March 17, 2006

• The Gilbert Main Street Association is currently working on redesigning The Gilbert Gazette website.  You will see a completely new look with more color and more photos.  Please be patient while we are constructing the new site.  It will be worth the wait!
  Thank you,
  -- The Gilbert Gazette Webmaster

February 2, 2006

• The Gilbert Main Street Association has the keys and is now driving The Gilbert Gazette website.  You might say we have received our learner's permit, so, with some practice and a little time, we should soon have our driver's license (hopefully without any fender benders or moving violations along the way).  We would like to thank Helen Gunderson for all of her hard work and patience with us while we "learn to drive".

December 12, 2005

• In recent weeks, representatives of the Gilbert Main Street Association, and Helen Gunderson, founder and publisher of the Gilbert Gazette web site, discussed the future of the Gazette. Then yesterday, Miles Moore, who is co-owner of the Consignment Gallery and president of the GMSA, wrote the following email message to Helen, confirming that the GMSA had met and made a commitment to being the new publisher of the Gazette. Lori LaViolette, a graphic designer from Ames and manager of the gift shop at Daisychains and Laughs coffeebar in Gilbert, will be the new webmaster. Lori and Miles will meet with Helen after Christmas. They anticipate that the transition in operations will be completed by January 1.

December 8, 2005

• We are excited about a new phase of discussions that is underway about who will be the new publisher of the Gazette. Soon we will announce the results of those discussions. It is expected that the Gazette will be transferred to new hands no later than January 1, 2005.

November 13, 2005

• We have posted photos that former Gazette editor, Helen Gunderson, took this morning of some of the damage to two area farms and power poles between Gilbert and Highway 69 in the wake of yesterday's tornado.

November 12, 2005

The National Weather Service reports that six tornadoes touched down in Iowa today. It appears that one started in the Minburn area northwest of Des Moines and moved through Woodward to the west side of Ames, then hit two farms within a half mile of the Gilbert, and moved toward Roland. Former Gazette editor, Helen Gunderson, wrote a blog-like piece that we have posted about her day and perspective on the tornado.

The newly-formed Gilbert Historical Society will meet at 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday, November 15, at the Gilbert Gilbert Lutheran Church. Phyllis Reister will show photographs and share stories handed down by her father, Glenn Maxon, who was a teller at the Gilbert branch of the Union National Bank of Ames in 1915, when the branch office was robbed.

Reister is an Ames resident and friend of artist, Jo Myers-Walker, who has her studio in the brick building that once housed the Union National Bank at the corner of Main Street and First Street in Gilbert. For further information, contact Nancy Peterson, a history teacher in the Gilbert schools, who is the history club's advisor. She can be reached by email or via phone at the school: 515-232-3738.

November 11, 2005

• Gilbert has two new businesses. The Signature Style beauty salon recently opened in the beautifully remodeled building that had housed the Companion Animal Clinic until the clinic relocated earlier this fall to the northeast edge of town. The staff of the J.B. Knacker sale barn is remodeling the old General Store at 123 Main Street in Gilbert and will open at that location on November 15.

 November 9, 2005

• The write-in votes for mayor in Gilbert's election included: two for Gary Steel, the town's maintenance supervisor; one for Helen Gunderson, founding publisher of the Gilbert Gazette; and one for Miles Moore, co-owner of the Consignment Gallery and president of the Gilbert Main Street Association. The write-in votes for the city council included: two for Deb Adolphson and one apiece for Joe Battles, Pauline Geist, Joe Loonan, John Swart, Pam Vandenberg, and Janet Warg. more

November 8, 2005

• Unofficial results from the Story County Auditor’s Office indicate that 60 of Gilbert’s 738 registered voters went to the polls today and approved the three uncontested candidates on the town’s ballot. Yvonne Wannemuehler will serve a second term as mayor, receiving 54 votes compared to four write-in votes. Teri Gallahan will serve her first full-fledged term as a council member, receiving 55 votes. Lynn Henn will serve his third term on the council, receiving 51 votes. There were eight write-ins for the council. more

• A burn ban has been issued beginning at 8 am today for all of Story County.
  Due to the increasingly dry conditions, the fire chiefs of Story County have unanimously requested that a burn ban be placed in effect for all rural and urban areas of Story County.
  Chapter 100.40 of the Iowa Code advises that the Fire Marshall may prohibit open burning at the request of the local fire departments. Violation of a prohibition issued under this section is a simple misdemeanor. Open burning in Story County will ONLY be allowed if the Fire Chief of that jurisdiction has issued a permit allowing open burning; or for barbecue grills, properly supervised landfills, or the burning of trash in incinerators or trash burners made of metal, concrete, masonry, or heavy one inch wire mesh with no openings greater than one square inch.

