School It’s your lucky day Coming soon... lunch A-10 Fall Fund Fest week A-9 A-8 FAYETTE COUNTY TWEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 11, 2017 UUFayetteCountyNewspapers.comWest Union, Iowa $1.25 Sergeant Vagts shares first-hand story of Vegas shooting Tobin placed on A night never to be forgotten By ZAKARY KRIENER adminstrative [email protected] What started as a week- leave end full of good friends, country music, and fun for By CHRIS DEBACK Eldorado native Bryan Vagts, [email protected] quickly turned into a night Mike Tobin he will never forget. West Union Police Sergeant Mike Tobin was recent- “We got tickets for the ly placed on administrative leave by West Union Police Route 91 Harvest in Las Chief Paul Becthold. Vegas a few months back,” Details as to why he was placed on the leave are recalled the 2012 North not being disclosed at this moment. Becthold and West Fayette graduate. “My girl- Union Mayor Kent Halverson declined to comment on friend, Morgan (Slechta), the situation. and her mom had been look- Tobin noti ed the public about the action through a ing forward to the weekend post of his personal Facebook page. for a long time.” See SERGEANT TOBIN e young couple and continued A-7 Slechta’s mother departed from Florida, where they currently reside, just weeks a er they endured Hurricane Irma. ey arrived in Las Vegas and started to take in Help strike out the many sites and attrac- tions of the city on Friday, Sept. 29, before attending the bullying rst night of the three-day music festival. By CHRIS DEBACK “We went to the concert [email protected] all three nights, seeing Eric Church and Sam Hunt on We all know someone who has dealt with a bully. Friday and Saturday night, In fact, if you looked back — and I know I am guilty before heading to Sunday of this — you may have bullied someone. I know I’m not night’s show to see the head- proud of it and I’m sure the rest of you aren’t, as well. We liner, Jason Aldean,” said all saw it in school, someone was being picked on for being Vagts. “Everyone was hap- di erent. py and having a good time Bryan Vagts (right), a native of Eldorado, and his girlfriend Morgan Slechta stand near the According to the National Bullying Prevention Center stage of the Route 91 Concert in Las Vegas, Nev., just hours before the most deadly mass website pacer.org, in 2016 one out of ve students reported shooting in U.S. history. The couple, along with Slechta’s mother, are thankful to have survived See LAS VEGAS the tragic night which was supposed to be a relaxing evening of music and entertainment. being bullied. continued A-7 “Rates of bullying vary across studies (from 9 percent (submitted photo) to 98 percent),” the website explained. “A meta-analysis of 80 studies analyzing bullying involvement rates (for both bullying others and being bullied) for 12- to 18-year-old students reported a mean prevalence rate of 35 percent for Bentley, Stansbery on ballot for WU council election traditional bullying involvement and 15 percent for cyber- Neal Bentley bullying involvement.” By CHRIS DEBACK [email protected] Neal Bentley is a e website went onto add that only 36 percent of the transplant to West Union, students who were bullied reported it. West Union has two having moved to the small No matter how airtight a school district’s policy may council seats up for election town 11 years ago when be, no one school can prevent all bullying, it simply isn’t on Tuesday, Nov. 7. he was hired as a teacher possible. With current West Union at North Fayette High North Fayette Valley Middle School recently found it- Ward I Councilmember School. self in the middle of an incident. I won’t disclose the details, Adam Keller running for A native of Wisconsin, as I only know what was told to me second hand, and Micah mayor, Neal Bentley is run- Bentley graduated from ning for his seat unopposed. Central Elkader in 1996. See BULLYING continued A-7 Isaiah Stansbery is also un- He married his wife, opposed as he seeks re-elec- Courtney, and the couple tion to his at-large council lived in Madison, Wis., for position. See CITY ELECTION continued A-7 Neal Bentley Isaiah Stansbery Ernst learns about TCLC in visit to WU By CHRIS DEBACK [email protected] U.S. Senator Joni Ernst visited with sta from Helping Services for Youth and Families at its West Union o ce on Monday, Oct. 9. e visit was Ernst’s of- cial visit to Fayette County as part of her 99-county tour. With October being National Ernst makes it a point to Bullying Prevention