News : A few of our favorite photos of 2016

A year in pictures....today we share with you some of our favorite images from 2016. Photos that capture our people, our news, our days of celebration and our moments of anguish. And yeah, 2016 brought many of them. We took this photo at right outside of First Christian Church, a few days after the funeral of one of our friends. Funerals, yeah, we had a lot of them this year. While the year ended with the deaths of some nationally-known celebrities, our year locally included way too many funerals for those who died too young. Mother Nature also reminded us of her fury in 2016. The past year included a flood that up until 2008, we could have called historic. The flood levels of September did not rise to the 24.7 feet record of June 2008, but still managed to cause a lot of mess. The tornado of July 17 destroyed apartment buildings, leaving more than 50 families homeless. Like every storm, the tornado left some unique and almost-humorous damage that was more ironic, or even funny, than costly. At Marvin Lindsey field, the large concession stand/storage building was saved, although on either side of it, fencing, a small shed and the playground area sustained significant damage. Near the blown-away playground, a baseball was hurled by the winds and jammed into the fence. Meanwhile, lumber from the nearby apartment roof was turned into meteorological javelins and hurled toward the Benton County fairgrounds, piercing both a windshield of one of the midway semi cabs and the wall of the 4-H Building, right above a display about one local girl's efforts to help residents recover from natural disasters. Of course, 2016 had lots of fun moments, too. Moments of seeing our high school students trying for state championships in their favorite activities. The Vinton boys bowling team won its first-ever State Championship; the Vikings came home a close 2nd after the State Track Meet. The Vinton, Benton and Center Point-Urbana bands all enjoyed successful seasons full of high scores and Division 1 ratings. The Union volleyball team and football team each competed in the State title game, although both came home with the runner-up trophy.