Free Christmas tree pick-up for Mount Pleasant residents has been scheduled for the week of January 6th – January 10th, 2024, weather permitting. The Public Works crew will utilize the whole week to pick up trees. Have your Christmas tree placed at the curb for a Monday – Friday morning pickup. Trees must not have plastic coverings, decorations, or tinsel on them.
AGENDA
Board of Supervisors Office
December 31, 2024
9:00 a.m.
Other County Business
Supervisors Sub-Committee Updates
High School Basketball
Mt. Pleasant will square off against Keokuk on Friday, January 3rd, at home with the girls’ tipping off the night at 6 pm. KILJ 105.5 FM, kilj.com, will be on the call with the pregame show at 5:45 pm.
Fairfield will take on Burlington at home on Friday with game one at 6 pm.
Burlington Notre Dame will travel to Danville on Friday with the boys’ leading off the night at 6 pm.
Mediapolis will host Central Lee on Friday with the girls’ teams playing at 6 pm.
West Burlington will square off against Van Buren County on Friday in a road matchup with the boys following the girls’ game at 7:30 pm.
New London will take on Holy Trinity Catholic at home on Friday with game one at 6 pm.
Winfield-Mt. Union is in the middle of a three-game homestand with a game against Wapello slated to start at 6 pm on Friday.
Columbus will face off against Pekin on the road with the night starting at 6 pm on Thursday, January 2nd.
WACO will compete on Friday with the girls’ tipping off the night at 6 pm at home against Columbus.
High School Wrestling
The Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union and Mediapolis boys’ teams will participate in the Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont tournament on Saturday, January 4th.
The Burlington Notre Dame boys’ team will host an invitational on Thursday, January 2nd, with New London in attendance.
The Van Buren County boys’ team will compete at the Ottumwa Invitational on January 11th.
WACO will compete in a dual tournament on Saturday at BGM.
Fairfield will host a quad on January 7th with Wapello making the trip.
The Mt. Pleasant boys’ team will travel to Highland for the Gary Curtis Invitational on January 11th.
The Columbus/Winfield-Mt. Union girls’ team will compete in the Megan Black Eddyville-Blakesburg-Fremont Invitational on Friday, January 3rd.
High School Bowling
Mt. Pleasant will host Washington on January 9th.
Southeastern Community College
The #20 men’s basketball team will take on Western Iowa Tech at home on January 8th with tip-off scheduled for 7 pm.
College Football
#18 Iowa State outsprinted #15 Miami in the Pop-Tarts Bowl over the weekend in a thrilling 42-41 victory. The bowl win broke the school record for points in a bowl game and wins in a season at 11. Carson Hansen set a school record for touchdowns in a bowl game with three total touchdowns, while Jaylin Noel reeled in 117 receiving yards and a touchdown in the win.
Iowa will take on #19 Missouri for the Music City Bowl this afternoon in Nashville at 1:30 pm.
College Basketball
The #3 Iowa State men’s team will start conference play against Colorado tonight at 8 pm on the road.
The Iowa men’s team will take on New Hampshire tonight at 6 pm at home.
The #24 Iowa women’s team picked up their first conference win of the season in a 84-63 drubbing of Purdue yesterday. Addison O’Grady collected 12 points in the win as the Hawkeyes shot over 50% from the field. Iowa will travel to Penn State on Wednesday, January 1st, at noon.
The Iowa State women’s team will face off against Kansas on Wednesday at home at 2 pm.
This Day in Sports History
1907 – The Mills Committee declares baseball was invented in 1839 by future American Civil War general Abner Doubleday in Cooperstown, New York; widely disproven, now known as “the Doubleday myth.”
1981 – Wayne Gretzky scores 5 goals and an assist in Edmonton’s 7-5 win over Philadelphia; gives Gretzky 50 goals in 39 games, the fastest 50 in 50 in NHL history; also sets an NHL record with a 15-game assist streak.
2020 – San Antonio assistant Becky Hammon becomes the first female to coach an NBA team after Spurs head coach Gregg Popovich is ejected in a 121-107 loss to the LA Lakers.
Mt. Pleasant, IA- The 7th inning stretch is over and it’s time to head back out to the old ball game. It’s time for Quarter 3 of our Year in Review brought to you by Two Rivers Bank and Trust.
