Brygger and her husband visited a

SIOUXLAND LIFE

mining town in the Colorado mountains.

Cripple Creek was a tourist destination, almost like a ghost town, she said. They went into a little junk shop, and Brygger found a vintage bottle-shaped door handle.

She bought it and thought, “I’ve got a real treasure.”

Later, when she looked through a

Top right: marylee brygger’s Coca-Cola collection contains cookie jars, countless tins, lots of clocks, handcrafted airplanes made from cans, plates, plush polar bears and more. Bottom: When brygger and her husband moved into their morningside condo 10 years ago, they committed to a Coca-Cola themed basement right down to the black and white tile floor. She started the collection about 25 years ago. Left: vintage wax paper cups are among an expansive collection of Coca-Cola items.

collector’s book, it was nowhere to be found in those pages. Even though it might not be an authentic Coca-Cola product, it’s her favorite piece.

“That’s one of the first I found,” she said.

Once she had a few items, friends and family members just kept feeding her fascination.

A friend of her husband’s once owned a Coca-Cola collection. When he wanted to downsize, he let Brygger come and pick what she wanted. Her father crafted wooden Coca-Cola shelves to display the mementos. A former boss found the red-and-white Coke-themed tables and chairs in a merchandising catalog.

She owns cans and bottles from all over the world – China, Mexico, Denmark, Germany, Japan, Israel. An F16 pilot friend brought back ones from the Middle East.

When the Bryggers host parties, some ornery guests add “ornaments” to the Coca-Cola themed Christmas tree that she leaves up all year. She has found blue cans stashed in the branches of her artificial evergreen. Pepsi products. How dare they?

Especially when there’s a functioning vintage Coke vending machine that dispenses glass bottles of soda for 25 cents.

“I don’t collect anymore,” she said.

“People still give me stuff.”

Over the years, she picked up plenty

of souvenirs on trips with her husband.

Collecting the pieces from antique stores gave her something to look for when they traveled. Appealing to her love of the ’50s, they often ate at diners along the way. Back in Sioux City, they enjoy going to Archie’s on West Seventh Street.

And she likes to tune in to “Diners, DriveIns and Dives” on the Food Network.

So when did Brygger stop collecting?

“When I ran out of space,” she said.

Friends continue to think of her when they go to garage sales, though. They’ll call, saying, “I’m on such and such a street, and there’s this Coca-Cola thing.

Hurry up, get down here.”

She stays home.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

November 2014

5

REPURPOSING SCHOOLS the

background

Brian Fahrendholz, director of operations and maintenance, talks about the now off-line Roosevelt Elementary School building in Sioux City.

WHAT HAPPENS WHEN SCHOOLS HAVE SERVED THEIR PURPOSE? Text by Michelle Kuester | Photographs by Dawn J. Sagert

f

FINDING A USE FOR outdated and decommissioned or “off-line” schools is no easy task.

Schools last typically 100 years, according to Brian Fahrendholz, Sioux City Community School District’s director of operations and maintenance. Structurally, the buildings are still sound, but only so many updates can be made before building new becomes the more economically sound option.

“Technology is obviously one of the biggest issues,” he said. “After 100 years, we can’t make new technology work like it should in the old buildings.”

Adding computers and other modern technology into buildings that were built in the early 1900s resulted in thick clusters of wires snaking along the ceilings and small closets stuffed with computer servers.

“It would get so hot in these rooms,” said Ralph Guenther, environment systems supervisor for the district, as he motioned into a closet that housed computer servers in the off-line Roosevelt Elementary.

Another problem is the lack of accessibility for the disabled. According to the American with Disabilities Act of 1990, schools must be user-friendly for those in wheelchairs. Old schools without elevators or wheelchair lifts don’t meet the necessary requirements, which forces handicapped students to attend other schools that are further away.

New buildings also allow for greater energy efficiency, updated heating systems and air conditioning.

The need for new buildings is obvious, but what does the district then do with the old buildings?

Sell them, if possible, according to Fahrendholz.

“These are usable buildings,” he said.

“We just have to find the right buyer.”

Fahrendholz said old school buildings can be used for a variety of purposes, but some are easier than others.

“How do you make this into an apartment?” said Fahrendholz, gesturing around the office at Roosevelt. “It can definitely be done, but there would have to be a ton of renovation. For a church office, though, this might be perfect.”

Demolition is another option for offline schools. For schools that have sat empty for years, there isn’t much objection. However, when demolition needs to happen immediately to make way for new construction, it can be hard for previous occupants.

“The school is usually empty long enough that the sentimental feelings have passed,” Fahrendholz said. “But when it’s a quick turnaround, the district tries to be sympathetic to that.”

Above: A coat room is shown at the now off-line roosevelt elementary School building in Sioux City. Left: brian Fahrendholz, Director of operations and maintenance, shows the unique door hinges at roosevelt.

Below: An empty classroom is shown.

At the old Washington Elementary that was razed in May 2013, people could take bricks as souvenirs to remember the building.

The district also saves pieces of the off-line schools and reworks them into designs in the new schools, said Fahrendholz.

Ornate plaster raised reliefs were saved from Hobson School (the old district kitchen at Dace Avenue and Floyd Boulevard) and the former East Middle and were built into the interior walls of Spalding Park Elementary, Loess Hills

Elementary and the current East Middle.

Large concrete signs from the interior of the old West Middle building were made into benches now inside the commons area of the new West Middle.

From there, what the district doesn’t want or need goes up for auction to the public.

“If we’re going to raze a building, we’ll have an auction and sell everything imaginable,” Fahrendholz said.

According to Guenther, several years ago a physician bought marble toilet partitions from an off-line school and had them reworked into countertops.

“It’s just an example of something really interesting and unique that people have done,” he said.

The ultimate goal in constantly working on ways to update the district’s schools is improving student performance and comfort, said Fahrendholz.

“We are the department that isn’t involved in teaching the kids, but our main focus is student achievement. We want the kids to do well, and we work hard to make sure that happens.”

SIOUXLAND LIFE

November 2014

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REPURPOSING SCHOOLS Central’s

new role

MAROON-COLORED

MEMORIES reINveNTING THe CASTLe oN THe HILL Text by Earl Horlyk | Photographs by Dawn J. Sagert

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November 2014

SIOUXLAND LIFE

Above: A staircase at the Castle on the Hill Apartments retains much of its vintage opulence. The building was originally Sioux City Central High School, from 1892-1972. Left: The former Central High School – called the “Castle on the Hill” due to its sandstone exterior and towers – was added to the National register of Historic Places in 1973, a year after it closed. Below: A women’s restroom has been kept the same way it was when students attended classes.

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SHIRLEY MCLEOD COULDN’T HELP but smile as she looked at a painted mural with the inscription “Thanks for the Memories, 1892 - 1972.”

After all, the Sioux City woman was standing on the stage of Central High School, the school that she graduated from in 1952.

It was also the school that educated “Days of Our Lives”’ star MacDonald Carey and twins Pauline and Esther Friedman, who both became better known, respectively, as advice gurus, “Dear Abby” and “Ann Landers.”

“Every time I come here, it takes me back to an earlier time,” McLeod said, softly. “I had plenty of good times in this old building.”

A COLORFUL PART OF SIOUX CITY’S HISTORY Central High School, 610 13th St., served Sioux City for 80 years.

Originally constructed for slightly more than $100,000 in 1892, the building boasted many modern amenities such as thermostatically controlled heating and electric bells.

Yet Central’s stately exterior that included sandstone walls and towers on each corner gave the building a decidedly castle-like presence.

Originally called simply “The High School,” 290 students and nine teachers were part of its first-year enrollment.

Quickly, the number of students

swelled to 965 by 1913 and an expansion was built on the building’s north side.

Renamed Central High School in 1924 after East High School was opened, the building affectionately known as “the Castle on the Hill” shut down in anticipation of the construction of three new schools in 1972.

The following year, the structure was added to the National Register of Historic Places and the not-for-profit Castle on the Hill Association purchased the building from the Sioux City school district for $1 in 1976.

For the next 27 years, the “castle” stood empty.

That is until the doors opened once again, only not as a school.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

November 2014

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LIVE LIFE IN A ‘CASTLE’ Situated in Sioux City’s mid-city area, Castle on the Hill Apartments offers one-, two- and three-room units. The building retains much of the retro charm of the former Central High School with the modern amenities of loft living. For more information, go to 712-224-5678 or castleonthehillapts@seldin.com.

Since 2003, the Castle on the Hill Apartments has rented units in what was once Central High School. The school was in operation from 1892 - 1972.

Still, Armenta acknowledged she liked the quirkiness of the historic building, which includes a life-sized statue of Abraham Lincoln in its atrium as well as public restrooms that retain their vintage charm.

“The units are truly modern,” she said, “but we wanted to maintain the building’s high school origins.”

A large mural dominates the former Central High School’s auditorium. The mural – which says “Thanks for the memories” – is the work of a former Central alum.

Sioux City’s former Central High had been converted into apartment units for residents in Sioux City’s near northside.

NEW LIFE FOR A HISTORIC BUILDING While the Castle on the Hill Association assumed responsibility for Central’s old auditorium, gymnasium and “dungeon,” the Omaha-based NuStyle Development Corporation converted the school’s former classrooms and labs into one-, two- and three-bedroom apartments.

