Vol. 145 No. 8 • Friday, January 15, 2010 • [email protected] • P.O. Box 100 • Boone, Iowa 50036 B OONE 75 cents News, pg. 1: New chief nursing officer settles in at E-Free Church Home. Sports, pg. 4: Good effort by BHS girls in battle with 2009 state champs. News, pg. 10: Check out exclusive photos from inside the Meyers Building. NEWS BRIEFS TODAY’S WEATHER INDEX Area Record . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Obituaries . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .2 Sports . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .4 Yesterday Page . . . . . . . . . . .5 Comics . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .6 High of 38 degrees and a low of 22 degrees. Partly cloudy and warmer with winds up to six miles per hour. 32 O 22 O Partly cloudy. OBITUARIES TOMORROW’S WEATHER C M Y K Gothard McDonald, 87, of Boone. Beatrice Anderson, 84, former- ly of Boone. News, photos and additional info on-line at: www.newsrepublican.com INSIDE INSIDE NEWS REPUBLICAN IRHS ANNUAL MEETING The Iowa Railroad Historical Society will hold its annual meeting Saturday, Jan. 16 at 6:30 p.m. in the Boone County Fairgrounds Community Building, 1601 Industrial Park Road. All members are encouraged to attend the meeting. MLK DAY DIN- NER EVENT Come help the Rural Homeless Youth Project and Boone National Honor Society celebrate the life and service of Martin Luther King Jr. by joining them for a free spaghetti dinner on Jan. 18 from 5 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Boone County Historical Center, 602 Story St. Students will spend their day off of school preparing the meal while learning about what it means to serve one another. Information will be available to learn about the Rural Homeless Youth Project and how you can get involved. BE A PART OF THE SWEET LIFE The Boone Camp Fire group will be host- ing “The Sweet Life” on Feb. 13, where partici- pants will have a chance to taste-test a variety of locally-made desserts and vote on their favorites. Local sweet-makers can enter their own desserts in the fundraiser by contacting Shelly Hall at (515)432-5941 and requesting an entry form. Those interested in the taste-testing can attend on Feb. 13 from 1 p.m. to 3 p.m. at the Boone County Historical Society. The cost is $2 for a judging ballot, and Camp Fire Candy will also be sold at the event. HIGH LOW LION’S CLUB PANCAKE DAYS The Boone Lions Club “Pancake Days” will be held on Friday, Jan. 29 from 4:30 p.m. to 7:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 30 from 7 a.m. to 12 p.m. at the Boone County Fairgrounds Community Building, 1601 Industrial Park Road. There will be a cost for tickets, which can be purchased at the door or from any Boone Lions Club members. Carry-outs will also be available. Patrons are asked to note that the serving hours listed on the tickets are incorrect. LET US KNOW! Have some news that our readers might want to know about? E-mail us at news@newsrepubli- can.com or drop it off in person at 2136 E. Mamie Eisenhower Ave. in Boone. Boone native’s band to perform locally Saturday Renegades of Sound return for Boone show MATT OLIVER Staff Writer Boone native Nick Nystrom’s band, the Renegades of Sound, will be returning to town to perform and showcase its wide array of musical interests at 9:30 p.m. on Saturday, Jan. 16 at The Southside, 1215 S. Story St. Nystrom, the son of Boone residents Curt and Lori Nystrom, graduated from Boone High School in 2001, and has since been the lead vocalist and acoustic guitar player for the Des Moines-based band the Renegades of Sound. The Renegades of Sound infuse a mix of rock, techno, blues, jazz, funk and hip hop to create their own sound. “We kind of have a lot of interests within our band just because there is a wide range of musical tastes in our band,” Nystrom said. Nystrom said that a num- ber of musicians comprise the band members’ musical influences, including the Philadelphia alternative hip- hop band G. Love and Special Sauce, the Minneapolis-based hip-hop group Atmosphere, the California band Slightly Stoopid and the Dave Matthews Band. Aside from Nystrom, the five-member band includes keyboardist and vocalist Scott Kacher, saxophonist and flutist Don Brown, drummer Ryan Barnes and scratcher/disc jockey Pat Williams, who’s better known as DJ Phase II. The age range of the band is an attribute that Nystrom said gives the Renegades of Sound an eclectic appeal. “Me and the drummer are in our 20s,” he said. “Our DJ and keyboard players are in their 30s and our sax player is in his 50s, so we have a real- ly broad and diverse sound because of the musical gener- ations that we all have been born and raised in.” Nystrom said it’s difficult to classify the Renegades of Sound as one musical genre. Rap artists from the 1990s, such as Snoop Dogg and Dr. Dre, have also had an influ- ence on the band members’ musical tastes. “When