MARCH 11 DEADLINE TO FILE FOR LPA BOARD OF DIRECTORS ELECTION

Feb 12, 2025 | News

By Susan Thompson | Lake Panorama Times

The deadline to file nomination papers for the 2025 election for a seat on the Lake Panorama Association board of directors is March 11.

The board consists of seven members. Board terms are three years, and members are allowed to serve no more than two consecutive three-year terms. Terms are staggered so the number of seats on the annual ballot varies each year. 

For 2025, there will be three board positions on the ballot. Both Dennis Flanery and Mark Jorgensen are completing their first term on the board and are running again this year. Dirk Westercamp is finishing his first term on the board and will not be running for a second term. To date, Gary Geels has filed papers to run for the LPA board in the 2025 election.

Nomination papers are available at the LPA office, or will be emailed on request. Candidates must collect a minimum of 18 signatures, representing 18 separate active memberships. 

Along with the nomination form, candidates are asked to submit a signed statement of willingness to serve, and a 100-word statement of qualifications. Also needed is a signed conflict-of-interest form listing any businesses or financial interests the candidate has with the LPA. These items will be included in the ballot mailing.

A mailing that includes the ballot, numbered envelope and the official announcement of the annual meeting will be sent to all LPA members in advance of the annual meeting. 

The 2025 annual meeting is scheduled for May 10 with the mailing planned for mid-April. This year will mark the LPA’s 56th annual meeting.

LPA members must return their completed ballot in the numbered envelope. Members are urged to return their ballots in advance of the annual meeting to speed up the tabulation process, although ballots also can be brought to the annual meeting. 

Board meetings are generally held the fourth Tuesday of each month, beginning with open forum at 5 p.m., although the day and time can be adjusted. The board does not meet in January or February unless a special meeting is necessary.

Anyone with questions about the board election process, or details of serving on the LPA board, can contact the LPA office at 641-755-2301 or lpa@lakepanorama.org.

LAKE PANORAMA INDEPENDENCE DAY FIREWORKS JULY 5

Feb 12, 2025 | News

By Susan Thompson | Lake Panorama Times

The date for the 2025 Fire in the Sky fireworks display is Saturday, July 5. This will be the 30th year this Fourth of July holiday tradition at Lake Panorama has been organized by the Joe Scheiring family. Joe passed away in August 2014. Family members continue to organize the event to honor his memory.

The fireworks are launched from Shady Beach beginning around dusk. Rita Scheiring, Joe’s widow, moved to Polk City in 2017. Her daughter and son-in-law, Stephanie and Kelvin Hafner, and their four children have a home at Lake Panorama.

In the early days, the annual fireworks display always was on the Fourth of July, but the Scheirings heard from people who were disappointed they couldn’t attend when the holiday fell on a weekday. Now the display is always on the first Saturday of July, so families can make their plans well in advance of the holiday. 

The Scheiring family says generous community support and donations make this one of the best fireworks displays around. Donations for the 2025 Lake Panorama fireworks display can be sent to Rita Scheiring/Fire in the Sky, P.O. Box 605, Panora, Iowa, 50216. Or via Venmo at @Rita-Scheiring. 

2025 LPN GOLF SEASON UPDATES

Feb 12, 2025 | News

By Susan Thompson | Lake Panorama Times

A total of 90 individuals, couples and families purchased a 2025 golf pass at Lake Panorama National or Panorama West by Dec. 31, earning them entries into a drawing for seven prizes. 

Winners and their prizes are Jill Brown, $500 LPN Pro Shop shopping spree; Jim and Dee Tometich, set of Cleveland wedges; Steve Brannan, custom Titleist golf bag; Larry and Dawn Anderson, one-night condo stay; Gerald Frank, 2025 family pool pass; John Sukut, 9-hole playing lesson with LPN head professional Rob Riggins; and Eric Miller, 2025 LPN golf league entry fee. 

A variety of 2025 season golf passes are available for both courses. One new option this year is the Jr. Executive pass, available to golfers younger than the age of 30. 

Pricing for the Jr. Executive pass is the same as the LPN distance pass, which is available to those who don’t own a home at Lake Panorama and live more than 18 miles from Lake Panorama National. The price for individuals for these two passes is $1,421. The rate for a couple is $2,153, and the family rate is $2,614.

Those who have never purchased a golf pass at Lake Panorama National can get a special discounted rate for 2025. Passes can be purchased for individuals at $1,066, couples at $1,614 and families at $1,960. Any 2025 pass holder who refers a first-time buyer who purchases a season pass receives $50 in LPN pro shop credit.

