News

The Party in the Park Committee has picked their Grand Marshal’s for this year’s festival and they didn’t have to go too far to reach them.  The committee has selected Dwight & Bonnie Sanders for their commitment to our community, agriculture and the overall betterment of our entire area. There probably are very few families that have not been to the Sanders Farm to pick out pumpkins, squash and gourds or see the Christmas lights and displays.

RURAL COMMUNITY RUNS FOR FREE WOMEN’S HEALTH SERVICES Benton County Beast Cancer Survivors Hosts Party-in-Pink 5k Walk/Run Friday (Vinton, IA). The streets will turn pink this coming Friday evening in Vinton, IA at Riverside Park as more than 500 walkers and runners from across the region gather for the 2nd Annual Party-in-Pink 5k walk/run.

Vinton police received several complaints of spray paint vandalism to vehicles and buildings in the southeast corner of Vinton Tuesday morning. Targets reported vandalized included cars, pavement, garage doors, the scoreboard of the middle school softball field and even the inside of the concession stand at the Vinton-Shellsburg High School softball field.

Preparations for the 2014 Party in Pink 5K are are well under way, as sponsors and volunteers have been providing bags for runners and organizing activities while participants have been signing up.  More than 425 have already signed up for the June 27 event, which raises funds for the Virginia Gay Hospital Gifts of Hope program, which provides funding for mammograms for women who cannot afford the services.

The 2014 Party in the Park Parade will begin 5:30 on Saturday, June 28. The route will begin at the Benton County Fairgrounds, located on south 2nd Avenue. It will come north on 2nd Avenue and then west on 6th Street. Next, it will go west on 6th Street to B Avenue,  north on B Avenue to 4th Street and then east on 4th Street to  where it would begin dispersing after 2nd Avenue intersection.

After a few anxious days for those who remember the impact of the Flood of 2008, the Cedar River has crested; the water level in Vinton is now slowly decreasing.  According to the most recent National Weather Service Cedar River web page, the river reached 17.81 feet Monday night, but had decreased to 17.51 feet by 9:15 a.m. this morning.

The first Arts in the Park festival in Vinton filled Celebration Park with more than two dozen tents featuring the work of 33 area artists, including several who were displaying their work for the first time. A sign in the welcome booth indicated that one of the purposes of the festival and the Vinton Guild of Fine Arts that organized it is to help “emerging artists.

On Tuesday, June 10th, eight girls from the Vinton-Shellsburg FFA Chapter headed up to Kirkwood, in Cedar Rapids, to compete in two state CDE competitions- Floriculture and Horse Judging. The members of the Floriculture team were Sydney Walker, Jessica Alderson, Emily Cashman, and Katie Isbell. At their competition they had to individually make a corsage and take a series of tests that consisted of pesticide use and application, plant identification, and general knowledge of floriculture.

The Benton County Fair has produced the official Fair Book for 2014. The new book will arrive in your mailbox soon! Watch for and save this book! The book will contain all the information you will need to compete as well as a list of activities for Fair Week, July 23-27. Watch for this cover in your mailbox!

Lora Walker’s favorite painting shows the Arizona hillside where her brother’s ashes were scattered. Marvin Drenter’s projects include a model of the barn on the first farm he ever bought, and a drawing of a race car like the one he was driving when A.J. Foyt asked him for driving advice in 1964. Sara Kreutner’s favorite is a pencil drawing of actor Kevin Tighe from one of her favorite TV shows – “Emergency!” The almost 16-year-old who calls herself “The Homeschool Artist” said the TV show the premiered a quarter-century before she was born has inspired her to want to be an EMT.