Since then, the Omaha-based Seldin Company has been managing the Castle on the Hill Apartments.

“Converting old and historic schools into apartments has become a growing trend,” Michael D. Fallesen, Seldin Company’s vice president of affordable housing, explained. “Many old classrooms feature large windows and vaulted ceilings, which lend themselves to loft-style living. A majority of the buildings are in older neighborhoods that have ready 10

November 2014

access to transportation routes.”

According to Castle on the Hill Apartments property manager Cassandra Armenta, both of those factors are big selling points to her tenants.

“You can’t really pin down the types of tenants that we have,” she admitted.

“We have some older tenants who may remember a high school was once here.

But we also have young families who enjoy the building’s central location.”

Castle on the Hill apartments range in size from 628 square feet at the small end to 1,492 square feet at its largest.

Rent is determined largely by the income of the tenant.

Showing off the various types of apartments, Armenta points out many of their more modern amenities like controlled-access doors, elevators, a fitness center and central air.

“People are always surprised when they see these apartments,” she noted.

“These units truly have an urban feel to them.”

SIOUXLAND LIFE

SOMETHING OLD, SOMETHING NEW That was important to the Seldin Company’s Fallesen, who said he appreciates Central’s art deco origins.

“These old schools were built to last,” he said. “They’re impressive to look at and need to be preserved for the next generation.”

Even more than that, Fallesen said affordable housing can help reinvigorate older neighborhoods.

“It would be a shame to see Central High go to waste,” he added.

McLeod agreed.

Along with other volunteers, McLeod maintains the Castle on the Hill gift shop and a small museum dedicated to Central memorabilia.

In addition, the school’s old gymnasium has been used as a site for several class reunions, concerts and, even, a practice location for the Natural Born Rollers roller derby team.

Glancing at the ceiling of Central’s gym, McLeod points to an old scoreboard that still hangs on the wall.

“Did I ever envision my old classroom becoming an apartment?” she asked. “No, but it is what it is.”

Even so, McLeod is happy that her old school is getting a second life.

“I have so many memories of Central,” she said. “I’m glad it’s still around.”

REPURPOSING SCHOOLS now

it’s home

ONE MAN’S VISION TURNS SUTHERLAND SCHOOL INTO

PLACe For mANY

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SUTHERLAND, IOWA | IN the quiet halls of an old school, two residents rested in recliners near an unlit fireplace on a blustery October day. Darlene Sickelka rocked gently in the chair.

“This is a good place for all the residents to gather and visit,” she said.

“When the weather is warmer, we go outside. When it’s too cold like today, we come up here. Very few days go by that we’re not together.”

Text by Ally Karsyn | Photographs by Tim Hynds

Her apartment’s just a few doors down from the commons area in the former Sutherland Consolidated School. All four of her children walked those same halls, getting an education years ago.

Sickelka, 84, has been living in the Willoway Complex for 14 years. She was one of the first to move in on the third floor.

“My husband had just died and I did not want to stay on the farm alone,” she said.

Above: residents Dick Johnson and Darlene Sickelka sit and talk in a third floor lounge at the Willoway Complex in Sutherland, Iowa. Located in the former Sutherland Consolidated School, the complex features 17 independent living apartments for seniors, a recreation center, pool and spa, along with other amenities.

Sickelka had been living in rural Gaza, Iowa, before the three-story school, built in 1921, was converted into apartments. It closed in 1993. Students joined

SIOUXLAND LIFE

November 2014

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Left: executive director mark Cody stands at the entrance of the Willoway Complex in Sutherland, Iowa. Located in the former Sutherland Consolidated School, the complex features 17 independent living apartments for seniors, a recreation center, pool and spa, along with other amenities. Right: The three-story school, built in 1921, was converted into apartments after the Sutherland Consolidated School closed in 1993. The abandoned facility was scheduled to be demolished but saving it became a community project.

the South O’Brien Community School District, and the abandoned facility was scheduled to be demolished.

Saving the school became a community project led by Mike Syndergaard, who was chairman of the Sutherland Recreation Corporation.

Syndergaard envisioned turning the gymnasium into the site of the town’s only swimming pool and carving out a space for a fitness center. That became a reality in 1996. Two years later, the top floor was transformed into eight independent living apartments.

Nine more apartments were completed in 2011 on the second floor.

Amenities include a library, salon, in-building mail service, grocery and prescription delivery, a common area outfitted with a fireplace, a large outdoor deck and Dinner Date meals three times a week. Plus, the building is handicap accessible.

Executive Director Mark Cody credits Syndergaard for having the foresight, imagination and no small measure of dedication to repurpose the vacant school.

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November 2014

While the former Sutherland Consolidated School underwent renovations, many original features were left in place like the tile floors, woodwork and drinking fountains.

“He had the vision of where we’re at today,” Cody said. “People are so amazed at what happened here.”

In a contest to rename the building, the winning entry flattened the phrase, “Where there’s a will, there’s a way,” to form Willoway. The sentiment rang loud in the town of 649 as a rallying cry to complete the complex.

Unfortunately, Syndergaard never got to see how far a dedicated group of volunteers and community supporters would take the project. He lost the fight

SIOUXLAND LIFE

to cancer in 2006. Before he died, Cody went to visit him. As he was about to leave, Syndergaard struggled to rise from his chair. He put out his hand and said, “Don’t screw this up.”

Cody didn’t know what it meant until he was tapped to take a leadership role within the Willoway Complex, eventually becoming Syndergaard’s successor and the executive director in 2012.

As the second floor classrooms and exterior features were updated, Cody discovered residents had plenty of input.

Out front, he proposed a 12-by-12-foot porch. They didn’t like that. They didn’t want to sit with their backs to Ash Street.

So now, a ramp leads up to the entryway and a sprawling 8-foot-by-40-foot porch.

“They can all sit here and watch the people go by,” Cody said. “They had 10 times better ideas than what I had.”

During renovations, many original features were left in place like the tile floors, woodwork and drinking fountains – a nonfunctioning fixture that brings back memories.

Old metal plaques from the lockers now number the apartments. The former

old metal plaques from lockers now number apartment doors in the Willoway Complex.

In the Willoway Complex, the library is outfitted with a single styling chair and sink, plus a dryer chair in the corner. Three beauticians schedule one day a week at the salon.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

November 2014

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November 2014

SIOUXLAND LIFE

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Pearl Powell, 92, graduated from Sutherland High School in 1939, from the same building where she now lives. The former Sutherland Consolidated School was converted into the Willoway Complex, which features 17 independent living apartments for seniors.

site of the principal’s office is No. 23 on the second floor. Down the hall, a custom glass inlay above a door, says, “Mike Syndergaard Library & Computer Room.”

Inside, the library is also outfitted with a single styling chair and sink, plus a dryer chair in the corner. Three local beauticians all schedule one day a week at the salon. They leave Friday open for hair emergencies. Also, a massage therapist comes in twice a week.

“I wanted this just as a library. They didn’t like that,” Cody said. “You tell eight ladies, no, that they can’t get their hair fixed. That’s what they wanted. It’s a great amenity. They were exactly right.”

Filling the 17 apartments, seniors like Pearl Powell have made the school their home.

Powell actually graduated from Sutherland High School in 1939, from the same building where she now lives.

Her family moved to the small town when she was in sixth grade. On the second floor, the former classroom is at the end of the hall, and one of her old classmates lives upstairs.

Powell, 92, moved in a year ago, and she enjoys her one-bedroom apartment that came outfitted with all appliances.

But the biggest draw to the Willoway Complex: community.

“There were people here. I was living alone after my husband died. It was the first time I’d ever lived alone,” Powell said.

“It’s home. When I moved here, I was home again.”

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15

REPURPOSING SCHOOLS a

place for actors

SECOND ACT SIOUX CITY SCHOOL FINDS NEW LIFE AS LAMB ARTS REGIONAL THEATRE

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Text by Ally Karsyn | Photographs by Jim Lee

WHEN A TWO-STORY BRICK building served as a school, sneakers squeaked across the gym floor and elementary students lobbed basketballs at towering hoops. In 1986, a theater-crazed couple looked at the same space and saw potential to build their business.

Webster School got a second act.

The founders of Lamb Arts Regional Theatre repurposed the abandoned building on Market Street to stage their productions.

Starting in 1979, Russ Wooley and Diana Guhin Wooley offered dinner theater in the Crystal Ballroom of the

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NOVEMBER 2014

SIOUXLAND LIFE

James Wooley paints a set for a main stage production at Lamb Arts regional Theatre. The gymnasium of Webster School was retrofitted in 1986 to become a 200-seat theater.

Above: russell Wooley says one of the classrooms on the first floor was converted into a black box theater in 2002, creating a second performance space. Left: The board room inside the Lamb Arts regional Theatre serves as a multi-functional space for teaching, entertaining audience members and other small gatherings.

Sioux City Hilton Inn for the first seven seasons. She called it a “bus and truck” operation where they would haul everything in less than a week before each show, putting a pinch on rehearsal times.

The venue, which is now the Sioux City Hotel, posed other limitations.

“The Hilton was controlling very important elements of our business like how often we could do a show and, ultimately, the price. The cost of the dinner kept going up and up and up,” he said.

“We couldn’t grow the business.”

The Wooleys contemplated leaving the city they grew up in, the city they loved, to find a home for Lamb.