Month, visit each county in the state every area residents needs at least once a year, a prac- to do their part to strike out tice that was started by U.S. bullying. Bullying isn’t the Senator Chuck Grassley. same as it was 15 years e U.S. Senator met ago. With the rise of cyber- Monday morning with bullying, the ability to bully or be bullied is always at Stacie Schroeder, TigerHawk someone’s fi ngertips with Connections Learning social media sites and ap- Cen-ter (TCLC) program plications such as Facebook Stacie Schroeder (right), TigerHawk Connections Learning Center program director, speaks and Snapchat, respectively. See ERNST VISIT with U.S. Senator Joni Ernst about the after school program that is funded by a federal grant, (Chris DeBack photo) (Chris DeBack photo) continued A-6 and the diff erent ways the program supports children learning after school. Offer good only on Friday, Oct. 13, OFF from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. ;\YRL`=HSSL` The Cat’s out of the 7VSPJLJOPLM Salute to YV`HS[` Z^VYUPU -PYLÄNO[LYZ Chad Helgerson $ A-2 B-7 West Union FD YOUR See this week’s Union FAYETTE COUNTY SALUTING FAYETTE COUNTY VOLUNTEER 2017 Featuring: Chad Helgerson, West Union FD AND Gary Fox, WEDNESDAY, OCTOBER 4, 2017 Wadena FD Published Wednesday, by The FayetteOctober County 4, 2017 Union, The U FayetteCountyNewspapers.com Elgin Echo, & Fayette Leader UnionWest Union, Iowa $1.25 ;OLNPM[VMSLHYUPUN[V live on through others By MEGAN MOLSEED [email protected] MAIL BAG’... IN-AREA “It really is a gift that keeps ‘ on giving. It is very symbolic of how she lived her life,” said * Ray Steff ens, nephew of the late Anita (Steff ens) Parsons. Parsons left a legacy in the form of $50,000 worth of scholarships for young mem- bers of St. Peter Lutheran Church of Eldorado who are Dr. Amanda Korth (left) will seeking a degree in the educa- be the new eye doctor at the West Union Eye Clinic, tion fi eld. now owned and operated 13 “Education and teaching by Woodland Eye Clinic was something she had always in Dyersville. Above, Dr. (UP[H:[LɈLUZ7HYZVUZ been very passionate about,” Joshua Woodland, owner & Friday the 13th is your a longtime teacher and Ray shared about his aunt, of Woodland Eye Clinic, will lifelong learner, left who taught in the Decorah also help out as needed at a legacy in the form school district and later in his new West Union location. of $50,000 worth of (Chris DeBack photo) scholarships for young Henderson, Nevada, for many An eye on the future TLTILYZ VM :[ 7L[LY years. 1-YEAR SUBSCRIPTION Lutheran Church of “She started out as an el- *Any subscriber that has renewed in the last 12 months is not eligible for this promotion. Eldorado who are seek- ementary teacher,” Ray said. ing a degree in the edu- Parsons fi rst obtained her ><,`L*SPUPJVMÄJPHSS`TLYNLZ JH[PVUÄLSK teacher training at Wartburg her bachelor’s degree in educationand then from later Upper earned Iowa By CHRIS DEBACK [email protected] unable to fi nd a replacement University for him. Th e merger includes clinic, some changes will be Anita, who is an Eldorado native, met her husband, downstairs available to rent. Th e West Union Eye Landis’ other two locations, happening. Jack Parsons (also a teacher) while teaching in Decorah. Elkader and Guttenberg. First, Dr. Woodland will A person has already shown “Th ey met and fell in love,” Ray continued, “but at the Clinic offi cially merged with interest in the lower offi ce, Reg. 12-month price of $49.00 ... the Woodland Eye Clinic in Dr. Joshua Woodland remodel the upstairs portion time, spouses couldn’t teach in the same school district in but information on the inter- Dyersville on Sunday, Oct 1 approached Landis about of the clinic building, which Iowa.” th used to be h h ested party wasn’t di l d Lucky Day!!! NOW FOR 1 DAY ONLY: $36.00 (That’s 69¢ per week!) TWO SECTIONS Local News/Society/Sports ............. Sec. A WEATHER this weekÕ s Feature Pages /Local News ............. Sec. B American TODAYÕ S HIGH: 63¡ VOL. 168 NO. 41 U Farmer TODAYÕ S LOW: 51¡ INSERTS Mostly Cloudy. Copyright 2017 B-8 QuillinÕ s The Fayette County Union Fareway ~ Decorah A-2 Wednesday, October 11, 2017/The Fayette County Union A new place to call home W.U. Fire Department Open House Th e West Union Fire Department is hosting its an- nual open house from 6 to 8 p.m. Th ursday, Oct. 12, at the By MEGAN MOLSEED West Union Fire Station. [email protected] Light refreshments will be served, and fi re truck “Sometimes, I think rides will be given to area children.