After an afternoon of sunshine and a 50 degree temperature on Wednesday, a dramatic change is headed our way in the weather department for today. A Winter Storm Warning will be in effect until midnight tonight as the potential exists for eight to eleven inches of snow in the Webster City area. The wind will play a factor as it could create whiteout conditions at times with the heavy snow predicted. Keep tuned to KQWC Radio and at kqradio.com for more on this winter storm throughout the day today.

Christie Vilsack visited the Mid American Energy wind energy farm near Blairsburg Wednesday afternoon. She learned about the production of wind energy from employees of the facility and how it can play an important role in Iowa's economy. Vilsack is the Democratic candidate for Iowa's Fourth Congressional District in next November's election. She is proposing a five point energy plan if she is elected. The plan would include the creation of a National Energy Council. The 15 member council would be appointed by the President and confirmed by the U.S. Senate. The council would be in charge of developing a long term energy plan for the nation taking the politics out of energy policy and avoiding the gridlock in the political process. It would give energy companies and entrepreneurs the certainty they need to invest in exploration, production and distribution. The proposed energy plan would support all forms of domestic energy production, oppose a repeal of the Renewable Energy Standard,support a production tax credit and develop a new bio-fuels market. Vilsack is challenging Republican incumbent Steve King in the November election.

By a vote of 6 to 1 Tuesday night, the Van Diest Medical Center Board of Trustees approved the 2012-13 Tax Asking. Last month, the board voted to raise the tax asking from $496,265 to $850,000.The increase is due to the State mandates increase in IPERS (Iowa Public Employment Retirement System) contributions and the dramatic increase in charity care. The employer's contribution rate for IPERS will be increased from 5.75% to 8.67% beginning with the 2012-13 fiscal year. Van Diest Medical Center administrator Palmer Schnieder said it is anticipated this mandated increase will cost the hospital an additional $233,000. Schnieder said that even though the tax asking is being raised to $850,000, Van Diest Medical Center remains in the lower one third of tax levies when compared to other county hospitals in Iowa. Even with the increase in the tax asking the hospital will experience a loss form the costs of charity care and IPERS.The lone no vote cast was by board member John Hemingway. The tax asking will take effect on July 1,2012.

The Van Diest Medical Center board approved the appointments of Steven Dunnick and Dr. John Rule to the medical staff. Dunnick is with Emergency Practice Associates and will be providing occasional emergency room coverage. Dr. Rule is a board certified Radiologist with Virtual Radiology. He will be providing occasional Teleradiology coverage at Voyageur Radiology's request. The medical center board also approved the reappointment of the entire medical staff. They include eight active staff members, 56 consulting staff, 25 contract ER staff and 4 associate staff physicians. In addition 23 Allied Health Professionals  submitted applications for reappointment.

In another matter the board approved the purchase of a sander for a pickup truck used by the hospital's plant operations staff. The cost of the sander is $5,850 and will be used to sand the parking lots of the medical center.

Next Wednesday afternoon, the Van Diest Medical Center board will receive the initial proposal from the nurses union for a new contract. The board will then make its counter proposal followed by a closed door meeting between the medical center board and the union representatives.

The Northeast Hamilton Trojans boys basketball team continued their winning ways Tuesday night as they defeated Belmond Klemme in a Class 1A tournament contest in Jewell by defeating the Broncos 56 to 48. The Trojans will face North Iowa of Buffalo Center Thursday night at Garner Hayfield. This game will decide which team will go on to the Boys State Basketball Tournament in Des Moines on March 5. KQWC FM and www.kqradio.com will bring you all the action Thursday night at 7:00!

The Webster City Lynx will face Storm Lake in the second round of the Class 2A boys basketball tournament at Fort Dodge Thursday evening. Game time is set for 7:00p.m. You can hear the coverage on KQWC AM-1570 and online audio streaming on www.kqradio.com !

The Eagle Grove Community School will commemorate the 4th Annual Aaron Eilerts Day of Service and Giving on Friday, February 24th. The day will include a showing of the feature length documentary, "New York Says Thank You". The movie chronicles the restoration of the Little Sioux Scout Ranch by volunteers from the New York Says Thank You Foundation and the spirit of kindness, which heals hearts after devastating events change people's lives. The 87 minute movie will be shown at three times during the day in the Robert Blue Middle School Auditorium. It will be shown at 8:30am, 10:30am and at 12:30pm. There is no charge and no reservations required.

