Since 2012, the West Central Valley School District has been able to use a John Deere Gator free of charge, thanks to Barker Implement of Winterset. Barker’s is now under new ownership, and instead of letting West Central Valley continue to use the Gator, they have offered to sell it to them for a discounted price of $5,000. Activities Director Tod Broman will recommend the district purchase the equipment at tonight’s school board meeting, stating that it has been incredibly useful over the past few years. “We haul around the padding and stuff to set up for football games. Coaches also use it to haul equipment. We can attach wagons to it to haul even more stuff. We could probably use it to help in grooming our athletic fields. There are just many uses for it. It is a time-saving tool for us.”

Broman will give us an update on happenings at West Central Valley today on Let’s Talk Guthrie County. It airs during the 9 a.m., noon and 5 p.m. hours on K107.9 and www.raccoonvalleyradio.com.