High school baseball and softball possess the sole spotlight for the month of July with postseason play rounding out the summer. But it was Mt. Pleasant and New London softball who teed off the month with an exciting back-and-forth non-conference senior night for the Tigers. The Panthers held off a late rally to secure an 11-8 victory.
Postseason baseball saw a couple of Southeast Iowa Super Conference squads pit against one another in a Class 2A doubleheader at Mediapolis. Winfield-Mt. Union watched Trevor Phillips pitch a gem that saw him fan 10 Falcons in a 4-1 win over Louisa-Muscatine.
Mediapolis’ Lance Ludens followed uniformly as he tallied seven strikeouts on the mound and an RBI triple at the plate as did Kyler Crow in a dominant 8-0 victory over West Burlington.
New London softball continued to put up thrilling contests as they played host to Danville in their first-round playoff match that saw the Tigers score five runs in the bottom of the 7th inning as they appeared poised to walk-off the Bears. However, Aubrey Nahorny’s glove had other plans to seal a 9-7 win for Danville. Elsewhere, centerfielder Josie Nelson of Winfield-Mt. Union slammed the door on Pekin with a game-winning throw-out at home to defeat the Panthers 9-8.
Switching back to baseball, Class 1A’s Burlington Notre Dame, the comeback kids from a year ago, was eyeing a second consecutive trip to the state tournament, but a rain out put a pause on their first game against New London, who defeated Pekin 3-0 as Memphis Watson notched a two-RBI double, with the game tied at one. After resuming the game the next day, the Nike offense completely took over as Notre Dame moved on with a 9-1 thrashing of the Tigers.
Moving up to Class 3A, Mt. Pleasant engaged in a Southeast Conference (SEC) rivalry against Fort Madison that saw Payson Coleman deliver the game-breaking double. The Panthers would go on to eliminate the Bloodhounds 4-2 and end the season with an impressive 22-9 record in a loss to Central DeWitt that saw Payton Hagans smack his first career home run.
Fairfield had Tallon Bates slap a two-run homer against Assumption, but the Trojans could not overcome the Saints in a 6-3 loss as Fairfield finished the season with a 22-12 record.
In softball, Central Lee pulled off a late upset against Washington with a 5-4 with that saw the Hawks score four runs in the top of the 7th and dismiss a bases loaded jam in the bottom half of the inning. Central Lee would fall in the Regional Championship to Assumption.
Wapello’s season also ended their season a game before the state tournament in a 2-1 loss to Sigourney as the Arrows claimed a 20-14 record.
Burlington Notre Dame’s run would continue in a second-round rematch from a year prior, though the script read a bit differently as they poured on the runs after a litany of mistakes by Moravia’s defense. A Logan Brent three-run exclamation point eventually led to a 10-0 drubbing of the Mohawks.
Unfortunately, the Nikes would end the season with a 28-4 record and one game shy of a return to Carroll as the Nikes fell to Sigourney 4-2 in their first trip to the state tournament in program history. Eli Oleson nabbed an RBI for the Nikes in the loss.
For SEC All-Conference nominations, Mt. Pleasant’s Ben Newton took home SEC Player of the Year as the senior collected a 9-1 record, 55 strikeouts, a 3.66 ERA, a home run, and 26 RBIs at the plate. Payson Coleman also made the First Team for the Panthers. Burlington had Cristos Kantzavelos named First Team All-Conference infielder and Gabe Robinson made the First Team for the outfield.
For softball, Saydee Plummer of Burlington was named SEC Player of the Year as she tossed 174 strikeouts to go along with a 0.76 ERA. The Grayhounds had Lilly Hand, Kierah Wiseman, and Kylee Hill named First Team All-SEC.
Faith Jones was the lone First Team selection for Fairfield. Savannah Hollander was named to the Second Team, while Laney Norris and Olivia Hollander grabbed Honorable Mention.
Senior Emma Starr finished her Mt. Pleasant career with a First Team All-Conference nod. Starr finished the season with a 0.341 average, 9 RBIs, two triples, and a team leading seven doubles and the team’s only home run. Keagyn Coleman was named to the Second Team for the Panthers with a team leading 12 RBIs and a 0.288 batting average. The freshman also caught three runners from behind the plate. Lila Cook and Myah Starr were named Honorable Mentions.
For All-District softball teams, Class 1A had Emily Ross of Holy Trinity Catholic and Ada Boysen of Wapello make the team. For Class 2A, Van Buren County had Ashlynn Huff and Columbus had Lily Coil make the squad.