A fellow theater-loving couple intervened. Marvin and Frances Kline helped them incorporate the company and make the move to Webster School, where the theater is celebrating its 35th season.

“They were instrumental in giving us the confidence to move because it was big step,” Russ said. “He was my mentor.

I still remember him coming into the theater office, coming around the door with his tan trench coat. He was just a grand, grand, grand person.”

At 85, Marvin Kline passed away in 2004, but his fervor for live theater was not forgotten.

The Klines established a legacy of being strong supporters of the arts in Siouxland – financially and otherwise.

“They realized the value of live theater in Sioux City,” Diana said, “and they were able to really do some wonderful things for us and for the community.”

In the early years after leaving the

Chalkboards were left in place along one wall in a second floor dance studio. The former Webster School, at 417 market St., was transformed into the home of Lamb Arts regional Theatre.

hotel, the Wooleys faced substantial startup costs for renovations and equipment to retrofit the gym into the main stage theater.

They saved money where they could – in one case, salvaging old wooden chairs from West Middle School for theater seating. Diana can look back on those times and laugh at their “Lamb pads.”

“It was something to sit on and people were calling them their flotation devices,” she said.

The next set of seats came out of a movie theater. The drawback of those: they had to be bolted in place. Finally, they raised enough money six years ago buy 200 new padded, portable chairs.

Built in 1939, the former school underwent other changes to accommodate the growing business.

The Wooleys continued the dinner

theater tradition for about 15 years after making the move in 1986. One of the first floor classrooms was converted into the dining hall, where they served catered meals.

After a while, the split-focus on food and entertainment proved to be double the work but not double the fun.

“We had to have servers. We had to wash all the dishes. We had to clean and sterilize all the stuff. Then, put on a show, build a set and do all that,” Russ said.

Dinner theater was all the rage when they started but fell out of favor in the industry.

The classroom-turned-dining room was remade again. In 2002, an intimate black box theater was created as a second performance space.

In the past decade or so, the Wooleys have been able to expand other offerings, too, partly because they staked out a new course of business.

Lamb, which earned its moniker from the couple’s sheep-ish surname, benefited from becoming a nonprofit organization eight years ago.

Earlier on, a concerted effort created another growth spurt.

The Lamb School of Theatre & Music became a year-round arts education program open to all ages in 1999, when Diana left her 22-year career teaching those subjects in the Sioux City Community School District.

In fact, she taught music classes at Webster School shortly before it closed.

“I still go through the rooms and I see the teachers in the rooms. Even though most of them are still alive, they’re like the ghosts of Webster,” she said with a laugh. “I have a lot of very wonderful, pleasant memories of the different rooms.”

And judging by the way the Wooleys work, they’re bound to make more.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

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REPURPOSING SCHOOLS time

for church

SPANISH LANGUAGE

CHURCH

t

FINDS NEW HOME IN FORMER IRVING ELEMENTARY SCHOOL Text by Earl Horlyk | Photographs by Tim Hynds

THE PULPIT IS LOCATED where the good location for a church.” stage once sat, and the congregation Offering worship services at 7 p.m. meets up where generations of elemenThursdays through Saturdays, Iglesia tary students ate their school lunch.

Cristiana also has 10 a.m. and 5 p.m. serThe building that was vices every Sunday. home to Irving ElemenA Christian church that DETAILS tary School for 120 years has more than 200 parishWhat: Iglesia Cristiana is now the location for ioners, Iglesia Cristiana (Christian Church) Iglesia Cristiana, a Spanish draws from the Hispanic Where: 1022 Jennings St. language church located and Asian communities.

Phone: 712-258-4828 at 1022 Jennings St. “There really aren’t that In 2007, Irving moved many Salvadorans here,” to a new site at 901 Floyd he admitted. “That’s why Blvd. and the church headed by the Rev. we have to reach out to everyone.”

Walter Carranza moved into the building This includes families with children, the following summer. since Iglesia Cristiana has several classes Carranza, native of El Salvador, was set up for Sunday School. already well aware of the property. His Walking into a former Irving 2nd floor daughter Damaris attended Irving from classroom, Carranza pointed to a sign the third to fifth grades while older that says “Bienvenida” or “Welcome.” daughter Rebecca attended the nearby “The room was once a classroom and Woodrow Wilson Middle School. it still is a classroom,” he said, squeezing Woodrow had closed its doors at 1010 into a small school desk.

Iowa St. in 2005, after 80 years of service.

Yet a former classroom in Iglesia CrisIts students were transferred to the new tiana has been converted into a stately North Middle School that year. and peaceful Prayer Room.

“I was familiar with Irving,” Carranza “This is the room that’s probably remembered, “and thought it would be a changed the most,” Carranza said inside

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The Rev. Walter Carranza, of Iglesia Cristiana, said services are held in the gym and lunch room of the former Irving Elementary School. Carranza said his church has more than 200 members.

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SIOUXLAND LIFE

Iglesia Cristiana, a Spanish-language church, has moved into the building that was home to Irving Elementary School for 120 years.

a room decorated with drapery and religious artifacts. “I like it a lot.”

Although he said the building is probably too big for his small church, Carranza is appreciative that it preserves a piece of Sioux City’s history.

“People will come up to say, ‘Hey, I went to school in your church,’” he said with a laugh. “It happens all the time.”

From the vantage point of his pulpit, Carranza said he often thinks of the children who once attended elementary school in the building.

“It may be old and expensive to heat but the building still means something to the neighborhood,” he said. “I’m glad that our church has been accepted into the community.”

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Siouxland life

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REPURPOSING SCHOOLS glass,

glass, glass

CoUPLe TrANSFormS SCHooL INTo

STAINED GLASS H

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November 2014

SIOUXLAND LIFE

HOME & STUDIO

s

Text by Dolly A. Butz | Photographs by Tim Hynds

SUTHERLAND, IOWA | A sprawling, single-story 1950s building that formerly served as South O’Brien Middle School, is now a studio where Jeanne and Mark Bogenrief and their team craft and restore intricate stained glass windows, doors, domes and lamps.

The couple bought the brick property at 220 W. Southern St. in the tiny town of Sutherland in 2004. The 30,000 square foot-space allowed them to consolidate their operation in one building.

“There’s definitely an advantage to small-town America,” says Mark Bogenrief, who has been in the stained glass business since 1978. “These schools are everywhere. Why can’t they be put to use?”

The Bogenriefs have done their best to utilize every inch of the school. The lit trophy cases display blown glass made by their son Jesse. He has a studio in a former post office in Spencer. Their son Seth fuses glass, sandblasts and paints.

School lockers, which have been refinished, serve as the ideal place to store orders and templates. Pieces of antique furniture and lamps with floral stained glass shades sit in the long hallway opposite the lockers.

The former boys and girls locker rooms have been transformed into the Bogenriefs’ living quarters, while the gymnasium is a place to organize patterns, which are scattered on the wooden floor.

The production process, which for some windows, doors and domes takes years, starts with a design drawn by Mark Bogenrief. The design is copied and cut out to make a template. The pattern is transferred to glass and the pieces are cut out.

Those pieces are then painstakingly laid out on the original pattern and their edges are wrapped in copper foil.

Jeanne Bogenrief solders the glass together.

“He always wants to challenge the crew to do better,” she says of Mark Bogenrief.

On a Friday afternoon, Jim Benson cuts and fashions pieces of stained glass in a former English classroom while a Jimi Hendrix tune plays in the background.

He says the 10 foot by 12 foot “The Jungle” window composed of some 20,000 pieces was one of the team’s most challenging works.

The window, which took three years to finish, was sold to movie producer/actor Tyler Perry, best known for dressing in

Left: Owner Jeanne Bogenrief pulls back a curtain to show a mural promoting reading at Bogenrief Studios in Sutherland, Iowa. The studio, which creates high end stained glass and art glass items, is located in a former school building. Above right: Jeanne and Mark Bogenrief. Bottom right: Employee Jim Benson cuts a piece of stained glass.

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NOVEMBER 2014

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employee Gloria rahbusch contemplates where she should set a piece of cut glass on a template at bogenrief Studios in Sutherland, Iowa.

drag to perform the Madea character.

The window, which features a yelloweyed elephant with bright white tusks peering through dense, colorful palms, ferns and flowers fetched six figures at a Georgia auction.

Another jaw-dropping piece created at Bogenrief Studios is a 24-foot dome crafted for a Versailles mansion in Windermere, Fla. It contains 153 different stained glass sections. Head to Terrace Hill, the Iowa Governor’s Mansion in Des Moines, to find stained glass windows that were restored at Bogenrief Studios.

In a former science classroom, Gloria Rahbusch carefully selects numbered pieces of glass for a lady window and matches them to a template. Rahbusch, who attended school in the building, says she put puzzles together as a child, but they were never this challenging.

“I’ve never done anything like this in my life. I enjoy it very much,” says Rahbusch, who has been employed at Bogenrief Studios for 10 years. “There’s multiple times when you’re finding No. 8. You handle that piece over and over again.”

Next door to Rahbusch was the school’s former reading room. Painted figures of children playing instruments and reading books peek out from curtains hung above the windows. Today, the space is a repair room. Windows from a local Methodist church that were damaged by BB gun pellets are stored along with antique windows from 22

November 2014

SIOUXLAND LIFE

Chicago-based Walker Bros. Pancake House. The windows feature an image of composers and musical instruments.

