THE WALDO | 26
MORGAN HOBBS • PAGE 29
Highland Hills Golf Course, 5162 W 900 N, Roann, was recently purchased by Mike Brandt and has been renamed The WALDO. New course manager Bill Unger believes it is the “most affordable and playable par 60 course within a 40-mile radius.” To read about their plans to renovate the course, check out Sports Shorts.
UKC CHAMPIONSHIP
Miami County resident, Morgan Hobbs, with his canine companion Cherokee, captures the UKC Performance Pack World Championship. The event was held Oct. 23 and 24 in Ohio.
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November 17, 2010 Southwood students honor Veterans For several years, fifth-grade students at Southwood Elementary have been honoring our veterans on Veterans Day with a program and refreshments. This year, a generous grant from the C o m m u n i t y Foundation of Wabash County purchased digital video cameras and equipment, and students were able to videotape an interview with a veteran of their choice. These interviews will be archived at the Wabash County Historical Museum and clips were made into a cumulative movie that was viewed at the Veterans Day program. The convocation included American Legion Post 15 color guard. Veterans and their guests attended the convocation along with the third, fifth and sixth grade classes.
In Memorium Betty Applegate, 79 Donald Dials, 72 Norman Greene, 84 Opal Grumpp, 80 Tanner Hayslett, 16 George Spohr, 80 Marieta Stout, 83 Emmet Taylor, 81 Clara Wheating, 96 June Wolfe, 92 Richard Youngman Jr., 31
Index Classifieds............36-39 Community News......23-,27-28 D & E ..................24-25 Sports Shorts ............27 Weekly Reports ....16-18 Vol. 33, No. 32
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York family honored as 2010 Wabash County Farm Family of the Year
THE WABASH COUNTY CHAMBER OF COMMERCE recently announced that rural Roann residents Mark and Chris York were selected as the inaugural recipients of the Wabash County “Farm Family of the Year” award. Pictured are (from left): Chris York; Mark York; Howard Halderman, president of Halderman Land Management; and Kim Pinkerton, Chamber president. (photo by The Paper staff) by Shaun Tilghman In an effort to recognize the contributions of the agricultural sector to both the economy and way of life of Wabash County residents, the Wabash County of Chamber Commerce has established an award to honor a family that represents the best qualities of a local farm family. The inaugural recipients of the “Farm Family of the Year” award are rural Roann residents Mark and Chris York. “Chris and I feel that it is a great honor to be selected as the first outstanding farm family for Wabash County,” Mark said. “We feel honored that Wabash understands the value of agriculture to the county and appreciates what we bring to the county. It’s an endorsement that what we are doing is accepted; being nominated by our neighbors speaks volumes.”
The Yorks have been actively involved in the production scenario of farming for approximately 20 years. Their farm, operating as River Bend Farms LLC, is a 12,000-head wean-tofinish (which are 10pound pigs up to market) pork operation. Chris, who has a business degree from Central Michigan University, worked as a banker until she met Mark and made the decision to manage the farm. Mark also works full-time as a salesperson for the largest contractor and manufacturer of hog equipment, Hog Slat Incorporated. The couple stays very busy with the farm, but they always make time for their sons, Parker, 10, and Liam, 6. “We prioritize a lot and Chris and I use a lot of teamwork,” Mark added. “Her past experience as a banker has been very valuable in terms of us operating a fairly large business. The
good thing about Chris was that she entered the hog barns without any preconceived ideas on how to do it, so the integrator that we grow for essentially taught her how they wanted to raise pigs – she does an extremely good job with wean-to-finish pigs. “We also have two very good employees that help out quite a
bit: Craig Hacker, from North Manchester, and Adam Starkey, from Peru. We have 12,000 pig spaces – Chris and I take care of about 8,000 and our employees take care of the other 4,000 – and we make sure to basically get into every single pen because animal care and food safety are paramount. We’re not just producing
pigs we’re producing food, and we take that challenge very seriously.” According to Mark, they’re doing business in a setting that involves people less aware of the work they are actually doing. Thus, they place a lot of emphasis on reaching out to their neighbors in the county. “It’s a total must that
we reach out to our neighbors,” he continued, “without good neighbor relations what we do probably wouldn’t be able to happen. The facilities we have are essentially closed off from other people just walking into them and when people can’t walk into a facility, fear of the unknown tends to set in. What’s important (continued on page 5)
SAMARITAN I AND II standby as personnel from the Wabash City Fire Department rush to load three patients for transport to Parkview Hospital Monday afternoon. The accident, on SR 13 north of CR 100N, claimed the life of a local man, Roger Prater, and injured five more. For more details, read page 5. (photo by Brent Swan)