Auditor Stacey Feldman, along with supervisors Don Kass and Craig Anderson explained the agreement rebates property taxes paid, with little risk to taxpayers.
Listen to the discussion
{audio}images/stories/mp3/edev0428.mp3{/audio}
Stacey Feldman – “This agreement is basically securing their rebate, so we would not be rebating their tax if they didn’t pay.
Don Kass – “The key thing is, even if it ceased to function, there is still a property tax levy against that facility that somebody is going to have to pay.
Craig Anderson -“And they don’t get anything until after they payed it. So there should be.. there is always risk, but there shouldn’t be any outstanding risk in this.”
Don Kass -“We’re not taking dollars out of somebodies pocket in putting it in somebody elses. That’s the key.”
The motion to approve passed by a unanimous roll call vote. (News report by Dave Ruden)
(ROCK RAPIDS)–A July trial date is set for a northwest Iowa woman accused in the shooting death of her boyfriend.
Fifty-one-year-old Laura Lowe of Rock Rapids pleaded not guilty to second-degree murder for the death of Levi Hofer of Rock Rapids.
Lowe is accused of shooting Hofer in the head after authorities say they got into an argument at Hofer’s home February 28th. Hofer died at a Sioux Falls hospital March 2nd.
The trial is set for July 27th. Lowe is being held in the Lyon County Jail.
(SIOUX CITY)–Community Blood Banks in Sioux City and Des Moines are merging.
Siouxland Community Blood Bank and the Blood Center of Iowa will now be known as LifeServe Blood Center.
Center officials say the merger “marks a positive move forward in the centers ability to counter-act the rising costs of healthcare by providing hospital customers with lower blood costs and additional value-added benefits.”
The centers retained all employees during the merger and will employ about 385 staff members.
The individual names of the blood center will move to LifeServe Blood Center over the next 12 months. Both not-for-profit blood centers will continue their focus on serving the needs of the community through volunteer blood donor programs, mobile blood drives and nine different donor centers.
The centers expect to lower the cost of a unit of blood for hospital customers through consolidating similar functions such as technical and medical expertise, information technology and human resources practices.
The new LifeServe Blood Center will collect about 156-thousand units of blood from volunteer blood donors each year in the tri -state region and serve a total of 87 hospitals in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota.
A community kickoff is planned in the early part of June.
(SIOUX CITY)–A former Sac County man will be on probation for five years for a child pornography conviction.
According to the U-S attorney’s office, 61-year-old Mark Stimson, formerly of Wall Lake, now of Urbandale, pleaded guilty to possession of child pornography.
Prosecutors say during a hearing in federal court in Sioux City, Stimson admitted that in 2005-2006, he possessed over 200 images of child pornography at his Wall Lake addresses.
The case was prosecuted by the U-S attorney’s office after an investigation by Lake View Police and the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation.
Listen to the afternoon newscast
{audio}images/stories/mp3/pm0428.mp3{/audio}
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) The trial of an eastern Iowa man accused of killing his girlfriend’s 2-year-old daughter has been delayed until this summer.
Lee Muldoon of Coggon is charged with first-degree murder and child endangerment. He’s charged in the beating death of Skylar Inman in July 2008. His trial in Linn County District Court, which had been scheduled for May 3, is now set for Aug. 9.
Skylar’s mother, Brianna Volesky, pleaded guilty in January to involuntary manslaughter. She will be sentenced after Muldoon’s trial.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) State liquor regulators have dropped a proposal to require Everclear to be registered like beer kegs, but will require a warning on the bottles.
The Iowa Alcoholic Beverages Commission has been looking at Everclear and other potent alcohol products since a Drake University student nearly died from alcohol poisoning last November.
Administrator Lynn Walding says the board, which made the decision last week, concluded any benefit to be gained by registering bottles of Everclear isn’t worth the burden of work.
Walding says the commission will proceed with warning notices on the neck of Everclear bottles, but those details are still being worked out.
Everclear is sold in Iowa as 151-proof, meaning it’s about 75 percent alcohol.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The fired executive director of the Iowa Association of School Boards is fighting a subpoena to appear before a legislative committee.
Maxine Kilcrease was fired for allegedly raising her salary by $157,000 without board approval. She is to appear before the Legislature’s Government Oversight Committee on Thursday.
In a motion filed Tuesday in Polk County District Court, Kilcrease’s attorney, Sean Spellman, argues that lawmakers’ “reckless” comments are evidence that the committee is functioning as a “biased criminal tribunal” rather than an impartial fact-finding committee.
A hearing on the motion is set for Wednesday.
The FBI and the Iowa attorney general’s office are looking into the association’s use of state and federal money. No charges have been filed.
KESWICK, Iowa (AP) The Connecticut National Guard says a helicopter trip that included a stop in Iowa is one the crew won’t soon forget.
A four-person crew was flying the Chinook to Washington state for maintenance when they landed in a field near Keswick last Saturday during a storm.
Connecticut Guard spokesman Col. William Shea says the crew had visibility problems.
Shea says the crew spent the night with the helicopter hoping the weather would improve on Sunday, but that didn’t happen.
In the meantime, the helicopter was attracting a crowd.
Shea says the crew had several offers for help and someone even loaned them a pickup truck so they go to town and get supplies.
The crew spent Sunday night in a hotel and flew out on Monday.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Submit your news release, confidential news tip or news idea by email klemnews@lemarscomm.net, by calling 712.546.4121 or 712.546.9672 fax.