Just off the gym at the back of the school is an area to create beveled glass – a five-stage process of grinding, smoothing and polishing. It contains a rough cutting machine and cork and stone wheels.

A room at the far west end of the building houses a kiln. It was an industrial arts area as a high school and equipped with a garage door. The door was removed when it was converted to a middle school computer and special education room. The Bogenriefs installed a new automatic garage door.

They also replaced the building’s original boiler and addressed various other issues to bring it up to code.

“The neighbor could hear it. It was like a jet engine. “ Mark Bogenrief recalls of the boiler.

Since 80 percent of the studio’s business is web-driven, he says he doesn’t need to be located in a big city to attract clients. Customers that include CEOs and entrepreneurs fly in from Illinois, Georgia and other locations.

“You never know what you’re going to find out here,” he says with a chuckle.

Top: employee Jim benson. Center: owner Jeanne bogenrief shows how separate pieces of stained glass are selected to be cut from a larger sheet. Bottom: owners Jeanne, left, and mark bogenrief, right, and employee Gloria rahbusch work on a stained glass lady window.

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REPURPOSING SCHOOLS industrious

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HOLLY SPRINGS GYM SHOULDERS LOAD FOR

HOLLY INDUSTRIES

Devin Torgerson walks toward what was once the stage at Holly Industries Inc. The sheet metal business is located in the 1941 gymnasium and auditorium of the former Holly Springs school.

Text by Tim Gallagher Photographs by Tim Hynds

h

HOLLY SPRINGS, IOWA | Denny Torgerson likens his shop to the pyramids.

The structure is that strong, built to last.

It should have been. The gym and auditorium serving the old school at Holly Springs was constructed in 1941, according to the cornerstone. The effort by the Works Project Administration features 20 feet of cinder block inside and poured concrete arches outside.

This wasn’t just a place to play basketball and perform plays, you see, it served a third purpose: A bomb shelter.

The Holly Springs school closed in the 1960s as the Westwood Community School District, a consolidation of

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NOVEMBER 2014

educational sites here and in Smithland, Salix, Hornick and Sloan, came into being. That district now sees all K-12 instruction offered in a campus on Sloan’s eastern edge.

Holly Springs’ school became the site for Holly Industries Inc., a sheet metal fabrication business owned and operated by Torgerson, along with his wife, Mardie Torgerson, and their son, Devin Torgerson.

“We’ve been around since 1972,” Denny says, noting the company was started by the late John Zink.

The custom sheet metal fabrication firm produces slide gates, flipper valves, spouting transitions and control units for free-flow grain enterprises. The company does much of its work for Younglove

SIOUXLAND LIFE

Construction of Sioux City.

Holly Industries also works with feed mills and grain elevators all across the U.S. and into places like the Ukraine.

Independent farmers also make up a portion of the company’s customer base.

Three full-time employees and two part-timers make up the work force here, a work force that goes about its work in this quiet spot where Woodbury County Road K-64 meets Old Highway 141 some 15 miles south of Moville, Iowa.

The old schoolhouse was part of the site until widespread flooding damaged its foundation in 1996.

“I remember coming here with my parents and going up and playing in the old school,” says Devin, who is now a resident of Sioux City.

While the old school was taken down, Holly Industries did add to the structure, completing a couple of additions, one in 1994 and a second in 1997.

“The site works for us as it’s rural,” says Denny Torgerson, who resides near Smithland. “And it’s so accessible to get things trucked in and out.”

As if on queue, a farmer pulls into Holly Industries with a long piece of equipment that needs work. There’s no stopping traffic as he negotiates the driveway turn. There’s no traffic, period.

“That’s the nice thing about being out here, you don’t have to stop traffic like you would at a commercial site in a city,” Devin says.

Evidence of the facility’s first life can be seen, but you must look closely. There’s a small patch of the original gym floor remaining on the west side of the shop.

Much of the floor, however, has been taken out, leaving a concrete surface behind, perfect for the company’s workload.

“Down below the stage is the original locker room,” Denny Torgerson says.

“There are names still showing on the girls’ lockers.”

There’s also a line along the east wall that bears evidence of a set of bleachers once attached.

The scoreboard and baskets are long gone, however.

The stage remains on the south side of the gymnasium, a place where basketball players likely sat as they awaited game action. It’s also the place where another of the Torgersons’ sons, Drew Torgerson, takes his place at least once per year for a band concert.

His band’s name suggests a touch of irony, playing in a place that has to be among the strongest structures in Woodbury County. The band is called “In Danger of Falling.”

Beyond the stage to the south is a shop area Devin occupies as he tinkers in an after-market performance business, making late model Camaros and Corvettes faster. And just south of that area is the newer office suite serving Holly Industries.

It’s where Denny heads to dig out the original blueprints for the gym/auditorium/bomb shelter. The blueprints, which are really blue, show the structure was drawn up by architect/engineer K.E. Westerlind in June 1940.

“He was the same architect who designed the Municipal Auditorium and the Badgerow Building,” Denny Torgerson says.

Holly Industries still sees people who, from time to time, stop by to take a peek at what’s become of their old gym.

“There are no cracks,” Denny notes as he glances around. “Its like a pyramid, almost.”

Above: owners mardie and Dennis Torgerson seen are at Holly Industries Inc. Left: This photo hangs in the office at Holly Industries in Holly Springs, Iowa. It shows the old school standing adjacent to the gym/auditorium/ bomb shelter that is now the production area for Holly Industries. A 1996 flood weakened the school’s foundation. It was then torn down.

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REPURPOSING SCHOOLS exercising

options

The Le Mars YMCA still bears signs of its past as the Westmar College Life Sports Center. Executive Director Todd Lancaster reveals a sign on the way to one of the locker rooms.

PROUD LIKE AN EAGLE WESTMAR SPIRIT LIVES ON AT LE MARS YMCA 26

NOVEMBER 2014

SIOUXLAND LIFE

l

Text by Earl Horlyk Photographs by Tim Hynds

LE MARS, IOWA | Even though the YMCA Community Wellness Center now occupies the former Westmar Life Sports Center, “Westy the Eagle” hasn’t completely flown the coop.

In fact, the college’s longtime mascot is immortalized on the Y’s new hardwood basketball court and his presence e nce can also be seen in the twisty tunnels and storerrooms ooms that dominate the building originally built in 1941.

“The spirit of Westy still lives at the Y,” executive director Todd Lancaster said inside a back hallway that prominently featured the feathery symbol. “In large part, I think that’s because his spirit still exists in Le Mars.”

How the Le Mars YMCA landed at Westy’s old stomping grounds isn’t a story for the birds. Instead, it’s a tale of how a community came to grips following the closure of its longtime college.

A 110 YEAR TRADITION Founded in 1887 as the Northwestern Normal School and Business College, Westmar went through many name changes in its 110-year history.

Plagued with financial difficulties and declining enrollment throughout the 1980s, the private liberal arts institution merged with Teikyo University, of Tokyo, Japan, in 1990.

Above: executive director Todd Lancaster walks across a dance studio at the Le mars YmCA. It was once used as a Westmar College classroom. Below: The YmCA has been housed in the former Westmar College Life Sports Center since shortly after the school closed in 1997.

When Teikyo University severed its ties with Westmar in 1994, a California entrepreneur failed to resuscitate the school.

In 1996, the city borrowed $1.6 million in an effort to keep the college afloat.

Later that year, voters approved borrowing money by issuing bonds to buy the campus, complete with its building and contents.

Unable to pay the rent, the board of trustees voted to close Westmar on Nov. 22, 1997.

A NEW LIFE Once Westmar closed, city officials had to decide what to do with the

college’s 22 buildings and their content.

While some buildings were torn down, others were saved and given new purposes.

Lancaster said the YMCA began renting the college’s Life Sports building in late January 1998.

“We were fortunate since the building was already set up for sports,” he said.

“We didn’t have to start everything from scratch.”

Though some things had to change.

For instance, a former classroom has been repurposed into a room filled with stationary bikes and elliptical equipment. An indoor pool now occupies the space where a basketball court once was, and a game room was installed in a former men’s locker room.

“Check that out,” Lancaster said, pointing to the floor in the game room.

“You can still see where the shower drains were.”

Continuing his tour of the facilities,

Lancaster pointed out the weight room belonging to Westmar’s legendary wrestling coach Milt Martin now serves as a room where TRX suspension and Tae Kwon Do classes now meet.

AN EAGLE’S PRIDE Lancaster walks into a storage room that has “Eagle Pride” painted over the door.

A Le Mars native who attended Arizona State University and graduated from the University of Northern Iowa, Lancaster said he is happy to maintain signs of Westmar inside the YMCA. “Many of our members have happy memories of Westmar,” he said. “If they didn’t go here themselves, a parent or grandparent or another family member did.”

Looking at an image of an eagle, Lancaster added: “I’m glad the YMCA was able to preserve an important part of Le Mars’ history.”

SIOUXLAND LIFE

November 2014

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November 2014

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RePuRPosinG sCHooLs 20

questions

20 questions with former superintendent

Larry Williams Text by Dolly A. Butz

Former Sioux City Community School District Superintendent Larry Williams, 72, is finally retired, after serving subsequent interim superintendencies in both Hinton and Akron. He reflected on his career in education and what kept him returning to work in schools by phone from his home in Glacier National Park in Montana.

