GMG senior and Tama County Pork Queen Lilly Bru pictured competing in the Swine Show during the 2023 Tama County fair. Bru, one of eight finalists for the 2024 Iowa Youth Pork Leadership Team, was crowned in January 2024 at the annual Iowa Pork Congress in Des Moines. PHOTO BY LAURA BRU/THE PIE LADY

JANUARY

12) Well, it’s official: traffic cameras are coming to Tama. The third reading of the amended traffic ordinance was met with no public comments at Monday night’s city council. There was some discussion between the council members before the final vote to pass the ordinance change. All council members voted for the cameras except for newly sworn-in councilman Danny Robinson. The cameras are expected to be installed sometime this spring in two separate locations — 17th and McClellan and 13th and Park.

26) GLADBROOK — Rural Gladbrook resident and GMG High School senior Lillian ‘Lilly’ Bru was recently announced as one of eight finalists for the 2024 Iowa Youth Pork Leadership Team. The team — which consists of one queen and two ambassadors — was set to be crowned this week Wednesday, Jan. 24, in Des Moines by the Iowa Pork Producers Association (IPPA) at the annual Iowa Pork Congress. Bru — who lives with her parents Ryan and Laura Bru on a farm south of Gladbrook — is currently the Tama County Pork Queen. Once crowned, the 2024 team will assist throughout the next year with state pork promotional and educational activities.

FEBRUARY

2) PARIS — Tyrin, Tyler and Nahmi Lasley and Lincoln Kingbird are still in a bit of shock about the events that transpired over the last few months and ultimately culminated in all of them traveling to Paris as part of a recent fashion show hosted by famed musician Pharrell Williams. Tyrin, Tyler and Nahmi took the stage as singers and dancers during a piece tiled “Native Voices of Resistance,” and Kingbird, Tyrin’s cousin and Tyler and Nahmi’s nephew, was one of six Native American singers to be featured on the recording of the new Mumford and Sons and Pharrell single “Good People,” even getting the chance to perform the song live with the artists during the show.

16) This nearly lifelong passion with weather recently culminated in Mike Buresh, a 1982 South Tama County High School graduate, who is now the chief meteorologist at Action News WJAX/WFOX TV in Jacksonville, Fla., receiving the 2024 National Weatherperson of the Year award, the highest honor in the field, on Feb. 2.

23) TRAER — A rural Traer woman, Karina Cooper, has been arrested and charged with first degree murder in the 2021 death of her husband. It’s been just over two-and-a-half years since Ryan Cooper, 42, was found dead at his rural Traer residence in the early morning hours of June 18, 2021, following a gunshot wound to the head.

MARCH

15) DES MOINES — A complaint filed by Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (CCI) against Rep. Dean Fisher (R-Montour) over his involvement with the newly created Tama-Toledo Christian School was unanimously dismissed by the bipartisan House Ethics Committee on Tuesday morning.

22) In a move presented as a cost-saving measure for both districts, the South Tama County Board of Education introduced and ultimately approved a new sharing agreement with North Tama for three positions — including superintendent — during its regular meeting on Monday evening. Under the arrangement, current STC Superintendent John Cain would divide his time at the beginning of the 2024-25 school year — 60 percent at South Tama and 40 percent at North Tama. Additionally, the agreement proposes sharing the services of South Tama Maintenance Director Steve McAdoo and Assistant Business Manager Katie Hulin, who will focus primarily on assisting North Tama with payroll.

APRIL

26) For the last few years, the leaders of Iowa Jobs for America’s Graduates (iJAG) have held a “Signing Day” event for students — including several at area schools like GMG, Marshalltown and South Tama — with plans to enter the trades after they graduate and sign on with specific companies that help pay for their training. Last Thursday, Kaleb Gill signed with ACI Mechanical in Marshalltown for welding, Jose Ochoa and Tyrel French from Marshalltown who signed with Peterbilt to become diesel mechanics, and Mason Collison and Cale Graff from STC signed with Van Wall’s location north of Toledo, also to become diesel mechanics. The area was well represented as they were five of the 14 total students who signed letters of intent.

MAY

3) The city of Tama has since acquired the Tama Paperboard Mill, and it includes two Jordan wells that Mayor Brian Hanus said they were “very, very interested in” as a potential water source. The city also kept the office and warehouse buildings with the hopes of repurposing or renting them out to private tenants in the future. While officials had discussions about modifying the existing water treatment plant at 305 Siegel St., and they were eventually told it would make more sense long-term to build a new facility on the former paper mill site utilizing the two deeper wells as opposed to trying to pump the water several blocks to the existing plant.

17) Meskwaki Settlement School will soon need a new middle school/high school principal. During the Monday, May 13, meeting of the Green Mountain-Garwin (GMG) Board of Education held at the elementary school, the board approved as part of the consent agenda the hiring of Clyde Tarrence as the district’s new secondary principal beginning July 1.