Class 3A had quite a collection of local talent with seven local players making up the team. Central Lee had Shanna Buford and Kenna Sandoval claim a spot as the duo combined for 15 home runs.
Payton Harris of Mediapolis showed out for her 8th grade season. Washington’s Bella and Leighton Salazar earned a spot, while West Burlington/Notre Dame’s Logan Kelley and Lauren Krieger each grabbed a spot as Kelley also played in the 2024 All-Star showcase.
To round out the summer, Burlington Notre Dame had five All-State selections in Spencer Brent, Landry Haberichter, Jaxon Sadler, Caden Schwenker, and Dylan Kipp, while Brock Thuleen of West Burlington made the Second Team.
The slow month of August saw Taryn Stephens take home ICCAC Athlete of the Week for Southeastern Community College after averaging 5.18 digs per set. Additionally, the Holy Trinity Catholic girls’ basketball team hired Shawn Hopper to take over the program.
The fall athletic season kicked off in late August as WACO thumped Central City 51-36 in a week zero matchup that saw Clayton Miller throw for three touchdowns and Louden Huisenga rush for three touchdowns as the pair would light the area up in future weeks.
Volleyball saw southeast Iowa’s perennial state volleyball contender in Holy Trinity Catholic start the year as Class 1A’s #2 team after a runner-up finish in the 2023 state tournament. Class 2A also put West Burlington at #11 in the preseason rankings. However, an early tournament in Wapello saw the Crusaders struggle out of the gate, losing to Central Lee and Wilton, while Burlington Notre Dame was playing themselves into the top 15 with a third-place finish at the same tournament putting the Nikes at #13 in the next round of rankings—they would climb as high as #12 in the rankings.
Football’s first week provided one of the biggest moments of the year, as Mt. Pleasant marched into Fairfield and ended their 23-game losing streak in comeback fashion as Payton Walker plunged into the endzone with a little over two minutes left in the game then again in overtime as Dylan White nailed the game-winning extra point to win 13-12.
Cross Country has rivalries brewing in Class 3A between SEC foes in Washington and Fort Madison on both the boys’ and girls’ sides, while the boys’ Class 1A teams featured intense matchups between Van Buren County, Danville, and Columbus.
Fort Madison would land the first blow at Elks Fairview Golf Course in Keokuk, though without Washington in attendance, as Avery Rump took 1st place on the girls’ side and Jacob Shottenkirk took the gold for the boys’ teams. Mt. Pleasant had two top ten finishers in Locken Henderson, who took 4th place, and Quintire Lee, who grabbed 8th place.
Winfield-Mt. Union volleyball’s team saw a runner-up performance at the English Valleys tournament as Quin Smith tallied 30 kills and Madisen Kellogg dished out 61 assists. West Burlington won the tournament at Burlington Notre Dame behind Taryn Snodgrass capturing her 1,000th career assist and Carli Cline notching her 1,000th career dig.
Mt. Pleasant would also score their first conference win of the season at home in three set sweep of Fort Madison as Savannah Slobodnik captured seven kills in the win.
Moving back to the cross-country meets, WACO’s Josie Dykstra set a new school record with a 6th place time of 21 minutes and 54 seconds at a meet in Sigourney. Van Buren County hosted their own meet that featured some of the best runners in the state.
Danville’s #13 Jackson Shacklett outpaced Van Buren County’s #7 Lincoln Bainbridge, Mediapolis’ Will Schmidgall, and Winfield-Mt. Union’s #10 Kohlby Newsom to claim the top spot as the Bears also claimed the gold. The Danville girls’ team, led by #19 Alaina Gourley’s 2nd place finish, had the Bears also take the gold.
Switching back to the volleyball courts, Holy Trintiy Catholic started to find their strid after dominating their opponents at their own classic, including a three-set win over Burlington in the championship match as the tandem of Presley Myers and Adalyn Kruse each collected 26 kills.
That momentum continued into the SEISC tournament as the Crusaders would knock off last year’s champion, West Burlington, in a thrilling 17-15 final of the third set for their 9th conference title, as Myers and Kruse produced a couple of key blocks to seal the win as Kruse led the team with 31 kills. Notre Dame battled for 3rd place, defeating Wapello in both sets.