November 3, 2005

• According to the Story County Auditor's Office, the City of Gilbert has 737 registered voters for its election on November 8 compared to 684 voters for the 2003 election when 146 ballots were cast. Ten years ago, only 42 out of 464 registered Gilbert voters went to the polls for the city election.

October 31, 2005

• We've added two photos to the E-Postcard section. One is of the colorful trees along Mathews Drive on the north side of the secondary school building and the other is of the Gilbert Lutheran Church. We plan to photograph the Evangelical Free Church sometime when the lighting and colors are right and add the image to our collection. We encourage you to visit the E-Postcard section and send Gilbert images, along with your personal messages, to friends, family members, and colleagues. We hope that you find it to be a fun and meaningful way of corresponding. Also, each time you send a Gilbert E-Postcard, you indirectly help to promote the Gazette. Thanks.

The Gilbert Lutheran Church
celebrates its 125th anniversary in 2006.

October 30, 2005

• We've posted a column by Gazette editor, Helen Gunderson, in which she talks about passing the torch to a new publisher.

October 10, 2005

• We've discovered a new web site. It's for a Yahoo Internet group called Story County Freecycle where visitors can find free items. It's not that hard to register, and registered members can post items that they want to offer free of charge.

The focus of the group is to cover the communities in and around Story County, and anyone else in Central Iowa who wishes to travel to pick up the treasures. The goal of the group is to reduce waste by connecting people who are throwing away unwanted items with others seeking the same items (and have a little fun in the process). No item is too big or too small; but since it is a FREEcycle list, ALL items must be 100% (that's right, you got it) free.

October 8, 2005

• Gazette editor Helen Gunderson has listed two window shades for sale in the want ad section. The shades are high-quality, double-pleated, and tan-colored with a light-blocking liner. They are manufactured by Bali and were purchased from J.C. Penney in the fall of 1999. Sorry this item is has found a home.

October 6, 2005

• A notice on the window of city hall says that Gilbert will hold its "trick-or-treat night" on Monday, October 31, from 5 to 7 pm.

• A large sign in the window of the Companion Animal Clinic on Main Street says that by October 10, the clinic will have moved into its new facility at the corner of Dunn and Second Streets.

September 23, 2005

• The City of Gilbert will hold its election on November 8. The deadline for candidates to file papers to be on the ballot was at 5 pm yesterday. At mid-day yesterday, we spoke with Gilbert's city manager, and it appears there will be three names on the ballot unless there were last minute applicants. Mayor Yvonne Wannemuehler will be on the ballot, seeking her second term as the head of the town's government. Two people will be on the ballot for two positions on the city council. Council member Lynn Henn is running for his third term while Teri Gallahan is seeking her first full-fledged term. She had been appointed in the summer of 2004 to serve as an interim council member, stepping in for Chad Cook while he was called to active military duty in Afghanistan. Chad resumed his council duties in July of 2005. more

• Daisychains and Laughs coffee bar on the corner of Mathews Drive and Main Street has established its fall schedule and published a new menu. Also, the gift shop has taken on a new look.

September 13, 2005

• Voters in the Gilbert school district went to the polls today at the Gilbert Lutheran Church. The results are that Kim Mosiman with 167 votes will be a new face on the Gilbert school board, and Chris Benda with 154 votes will begin his second term. Andy Harris received 87 votes, and there were three write-in votes. more

September 11, 2005

• Today's edition of the Ames Tribune carried information about and comments by the candidates who are on the ballot for the Gilbert school board election to be held on Tuesday, September 13. They include Chris Benda, Andy Harris, and Kim Mosiman.
• We have heard that Gilbert Mayor Yvonne Wannemuehler was at city hall, approaching planning and zoning commission members following their last meeting, seeking signatures for her petition to be on the ballot.