Among all the mail ferried by the U.S. Postal Service every year, there’s one name and address that arguably receives more correspondence than any other in the country: Santa Claus, North Pole. Considering Santa’s busy schedule, however, it’s no surprise that the famed Christmas patron needs some help answering fan mail.
For the past three decades, local Santa-designated aides have been providing that assistance, making sure that Santa not only receives the letters, but dutifully taking dictation after a fashion to make sure every letter writer receives a response. For years, the letters have been filed away presumably for naughty-or-nice record-keeping. Now the letters have found a new home at the YS Library, where past letter writers or their grown-ups are invited to take home their holiday missives.
Des Moines County supervisors get and give raises
County elected officials get 3% raises, townships get trustees.
Bob Saar
for The Hawk Eye
The Des Moines County Board of Supervisors held its regular session Tuesday in the public meeting room at the Des Moines County Courthouse. The meeting was live-streamed on YouTube and on the county website.
Chairman Thomas Broeker was vacationing with family, thus supervisor Jim Cary chaired. Cary and supervisor Bob Beck were joined by a handful of department heads.
COVID-19 update
Des Moines County Public Health Administrator Christa Poggemiller gave the newest COVID-19 numbers: a 7-day positivity rate of 8% with 94 cases.
After reporting just one COVID-19 infection during the fall quarter, Antioch College now has seven active cases on campus.
Six students and one staff member tested positive for the virus over several days late last week, according to college spokesperson Christine Reedy.
Fewer than 20 students are currently living on campus during the college’s November–December block term, Reedy said. That means the outbreak involves around one-third of students presently in residence at Antioch.
One student tested positive on Thursday, another four students on Friday, and the college was informed on Sunday that one additional student and one staff employee had also tested positive for COVID-19, Reedy wrote in a series of emails to the News. The students are isolating on campus, with no other members of the campus community in quarantine for potential exposures.