Nora Heaton

SOLON—Solon’s kids were welcomed to the library’s Storytime with a ukulele last week, as new Youth Services Librarian Cassandra (Cassi) Elton sang and strummed “If You Want to Read a Book” to the tune of “If You’re Happy and You Know It.”
Elton, who began in her new role on Sept. 18, will be facilitating and planning weekly Storytime, instructing Babygarten, and organizing early-out activities and teen programming.
Working with boisterous children sounds like a fun challenge to her, rather than a scary task. She loves kids’ contagious enthusiasm.

NORTH LIBERTY – Eric Ewald is two months into his new job as principal of Van Allen Elementary, and he’s feeling right at home.
That’s partly because he is home. Ewald, his wife and their two kids live and spend their days in North Liberty already. For Ewald, living and working in the same community is a major plus. Moreover, Van Allen is a great fit, he said.
Ewald will bring to Van Allen an emphasis on what he considers his two biggest strengths as a principal: relationships and communication.
Relationships start with kids, he said.

ELY– The opening-soon Dan and Debbie’s Creamery in Ely will sell white and chocolate milk, squeaky cheese curds and homemade ice cream. But it will also sell some things that are non-quantifiable: the security of knowing your milk comes from happy, well-treated cows, the satisfaction of finding a tasty and high-quality product by a local business, and the knowledge that your dollar supports a business built and maintained by an entire family.

ELY– The opening-soon Dan and Debbie’s Creamery in Ely will sell white and chocolate milk, squeaky cheese curds and homemade ice cream. But it will also sell some things that are non-quantifiable: the security of knowing your milk comes from happy, well-treated cows, the satisfaction of finding a tasty and high-quality product by a local business, and the knowledge that your dollar supports a business built and maintained by an entire family.

 SOLON– Most of Solon knows Lori Lindner as a reporter and photographer for the Solon Economist and North Liberty Leader newspapers. For the past 10 years, Lindner helped record the towns’ news and photographed its events.
But these days, she’s writing more lesson plans than news stories. This spring, she transitioned into a new role in Solon: the youth services librarian for the Solon Public Library.