FLOYD VALLEY HEALTHCARE PROJECT
2025 TULIP FESTIVAL QUEEN CROWNED
(l-r Ava De Jong, MacKenzie Huizenga, Jaelye Woudstra, Bridget Plender, Faith Elgersma)
At a ceremony last night, Jaelye Woudstra was crowned the 2025 Orange City Tulip Festival Queen.
(Mayor Deb DeHaan congratulates 2025 Tulip Queen Jaelye Woudstra while 2024 Queen Avery Kelch looks on)
Jaelye will reign over the 84th annual Tulip Festival, set for May 15, 16, and 17, 2025.
Jaelye is the daughter of Brandon and Kyndara Woudstra, and is a senior at Unity Christian High School in Orange City. She is joined on the 2025 Tulip Court by court members Ava De Jong, daughter of Daron and Emily De Jong; Faith Elgersma, daughter of Phil and Jen Elgersma; Mackenzie Huizenga, daughter of Aaron and Kim Huizenga; Bridget Plender, daughter of Blake and Marcia Plender; and Jaelye Woudstra, daughter of Brandon and Kyndara Woudstra.
Yesterday, a Queen’s Tea with the court members and three pageant judges was held, followed by a special crowning ceremony took place.
Jaelye and her court will serve as ambassadors for the Orange City Tulip Festival as they travel in the spring, making several media and public appearances.
— photos by Angela Drake
U.S. HIGHWAY 75 IN SIOUX CENTER REOPENS
The U.S. Highway 75 construction in Sioux Center has reached the halfway point at the end of this construction season. Traffic will return to the highway over the winter, after Phase 1 construction was completed between 20th Street S and 13th Street S. This work included paving, landscaped medians, streetlights and trail connections. Phase two involved removal of old pavement, new utilities connections and new concrete pavement from 13th St. S to 5th St. S. Sidewalks, traffic signals and medians were installed. Streetlights, pedestrian crossings and other work will be completed in this segment next spring.
Next spring, construction will begin downtown, from 5th St S to Central Park. In 2026, the final segment will begin, extending from Central Park to 12th St. N. The 4-year, 2.5-mile project is a partnership between the Iowa Department of Transportation and the City of Sioux Center.
There will be one more segment, from 12th St N to 20th St N, which will be done jointly between the city of Sioux Center and the Iowa DOT. This is part of a larger DOT plan to pave U.S. 75 to U.S. Highway 18 west of Hull.
DORDT COMPUTER PROGRAMMING TEAM
A team of three Dordt University students has advanced to the finals of the prestigious North American Championship Programming Contest. The team includes senior Jacob Byker and juniors James Kooiman and Paul van Ginkel.
Competing in the International Collegiate Programming Contest on Saturday, November 9, Dordt’s upper-level team solved seven out of twelve problems, placing sixth overall among 87 teams in the North Central North America region.
The NCNA region, which includes universities from Minnesota, Wisconsin, Iowa, and several other states and provinces, sends the top four teams to the NAC, with only one team allowed from each university. Dordt’s team is one of the four selected to represent the region in the national competition, set to take place in the spring or early summer of 2025.
This marks a significant achievement for Dordt University as they compete alongside top universities from across North America.
GOVERNOR WILL SEEK A BAN ON CELL PHONES IN IOWA K-12 SCHOOLS
Governor Kim Reynolds plans to ask the legislature to ban cell phones from classrooms in Iowa’s K-through-12 schools. Reynolds briefly mentioned the proposal late last week during an interview at the Washington, D-C. bureau for Gray television stations. A spokesman for the governor says personal electronic devices are a distraction and Reynolds believes Iowa kids should have the freedom to focus and be fully engaged in their education. Some Iowa schools have implemented cell phone restrictions for the current academic year. Advocates say it helps students be more engaged in the classroom.
ERNST NAMES SMALL BUSINESS OF THE WEEK, VANDER HAAG’S, INC.
U.S. Senator Joni Ernst, Ranking Member of the Senate Small Business Committee, Monday announced her Small Business of the Week: Vander Haag’s, Inc. of Clay County. Throughout this Congress, Ranking Member Ernst plans to recognize a small business in every one of Iowa’s 99 counties.
In 1939, John C. Vander Haag Sr. founded South Side Junkyard which operated as a scrap metal business that supported the wartime effort. In 1955, his son, John C. Vander Haag Jr., took ownership of the business. In 1969, he renamed it Vander Haag’s, Inc. and relocated the company’s headquarters to Spencer, Iowa. Today, John M. Vander Haag, the grandson of the founder, serves as the president of the company.
USDA REJECTS REYNOLDS SUMMER FEEDING PROGRAM ALTERNATIVE
The U-S-D-A has rejected Governor Kim Reynolds’ plan to provide monthly boxes of food to low-income households with school-aged children — rather than a monthly stipend for purchasing groceries next summer. Reynolds will reapply to the Trump Administration for permission to start the project. Reynolds has said it would feed more children because the state could buy the food at wholesale prices.
During an interview with Radio Iowa a few months ago, Reynolds said many low-income families lack the transportation to get to a store that sells groceries at reasonable prices and her proposal would address that by setting up a distribution system for the boxed-up food.
The U-S-D-A has notified state officials the governor’s plan does not fit the guidelines for its summer feeding initiative. The SUN Bucks program has provided low-income families with an extra 120-dollars per school aged child via a government-issued debit card. Iowa Hunger Coalition Chair Luke Elzinga says state officials are basically saying they don’t want to participate in the program, but want to spend the money.
Elzinga is encouraging Iowans to lobby the governor to accept the U-S-D-A’s guidelines.
