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• Vol. 45 No. 15 Norwalk, Iowa 50211 USPS No. 395-120 Phone 981-0406 email: news@norwalknewspaper.com Thursday, August 29, 2013
First in a Series
Stratton Family
Appalachian Trail Journey
By Mary Lou Gray
In 2012, Richard Stratton of Norwalk was home re-
covering from a knee injury. During the recovery he
started watching documentaries and videos about the
Appalachian Trail.
Stratton's wife, Cathy, stated her husband always had
an adventurous spirit and after viewing the video started
making plans to hike the trail. Daughter, Kasey, a 2009
graduate of Norwalk High School was attending col-
lege at Abilene Christian in Texas when she heard of
her father's idea of hiking the Appalachian Trail. Kasey
decided to join her father on the hike. After consulting
with her professors, she delayed plans to pursue a
master's degree and graduated in December 2012 from
Abflene Christian with a degree in Business Marketing.
The Appalachian Trail, a public footpat h, runs from
Maine to Georgia and covers about 2,186 miles start to
finish. The trail is managed by the National Park Ser-
vice, a branch of the U.S. Department of the Interior.
The trail was constructed in the 1920s and 1930s by vol-
unteer hiking clubs and along with the Appalachian Trail
Conservancy works in partnership with the National
Park Service.
Wednesday, March 13, Cathy drove Richard and
daughter Kasey to Springer Mountain, GA. This is the
official start for the south to north version of the hike.
They estimate it will take six months to hike the entire
trail, averaging 12-20 miles per da3 ending in Maine.
As of today they have approximately 500 miles to the
north finish at Mt. Katahdin.
The following highlights were taken from the
Stratton's blog at 2186miles.wordpress.com.
February March Highlights
Danger along the trail includes bears and deer ticks.
Also, rattlesnakes, moose and rat snakes. Most hikers
report seeing at least one bear as there are an average of
two bears per square mile. Cathy said they took along
medication in the event a deer tick, which is a carrier of
Rick and Kasey on top of Map on stone shows Ap-
Springer Mountain at the palachian Trail official
official start, start in Georgia.
Lyme disease, should be needed. Rick will be sleeping
in a hammock and Kasey will be sleeping in a light-
weight contrail tent. There are three-sided shelters
Concluded p. 7
r This newspaper office will be
closed Monday, Sept. 2, for
Labor Day. Deadline for the
Thursday, Sept. 5 issue is
noon Thursday, Aug. 29. No
exceptions' The paper will go to
the printer Friday a.m., Aug. 30.
John Branyan at
Performing Arts
Auditorium
At 7 p.m. Saturday,
Sept. 7, Comedian John
Branyan will perform in
the Norwalk Performing
Arts Center. Born and
raised in the Midwest,
John is committed to
"comedy that won't leave
a filthy residue." There's
nothing in his act that you
wouldn't want to hear
your children repeat. (In
fact, if your children repeat
anything he says, send him
a video copy of it...he'd
love to see it!)
According to John,
"People didn't invent
laughter. It was given to us
by someone who knew
we'd enjoy it. Every show,
my goal is to hurt people.
Seriousl I want people's
jaws to ache. i want their
sides to cramp up. I want
them to experience dizzi-
ness from oxygen depriva-
tion. When they are in
pain, I've done my job."
And hundreds of audienc-
es eagerly respond, "Bring
on the pain..."
If you're a comedy con-
noisseur, you may already
know John has toured
with Tim Hawkins in the
past and is again perform-
ing with him at several
venues in the Midwest this
summer. You can view
portions of John's perfor-
mances with clips of some
of his performances at
http://www.johnbranyan.
com/video.html:
This will be an event
you can bring the whole
family t0! Not only will it
be fun and appropriate for
all ages, the tickets are also
totally affordable for this
quality program - just $10
per adult and $8 per stu-
dent. There will not be an
admission charge for pre-
school children.
Tickets are available on-
line. Just visit www.
norwalkmusicboosters.com
and follow the link. For ad-
ditional information, con-
tact Rhonda Huegerich at
321-7811. Proceeds from the
event will be used by the
Norwalk Music Boosters to
support vocal and instru-
mental music programs in
all Norwalk schools.