Throughout the day, students at both the Eagle Grove High School and at Robert Blue Middle School will be involved in numerous volunteer projects. They include sewing a memory quilt,volunteering at the animal shelter, collecting food for the food pantry, painting at city hall, making fleece blankets and more. The students will be engaging in two new projects this year. They include creating gifts for the Home of Blessing in Thailand and walking to raise awareness for worldwide hunger and poverty by collecting donations for Heifer International.

Anyone wishing to make a donation towards any of these projects, you may send a check to Robert Blue Middle School. Please make checks payable to the Eagle Grove Community School District.

An industrial energy efficiency loan program was approved by the Webster City City Council at their meeting Monday night.The program would assist commercial and industrial customers with making capital expenditures on energy efficiency programs by providing 12 month no interest loans. Eligible projects would have until October 31, 2012 to apply for the loan This total loan program would be capped at $250,000 and the maximum loan to a single customer would be $50,000. Webster City economic development director David Toyer said the idea for the program was during a city council goal setting session held on December 22,2011. The council discussed ways in which to encourage energy efficiency projects by commercial and industrial customers. The total project cost for a qualifying energy efficiency project must be equal to or exceed $5,000 with pre-approval by the city. The qualified energy efficiency projects would include energy efficient lighting, variable frequency drives, insulation projects, thermal energy storage, compressed air, and ventilation systems.

The South Hamilton Community School Board made its counter proposal to the South Hamilton Education Association members for a new two year contract for the 2012-13 school year. The first year would be a four percent increase in salaries with a six percent increase in the second year.There would be an increase in the professional development reimbursement to $22.50 an hour. One of the changes in the counter proposal would include the coaches schedule of percentage based on the employee's step on the Bachelor of Arts (BA) level minus $1500. There would also be a four percent increase in the salary for the 7th and 8th grade Volleyball coaching position and a seven percent increase in the 9th grade Girls and Boys Basketball coaching position. The staff recall rights would be from 2 years down to 1 year. Both the South Hamilton School board and the representatives of the South Hamilton Education Association will meet in closed session to work on a new agreement.

The February meeting of the Van Diest Medical Center board of trustees will be Tuesday evening at 7:30 in the board room.Items for discussion will include a public hearing on the 2011-12 Tax Asking, medical staff appointments and reappointments,capital requests and a report by administrator Palmer Schneider.There will also be a closed session of the board Tuesday evening.

It was a fun evening on Friday at the fourth annual Family Game Night held at Kendall Young Library in Webster City. Nearly 130 people showed up enjoying a variety of games including Rock Band, Just Dance, Kinect Adventures,Mario Cart and more. Kendall Young Library director Angie Martin Schwarze thanked all who attended the evening of fun and games. There is a possibility of another Family Game Night next fall after the success of Friday's event.

The 2012 Iowa High School Wrestling Championships wrapped up Saturday night. Clarion Goldfield's Aaron Anderson received second place honors at 120 pounds as he lost in the championship round 8-2 to Charlie Jones of Waterloo Columbus. 132 pound Marcus Peterson was a fifth place finisher on Saturday. Peterson won 4-0 over Brady Meyer of Sumner Fredericksburg. Sam Solis was a fourth place finisher at the state meet as he lost to Scott Weber of Gilbertsville Don Bosco by a pin in 40 seconds at 138 pounds.220 pounder Mitch Gambrill was a seventh place finisher as he won a 7-0 decision over Evan Schnack of Underwood.

South Hamilton'S J.D. Rader takes home sixth place honors at 113 pounds as he lost Saturday to Travis Cole of Highland Riverside in a pin at 1:29.

Webster City's Royce Nessa finished the tournament in fourth place at 145 pounds. Nessa lost to Jesse Etherington of Charles City in a 7-3 decision. Dylan Fielder finished in sixth to Ethan Lindquist of Laurens Marathon in a pin at 3:22.

KQWC salutes all of our area wrestlers competing at the state meet this year in Des Moines.

The South Hamilton and Clarion Goldfield girls finished their respective basketball seasons on Friday night. The Hawkettes lost to Roland Story 57 to 49 while Estherville Lincoln Central defeated Clarion Goldfield 80 to 27. Roland Story will face Estherville for the right to go to the state basketball tournament Tuesday night at Algona beginning at 7:00.

Monday night, the Webster City Lynx will play their final boys basketball game in Jefferson Gym as it's tournament time. The Lynx will face the Humboldt Wildcats at 7:00 on KQWC FM and on kqradio.com. On Tuesday,Northeast Hamilton's boys basketball team will face Belmond Klemme in a 1-A tournament game at Jewell beginning at 7:00. The Roland Story boys will face Gilbert in a game at Nevada at 7:00p.m.