Kiwani's brings in a comedian

Have you been to a Kiwani’s meeting? They get together every Tuesday for one hour at noon at Godfather’s. I had the pleasure of being a guest of Jim Davies and thought you might like to know what they do over there.

First of all, they are committed to keeping that meeting exactly one hour long. They start with a prayer and the Pledge of Allegiance. The guests were introduced and a few announcements were made.

Karen Schmidt is the President and she kept the ball rolling. The Kiwanis are sponsoring KLMJ Bus Trip for Relay of Life. Lee Blum was given an honorary membership for 61 years of service. Committee reports were quickly given. Highway 65 project is ahead of schedule. A defibrillator is coming to the Windsor Theatre.

July 21st and July 28th will be Kiwanis Guest Days. If you’d like to attend a meeting, now would be a great time! You can contact the Chamber of Commerce at 456-5668 to see who to contact to get an invitation.

Brook Boehmler, Director of Hampton Chamber of Commerce and Franklin County Tourism was the guest speaker. He started off with funny news he found online. Governor Stanford was spotted at the Gold Key Motel. Rumor is, Governor Palin is moving to Hampton. Saturday night writer takes neighboring state's senate seat because he's good enough, he's smart enough and doggone it, people like him.

So how did Brook end up in Hampton? His dad is from here, his mom is from Iowa Falls. Brook grew up in Missouri, lived in New Mexico and has traveled for the last five years. He was visiting in Hampton and his RV axle broke. He found Butch Gruelke who fixed the RV, and gave him a frequent crash card.

Brook’s uncle was the source of some historical stories in his monologue. He also has a great refrigerator story (watch for it in a later issue). His first summer here, there was some activity always happening. Band concerts, Summer Fest, Ham Jam—and the community participated! He really fell in love with Hampton.

And Hampton is falling in love with Brook. It’s exciting to have someone representing the Chamber and Tourism who has the high energy level Brook does. We are looking forward to the great things coming out of his office at Center One!

Breaking News: Brook Boehmler and Carol (mail lady) are getting married! He thought next June during a band concert would be a great idea. Carol, who loves the band concerts, thought maybe not such a good idea. Congratulations Brook and Carol!

Hampton Today made possible by sponsors like:
Michelle Hartman – Tupperware –641-373-8880
Denise Passehl – Watkins – 641-579-6227
Franklin County Farmers Market 641-456-4811
Make a Splash Foundation jhobson@leslieklinelucas.com
Patrick Palmer – The Computer Guy – 641-420-1234
Seven Stars Restaurant – 641-456-5378
Debra Brown – Melaleuca - 641-458-1114

Let's Get Some Facts

Leslie, Kline and Lukas has been hired to help get The Aquatic Center here in Hampton. Their fee for time over a 12-month period is about $62,000. This covers the work of a five-person team, including a Hampton resident. On the job, in addition to Jenn Hobson of Hampton and Steve Kline, are a business partner, a graphic designer and an account executive. You do the math!

They are working to identify and seek funds from private donors. LKL is doing all of the extensive legwork on grant seeking. They are distributing informational material about the August 4 ballot initiative. They are not spending public funds on any express advocacy for or against the ballot initiative.

They expect to exceed the private fundraising goal of $500,000. From the CAT grant program alone, they could bring $600,000 in state grant funding to Hampton . The CAT program will distribute $4.4 million in 2010. Someone is going to get that funding. Why not Hampton ?

Breaking it down: In return for working for a year to bring $1 million (and probably much more) to the table to replace the closed Hampton Pool, they are being paid about $1,000 per person per month, less than $250 per week. In addition to Hobson in Hampton , they are providing fundraising counsel on-site in Hampton for a portion of every week. They are on call 24/7 and work evenings and weekends until the job is done right.

In addition to the fee for time, they pass through to our clients the cost of creating communication materials. Wherever possible, LKL spends those dollars with local vendors. They like to keep their clients’ money in their communities. They are a member of the Hampton Area Chamber of Commerce, they employ a Hampton resident and they spend all of our expense dollars here.

They do this work because they believe in helping to bring communities together, helping them to discover the great assets they have in their own backyards and counseling them about taking advantage of those hometown strengths. They are proud of our work. They are proud of our fundraising record. Their capital campaigns typically meet or exceed their goals.

In addition to providing fundraising counsel, LKL is a full-service public relations firm. Anyone who runs a business understands the importance of being perceived in the way you want to be perceived. Nothing about that is contrary to truth. It’s just good business. And their PR clients succeed. Among them are US Cellular, Black & Veatch Engineering’s management consulting divisions, Blue Cross Blue Shield of Nebraska, Children’s Hospital in Omaha , and many others. You can see a list at their web site, www.leslieklinelukas.com.