it comes to covers, we do a lot of Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Tupac, Atmosphere, Michael Jackson, Prince – a lot of rap and hip-hop blues,” he said. “It’s really a unique sound. Not many bands are really doing what we do as far as the sound we have going on.” The band primarily per- forms in clubs and aims to utilize their improvisation skills. “We love making improv- isation,” Nystrom said. “Being able to feed off each other on any given night, by improvising off what some- body else is doing or the SOUND see page 3 Behn joins Branstad election committee BOB ZIENTARA W-H News Service Former gubernatorial can- didate and State Sen. Jerry Behn, R-Boone, and former Story County Republican Party leader Russ Cross are among 19 Mid-Iowans named Wednesday to Terry Branstad's campaign com- mittee for governor. In all, the group includes 300 people across all of Iowa's 99 counties, according to officials at Branstad's Urbandale campaign head- quarters. Cross, who led the Story County Republican Party through the end of 2008, said he chose to support Branstad "because of his experience and his success leading the state in extremely difficult economic times." BEHN see page 3 BOONE COMMUNITY THEATRE HOLDS WINE AND CHEESE FUNDRAISER Murder... at the Mardi Gras Photo by GREG ECKSTROM Boone Community Theatre members rehearse for its “Murder at the Mardi Gras” feature to be presented this Saturday and Sunday, at 7:30 p.m. each night, as part of its annual Wine and Cheese fundraiser. STAFF REPORTS Boone News-Republican Who killed Pierre DuPre? Was it his much younger bride of three months, or the resentful daughter? Perhaps the creepy author that lives next door or the family lawyer was the murderer, or one of the other friends, relatives or employ- ees of the wealthy DuPre. Area residents are invited to the Boone Community Theatre this week- end to help solve the mystery. The annual Wine and Cheese fundraiser for the theatre will be held on Friday, Jan. 15 and Saturday, Jan. 16, starting at 7:30 pm. The theatre is located at 106 S Webster St., and tickets for the event will be available at the door. At this audience interactive event, guests will be invited to question the suspects, and accuse the one they believe used the antique Mardi Gras beads to strangle Mr. DuPre, all while enjoying snacks and beverages in a Mardi Gras atmosphere. New chief nursing officer settles in at E-Free Church Home Hinrichs joins staff of Evangelical Free Church Home MATT OLIVER Staff Writer Providing care is Ellen Hinrichs’ business. She’s worked in hospitals, clinics and senior care for three decades. Recently being named the chief nursing offi- cer at the Evangelical Free Church Home gives Hinrichs the opportunity to return to a field of work that’s always been close to her heart. “My history and my first love has always been sen- iors,” said Hinrichs, who assumed duties as the E-Free Church Home’s chief nursing officer on Jan. 4. Hinrichs joins the E-Free Church Home staff after being employed as the direc- tor of nursing at the Story County Medical Center in Nevada for the past six years. Her desire to become a nurse however began when she was a teenager. Her first involvement in senior care was in 1977 at Valley View and Eldora Rehab in Eldora, where she was a certified nurse’s aide, certified medication aide and a certified restorative aide. Her early years in the profes- sion laid the foundation for her not only to be a nurse, but to lead staff in working together for positive out- comes. Hinrichs said her interest in nursing stems from her family, how she was raised and the fact that she began actively visiting seniors at a relatively young age. Her mother was a nurse, three of her brothers have their doc- torates and one of her three sisters is also a nurse. “I think that nurses really are not made, they’re kind of born,” Hinrichs said. “It’s a love I was instilled in at a very young age.” Hinrichs graduated from New Providence Community School in 1978. Following high school, she didn’t waste any time and jumped into the field of nursing immediately. Following her first posi- CNO see page 3 Photo by MATT OLIVER Evangelical Free Church Home Director Nan Sloan, left, stands with Ellen Hinrichs, the new chief nursing officer at the facility. H1N1 activity declines STAFF REPORTS Boone News-Republican Overall influenza activity in Iowa and the United States has decreased over the past month; 2009 H1N1 influenza remains at low levels, and seasonal influenza has not yet been detected in the state. Boone County Public Health reminds residents there is still potential for both H1N1 flu and seasonal flu activity to rise and to continue for sever- al more months. Boone County residents are urged to take advantage of the H1N1 vaccine. “We want to encourage more people to get vaccinat- ed,” said Boone County Public Health Director Vicki FLU see page 3