1. What was your first job ever?

“My first job ever was as a newspaper boy. I started carrying the Fargo Forum as a fourth grader in North Dakota.”

2. What was your favorite class in school?

“Music and math, but I enjoyed all of my classes. I had a terrific English teacher as a sophomore. We did a lot of writing for him. He was very rigorous. Did that come back to pay me in spades when I went to college!”

3. Tell me about your first job in education.

“My first teaching job I had about a week to prepare for. I was on fires in Glacier National Park, so I reported for duty a week late with the superintendent’s permission. I showed up for my first band class with just an hour of prep time. We tied into three pieces of music. One was the Star Spangled Banner.

They kind of booped and blopped their way through it. I stopped and said, ‘No. The Star Spangled Banner has to be done with vigor – that means at an uptempo.’

They responded.”

4. What made you want to take on the challenge of being a superintendent?

“I’d been a leader in my park services work and my Boy Scout camp work. I enjoy leadership and I enjoy working with people. I think those were the qualities that got me into being superintendent.”

5. Tell me about your first job as superintendent.

“My first job as superintendent was Great Falls, Mont., and I started in 1989. That was my second job. I started teaching in a small school district outside of Great Falls called Belt. That particular community had gone through six music 32

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Siouxland life

teachers in the previous five years so it wasn’t very stable. Even though I had a provisional certificate, I negotiated a twoyear contract by saying, ‘Look I can help you straighten things out, but I’m going to need some time.’”

6. How many school districts have you worked in?

“Seven school districts.”

7. Are you officially retired?

“Well, I am I guess. I actually let my certification expire. All I’d have to do is take six credits and I’d be back in business, but I don’t think I’ll do that. I’ve had a wonderful career and I enjoyed every extension to it.”

8. Why retire now?

“My wife retired when I retired from Sioux City, thinking that I meant to retire and spend time with her. Then I kind of did a double take and worked both for the symphony for a year and two years at Hinton. Then low and behold Akron needed assistance for a year. I enjoyed both of those communities very much.”

9. Why did you come back to education after you retired the first time?

“Simply because I enjoy students and I enjoy faculties. I believe in public education very deeply. School districts go through trauma at times and we struggle with budgets and state legislatures and funding, but the rewards of working with students and faculties are beyond anything.”

10. Interest in education runs in the family?

“I have two brothers in education. One of whom was a teacher his entire adult life. The other of whom was a teacher for about half of his career and then became an elementary principal and now is doing an interim superintendency in Vermont.

It’s kind of remarkable, actually. We all three graduated from Dartmouth College.

Dartmouth is not known for training educators.”

11. Are you a workaholic?

“I don’t think there’s any question about that. The short answer is, I guess so.”

12. How do you think students have changed over the years?

“I don’t think they’ve changed a lot, but their attention is drawn to social media a Sioux City School District Larry Williams conducting the U.S. Coast Guard band July 8, 2004, at epply Auditorium at morningside College.

great deal.”

13. What do you think the key is to get students interested in their studies?

“You put an instrument in the hands of a student and they can’t use their hands to hit somebody or poke them. The secret to engaging them is first of all to have the basics of your discipline down well. Secondly, they have to be able to break those basics down at the student level and they also have to have high expectations of students.”

14. Do you think the job of superintendent has changed?

“Well, it’s become more political.

And superintendents tend not to stay in communities as long as they used to. It wasn’t uncommon for superintendents to stay 20 or more years and that changed eons ago. When I came to Sioux City there had been 13 superintendents or acting superintendents in 35 years.”

15. How did you prepare to transition into a superintendency at another school?

“Ironically, I didn’t have time to prepare in any of the situations. Obviously when I was hired as an interim in Hinton they were in an emergency situation.

On Sunday I was interviewing and on Monday I was on the job. I was hired as an interim in Great Falls and was subsequently given a permanent contract.

But I was hired in August for a school term that began in September. I had about three days before I was on the job after they issued the contract to me.”

16. What’s your fondest memory from working in the Sioux City School District?

“I have so many. Reading to a class of children during Dr. Seuss week would be a fond memory. I’m very proud that I stayed a lot longer than the average tenure before me. I’m proud of the new buildings we completed. I guess one of

the things I’m very fond of was the way at my retirement dinner that they had a lot of fun at my expense. It was thoroughly enjoying.”

17. By retiring later in life, do you think you missed anything?

“If your life is short you do, but I’ve been blessed with several years already that I’ve been able to spend with my wife. ... I didn’t think about missing things, but I did think about the fact that my wife had retired and expected me to retire.”

18. Now that you’re retired, what are you doing?

“I’ve been doing some writing. I was a leader in Music Educator’s National Conference and in the Montana Music Educators and in the arts throughout the West, so I’ve been capturing some of my memories there writing short articles for little-known professional journals. We do a lot of hiking. I enjoy housework and home repairs so I putter around the house and yard a lot. We have about half an acre in Glacier.”

19. You’re into music. What instruments do you play?

“I played saxophone and clarinet. I also was a vocalist. I’ve been well-trained in both the choral and instrumental area. I enjoy singing a great deal, but I’ve given up playing the saxophone for the most part simply because as superintendent I didn’t find time to practice enough. I’ve keep my vocal and sight reading skills alive.”

20. What are you currently reading?

“Right now I’m reading a very interesting book that my sister gave me.

It’s called ‘Saving Mozart.’ It’s a novel but it’s written in a diary form. The major figure is in a sanitarium suffering from tuberculosis, but he’s a musician. This is written during the period of the second world war. He feels the Nazis are using Mozart’s music for the wrong purpose.”

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REPURPOSING SCHOOLS exercising

options

FORMER TEACHER/COACH ENJOYS ‘GOLDEN YEARS’

b

Text and photographs by Tim Gallagher

BATTLE CREEK, IOWA | Keith Brown sits back a bit after telling a guest he retired from teaching in 1994.

“Doesn’t seem like 20 years,” he says.

“That’s a long time.”

Brown is but one of thousands of educators through the years who has retired while still in his 50s. Brown, 75, had taught math, and coached up to three sports in his hometown for 30 years when a new district forced him to reassess.

Brown, by the way, had also served as athletic director for 27 years.

In his 29th year, he notes, he taught math in Ida Grove as it merged with Battle Creek and began sharing classes and sports. In his 30th and final year, he served as athletic director for the schools and kept his hand in the coaching arena.

That 29th year he went from walking a half-block to school to driving seven miles to Ida Grove. The driving time, though not long by today’s standards, gave him time to consider his second, make that third, career.

“I’d always farmed with my dad,” says Brown, a native of Battle Creek and a 1957 graduate of Battle Creek High School. “My dad was getting out of the management of the farm. He died a few years later.”

Brown said that, by 1994, he knew it was time to step away from education and athletics.

He and wife, Colleen Brown, began wintering for a couple of months each year in Arizona. They raised their corn and soybeans and began watching the growth of their grandchildren through the same activities they’d seen their three boys through: Sports of all sorts.

Son Brian Brown coaches basketball and softball at Maple Valley/AnthonOto High School in Mapleton. Son Brent Brown coaches multiple youth sports in Sergeant Bluff, where he works as the city’s recreation director. Son Brad Brown, chief financial officer/general manager of a Sioux Falls, S.D., business, also coached his children in youth sports.

The Browns have had grandchildren compete on every level, all the way up to

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NOVEMBER 2014

Keith Brown stands in front of the old Battle Creek school in Battle Creek, Iowa, the place where Brown taught and coached for three decades. The school was closed as Battle Creek has since consolidated with schools in Ida Grove, Odebolt and Arthur.

A basketball presented to 300-game winner Keith Brown notes the final home game played by the Battle Creek Bombers at Battle Creek High School in Battle Creek, Iowa, on Feb. 18, 1992. The Bombers defeated the Whiting Warriors.

the collegiate level.

In fact, since as long as he can remember, the athletic arena has been an integral part of Keith Brown’s life.

After his Battle Creek Bombers playing days ended with his graduation in 1957, Keith headed to Iowa State University for one year. He then transferred to the University of South Dakota, where he played basketball for three seasons.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

Following his graduation, the industrial management major (a degree that’s two parts business, one part engineering) returned to Battle Creek to farm with his father and work full-time for the grain elevator in this Ida County community.

Teaching/coaching, his second career, is something Brown nearly stumbled upon.

Brown met with an old math teacher, a man who served as a mentor, and one who’d become the school principal. He encouraged Brown to see the superintendent of schools and investigate the opportunity to teach and coach.

“The superintendent and I went to Des Moines (to the Iowa Department of Education) to see what I needed for courses,” Brown recalls. “I ended up taking summer courses at Buena Vista College and some correspondence courses.”

By that fall, he was teaching junior high math and serving as assistant football coach.

He would eventually add high school algebra and geometry to his course load.

He also added high school softball and baseball to his athletic responsibilities.

Brown’s 1968 softball team finished second in the state, losing the championship game, 6-1, to Wapsie Valley of Fairbank. The squad was one of three he guided to the state tourney.

Three of his Bombers boys’ basketball squads advanced to the substate round.

The Hall of Fame softball coach earned 320 wins in hoops and nearly 600 in volleyball. He keeps a bit of a scrapbook for these sports and other Battle Creek Bombers teams. He also has the old center court from the original 1913 Battle Creek High School, salvaging its pieces as the floor was removed before the school was razed a little over a decade ago.

