Community

NORTH LIBERTY– After a series of commission appointments on June 9, several vacancies remain. The commissions and boards make decisions about a host of issue facing the community: what can be rezoned, if a variance to code should/can be allowed, priorities for public parks and recreational amenities, and much more. Volunteers are needed to lead and advise on the commissions. Applications are due July 7.

By Mayor Terry Donahue
City Administrator Ryan Heiar
Police Chief Diane Venenga

George Floyd’s killing by a Minneapolis police officer was a heinous act.
We have seen the anger, frustration and grief spill out across the country, throughout our state and here in our own community, and finding the right words to say is difficult. Failing to say anything is immeasurably worse.
We will start here:

IOWA CITY– The three incumbents on the Johnson County Board of Supervisors held off a challenge from a newcomer in the Democratic primary election Tuesday, June 2.
Supervisors Lisa Green-Douglass, Rod Sullivan and Royceann Porter faced challenger Dean Phinney in a ballot box battle for three seats.
Green-Douglass garnered 18,875 votes (77 percent), Porter pulled in 16,961 (69 percent), and Sullivan, the longest-serving Supervisor of the trio, picked up 15,923 (65 percent) while newcomer Phinney mustered only 6,989 votes (28 percent).

OXFORD– In a normal year, American Legion Post 537 in Oxford conducts Memorial Day observances in six cemeteries. The veterans typically bus from site to site participating in a short parade and drop a wreath into Rhine Creek. Later, a detachment deploys to Sutliff for the evening ceremony on the bridge.

TIFFIN– Graduation, a tradition as old as formal education itself. For the high school senior, it is an event 12 years in the making and meant to be a formal acknowledgement of their accomplishments now and in the future. The final hours of being a high school student are filled with primping and preening, adjusting that Oxford Cap a few hundred times, confusion over which side the tassel should hang from, selfies with friends and family, dozens of other photos, and perhaps even checking the program to see who lines up behind who.