On that web site, you will learn that in 2007, US Cellular selected Leslie Kline Lukas, from among all the PR firms it employs nationally, as Agency of the Year.

Please check out with Steve Kline anything you want to know about Leslie Kline Lukas & Associates or our work. He's at 402-917-6786 or skline@leslieklinelukas.com.

Deb's Corner - Need Money?

On occasion I run across grants that I can’t find a use for—however maybe one of our readers can. I’ll post them and would love to know if you applied, and what you received.

Grants Available for Local Environmental Team/Volunteer Activities

We are pleased to announce our 2009 Wells Fargo Environmental Affairs Green Team Iowa Grant Program, enabling us to make contributions ranging from $500-$2500, to environmental non-profits (must be 501c3) in our communities that focus on the following three categories: Renewable Energy, Green Buildings and Sustainable Agriculture. We are not limited to those three categories, but activities in those areas are encouraged. We aim to fund activities that promote team member engagement and local environmental volunteer efforts. For an application, please email me at GreenTeamIowa@wellsfargo.com. Deadline for completed applications is noon August 24. For more information, contact Brad Gerndt, Founder & President, Wells Fargo Environmental Affairs Green Team Iowa,GreenTeamIowa@wellsfargo.com, 515-324-2878, cell: 515-291-4376. More information on Wells Fargo environmental efforts:www.wellsfargo.com/environment

Conversation With The Competition

Brad Hicks is the Publisher of the Hampton Chronicle, one of the papers falls under the Mid America Publishing banner I love small town living! I got the opportunity to interview Brad for our paper and am very happy to report he is a big supporter of Hampton! Enjoy the read.

Where are you from? I grew up in Jefferson, which is by Ames.

What brought you to Hampton? My wife is from Mason City and her dad got cancer. She wanted to be closer to her family so I started looking for newspaper jobs near Mason City. We've been here 17 years and raised our two boys here. Joshua will be 19 and is going off to college. A.J. Is 15 and in school here.

Why did you decide to follow journalism? I was a nosy, big mouthed kid and wanted to know everything first. Then I wanted to tell everyone what I knew! I've mostly grown out of that.
I went to college at Iowa State. Majored in journalism in 1984 and spent four years in Vinton as sports and news editor – a daily paper owned by Midamerica. I then went to Mount Pleasant for three years as the news editor. We spent one year in Faribault, MN (me as managing editor) and then I went hunting. Mid America was looking for me (they just didn't know it, but that's how it worked out).

Do you still write a lot? Very little, I wrote my column and occasionally the editorial for the Hampton paper. I don't miss the writing so much, but I do miss not having the background information I had when I was a reporter. For me its fun to write when I know things and can share them.

I am starting to notice your news stories a little more. Are you doing something different? The reality of small town newspapers is the content ebbs and flows with the writers. That's where the editing comes in – finding the right flow. We've always been a local newspaper. We have two full time news writers, one who does a little sports too and some sports stringers.

I've always tried to make sure that our newspaper compared to news of similar size town was a better editorial product. Most of comparable sizes are 12 or 14 pages. Ours is at least 16 pages, lots of news and we try and do stories.

How many papers does Mid America publish? There are 18 small town papers in our group. The circulation for all the papers is 18,000 – which is just a little more than the Globe Gazette. All the printing is done here. We've 37 full time employees and 46 part time employees. We are considered a mid sized publishing company.

I realize we think alike in a couple of ways. One of them is shopping local.
One of the things people don't realize is how much of an impact they can have on a local community if they shop local. You can get about 90% of what you need here. Need a tool? Why are you driving to Fleet and Farm, when we have Hanks Hardware or Pamida? Try to go to the big box stores and get personalized help. If they don't have a product – they don't tell you where you can buy it. They certainly don't call the other store to make sure they do have it! I think our local people who own businesses get it – they work very hard for your business.

I also think people underestimate the impact if they just get involved in things. A lot of people like to sit and complain about things. Its safe to say there's a lot of taking for granted of what we have – and there is a self esteem problem in Hampton. We tend to think what we have is not of interest to anyone. That is simply not true!

Brad took me on a tour of the company. They have 4 press units capable of producing 4 pages each, one color.

They are 35-40 years old. They have a 4 high – which is 4 presses stacked. They run their color out of those. 4 pages of full color. It was installed in 2005. 6 weeks ago they installed a brand new plate making machine. In the old days they used to cut out type, laid it on a page, took a pic, got a negative and used it to make an aluminum plate. The plate was hung on the press and printed.

