News

Miss Underestimated, the RV-7A plane that John Steigelmeyer spent countless hours building, was damaged on the runway in Vinton on Saturday when it hit a deer.  "I had very little time to react, but had enough time when the third deer came close to mentally say "Oh ____!" which more than one reporter has said were the last words on the voice recorder before impact," he said.

Several guys stood in the parking lot of Vinton-Shellsburg High School on Monday, discussing Love -- not the topic, but the tractor, and Jabez Love, the man who made the uniquely-shaped farm machines that bear his name. While most of the 530 tractors entered in the annual WMT Tractorcade bore the more familiar names of John Deere, Ford, White, Massey-Ferguson, Massey-Harris, Minneapolis-Moline and Oliver, a few rare names and unusual designs were among the machines that filed into the VSHS parking lot for a lunch stop.

The following students earned a place on the T3 Honor Roll...Congratulations!!   Andreesen, Claire E 12 Ankney, Devon R 12 Arp, Shelby L 12 Auen, Stephanie A 12 Beatty, Colton A 12 Berry, Stephanie R 12 Bohnsack, Whitney A 12 Clemens, Rachel L 12 *Cornell, Madelyn N 12 Cox, Macy E 12 Dickerson, Jessica L 12 Dufresne, Megan L 12 Dulin, Haily R 12 Evens, Andrea E 12 Gardner, Nicholas S 12 Griffith, Max N 12 Hach, Cara A 12 *Hanson, Katie M 12 Heidt, Katherine M 12 Johnson, Tyler N 12 Kalina, Paula G 12 Ketchen, Natalie K 12 Latteyer, Alissa A 12 Leonard, Bailey S 12 Long, Jenae K 12 Lyons, Bailey A 12 Miller, Cole R 12 Miller, Teresa M 12 Mullenix, Marshall T 12 Oh, Sae Hee 12 Oltrogge, Parker M 12 Paustian, Kaitlyn L 12 Pearson, Drew L 12 Peterson, Kayla M 12 *Randall, Erin M 12 Roster, Courtney S 12 Ruiz, Dylan R 12 Shaw, Jordan F 12 Stewart, Cyler J 12 *Struve, Kacie M 12 Tollefson, Amber L 12 Uthoff, Matthew W 12 Vogt, Hunter W 12 Wehage, Alysha 12 Westendorf, Makayla L 12 Wheeler, Jenna N 12 Bunge, Jacob L.

The annual WMT Tractorcade will be in Vinton for a lunch stop, as scores of antique tractors roll through Palo and Shellsburg Monday morning for the annual 3-day event. The route then leads to Benton Community High School in Van Horne, Newhall and Atkins in the afternoon as the drivers return to Hawkeye Downs at the end of Day 1. See Monday's route list HERE.

The dilapidated house on the corner of 4th Street and 3rd Avenue in burned down Saturday, the work of the Vinton Fire Department. Firefighter Brett Stein lives next door and bought the property. He wil turn it into a green space and also add a shop area. Firemen spent the morning at the site.

Sometime between midnight and 7:25 a.m. this morning (Saturday, June 8), Vinton Today readers viewed a little more than 1,000 stories. At the end of those seven hours, the total number of stories read by you and thousands of others on this web site since we began Vinton Today in March of 2010 had reached 6,000,000. We count our stories by something called page views; every time one reader clicks on a story to read it, that’s one page view.

Led by the Just 'Cuz team from Virginia Gay Hospital, which raised more than $6,000, area residents helped raise money for the fight against cancer during the annual Benton County Relay for Life event Friday in Vinton. The Relay included a lap to honor cancer survivors, as well as luminaries lit in honor of or memory of those who have fought cancer.

Reconstruction of the intersection of 72nd Street and 33rd Avenue located one mile south of Atkins will begin on Monday, June 10 on County Route W28..  The road will be closed to through traffic between 5th Street(Atkins) and US Hwy 30.  There is a marked detour along County Routes W26 and E44. Work consists of removing existing pavement and re-grading the roadway 700 feet immediately north and south of intersection.

These areas are now re-opened after the floods on the cedar river.  1. Wildcat Bluff Park – Re-Opened 2. Benton City Park – Re-Opened except for the bottom section is closed. 3. Minne Estema Park – Re-Opened 4. Rodgers Park:  Re-Opened 5. Old Creamery Nature Trail – The trail is still wet with areas that are impassable by bike, but it still is able to be hiked.

Many participants in the first Farmers Market of the season entered the balloon contest, sending a helium-filled balloon into the air to see how far it could travel (and be returned by whoever found it). The Schmidt Family Band performed, as Vic and his sons sang and played a variety of classic songs. See the VPRD Farmers Market page HERE.