A sunny, crisp day provided a perfect backdrop for the modified Harriman-Nielsen Fall Festival at the Harriman-Nielsen Historic Farm Sunday.
Due to ongoing concerns amid the COVID-19 pandemic, the Harriman-Nielsen board elected to cut down on the activities offered at this year’s festival.
Still, guests were invited to peruse a selection of fresh produce, purchase bean soup to go and pick pumpkins of all colors and sizes from the pumpkin patch.
After a summer of detours, one bridge in Hampton is finally open to local traffic. Though the barricades haven’t been completely removed, as the road isn’t yet entirely open to thru traffic, the south bridge on Highway 65 is cleared and ready to drive across.
It is the first of several road projects to be complete on Highway 65 this summer.
A woman was killed and another individual was injured in a house explosion near Thornton on Saturday afternoon.
Franklin County Emergency Management in a release Monday said Franklin County dispatch received several reports of a house explosion at 598 250th St. near Thornton at 3:38 p.m. Saturday.
Upon arrival, emergency response crews located the body of Janice Marie Doane, 71, who was pronounced deceased at the scene. Another individual was transported to Unity Point Hospital in Des Moines via life flight.
As the election nears, political party representatives and law enforcement officials urge individuals to respect other’s right to express their political viewpoints.
Hampton Police Chief Bob Schaefer said the police department has fielded several complaints about political sign theft and vandalism so far this election cycle. With more than a month remaining before the Nov. 3 General Election, Schaefer said the amount of complaints this year is unusually high compared to other election years.
Twenty years of law experience and a desire to help her home community have led Gina Jorgensen to open a new law office in Hampton.
Jorgensen on August 1 began offering services through Jorgensen Law Office, located in the former Hampton Dental building at 27 N. Federal St. Jorgensen and her team offer legal guidance in a variety of fields, including business law, contracts, criminal defense, estates, wills and trust, family law and real estate.
“We are a general practice law firm,” she said. “In a rural setting, you have to be able to help everyone.”
Hints of fall have begun to pop up around the area’s natural sites.
Trees throughout the community are starting to show changing colors, signaling the beginning of fall color viewing season.
“There are a few species of trees that will start turning colors in the next week or two,” said Franklin County Conservation Director Ned Parker. “The peak will be the end of the month (September) through mid-October.”
An afterschool program for students is expanding to a neighboring school district.
Youth For Christ Central Iowa recently announced that its Campus Life programs, which provide activities and ministry to middle school and high school students, will soon be available to the West Fork communities.
A face behind the series that has connected the Hampton community with up-and-coming country music artists for nearly a decade has elected to take his final bow.
Mike Betten, a radio DJ for KLMJ & KQCR Radio on the Go, celebrated the last day of his career in radio – 32 years of which were spent in Hampton – today, Sept. 30.
Election Day is officially Tuesday, Nov. 3, however one could argue that the 2020 General Election truly begins in just a couple weeks.
On Monday, Oct. 5, county auditors across the state will start to allow in-person voting at their offices and begin the process of mailing out general election ballots to voters who have requested to vote absentee.
Hampton-Dumont and CAL Community School District students this week went back to attending class in-person, full time.
The districts last week made the announcement that beginning Monday, Sept. 21 until at least Oct. 2, school will operate under the Phase 3 model of the districts’ return to learn plan, which calls for full on-site learning. Since school began in August, the districts operated under a hybrid model where a split student body attended class on campus two different days a week.