Panorama West season pass holders receive unlimited golf at Panorama West plus unlimited driving range privileges at Lake Panorama National and apparel discounts in the LPN pro shop.

LPN season pass holders receive unlimited golf and driving range privileges, discounted event fees, apparel discounts, advance tee time bookings, and access to leagues, tournaments and reciprocal agreements with other Iowa golf clubs. Also available to LPN season pass holders are signing privileges in the LPN pro shop with monthly billing, discounted guest fees at LPN, and the option to book tee times up to 30 days in advance.

For a limited time, LPN is offering a four-month payment program on all 2025 seasonal passes, including the LPN pool and fitness center. Starting April 20, 2025, and running through July 20, 2025, payments can be made automatically in four equal installments through a bank account or credit card. Those interested in signing up for this program must do so by March 25. Enrollment details are available on the LPN website.

Those who prefer to pay in full can print and complete pass forms from the LPN website and submit payment and the form by mail or in person. Forms can be sent to P.O. Box 5, Panora, Iowa, 50216, or dropped off at the LPN Pro Shop during business hours. Current pro shop hours are Tuesday through Saturday, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.

More details about both golf courses and options for 2025 season passes are available at lakepanoramanational.com. Or call the LPN Pro Shop at 641-755-2024.  

DYLAN. DRACULA. A BOXER. A MONKEY. THE LAST SHOWGIRL. AND MORE. 

DYLAN. DRACULA. A BOXER. A MONKEY. THE LAST SHOWGIRL. AND MORE. 

Feb 12, 2025 | Film Reviews

By Michael C. Woody | Lake Panorama Times

“A Complete Unknown”

I’m a big Bob Dylan fan, so I’ve been eagerly awaiting “A Complete Unknown” starring Timothee Chalamet as the one and only Bob Dylan. The film opens with Dylan hitchhiking to New York state to drop in on a very ill Woody Guthrie to pay homage to his hero. Sitting with Guthrie is Pete Seeger. They ask Dylan to play something, and he does. What a great opening to this movie. The rest of the film traces Dylan’s attempt to make his name as a singer/songwriter, the ups and downs of a couple of relationships (including Joan Baez), and the ground-breaking event of plugging in his guitar at the Newport Folk Festival. Director James Mangold delivers the goods from the first scene to the last in a movie that is one of the five best I saw all year. Grade: A 

 

“Nosferatu”

In this updated version of the 1920s version of the vampire classic “Dracula,” Lily-Rose Depp and Nicholas Hoult play a young couple traveling to the “old country” for a new job. This is one creepy movie and a strong update to the original. Plenty of gore and nasty vampiric activities, enough to make you turn away occasionally. If you are a fan of vampire movies, this will give you an updated look at the movie that started it all. Grade: A-

 

“BabyGirl”

Nicole Kidman has taken some risky roles in the past, but in “Babygirl” she tops all of them. As the president of a major corporation, she finds herself enamored with a new intern who begins playing sexual games of cat and mouse with his new boss. There is a great deal of nudity and lewd activities in the movie, which can best be described as a hard R-rated film. That being said, the story and the performances are strong enough to give it a high grade. Grade: B+ 

 

“The Fire Inside”

Did you know that a female American Olympic athlete has won multiple Olympic gold medals in boxing? Neither did I. This is the true story of Claressa Shields, a boxer from Flint, Michigan, who did just that. It is a wonderful, little-known story of perseverance and dedication. Grade: B+ 

 

“Better Man”

It might not surprise you that I had no idea of who Robbie Williams was going into the movie “Better Man.” It seems he is an extremely talented singer/entertainer whose father early in his life pegged him with the nickname “Monkey.” That name stuck so much that, in the entire film, he is depicted as an actual monkey. The film gives us a no-holds-barred look at this man’s life, both the highs and the lows, and there were plenty of both. It is a crazy film, to say the least. But at the end, it was a different — but very entertaining — movie. Grade: B+ 

 

“The Last Showgirl”

Admittedly, I dragged my feet on seeing this movie. A movie starring Pamela Anderson as an aging showgirl had little appeal to me. How could it be good? I was wrong. Gia Coppola, the director, is Francis Ford Coppola’s granddaughter, and she has given us a gritty look at the last days of an old school Vegas show. The cast includes Jamie Lee Curtis as one of the dancers and Dave Bautista as the manager charged with shuttering the entertainment venue, but it is Pamela Anderson who steals the show. For that reason alone, I believe she has every right to an Academy Award nomination. Grade: B+ 

 

“Wolf Man”