Brad describes the process better than I can! Off set printing is easier to explain by saying that oil and water don't mix. So we mix them and the oil sticks to the paper, the water doesn't - and there you have it. Its just magic! Its the one thing in the newspaper business that I can't do – I can do everything else.

Now we lay out the image on the computer, electronically transmitted to the platemaker and the image of the page is generated to the plate and the plate is hung on the press – just like it has for centuries. Whats cool about our new machine is that it is green. There is no chemical

involvement in the exposure, no water use in the exposure process, no discharges and the plates are like photo paper so when you put it on the press the water runs over and it is all recycled.

We are the 2nd newspaper plant in Iowa to use this technology. There are probably less than 25 print facilities using this technology. Its brand new. Its still a work in progress.

What difference has this made for the reader? It requires less ink and people who pay close attention will probably notice there is a little better detail in photos and graphics.

Compared to where we were 7 years ago we are light years ahead incapacity and quality.

What about the rumors that the newspaper business is dead? People are so quick to say the newspaper business is dying, but we have more people come in our door saying they want more printing than we ever have. Our circulation erosion is miniscule and the number one reason we lose subscribers is death. We are a different creature than the great big dailies. Our little papers we have are very close to the readers. Small town newspaper fill an important niche and they will be around as long as there is a business community around that uses them for advertising.

If you stop shopping local, the small town shops will close up – and your newspapers will disappear because of lack of advertising.

The Monday, July 13, public meeting to answer questions about Hampton’s new Aquatic Center will be held at the Hampton Pool despite the recent permanent closing of the facility.

A new public-service Aquatic Center Answer Line also has been established to take questions about the project. Citizens can call their questions to the voice mail box at 641-425-1050, and they will receive quick answers.

The July 13 Aquatic Center Forum will start at 6:30 p.m. near the Pool’s bathhouse. The location remains the same so that the planned related improvements to Progress Park, for which grant funding will be sought, also can be explained. The meeting is free and open to the public. Representatives of the Make a Splash! Campaign, the Friends of the Hampton Aquatic Center and the City will be on hand to answer questions.

The Forums are intended to make certain that citizens have complete and accurate information about the City’s plans, including the proposed use of revenue from the Local Option Sales and Services Tax (LOST), which has been collected for more than a decade. There is no plan for new or increased taxes. Instead, Hampton plans simply to direct LOST revenue to the new Aquatic Center.

A “yes” vote on August 4 is a vote in favor of using Hampton’s LOST revenue on a new Aquatic Center to replace the recently closed pool. A “no” vote means the City will continue to direct half of the LOST revenue to the water tower, even after it is paid off.

Hampton voters in 1996 approved the 1 percent LOST. In 2001, voters approved using half of the LOST revenue on the water tower and half on a pool. The water tower soon will be paid off. The LOST will continue as approved in 1996, and the City is asking Hampton voters on August 4 whether they approve of directing LOST revenue to the new Aquatic Center.

The LOST is paid by people who spend money in Hampton. For instance, if someone traveling through the City stops and makes a purchase, that person pays the LOST, which will continue in effect no matter the outcome of the August 4 vote.

The “Make a Splash!” Campaign’s objective is to pull together the approximately $3.3 million needed to make the Aquatic Center a reality. The City of Hampton intends to use a combination of private donations, public and private grant funding, and LOST revenue to pay for the Aquatic Center.

Got a question? Call the Aquatic Center Answer Line at 641-425-1050.

$40,000 Grant to Repair Old Stone House

Franklin County Historical Society applied for a grant from the State Historical Society. They were granted $40,000 to help do these repairs: exterior masonry restoration, recaulk exterior doors and windows, new gutters and downspouts, repair deteriorated basement floor joists, door sills, thresholds and interior basement walls mortar joints.

FCHS is making the Leander Reeve House a living museum and not just another house on the historical registry. They are creating programs and working with Silos and Smokestacks to invite more schools to visit, opening the house for rental events, creating unique tours for different audiences and establishing a permanent collection on site, once repair work is completed.

FCHS is now fundraising for matching funds and working to create another reason for tourists to visit Franklin County. Stay tuned …..

Hampton Today made possible by sponsors like:
Michelle Hartman – Tupperware –641-373-8880
Denise Passehl – Watkins – 641-579-6227
Franklin County Farmers Market 641-456-4811
Make a Splash Foundation jhobson@leslieklinelucas.com
Patrick Palmer – The Computer Guy – 641-420-1234
Seven Stars Restaurant – 641-456-5378
Debra Brown – Melaleuca - 641-458-1114

Your Help Is Needed Thursday

Your help is needed! Thursday, July 9th at 3 p.m. we need people to help at Pleasant Hill.

