A workshop in the 3600 block of Fourth Avenue West near the Spencer Redimix facility and Vander Haags Inc. on the north end of town suffered severe damage from a fire on April 14.

According to a news release from Deputy Fire Chief Mark Stover, the Spencer Fire Department responded to a report of smoke rolling from under the doors of the building at about 11:46 a.m. The first fire engine arrived around 11:57 a.m. and reported heavy smoke outside the building.

The community of Royal has been busy making plans for its Quasquicentennial — 125th — and Fun Days Celebration, which will be held July 18-20.

The weekend event will include many free, family-friendly activities including a parade, all-school reunion, free Friday night concert with Jeremy DeWall Band, free Saturday night street dance with Johnny Holmes Band, a car show, historic events and many more activities celebrating the town’s history.

Spencer Historic Preservation will host its final two April Lecture Series events on Thursday, April 24, and Tuesday, April 29, starting at 5:30 p.m., both evenings. Each session takes place in council chambers in Spencer City Hall.

“History of Iowa Lakes Community College in Spencer” will be featured on April 24, and April 29 will conclude with the “1953 & 2024 Floods.”

Amazingly, nobody was injured in a head-on collision, Monday afternoon, in northern Clay County between two noncounty residents.

A Ford F-250, operated by Rodney Nothwehr, 57, of Storm Lake, was westbound, at 4:10 p.m., in the 2600 mile of 300th Street, when an eastbound 2010 GMC Sierra, driven by Jimenez Martin, 41, of St. James, Minneapolis, drifted into the westbound lane, colliding head-on with the F-250.

HULL — U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra, R-Hull, recently announced Jim Jordan, Ohio congressman and chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, will be his special guest at this year’s Feenstra Family Picnic on Friday, May 30, in Sioux Center.

BROOKINGS, S.D. ― On Friday, March 28, Sioux Central FFA attended Little International held at South Dakota State University with 13 contest teams.

Little International is a two-day program put together by agriculture majors at SDSU, with practice contests for FFA CDEs for chapters to enter in before state contests.

Sioux Central entered and brought 13 of their 2025 CDE contest teams to compete against various Iowa, Wisconsin, South Dakota and Minnesota chapters.

ESTHERVILLE — Iowa Lakes Community College is designated as a 2025-26 Military Friendly School in the Small Community College category, earning Silver status for its dedication to supporting military students and their families. The college has also been recognized as a Military Spouse Friendly School, demonstrating a commitment to providing accessible, high-quality education for military-affiliated students.

The Spencer Rotary Club donated $2,500 to the Clay County RSVP Literacy Partners Program, supporting early literacy efforts in Spencer's elementary schools to help ensure local children have access to books and reading opportunities. Focused on K-12 success, the program helps improve literacy by connecting volunteers with students and distributing new books to classrooms across Clay County.

The State Science & Technology Fair of Iowa celebrated its 68th year on March 27-28, at Iowa State University, in Ames. This year, 636 students represented 77 schools in the state of Iowa, with one student from Iowa Great Lakes Lutheran School in Spencer.

The Spencer Chamber Ambassadors visited Slumberland Furniture, Tuesday, to celebrate the business’ grand reopening after the flood in June 2024. The store had about four inches of water from the flooding, something they are very thankful for, and with the help of Servpro and others, were able to open back up in about three weeks. They lost quite a bit of customer orders that were due to be delivered, but were able to salvage all but 5% of their floor stock. (Photo submitted)

DES MOINES ― Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds will not seek reelection in 2026, she announced in a video Friday.

Reynolds, the first woman to serve as Iowa governor, said in a video posted on social media Friday that deciding not to run “wasn’t an easy decision,” but she planned to focus on her family after completing her current term in office.

Spencer's Fire Department has fought six structure fires showing smoke and flame when firefighters arrived so far in 2025, the latest occurring on April 14. In all of 2024, the department responded to 10 structure fires.

So far, firefighters haven’t been able to identify a common cause for the incidents.

Businesses up and down Grand Avenue and the U.S. Highway 71 Corridor in Spencer participated in the Masters on Main hosted by Spencer Main Street. Young and old enjoyed mini-golf, stopping at the various locations involved in the event, meant to coincide with The Masters professional golf tournament. (Photos submitted)

Molly Brandt, granddaughter of Merlyn and Sonna Winther of Spencer, recently won two awards at the Midwest Country Music Awards at the Roof Garden Ball Room. Brandt marked the second year in a row she won "Americana Artist of the Year.” The other award was for "Collaboration,” putting together a number performed by all the women nominated for awards. (Photo submitted)

The best way to get big tomatoes and peppers, help those dry trees, and produce flowers is to improve soil health with compost.