Open House
September 9th
Central Office
The Norwalk Schools
will host an open house
4:30-7 p.m., Monday, Sept.
9, at the new Central Of-
fice and Buildings and
Grounds Department lo-
cated at 380 Wright Road.
The District finalized
the purchase of this office/
warehouse building in
April. District personnel
moved operations on July
16.
The District would like
to welcome members of
the public into visit the
new offices and ware-
house during the open
house.
Absentee
Ballots Available
Ballots are now avail-
able for absentee voting for
persons who will be absent
from the polls Tuesday,
Sept. 10.
The ballots may be
mailed to the voter no later
than Friday, Sept. 6 or per-
sons may come into the
Warren County Adminis-
tration Building, 301 N.
Buxton, Suite 101 and vote
through September 9,
2013. Persons applying for
absentee ballots should
mail these ballots back to
the Auditor's Office as
soon as possible, as the
envelope must be post-
marked no later than Sep-
tember 9, 2013.
A voter is not required
to own property in a
School District in order to
vote in the election, but
must be currently regis-
tered in your county of
residency.
The Auditor's office
will be testing the voting
equipment Thursda3 Aug.
29, 2013 at 9 a.m. in the
Auditor's election office.
Sample
Ballot
on
Page 13
Norwalk Police Chief
Announces Retirement
Norwalk Police Chief Ed Kuhl has announced that
he will retire October 1, 2013.
"We would like to take this opportunity to thank
Chief Kuhl for his service," said Mayor Doug Pierce.
"He has been with the Department since 1999 and his
retirement date marks the 40th anniversary of being
sworn in as a law enforcement officer. Forty years is quite
a milestone and I am excited to commemorate the occa-
sion and honor his service to the community."
A reception will be held in honor of Chief Ed Kuhl's
retirement September 19, 2013, prior to the Chief's final
council meeting. The public is welcome to attend an
open house from 5:30 to 6:30 p.m. at Norwalk City Hall
in the Council Chambers.
If you would like to send Chief Kuhl a card, you can
send it to Police Chief Ed Kuhl, Norwalk Public Safety,
1100 Chatham Ave., Norwalk, IA, 50211.
Reflections on a 40-Year
Law Enforcement Career
The Police Chief of Norwalk, has announced his re-
tirement. The Chief will take off his badge 40 years from
the day that he first pinned it on. Chief Ed Kuhl began
his career as a patrolman for the City of Blair, NE, Octo-
ber 1, 1973. He rose through the ranks as a patrol ser-
geant, detective sergeant, assistant chief and served
twice as acting chief.
Ed and Diane came to Norwalk August 16, 1999.
When Ed arrived, four officers were patrolling the streets
and they worked from an old two-bedroom "little white
house." He reached out to the community and devel-
oped partnerships to foster public support and confi-
dence. The first day he told the officers and the commu-
nity that Norwalk Officers would do the right thing,
even when no one was looking and that creed has re-
mained the cornerstone of the Department's policies to
this day.
"It has been an honor and a pleasure to serve this
community. We appreciated the opportunities presented
to do things that most police officers will never experi-
ence. We helped the community to build a professional
police department, selecting, training, developing and
equipping the officers. We started the School Resource
Officer program and formed a partnership with the
Norwalk Public School District that has been copied by
other jurisdictions. We were able to organize commu-
nity support for the construction of a new police facil-
• ity, that later became the Public Safety Building. We
developed written policies, established a work sched-
ule that reduced overtime, put more officers on when
we needed them and improved days off for the officers
families. We designated some tasks as critical, devel-
oped certified instructors in those tasks and developed
an in-service training program. We changed case man-
agement to track the progress of assigned actions and
disposition of all cases. We invited the input of officers
on budgeting, goal setting and training."
Twice in his career, Ed has received unsolicited pro-
motions. Both had their unique challenges. The first was
as the County Emergency Management Director of
Washington County, Nebraska. That county is the home
of the Fort Calhoun Nuclear Power Plant. The second
was the Public Safety Coordinator for the City of
Norwalk, Iowa. During his brief tenure, Ed supervised
the Emergency Operations Center, Police and Fire De-
partments, managed the construction of the new Fire
Station, the replacement of a pumper truck, an ambu-
Concluded p. 13