This is the next film in the updates of the old Universal Pictures horror films. We’ve had “The Invisible Man” and now await “The Phantom of the Opera,” “Dracula,” “The Mummy,” “Creature from the Black Lagoon,” “Frankenstein” and “The Bride of Frankenstein,” so now we get “Wolf Man.” The film opens in the deep woods of Oregon (which, by the way, are beautiful) with a father and young son on a hunting hike. The father is overbearing and overly protective of his son. He alludes to a danger in the woods that we never see. Fast forward to current day, the son is married, living in a big city with his wife and young daughter. Like his father, he is overbearing and overly protective of his daughter. When the news arrives that his missing father’s body has been found, the family heads to Oregon to deal with family issues. As the movie title hints, there is a danger in the woods. The movie gets creepy quickly — in a good way. What we end up with is a well-crafted horror film that will lead to many discussions on the way home. Grade: B 

 

“Nickel Boys”

And, finally, the much-touted, brilliantly praised movie, “Nickel Boys.” The film was on most, if not all, of the year’s top 10 movie lists, so we sat down at our art-film theater for a Friday night of movie brilliance. What we saw was the story of young black men from the point of view of one young man. If we see the protagonist, it is not until late in the film. The true story is about a camp for young delinquents and the horrors that these young men faced. It is gruesome and difficult to watch, and the quirky filmmaking makes it more annoying than compelling. At one point, the film projection system (most likely a DVD) had some technical difficulties, leaving audio intact but the picture frozen on something unrecognizable. The filmmaking up to that point was so strange that most of the audience remained in their seats thinking this was just part of the movie. We sat there for 15 minutes before we all realized this was not right. Unfortunately, we had mentally checked out way before the DVD froze. What a disappointment. Grade: D

Michael C. Woody has been reviewing movies on radio and television since 1986. He and his wife, Susan, are residents of Lake Panorama.

NOW WE KNOW WHO READS LAKE PANORAMA TIMES 

Feb 12, 2025 | Publisher's Column

In May of 2024, I let you know we would be implementing a circulation and readership audit of this publication. I mentioned how, in this day and age, most all of us have become overwhelmed with data and are not sure what to believe, especially now with the growing use of artificial intelligence (AI). 

I stated how paid subscription newspapers brag about having the most subscribers in an area, despite reaching fewer than one in five households. Radio stations claim to be No. 1, even if it is a narrow market such as left-handed 43-year-old females from Nebraska. And digital and social media marketers fail to explain that half of their traffic is not from people but from bots. 

It was at that time when I decided to have the circulation and readership of Lake Panorama Times audited by Circulation Verification Council (CVC), an independent, third-party reporting company that audits thousands of editions nationwide with a combined circulation of more than 55 million, covering printing, distribution, circulation, websites, digital editions, mobile, email, social media and readership studies to give an accurate picture of a publication’s reach and market penetration. CITYVIEW and our 14 Iowa Living magazines are audited by CVC and have been for years. 

Why is this important? A credible audit verifies that what we claim our circulation and readership to be is true. It also provides us with basic information on our readers like age, sex, education, income and purchase intentions, which we can share with those who want to market their goods and services with us. 

CVC verified the following circulation numbers for Lake Panorama Times:

• The average net circulation of the print edition is 2,004, and we mail to an average of 1,743 households with an average of 227 copies picked up on newsstands. The average number of readers per edition is 2.0.  

• We have 972 website unique users that average 1,223 monthly sessions with 4,844 monthly page views, spending an average of 2:30 on the site.  

• Our total estimated gross contacts, which includes the print edition, website unique users, social media followers and opened e-newsletter contacts, is 6,163.

The readership data is even more interesting. CVC found that: 

• 66% of those surveyed said they frequently purchase products and services from ads seen in Lake Panorama Times.  

• 50% keep the last issue of Lake Panorama Times until the new one arrives.

• Our average reader is 56.4 years old with average household income of $159,099.  

• 87% of our readers are college educated.  

Some of the most telling data from the poll shows how our habits in responding to advertising have changed. Today, shoppers seek out information online before they buy. This is important because the print publication often does not get credit for driving readers to advertisers’ websites where they may ultimately buy from. In fact, CVC data on Lake Panorama Times readers found that when responding to ads seen in the publication, 68% visit the advertiser’s website before they buy.

The audit cycle is every two years, and I will continue to share the data with you as we receive it.  

In the meantime, continue to be suspicious of all data, especially from media companies. If you buy advertising for a company or organization, ask if the circulation and readership (or viewership or listenership) is audited and request a copy. If it is not — or if it is and they won’t give you the actual audit — that’s all you need to know.  

As always, thanks for reading.

 

Shane Goodman
Editor and Publisher
Lake Panorama Times
641-332-2707
shane@gctimesnews.com