Several trophies and plaques earned

by Brown and his teams are displayed on a red shelf above the old center court.

“The shelf is actually the old bench that our teams sat on during games,” he says.

Brown not only coached all three sons during their prep playing days, he also matched wits and strategy with son Brian, who began his career teaching and coaching basketball at West Monona High School in Onawa, Iowa.

“We coached against each other twice,” Keith recalls with a laugh. “I think I was nice enough to let Brian win once and he was nice enough to let Dad win once.”

The old coach still gets a kick out of watching Brian’s teams play each winter at MVAO High School. Brian’s Rams, in fact, often run an offensive set Keith taught his team years ago.

And, Brian still joins his dad on the farm each fall as they pull in the fruits of Keith’s third career. The farm five miles south of Battle Creek was homesteaded in 1882 by Keith’s great-grandfather, Mathias Brown.

Corn typically averages 175 to 180 bushels per acre on the farm, while soybeans vary widely. This year’s beans, for example, yielded 30 bushels per acre in some spots, 60 bushels in others.

“We had a small band of hail through this area this summer,” Keith says.

In a way, farming might be a little like basketball or softball. In every season, like every game, there is a situation or two, be it weather or pest, that may be the difference between an average year and a bin-buster.

The teacher/coach isn’t one to cry over spilled milk, or corn, or beans, in this case.

“I rent out half the ground,” he says.

“We sell our grain locally and don’t have livestock. I get to play golf and watch the grandkids. Plus, we spend time in Arizona. I tell people I’m three-quarters retired.”

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Siouxland life

November 2014

35

REPURPOSING SCHOOLS different

track

Leslie Heying, marketing and public relations manager at Unity Point HealthSt. Luke’s, credits her mother to finding her a career in public relations.

A REPURPOSED SCHOOL CAREER

l

Text by Michelle Kuester | Photographs by Jim Lee

LESLIE HEYING’S SHORT-LIVED CAREER as a teacher ended up teaching her a thing or two about her strengths and how to utilize them in her current position as marketing and public relations manager at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s.

Inspired by Barbara Walters, Heying’s sight had always been set on a career in broadcast journalism, but pressure from well-meaning parents caused the mass communication major to pick up a second major in English teaching while studying at the University of South Dakota.

36

NOVEMBER 2014

“I had always wanted to do something in mass communication. My dream was to take over for Barbara Walters,” she said, “but my parents really wanted me to pursue education because they thought it would be more stable.”

Despite her desire to follow in some famous footsteps, Heying heeded her parents’ advice and took a job teaching English and journalism and advising the school newspaper at Blaine High School in Blaine, Minn., during the 2001-2002 school year.

Quickly, she realized it wasn’t the

SIOUXLAND LIFE

right fit.

“I tried it for a year and decided it wasn’t for me,” she said. “One, it wasn’t mass comm, and two, some of the students were only a few years younger than me at the time.

“At the same time, I think it was a confidence booster for myself. It showed me that I could do something even if I wasn’t sure if it was for me.”

Heying, who was 23, decided it was time to take a chance and deviate from teaching, even though it was a family business of sorts with her mother,

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Leslie Heying, marketing and public relations manager at Unity Point Health - St. Luke’s, started her career as a school teacher at the urging of her parents.

grandmother and grandfather all being teachers.

“Teaching is a really noble profession and it takes a special person to do that,” she said. “I have a lot of respect for those in the teaching field.”

After a stint as a marketing consultant for Principal Financial Group in Des Moines, she started working in public relations at UnityPoint Health-St. Luke’s in 2005, a job she thanks her mother for finding.

“I always credit my mom for finding me this job,” said Heying, an Elk Point, S.D., native. “I had been wanting to move closer to home, and she found this job and told me about it, and it was perfect.”

“Perfect” is the word, according to Heying, because the job combines her love of writing and media with just a touch of teaching.

“I’m able to do PR and media,” she said. “It’s my Barbara Walters moment without actually being Barbara Walters. And I also get to teach people at presentations at various events, so what I do is reWalters ally a pretty good mix of everything.”

Don’t look for this mother of three to be the next anchor on ABC News, though.

“I think I’ve moved past that,” said Heying, 37. “I have a family now and it’s nice having set hours. I think I’m past my Barbara Walters dreams.”

Revisiting teaching someday might not be out of the question, however.

“Never say never,” she said. “I’m not saying I’d never be interested in doing it again part-time in the future, but I think I’m here to stay, as long as St. Luke’s will have me.”

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REPURPOSING SCHOOLS emergency

services

The Woodbury County Emergency Services Division offices in Climbing Hill, Iowa. The offices, staffed 24/7, are housed in the former Woodbury Central school building in Climbing Hill.

EMERGENCY SERVICES

COMMANDEERS

OLD CLIMBING HILL SCHOOL

c

Text by Tim Gallagher | Photographs by Tim Hynds

CLIMBING HILL, IOWA | Gary Brown and the Woodbury County Public Safety Center continue to breathe new life into an old school.

Two old schools, actually. A three-story structure built in 1916 as the Climbing Hill Public School continues to get a daily dose of activity as does the “new” Climbing Hill School structure, built in 1939.

The site is one of several schools in rural Woodbury County that’s enjoying a second run as a re-purposed facility.

An implement company, for example, operates out of the old school in Oto. The Anthon Community School has become the Anthon Community Center.

Holly Industries is a business that operates in the old gym/auditorium at Holly Springs. There’s a church serving

Gary Brown, Woodbury County Emergency Services director, stands in a backup 911 emergency communications center that is set up in the basement of the Woodbury County Emergency Services Division offices in Climbing Hill, Iowa.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

NOVEMBER 2014

39

Above: emergency trailers, vehicles and a rescue boat are shown at center court of the old Woodbury Central gym. Right: Totes loaded with deployment supplies are shown stored on the stage.

folks in the old school at Correctionville.

“This is a good reuse of a building,” says Brown, who serves as FEMA, Disaster and Emergency Services director for Woodbury County. “The Woodbury County Sheriff’s Department used this as a substation and we joined them in 1993.”

The Sheriff’s Deaptment no longer has operations based in the old school at Climbing Hill, a site that appealed to Brown and his staff for its central location within the county. Response times from this location, he notes, are much quicker for many locations than they would be from a site in Sioux City, which is on the county’s far west edge.

Up to 2011, Woodbury County leased the Climbing Hill Public School structure from the Woodbury Central Community School District, a consolidated district of Moville and Climbing Hill that gets its name from its central location in Woodbury County.

The last classes were held in this building a quarter-century or so ago.

Woodbury Central turned the property over to the county three years ago.

Besides the building there are about 9 40

November 2014

acres on this site in Climbing Hill, an unincorporated town of 123 residents.

While the site is completely compliant under the Americans with Disabilities Act, Brown notes the county and his staffers continue to work at that goal.

“Each year we peck away on an improvement plan here,” he says, adding that, in his mind, it is a better use of

Siouxland life

taxpayer funds to make incremental improvements in smaller chunks over spending a large amount in one budget year.

Heating costs, for example, once cost the county some $16,000 at this site.

Those costs have been pared to $10,000 annually, thanks to a recent boiler replacement effort.

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Above: old signs from the school still hang above the doors. Left: Gary brown, a Woodbury County department director, stands in what used to be the Climbing Hill High School gym.

Holes in the roof have been repaired; select classrooms have been carpeted and painted and now host training classes regularly. The site is also a meeting site for mayors in the county, as well as the landfill commission. It’s an election site and also hosts gatherings of township trustees and more.

Several windows have been updated and the classrooms have gone to white boards, replacing the outdated slate chalkboards.

The old school is staffed 24/7 every day of the year, a scheduling demand that requires an old home economics area to be renovated to sleeping quarters for staffers.

“Every night someone sleeps here as our department has been staffed around the clock for 33 years,” Brown says of a unit that responds with every emergency department in Woodbury County.

The school doubles as a backup Emergency 911 site as well, in the case that the county’s main nerve center at Western Iowa Tech Community College is ever compromised.

“We can run limited 911 dispatch from here if that event arises,” Brown says.

The old gymansium still has its stage and baskets, but basketball and volleyball games are long gone. The floor space is taken up with all sorts of emergency

vehicles, ranging from a rescue boat to a trailer that can house and care for pets displaced in an emergency.

The stage contains dozens of units of decontamination supplies and equipment, medical supplies and more.

There’s also a small fire truck and a mass casualty response trailer, one of four located in Woodbury County.

Ultimately, Brown says, the 1919 three-story school may come down, as the top two floors are only used for storage (second floor) and some fire and EMS training (third floor). Those floors, as can be expected, still cause some budget pains throughout winter. In its place, Brown notes, he’d like to see an energy efficient garage erected to house various response units and supplies.

“We’ve had an engineer look at the two areas (the separate school structures) and they can be separated,” Brown says. “We have no desire to eliminate the newer areas. We’ve tried to make good use of this space while being good stewards.”

Brown says that, on occasion, former students who attended school in Climbing Hill stop by to see how Woodbury County’s Emergency Management and Emergency Services Department is using their former educational center.

Says Brown, “We’re proud of what we’re doing here.”

