(LE MARS)–A Le Mars man who has served as a Floyd Valley Hospital board member since 1999 will end his service next month.
Jim Ryan, the chief financial officer of Iowa Lamb, will resign effective May 14th. Ryan and his wife, Virgene, plan to move to Yankton.
Ryan’s service to the Floyd Valley Hospital board included serving as chair for four years, beginning in 2004. He’s also been vice-chair, secretary and recently had been the hospital board’s treasurer.
Hospital administrator Mike Donlin is accepting email or a written request from a person interested in a 19-month appointment to the board. The appointment would begin in June and continue through December of 2011.
Hospital officials say a trustees does not necessarily have to be a resident of Le Mars, but must reside in the Floyd Valley Hospital service area. Those interested should include their name, contact information and a brief description of why they’d like to serve.
The board of trustees will consider the responses of those interested in serving on the board at their regularly scheduled meeting May 11th.
(ORANGE CITY)–Construction on a new $3.5-million dollar student housing project will begin in Orange City next month.
Hoogendoorn Construction of Canton is the general contractor for the project approved by Northwestern College Trustees during a meeting this week. A ceremonial groundbreaking took place at the construction site which is currently a parking lot at Arizona Avenue and Sixth Street Southwest.
According to information provided by Northwestern College, the three-floor building will house 68 students in a total of 17 suites and includes a basement. The 23,487 square foot facility features rooms arranged in suites with a bathroom in each suite. The residence hall for men will include many commons areas.
The residence hall is to be completed early next year and ready for occupancy by the fall semester of next year. It will serve as housing following the closing of Heemstra Hall after this school year.
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) The board of the Lewis Clark Regional Water System has awarded a $5.8 million contract for drilling and equipping wells southwest of Vermillion.
The board says the low bid from Yankton-based Welfl Construction was below the engineer’s $6.9 million estimate.
The contract includes drilling and equipping five new wells along the Missouri River and equipping six others. When complete, the wells will provide capacity equivalent to 28 million gallons of water a day.
The Lewis Clark water project is designed to pipe water from wells near Vermillion to towns in southeast South Dakota, northwest Iowa and southwest Minnesota. Water is expected to be delivered to the project’s first 10 customers by 2012.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Minnesota Sen. Amy Klobuchar will be the featured speaker at the Iowa Democratic Party’s state convention in June.
Iowa Democratic Party Chairman Michael Kiernan on Thursday announced the lineup for the convention, which is scheduled June 12 at the Polk County Convention Complex in Des Moines. Delegates to the convention were elected at county conventions earlier this year.
Sen. Tom Harkin and Gov. Chet Culver also will speak at the convention, where delegates will craft a party platform.
Republicans plan their state convention June 26 in Des Moines.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
CHARLES CITY, Iowa (AP) Four lawsuits filed by people injured during a Fourth of July 2008 fireworks mishap have been consolidated into one by a Floyd County judge.
In addition to that ruling , Judge Bryan McKinley on Wednesday set a May 17 conference with lawyers to decide on a trial date.
The lawsuits, which contend J Display didn’t properly train its operators, seek damages for injuries suffered when a shell malfunction sent fireworks into the crowd, injuring at least 37 people.
Recently five other lawsuits against J Display were dismissed after settlements were reached. The details of the settlements were not disclosed .
An investigation by the fire marshal’s office determined one or more shells probably detonated in their launch tubes, which then caused secondary explosions. But the official cause remains “undetermined.”
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Gov. Chet Culver has signed an $844 million measure that pays for much of Iowa’s education system, saying he kept a promise to largely protect schools from the cuts that have hit other areas.
Culver signed the bill Thursday at Ottumwa High School.
The bill finances the Department of Education, the state’s community colleges as well as the Board of Regents universities. The measure for the fiscal year beginning July 1 is $28 million larger than this year’s spending level.
In addition, the governor says he will soon sign into law a measure paying for basic state aid to local schools.
In total, roughly 60 percent of the state’s $5.3 billion budget goes toward education.
This is the first spending bill signed by Culver this year.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
SUMNER, Iowa (AP) The Iowa Court of Appeals has refused to grant a new trial to a man found guilty of first-degree murder in the death of a friend’s father.
Lawrence Hamby was convicted in January 2009 of first-degree murder in the death Frank McKinney in January 2006.
Bremer County Attorney Kasey Wadding accused Hamby of beating and strangling the 52-year-old McKinney, who died in a house in Sumner he shared with his son, Nathan McKinney.
According to prosecutors, the 25-year-old Hamby and Nathan McKinney later tried to obscure the cause of death, injecting Frank McKinney with a mixture of pills dissolved in a neutral grain spirit.
According to court records, Nathan McKinney pleaded guilty to obstruction of prosecution.
In its ruling Wednesday, the appeals court said there was sufficient evidence supporting the jury’s verdict.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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