The Fort Madison girls’ team continued their success in cross-country as they won the Timm-Lamb Invitational with Avery Rump leading the team, while the Washington boys’ team staked their claim for the top spot as all five of their runners finished in the top 10 with Tyler Alderton taking 1st place.
For Class 1A and 2A, Ty Muniz’s 4th place run for Columbus had the Wildcats usurp Danville’s stranglehold for the top spot with narrow victory over Van Buren County as Bainbridge finished in 3rd place. The Warriors would go on to be involved in history as Van Buren County participated in the first lighted high school cross county meet in state history at Ottumwa. Bainbridge would finish in 1st place as the girls’ team had Rylee Phillips take 8th place.
Lastly, WACO’s Jude Dykstra would grab the bronze in a return to Mt. Pleasant, finishing with a personal best time of 16 minutes and 34 seconds as he would climb up the individual rankings.
To end the third quarter, Bob Evans Field witnessed their first win in 1,428 days as Mt. Pleasant handled Tipton 33-24 behind some big plays by their seniors. Cooper Coleman would find the endzone twice, Payton Walker would snatch a safety, and Zach Newton and Ain Truong would connect on a 46-yard passing touchdown. The Panthers would not stop there, but we will pick that back up in quarter four as West Burlington, Winfield-Mt. Union, Danville, Mediapolis, and WACO would continue their push towards the postseason.
One more quarter in the books and one last one to go as we finish up the fall athletic season and dive into the early goings of winter athletics for KILJ’s “Year in Review” sponsored by Two Rivers Bank and Trust.
Richard L. “Rick” Holtkamp, 72, of Keokuk, Iowa, formerly of Salem, passed away at 12:58 a.m. Wednesday, December 25, 2024, at the Southeast Iowa Regional Medical Center in West Burlington, Iowa.
He was born on May 19, 1952 in Fort Madison, Iowa, the son of Dennis and Dorothy E. (Box) Holtkamp. On June 25, 2011 he was united in marriage to Christine Cetta at St. Mary’s Catholic Church in Riverside, Iowa.
He is survived by his wife Christine; sister Jeanne Fedler of New London; two nieces: Sara (Adam) Burden of Solon, Iowa and Maria (Joe) Harding of Greenwood, Indiana; two nephews: Clint (Wendy) Fedler of the Virgin Islands and Michael (Hanna) Glover of Blue Springs, Missouri; two great nieces and nephews: Addison and Beckett Burden; two sisters-in-law: Mary (Gary) Glover of Blue Springs, Missouri and Patty Bencivenga of Pittsburg, Pennsylvania; Also surviving are several aunts, uncles, and cousins.
He was preceded in death by his parents; brother Randy; and brother-in-law Kenny Fedler.
Rick was a 1970 graduate of Mount Pleasant High School, he graduated from the University of Iowa with his masters degree, he was a member of St. John the Baptist Catholic Church, the Houghton Knights of Columbus, and he attended the All Saints Catholic Church. He worked thirty five years at Pilot Grove Saving Bank, he retired as President and CEO.
He was cherished and respected by all who knew him. Rick lived his faith in every aspect of life. He was kind, caring, and a humble man, and the personification of love, integrity, and hard work. He enjoyed his farm, family, friends, and the Iowa Hawkeyes, Rick was an avid woodworker making heirlooms for all his family.
A visitation will be held on Wednesday, January 1, 2025 from 12:00 noon to 3:00 p.m. at Schmitz Funeral Home in West Point (the family will not be present). The family will receive friends on Thursday, January 2, 2025 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 a.m. at St John’s Catholic Church in Houghton. A Knights of Columbus Rosary will be recited at 10:00 a.m.
A Mass of Christian burial will be held at 10:30 a.m. at St. John’s Catholic Church in Houghton with Father Dan Dorau as celebrant.
Burial will be at Oakland Cemetery in Keokuk, Iowa.
A memorial has been established in his memory for PAWS Animal Shelter, Keokuk Catholic School, or St. John’s Catholic Church.
Schmitz Funeral Home of West Point is assisting the family with arrangements. On-line condolences to the family may be left at www.sbbfuneralhome.com.
Using automatic headlights in fog is generally a good idea; however, they may not always activate in foggy conditions because the light sensor might still detect enough brightness outside the vehicle. It’s important to manually turn on your low beams and fog lights when driving in heavy fog as automatic headlights might not be sufficient in such situations.
If in doubt turn your headlights on: see and be seen!
