The Spencer Chamber Ambassadors visited Craig Neiderheiser's State Farm Insurance office on Tuesday to welcome new agent, Terry Stevens, and congratulate the team for their win of the Chairman's Circle Award. Neiderheiser’s office was one of only 12 offices in Iowa to receive the award. He is extremely active in the community, as a member of the Spencer Chamber, president of the Spencer Jaycees and former president of the Daybreakers Kiwanis.

The big rooster pheasant waited for just the right moment to thunder up from a dense thicket of native grass at Lacey Reynolds’ feet.

Reynolds shouldered her borrowed shotgun. But a chorus of voices shouting “No shot, No shot,” stayed her hand, and the bird was allowed to fly uninjured into the crisp blue sky. It was the last pheasant Reynolds and her friend Amber Jablonski would see on the morning of Nov. 4 and only the second rooster either hunter had ever flushed while hunting.

In 1982, when Spencer Hospital President Bill Bumgarner found a flyer for an open personnel director job at a small, rural hospital stuck to a corkboard on the University of Iowa campus, a 41-year health care career wasn’t exactly top of mind.

“It was during a recession,” Bumgarner said. “I was looking for any job that I could get that I would have an interest in.”

More than 30,000 books — old-and-rare, best sellers and children’s titles — will be available beginning Wednesday when the Spencer Rotary kicks off its annual Five Day Book Sale inside the Clay County Regional Events Center. The First Choice Party will be conducted from 5:30-7:30 p.m. Entry fee will include first access and light appetizers. Thursday and Friday, the sale will continue from 10 a.m. to 5 p.m. Saturday, from 10 a.m.

Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig stopped by Jones Dairy in neighboring Dickinson County on Friday as part of his annual effort to visit each of the state’s 99 counties.

Naig’s visit to the 1,300-cow, family-owned and operated dairy farm coincided with an education day for 95 fifth graders from Okoboji Middle School in Milford. Naig spoke to the students about the importance of agriculture to Iowa’s economy before taking a tour of the farm.

Clay County Heritage announced it will be hosting Iowa History 101: People and Places Mobile Museum from Wednesday, Nov. 8, through to Friday, Nov. 10, in the parking lot west of the building from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. daily, along with Saturday, Nov. 11, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Admission to the Mobile Museum is free. Admission to the Clay County Heritage Center and Parker Museum is always free thanks to sponsorship from Spencer Hy-Vee.

A Spencer-area holiday staple, the Holiday Family Adoption Program allows generous families, businesses and groups to share the holiday spirit and bounty by giving gifts to more needy families.

For 13 years, the generosity of Spencer residents has helped fund the Feed Our Children outreach, providing food to local students who might otherwise go hungry. Housed in a pantry at Hope Church in Spencer, the partnership which began with multiple churches has seen its resources reduce as food prices have raised and need has grown.

Farmers Bank and Trust celebrated Best Day Ever Friday visiting local service agencies and surprising each with a personal note and a donation to their associations or departments. They also traveled throughout Spencer committing various acts of kindness.

The Iowa Lakes Corridor Development Corporation announced the nomination period for the 13th annual Business Recognition Luncheon to be held in January. This ceremony thanks the businesses and individuals in our region for stimulating the region through job creation, investment and fostering quality of life throughout Corridor communities.

DES MOINES — The Iowa Department of Agriculture and Land Stewardship and the United States Department of Agriculture Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service have confirmed four positive cases of highly pathogenic avian influenza in Iowa. Three of the farms are in Clay County and the fourth is in Hamilton County.

AMES — Rabail Chandio has joined Iowa State University Extension and Outreach as an assistant professor and extension economist.

She will oversee popular land valuation programs, including the Iowa Land Value Survey, and the annual Soil Management and Land Valuation Conference held in May, as well as the Iowa Farmland Ownership and Tenure Survey, conducted every five years.

DES MOINES — Women Lead Change honored the late Marion Helland, of Spencer, as one of this year's Iowa Women of Achievement Award honorees. She was recognized at the Iowa Women of Achievement Luncheon on Oct. 18, represented by her nieces, Diana Koppen and Kathy Nord. Iowa Women of Achievement Awards recognizes as many as three women annually.

A Spencer man will spend 30 days in jail, a year on probation, and will pay a $430 fine after he falsely imprisoned a woman and physically assaulted her in his car.

A man who illegally possessed a firearm pled guilty on Oct. 25 in federal court in Sioux City.

Andrew Mitchell, 36, of Spirit Lake, was convicted of being a prohibited person in possession of a firearm.