Obesity is one of the fastest growing health problems seen in dogs today. Nearly 44% of U.S. dogs are overweight or obese. There are many reasons a dog can become overweight. The obvious culprits are improper diet and lack of sufficient exercise. Weight gain may be a symptom of hormonal disorders, such as hypothyroidism or Cushing’s syndrome.

Certain breeds are more prone to obesity than others, such as Bulldogs, Beagles, Dachshunds, Pugs, Dalmatians and Cocker Spaniels.

Canine obesity is dangerous because it can lead to many health problems such as Cardiac disease, Diabetes, High blood pressure, Orthopedic injuries (such as cruciate ligament rupture), Osteoarthritis, and Respiratory disorders.

There are some things you can do at home to evaluate your dog’s weight. Run your hands along your dog’s ribcage, you should be able to feel the ribs covered by a thin layer of fat. Inability to feel the ribs is a sign of an overweight dog. Looking at your dog from the side, you should be able to see the upward tuck of the abdomen. An overweight dog will have little or no tuck. Viewing your dog from above, there should be a moderate narrowing at the waist just past the ribcage. A straight or bulging line from the ribcage to the hips indicates an overweight dog.

Weight loss for dogs is not a matter of willpower for the dog. You, however, may need to use willpower to resist those begging eyes. Remember, food is not love! For most dogs, the traditional diet-andexercise plan does the trick. Leaving a full bowl of food out all day is not a good idea. Establish two or three set mealtimes per day. Use a measured scoop to give only the recommended amount of food.

Dog treats should be significantly decreased for an overweight dog or give small pieces of carrots and apples as treats.

Your dog is going to need more exercise to lose weight. If you do not already walk your dog daily for a specific period of time, start now. Schedule times to play fetch. Dogs that get winded easily may benefit from several short walks a day rather than one long walk.

At South Sioux Animal Hospital we have prescription diets available that are special low fat/high fiber diets for weight loss. Our veterinarians can provide you with a nutritional analysis to see how many calories your dog is currently getting and how many calories he should be getting for weight loss.

Please contact us with any questions.

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Siouxland life

November 2014

41

HEALTH heart

help

mir rauf Subla, an interventional cardiologist, is shown with a cardiac ultrasound at mercy medical Center’s Heart Center.

HeArT FAILUre CLINIC HeLPS PATIeNTS mANAGe CoNDITIoNS

h

Text by Dolly A. Butz | Photograph by Dawn J. Sagert

HEART FAILURE PATIENTS ARE getting younger every day, according to Mir Rauf Subla, an interventional cardiologist at Mercy Medical Center.

These patients, some as young as 50, suffer shortness of breath, their legs swell and they feel tired, weak and depressed. They have no idea these symptom are the result of their heart not being able to pump enough blood to keep up with its workload.

Mercy recently opened a specialty clinic in its Heart Center specifically for these patients, who first show up at the emergency room. They are evaluated by a cardiologist there and then admitted to the hospital for an overnight stay or

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November 2014

sent to the Heart Failure Clinic for further evaluation.

“The clinic in a sense was always there, but it wasn’t structured,” Subla said.

Heart failure has many causes, according to Subla. Coronary artery disease, the narrowing or blockage of the coronary arteries, is one type of heart failure.

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction is another form where the heart can pump blood, but fails to relax. Subla said this is the most common cause of heart failure.

At the hospital, patients receive blood tests, chest X-rays, and an EKG to determine the cause of their heart failure.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

Diuretics may be prescribed to rid the patient’s body of extra fluid, while beta blockers will improve their heart’s ability to relax.

Daily, Subla said, three to four patients are directed to Mercy’s Heart Failure Clinic.

“It takes time and a lot of effort with these patients,” he said. “Sometimes we keep the patients in the clinic for four or five hours until their symptoms get better. If we think that they need to be hospitalized, we just hospitalize them.

If they get better, then we send them home.”

After the patient has stabilized, they are evaluated and clinic staff impose

“Sometimes we keep the patients in the clinic for four or five hours until their symptoms get better.

If we think that they need to be hospitalized, we just hospitalize them. If they get better, then we send them home.”

MIR RAUF SUBLA interventional cardiologist at Mercy Medical Center

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only thing patients can do to control their symptoms is to lose weight and manage their blood pressure. Making these changes, he said, are very difficult because of the availability of processed foods, which contain high amounts of sodium.

“They are taught to read the labels to see how much sodium is in their diet,” he said. “They are usually (on) a 2 gram sodium diet. If you eat out at any of the restaurants there’s at least 20 grams of sodium in anything you eat.”

Subla said the Heart Failure Clinic is reducing hospital readmission rates.

“Patients don’t want to be in the hospital,” he said. “If you can teach them to change their lifestyle, it’s very beneficial for them. I have seen patients who are very compliant and call in about their weight every day. They stay out of the hospital for years.”

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necessary sodium and fluid restrictions.

Following discharge, Mercy Home Care nurses follow up with them in their homes and they are offered a free telemonitoring program. Currently, 68 patients are using the telemonitoring program.

Patients report their weight and symptoms by phone every morning.

Medications can be adKayl justed accordingly without the need for a hospital visit.

“They learn the importance of weighing every day and knowing what symptoms to watch for and being proactive,” said Lynett Kayl, Heart Failure program manager.

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction isn’t reversible. Subla said the

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SIOUXLAND LIFE

NOVEMBER 2014

43

ADVICE medical

answers

‘DOC, I’VE GOT A QUESTION …’ answers to your medical questions

What problems does lead paint cause? Are just little children at risk or could I be harmed, too?

Lead paint can be found in many homes and painted products that were built or manufactured before 1978. According to the EPA, the federal government banned consumer uses of lead-containing paint in 1978.

Lead paint in older homes, if under newer paint and not exposed, is usually not a problem if the top layer of paint is in good shape. However, deteriorating lead-based paint is a hazard because ingesting or inhaling the paint or dust can cause health problems for both children and adults.

In children, even low levels of lead in the blood can cause behavior and learning problems, lower IQ and hyperactivity, slowed growth, hearing problems, and anemia.

In rare cases, ingestion of lead in children can cause seizures, coma, and even death.

Pregnant women are also at risk for the ill-effects of lead because lead can accumulate in bones over time. During pregnancy, if present, lead is released from the mother’s bones and is used to help form the bones of the unborn baby, particularly if the mother does not have enough calcium in their diet. Lead can also cross the placenta exposing the unborn child and leading to decreased growth of the unborn child and premature birth.

Lead is also harmful to other adults as adults exposed to lead can suffer from cardiovascular effects, increased blood pressure, decreased kidney function, and reproductive problems.

Children are typically more at risk for ingesting or inhaling lead-based paint or dust because they are more prone to putting their hands and objects containing lead paint or dust into their mouths. Also, although lead paint can be hazardous to both children and adults, lead is particularly dangerous in children because their growing bodies absorb more lead than adults do and their brains and nervous systems are more sensitive to the damaging effects of lead.

When you suddenly get a rash, what should you do? Are they just associated with allergies and poison-something or other? Or could they be related to something more serious?

Sudden onset or “acute” rashes can come in a variety of different forms and be from a variety of different causes as well. Some acute rashes are due to viral infections, such as chicken pox, measles or shingles viruses.

Others are due to bacterial infections that can develop into impetigo or cellulitis. Others can be due to a variety of medications. And still others can appear as a result of an allergic or irritant or “hypersensitive” reaction within the skin from virtually anything that can cause the skin to overreact to a certain stimulus. There are many different triggers that can cause an acute allergic or irritant rash including: plants (for example,

44

November 2014

poison ivy or poison oak), jewelry, clothing, nail polish, perfumes, cosmetics, topical medications, rubber, chemicals, laundry detergents, or adhesives, just to name a few.

So, what should you do if you suddenly get a rash? Well, that all depends on what has caused the rash, how severe the rash is, and if you have any other symptoms.

In general, however, here are some guidelines you can follow: If you get a rash, avoid using or touching whatever you think may have caused the rash.

Protect your skin from anything that might irritate it or cause an allergy. Try using soothing skin products to help with the itching and discomfort. Things that might help include: unscented, thick moisturizing cream, anti-itch lotion or cream, and/or a special kind of bath called an oatmeal bath. See your doctor if your rash does not go away within two weeks, or if it gets worse or you develop other symptoms. Severe symptoms to

SIOUXLAND LIFE

MEET THE DOC Dr. Jesse Nieuwenhuis is a first-year family medicine resident physician at the Siouxland medical education Foundation in Sioux City, Iowa. He grew up on a farm near Primghar, Iowa, and chose to attend the University of Iowa and Northwestern College in orange City, Iowa, for his undergraduate college education, graduating from Northwestern with a degree in biology and a minor in chemistry in 2009. He then chose to work at the Iowa Neonatal Newborn Screening Program in Ankeny, Iowa, as a microbiologist for a short time after graduating from college. He then attended medical school at the Chicago medical School at rosalind Franklin University of medicine and Science in North Chicago, Ill., graduating with an m.D. in 2014. Upon graduating from medical school, he chose to pursue his graduate medical education in Family medicine at the Siouxland medical education Foundation in Sioux City. watch out for include: pain, widespread swelling, large blisters, oozing or crusting of the skin, and/or difficulty breathing.

