COLUMN: It’s not just the school news

It hasn’t been happy the past few months in southwest Iowa.

The trend started when the Orient-Macksburg school district began the tedious process of closing the school after the 2024-2025 school year. The committee formed to begin the end only had one shot for voter approval for how the district territory would be divided among its adjacent neighbors.

Committee member Ryan Fredrick put it best equating the entire closing process to a funeral as several in the district feared that day would come.

Unfortunately, the O-M voters will never get that chance as Creston and Winterset schools, through the same attorney, filed an objection to the committee’s proposal to how the territory would be split. That committee followed the state’s rules for doing so. There was no concern of following the guidelines. The funeral analogy had the equivalent of dropping the casket on the way to the gravesite as both Creston and Winterset didn’t like the gift they were given, nor asked for, adding more grief to the grieving.

Losing a school is hard as they are a big piece of the culture of rural America. What happens next to O-M still hasn’t been determined, even though the district is acting like this year will be the last.

Other things in southwest Iowa are also going away.

Officials with NSK Americas announced last month the closing of its AKS manufacturing facility in Clarinda. Items made in the factory will be resourced to other global AKS sites. When the news broke, the schedule is to close in March. Using 54 employees, AKS produces ball bearing components for the automotive and other industries.

Down Highway 2 in Shenandoah, Brown’s Shoe Fit announced in September its plan to move general offices to metro-Des Moines area.

In a statement, officials said the decision to relocate is to “meet the company’s increasing demands, and better position itself for future success.” Des Moines provides “access to a wider population, enhanced infrastructure and improved logistical resources to support the company’s long term vision and ability to serve its network of stores more efficiently.” Their new digs should be ready in 2025.

Brown’s Shoe Fit was founded in Shenandoah in 1911. Leaving the town has to put some salt in the wound. They have closed some of their retail stores in other states the past 10 years.

The Iowa National Guard facility in Shenandoah is also scheduled to close next year with troops being sent to a new site in Des Moines.

It’s depressing our region of the state is losing things that have long been part of the fabric of southwest Iowa. Hearing phrases like “better position itself for future success” is critical and something we probably all can relate.

It’s not all depressing for rural Iowa. It’s encouraging to see the rebuilding of Greenfield just a bit more than four months after the tornado destroyed many homes.

The new housing will stand out and it’s likely the placement of the houses on the blocks will be different than what it was prior. At any rate, it’s good to see it come back.

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I need some help.

Was anyone outside early Sunday morning from about 7 a.m. to 7:30 a.m.? The sky was clear and I looked in a south direction of Creston and I saw something I couldn’t easily recognize. At first I thought it was a commercial airplane but the contrail was not long enough to what I am used to seeing.

The bright light, in front of what I thought was a contrail, did not look like a typical commercial airplane. Besides with the time of day and the bright, clear sky the bright light was moving. I didn’t see enough detail to guess it was an airplane. I wondered if it was a comet. Doing some online research, a comet named C/2024 A1 was tracked by scientists late last month and was expected to be visible in October.

Reports claim it would be bright enough to see in daylight. We are used to seeing “falling stars” at night as they streak across the sky.

If anyone saw Sunday morning what I described, it would be great to hear from you.