Hampton was once again graced with many holiday trees on display for residents and visitors to enjoy around town. Businesses and offices in Hampton showed off their festive displays in the week before Christmas with trees from one to twelve feet lit up around town. A dumping of snow on Friday closed schools and provided the perfect coating for the trees that line the downtown streets each year.

Pictured attending the summit from Franklin County are 5th generation farmer and Franklin County Cattlemen's Association President, Andrew Benning, District 4 Representative Mark DeVries 4th generation farmer, and wife Carma of Sheffield.

In what is sure to become an annual tradition, a 10 ft tall holiday tree has sprouted up in the Franklin County courthouse rotunda this year. No worries about the intricately patterned marble floor however, as the tree was “planted” by the staff at the Auditor's office and only has short historical roots.

As the holiday season approaches many people’s thoughts turn to gift shopping, holiday decor and Christmas trees. In few places is that more true than at Carlson Tree Farm as three generations of the family ready to meet a blizzard of orders for their artfully assembled holiday greenery arrangements and locally grown christmas trees when they officially open for the holidays November 19th.

City Votes on Change Orders and More
The Hampton City Council met for a regular meeting on November 10th in what would be a very light session. Council members in attendance were James Davies, Jerre Grefe, Bill Hodge, Barry Lamos via Zoom, Richard Lukensmeyer and Patrick Palmer.

Richard "Dick" Lukensmeyer, Hampton City Council Ward 3 representative, turned in his official resignation at tonight's council meeting. Lukensmeyer ended his 3rd four year term one year early, or after 11 years of service, to begin serving a four year term as District 2 Representative on the Franklin County Board of Supervisors.

Ray McBeain never sought glory, nor medals, from combat, though he was destined for both, just as he was bound to be scarred and haunted for life by his experiences on the battlefield, where he saw 400 continuous days of combat under General George, “Old Blood and Guts” Patton. Coming back from war both he and his medals disappeared, Raymond resurfaced after a year but the medals he’d earned, yet never asked for, had vanished.

Hampton, November 3rd 2022 - The City of Hampton has been working to address issues with the abandoned and dilapidated Rick's Pharmacy Building in downtown Hampton, discussing the matter at its recent Council Workshop on October 24th.

Iowa DNR Nov. 1, 2022 - Hunters are home, the dogs are resting and Iowa’s opening weekend of pheasant season is in the rearview mirror. Reports from across the state varied from excellent up north to good in central and southwest Iowa, with the consensus that hunting will continue to improve once all the corn is harvested.
According to reports, hunters turned out in good numbers, filling parking lots and field access lanes.

Access Incorporated of Hampton recently received a $421 donation from the Knights of Columbus Council 10768 of St. Patrick's Catholic Church, Hampton.

Following on discussions from their October 24th workshop, the Hampton City Council voted on October 27th at their regular meeting to relax the residency requirements for Hampton Police officers.
After the council’s vote the residency requirements were changed from a requirement that officers live within 10 miles of the city limits within six months of hire, to 30 miles within six months of hire.

The district released a statement this morning, October 25th, addressing questions around recent news that a re audit request had been received for a completed audit ofthe school district for the year ending June 30th 2021, and which was released to the public on July 6th.

Former Hampton resident and 2009 Hampton-Dumont grad Clayton Favela was recently named as one of 8 winners in a new awards series, The Servies Awards, bestowed by the online restaurant site Yelp.com as part of their Yelp for restaurants initiative.

The State Auditor of Iowa, which bills itself as, "The Taxpayer's Watchdog," has acknowledged that a request for a re-audit of the Hampton-Dumont CSD audit performed by Rachelle Thompson, CPA, Hampton, for the period ending June 30th, 2021, and released July 6th, 2022 has been received and accepted, but the auditor has denied requests to provide records sought by the Chronicle under Iowa’s open records laws.

Larson Well Company of Roland in Story County was out on site today at Seed Tech at 944 Raven Ave near Geneva completing a much needed well project for owner Jeff Burkley and we couldn't help but notice all the equipment. Larson, a 4-generation family-owned company provides water well drilling, geothermal drilling, water conditioning and well services from "well to tap" according to their website.