A particularly severe syndrome to watch out for is anaphylaxis or an anaphylactic reaction, which is a severe allergic reaction that usually involves generalized hives, itchiness and redness or swelling of the skin, and can involve shortness of breath, wheezing, stridor, heart arrhythmias, low blood pressure, lightheadedness, abdominal pain, diarrhea and/or vomiting. If you think you are developing anaphylaxis, you need to go to the Emergency Room as this syndrome can be life-threatening.

My son has problems getting shoes that fit because the bone near his big toe sticks out. What is that? Can it be fixed?

This is known as a bunion or a “hallux valgus deformity.”

This deformity is defined as a lateral deviation of the first toe (the big toe), also known as the hallux, on the first metatarsal, the bone in the foot that connects to the big toe. It can indeed be fixed by surgery, but there are also other treatments that are recommended before undergoing surgery. Some of these other

treatments: shoe modification—wide, low-heeled shoes, or specially altered shoes to minimize deforming forces, orthotics to improve support and alignment, night splinting to improve toe alignment, stretching and/or mobilization/manipulation to maintain joint mobility, bunion pads to prevent irritation, ice applied after activity to reduce inflammation, and pain relievers such as Tylenol or ibuprofen.

Referral for surgical repair is based primarily upon symptoms. Individuals with severe pain or dysfunction due to the deformity and whose symptoms do not improve with the conservative treatments as outlined above should be referred to a foot surgeon.

I’ve read that adults could have Type 2 diabetes and not know it.

Is this something you do a blood test for? How would you know if you needed one?

Correct. The diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus is determined by the measurement of the amount of sugar or “glucose” in your blood.

Early on in the disease, some people do not have symptoms and thus would not necessarily know that they had diabetes if they did not know their blood

glucose levels. Your blood can be tested in a few different ways in order to make the diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes. The diagnosis of Type 2 Diabetes is made if two or more fasting blood glucose measurements are greater than or equal to (≥) 126 milligrams per deciliter (mg/dL), if 2 or more hemoglobin A1C measurements are ≥6.5%, if 2 or more blood glucose measurements in a 2-hour oral glucose tolerance test are ≥200 mg/dL, or if 2 or more “random” blood glucose measurements are ≥200 mg/dL in the presence of symptoms. Now for some definitions to help clarify some of these blood tests— fasting is defined as having no caloric intake for at least eight hours, hemoglobin A1C is a test that reflects your average blood glucose levels over the past two or three months and specifically represents the amount of hemoglobin (a protein in red blood cells) that is coated with sugar, and a two-hour oral glucose tolerance test is a test to see how your blood sugars respond two hours after drinking a solution with 75 grams of sugar.

Symptoms of Type 2 Diabetes include: increased thirst and frequent urination, increased hunger, weight loss, fatigue, blurry vision, slowly-healing sores or frequent infections, and/or areas of darkened skin. However, these symptoms often develop slowly and subtly, so there have been recommendations established

by several organizations for screening individuals for Type 2 Diabetes.

One such organization, The American Diabetes Association, recommends screening for Type 2 Diabetes every three years in adults with a body-mass index (BMI) ≥25 kilograms per meter squared (kg/m2) and 1 or more additional risk factors, or at 45 years of age in individuals without any risk factors.

Risk factors for Type 2 Diabetes include: ≥45 years of age, being overweight (BMI ≥25 kg/m2) or obese (BMI ≥30 kg/ m2), Diabetes mellitus in a first-degree relative (parents, offspring, or siblings), sedentary lifestyle, hypertension (blood pressure ≥140/90), dyslipidemia (HDL or “good” cholesterol ≤35 mg/dL and/ or triglyceride levels ≥250 mg/dL), hemoglobin A1C ≥5.7%, history of vascular disease, polycystic ovarian syndrome, history of delivering a baby weighing ≥9 pounds or of having gestational diabetes, and being of a certain racial/ethnic group: African-American, Hispanic, Native American, Asian-American, or Pacific Islander.

WHAT KINDS OF HEALTH QUESTIONS DO YOU HAVE? Submit your questions and they may be used in this monthly feature. Write to Siouxland Life at 515 Pavonia St., Sioux City, Iowa 51102.

Get Your roof readY for Winter For many American families, homeownership brings a sense of stability, accomplishment and peace of mind. Owning a home also means being responsible for its upkeep, in order to make sure it is a safe, comfortable sanctuary for your family to enjoy. As the winter months approach, the first measure of protection for a home against rain and snow in many parts of the country is the roof.

These tips from GAF (www.gaf.com), a New Jersey-based roofing manufacturer, offers advice to home owners for how to get your roof ready for the cold winter.

1. Start off by checking the roof framing structure to make sure it is not compromised. Visually scan the roof for any sagging or uneven areas. If you do see an area that looks uneven, this may mean damage to the roof deck below the shingles.

2. Inspect the gutter systems to make sure they are not clogged with branches, leaves, or other debris. This is important to ensure that rain water and snow have a way off

of the roof. If the water or snow is left standing on the roof, there is an increased likelihood of leaking or ice damming.

Remember that flashings can be loosened or torn by high winds and heavy rains, so inspect the areas annually.

3. Make sure that gutters are fastened properly and are tight and secure so that they don’t cause overflow and build-up or fall off the fascia board. Leaking water can end up causing damage not just to your roof, but to your interior walls, as well.

6. Lastly, you should walk around to carefully inspect the shingles on the roof ± look for curling edges, missing granules, and certainly for missing shingles or damage from birds, rodents, or squirrels.

4. Check the valleys of the roof to ensure that they are also free and clear of debris that can add weight to the roof and also act as a barrier to rain and snow. Leaks frequently occur in the valleys so make sure they are well protected by a proper roofing system.

5. One of the most common causes for roofing leaks is due to problems with flashing. Flashing is the aluminum or metal material that is used in roof to wall transitions over joints to prevent water from seeping in and causing damage.

Metal flashing should also be used around roof vents, pipes, skylights, and chimneys.

By inspecting your roof at least twice a year—before the winter months begin and after they are over—you’ll be able to spot and correct any potential problems before they could get severe and cause you to have to replace the entire roof before its expected lifespan. For more information about home safety, visit nahb.org/for consumers.

Rich Callahan President

RASS Remodeling & Repair

SIOUXLAND LIFE

712-255-3852

www.siouxlandhba.com November 2014

45

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November 2014

Siouxland life

PARTING SHOT by

Bruce Miller

WHeN I rUN For WEED CommISSIoNer...

w

WHEN I RUN FOR Weed Commissioner, don’t look for me to launch a negative campaign.

I’m not going to point out how my opponent has more weeds in his yard than I do. I’m not going to list the number of Weed Board meetings he has missed or talk about the big donations he’s getting from the Lorsban and Treflan folks.

I’m going to focus on the issues – where the campaign belongs – and show voters how committed and passionate I am.

When he comes with photographs of the “bad” years – when I turned off the hose and said to hell with my yard – I’m not going to acknowledge the attacks. (He knows, as well as my neighbors, that I was conserving water for those who needed it most. I wasn’t “lazy,” “unmotivated” or “negligent.” I was a compassionate, conservative guy who wanted to give back to others.)

When I go door-to-door to meet voters in the critical weed abatement program, I’m going to point out how he voted several times to eliminate them from participating – something I’d never do. I’m going to fill the county’s ditches with my oversized signs, hoping they, too, will be a method of reducing the nasty weeds we have to contend with.

I will make sure to go to the Woodbury County Fair and insist I get to judge the “roadside beauty” arrangement competition, knowing full well one man’s weeds could be another’s fall centerpiece.

I will listen to others’ attempts to pull me into the medical marijuana fray and politely point out that that isn’t the kind of “weed” I want to be associated with.

When we have the big Weed Commissioner debates, I will be armed with facts, not folksy stories designed to appeal to the least of us. I will detail my 10-point plan to improve weed control and direct listeners to my website that will feature a clever acronym for “weed.”

I will hand out environmentally friendly campaign buttons

(not stickers that could easily be caught among the county’s weeds) and hang doortags that will also include a list of ways you, too, could solve the problem.

When I walk door-to-door to meet voters in my precious district, I will pull weeds wherever I see them and won’t expect thanks in return.

I will not accept donations from outside sources hoping to sway our weed futures. Instead, I will show how children can benefit from the work we’ve done during these, the “Weed Wars” years. And my television ads will illustrate how weeds have affected my family over the years, how I led the charge when others didn’t know what to do and how I greeted weed pullers when other commissioners were sitting in their lofty offices ignoring the growing problem around them.

I will welcome endorsements, but not solicit them. I won’t go, for example, to implement dealers or road construction crews seeking their support. I will hope my compassion, my commitment and my cantankerous personality will be enough to show that when I cast crucial weed abatement votes, I’ll be putting the people of my county first.

I will speak openly and frankly. I’ll make tough decisions. I’ll hug babies and salute veterans. I’ll listen to constituents. And when I don’t have a decent answer, I’ll say, “I’ll think about that and have my staff get back to you.”

I will go to Weed Commission dinners and eat the meals, even though I won’t know if they’re gluten-free.

I’ll fight to remove the weeds along Highway 20, even though it isn’t finished, and I’ll remind people I’m a passionate progressive with conservative values and lifelong weed experience.

I will run a clean campaign, pray for positive results and know, no matter how hard my opponent tries to bring me down, that I am the right man for the job.

I’m Bruce Miller and I approved this message.

SIOUXLAND LIFE

November 2014

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November 2014

Siouxland life