It’s the old time village on the Franklin County Fairgrounds. We have to move machinery, clean buildings, and make sure everything is in it’s proper place.

There will be food served at 6 pm to the volunteers who show up. Barbeque, homemade bars and lemonade.

Just come on over (you can be late if you have to work). Please help us make the 150th Franklin County Fair a Fair To Remember!

A New Frontier

“Space: The final frontier” -- that’s what my generation of Iowans grew up believing, and our own Iowa hero, Captain James T. Kirk, made it seem within reach. But it’s not that long ago that Iowa itself was the frontier. And our historic landmark, the Leander Reeve House, known locally as The Old Stone House, continues to silently testify to this fact.

What must Mrs. Reeve have thought when her husband announced that he’d be joining his brother homesteading in the new state of Iowa? Surely she’d heard the stories and read the letters from those who had already settled here. She knew many women were living in dug-out shelters and sod homes – and many men were living “rough” with no permanent shelter at all. In an era where women still had few rights, her refusal to follow him to Iowa must have set the tongues a-waggin’. But stay in Ohio she did – until her husband built her “a proper house.”

The home Leander built for his wife was the first permanent structure in Franklin County. The Old Stone House is a two-story structure with seven rooms, complete with a full basement. It has two bedrooms on the second floor and a pantry just off the kitchen. It is approximately 26' x 32'. The foundation and exterior walls are of rubble limestone. The front gable roof has a shallow pitch, and narrow wooden cornices. A single chimney is centered on the roof ridge.

If love is something you do, Leander must have loved his wife. Can you imagine how many loads of limestone rubble had to be dug from the bed of Maynes Creek? Yes, it is nearby, but Leander lacked the benefit of a power shovel, a gravel conveyer and a 5 ton truck. The walnut timbers were harvested from Maynes Grove and also had to be moved to the building site.

I once lived in an old house that was built on walnut logs partially dug into the ground. They were starting to disintegrate when I was renting there, and the owner eventually just tore down the house. So please understand what a gift that wonderful full basement was. And remember that it had to be dug by hand. No concrete forms or cinder blocks in 1854 Franklin County, so including a basement meant about a third more limestone; and a third more trips to the creek were needed than would have been required without it, plus extra timbers and supports.

Yes, the Old Stone House was built with love and for a purpose. The $60,000 restoration project being undertaken by the Franklin County Historical Society means it will continue to be loved, and the appointment of a committee to champion its cause means it will once again have a purpose. It might be too early to talk about that purpose, but let me say this – we want it to be a living, working landmark, not a dusty pile of old stones. We want it to be a community resource too – the space for family gatherings, community picnics, workshops and events – the frontier of Franklin County remembered and celebrated.

Socome to our frontier. Come to the Villages of Franklin County. Stay for a little or stay for a lot. And find a slice of Americana you thought only still existed in your dreams. It's no dream. Visit and see memories come alive: The Villages of Franklin County, Iowa.

- Keri Holmes

Glow Girls

Three young girls from the Hampton Iowa have partnered up and formed the team Glow Girls. They are supporting the charity Relay for Life. They are Haley Hansen, Becky Wrolson and Rachel Miller.

Find them Saturday, July 11, hosting a garage sale from 10 to 2 in Mainstreet Square. You can also find them online at www.facebook.com Just do a search for Glow Girls Relay For Life.

They will be walking July 31, starting at 6 pmat the Hampton High school, for Franklin County Relay for Life. They can use your support!

We will be following these three young ladies—it’s great news to see our youth involved in the community.

What Are You Doing At The Fair?

Bob Krause, candidate for the U.S. Senate, will be marching in the Franklin County Fair parade on July 14th with our local Democrats. The Democrats also have a booth at the fair. They will be featuring “Promises Being Kept” - a list of President Obama’s accomplishments to date with the primary focus on healthcare reform.

What is your organization, company or non-profit doing at the fair this year? We’d be honored to talk about it!

Hampton Today made possible by sponsors like:
Michelle Hartman – Tupperware –641-373-8880
Denise Passehl – Watkins – 641-579-6227
Franklin County Farmers Market 641-456-4811
Make a Splash Foundation jhobson@leslieklinelucas.com
Patrick Palmer – The Computer Guy – 641-420-1234
Seven Stars Restaurant – 641-456-5378
Debra Brown – Melaleuca - 641-458-1114