24) As is tradition, the yearly Tama Citizen of the Year Award was handed out during Friday night’s entertainment at the Lincoln Highway Bridge Festival. This year, Marty Hardon was the recipient of the award.

31) Jenna Meyer as the inaugural recipient of the David W. Wilson Scholars Endowed Fund Scholarship. Meyer, a senior from South Tama High School, was surprised with the news of her selection as the first-ever David W. Wilson Student Scholar during a break between classes on Monday, May 7.

JUNE

28) GLADBROOK — The 2024 Tama County Fair Queen candidates were recently announced and this year include four outstanding candidates: 2024 Gladbrook-Reinbeck graduate Amaya Peterson, of rural Gladbrook; 2024 GMG graduate Stella Betts, of rural Gladbrook; North Tama rising senior Ava Monat, of rural Traer; and North Tama rising senior Faith Dvorak, of Elberon. This is the first time since at least 2015 the contest has garnered four or more candidates.

JULY

19) Amaya Peterson, the 2024 Tama County Fair Queen, was crowned on Tuesday, July 16 at the fairgrounds in Gladbrook. Also present were last year’s Tama County Fair Queen, Adelyn Sienknecht and the 2024 Tama County Fair Princess, Faith Dvorak. Peterson and Dvorak were selected for their roles earlier in the evening from a pool of four candidates which included Stella Betts and Ava Monat.

They were crowned as the grand finale to the fair’s Opening Ceremony which kicked off at 7 p.m.

AUGUST

2) GLADBROOK — Gladbrook resident Becky Fevold is this year’s Tama County inductee for the Iowa 4-H Hall of Fame. With over 30 years as a 4-H leader and numerous years as a horse, poultry and rabbit superintendent for the Tama County Fair and serving in other roles at the fair, Fevold has had a huge part in 4-H members accomplishments.

16) Johanna Cooper, a native of Puerto Rico who most recently served as the curriculum coordinator for the West Bend-Mallard and Gilmore City-Bradgate districts (she was also the K-6 principal at GC-B), is the new superintendent as she took over for Steve Hanson on July 1. Lana Roberts is also replacing Clyde Tarrence as the middle/high school principal and making history — she is the first enrolled member of the Sac and Fox Tribe of the Mississippi in Iowa to ever serve as a principal at MSS.

SEPTEMBER

20) South Tama County High School’s 2024 homecoming court has been announced: Brooklyn Hitchcock, Janette Cervantes, Madison Hitchcock, Hannah Houghton, Mayla Kiebach and Skyla Beck, Jerome Kapayou, Marty Garcia, Ian Vore, Cody Blocker, Kinzer Jaennette and Tyrus Clegg.

27) “Red Earth Nation: A History of the Meskwaki Settlement” is a new book by author Eric Steven Zimmer, with a foreword written by the tribe’s Historic Preservation Director Johnathan Buffalo and Meskwaki Tribal Court Senior Deputy Clerk Dawn Suzanne (Wanatee) Buffalo.

OCTOBER

11) TOLEDO – Following a 14-month special investigation, the Iowa State Auditor’s office announced on Wednesday, Oct. 2, that former Tama County Conservation Director Stephen Mayne improperly spent nearly $77,000 in public funds. During a news conference held Wednesday morning, State Auditor Rob Sand discussed his office’s findings — namely, that Mayne, who resigned from his position with the county on Aug. 17, 2023, improperly spent $1,570.93 of county funds while also making $75,293.32 in “unsupported disbursements” during his nearly two and a half year tenure.

25) Tama-Toledo is made up of several great institutions, but few have been more vital to the community than Fareway. The one store that has long outlasted the rest, serving and employing generations of local residents. However, regular Fareway visits may be a little somber for a while as one person who has forever stamped his mark upon the beloved grocery store has left. None other than 42-year veteran of the business George Baack, the familiar face that could always be seen walking about the shelves, has retired.

NOVEMBER

8) A direct ballot initiative specific to all Tama County voters was passed in Tuesday’s election with overwhelming support. The measure was to make EMS an essential service of the county and creating a 75 cent levy to fund the program. To be implemented the measure needed a total of 60 percent approval by voters, the measure passed with 76.6 percent.

15) CEDAR RAPIDS — A woman who stole over $450,000 from a family-owned business in Traer was sentenced Oct. 30, 2024, to two years in federal prison. Leann Marie Rouse, 51, from Toledo, Iowa, received the prison term after a May 31, 2024 guilty plea to one count of wire fraud.

DECEMBER

13) TOLEDO — After serving for more than 18 years at the helm of the Tama County Auditor’s Office where she has handled everything from county budgets to elections to clerking for the board of supervisors, Laura Kopsa is set to retire. Kopsa, 63, a Democrat from Tama, said her decision to retire has everything to do with family.