Home News KLEM News PM Update May 25, 2011

KLEM News PM Update May 25, 2011

(LE MARS)–A Le Mars business will move everything from turf equipment to tractors to open on Key Avenue June sixth.

Icon Ag Solutions is relocating from 170th Street to the new 40-thousand square foot John Deere location.

Adam Timmerman is Icon Ag Solution’s general manager.
Listen here
{audio}images/stories/mp3/May 2011/timmerman1.MP3{/audio}

Timmerman expects the new facility to assist other Icon locations.
Listen here
{audio}images/stories/mp3/May 2011/timmerman2.MP3{/audio}

Icon Ag Solutions plans to move its equipment, parts inventory and staff the week prior to the June 6th opening..June third through the 5th. A grand opening is planned the week of July 18th.

Icon is the first business to locate on Key Avenue, near Wells corporate campus.

(LE MARS)–American Legion members and families will dedicate more than 25 new flags during Wasmer Post 241’s “Avenue of Flags” in Le Mars on Memorial Day.

According to Wasmer Post 241 Adjutant Tom Baack, flags to be dedicated in memory of a deceased veteran may be brought to the Legion in downtown Le Mars by six Friday night.

The Legion currently has 26 flags to be presented during the 2011 program on the Courthouse grounds at 10 a-m. The Avenue of Flags program follows the Memorial Day Parade. The parade assembles on the corner of Central Avenue and Second Street Northeast at 9 a.m. for directions and placement. The parade travels south on Central Avenue and then east on Third Street to the Courthouse. The parade begins at 9:30 and advertising and candy throwing are not part of the Memorial Day observance.

McCallan is poster contest winner

(LE MARS)–A Gehlen Catholic sixth grader’s design promoting a red symbol of Memorial Day is a contest winner.

Cady McCallan completed the drawing for a unit on good poster design. The daughter of Alfred and Brenda McCallan had her design chosen from judging of the sixth grade art class work for the Legion Auxiliary’s Poppy Poster Contest.

The judges for the effort to have Poppy Day promoted were Legion Auxiliary members from Wasmer Post 241 in Le Mars. The red poppy has been the memorial flower of the American Legion Auxiliary since 1921. That’s when the American Legion and Veterans of Foreign Wars began selling poppies for the benefit of disabled and needy veterans.

McCallan’s poster has advanced to the District level competition. Other students Poppy Day designs are displayed in windows in Le Mars businesses.

Record rainfall in Sioux City

(SIOUX CITY)–Rainfall is a record breaker in Sioux City.

The National Weather Service in Sioux Falls reports a new record for daily rainfall for this date was set at eight this morning.

The 2.03 inches of rain that’s fallen in Sioux City since midnight passed the previous record of 1.73 inches by more than a quarter of an inch.

Rain is forecast through early this afternoon in the Sioux City area.

Iowa budget fight snags Branstad’s preschool plan

ELKADER, Iowa (AP) Gov. Terry Branstad doubts there’s enough time left in the legislative session to pass his plan to restructure the state’s preschool program for the coming school year.

The Gazette of Cedar Rapids is reporting that at a town hall meeting in Elkader on Tuesday, Branstad shared his dim view of his proposal’s progress through the Legislature.

The budget impasse has snagged his proposal. The Republican governor is working on the fiscal 2012 budget with Democrats, who control the Senate, and Republicans, who control the House.

As passed by the House, his proposal would replace a free, statewide preschool program for 4-year-olds with need-based scholarship aid. Parents with higher incomes would pay a bigger share of the costs.

Grundy Center man sentenced on child porn charges

CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) A Grundy Center man who pleaded guilty to producing and possessing child pornography has been sentenced to 40 years in federal prison.

Ricky Patten pleaded guilty in January to one count of producing child pornography and two counts of possessing child pornography. The U.S. attorney’s office says he used a girl under the age of 18 to produce the images found on camera cards.

The 42-year-old Patten was sentenced in U.S. District Court in Cedar Rapids on Monday.

2 arrested in counterfeit money operation

MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) Two men are in custody on charges connected to counterfeit money being passed off at Mason City businesses.

The Globe Gazette in Mason City is reporting that 19-year-old Bradley Gouge of Garner is charged with counterfeit forgery. He is being held on $5,000 bond in the Cerro Gordo County jail.

Police say 22-year-old Joseph Evenson of Mason City is charged with counterfeit forgery and is being held on $7,000 bond. Evenson also was arrested on a warrant for a domestic assault charge.

Police say both men passed fake $100 bills at Mason City convenience stores.

Officials at the jail say they have no information about attorneys for the two men. Online court records were not immediately updated with information about the men.

Minnesota man gets prison for Iowa teen sex trip

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) A 28-year-old Minnesota man has been given five years in federal prison for driving to Iowa to have sex with an underage girl.

A news release from the U.S. attorney’s office for the southern district of Iowa says Ananas Getachew (ah-NAH’-nuhs geh-TAH’-shoo) pleaded guilty to interstate travel to engage in illicit sexual conduct with a minor. On Tuesday, The Bloomington, Minn. man also was ordered to serve five years of supervised release after he leaves prison.

The release says Getachew had been chatting online last July with someone he thought was a 13-year-old girl. The “girl” was a Clinton County, Iowa, detective.

He was arrested in Clinton County on July 29 after he drove there to meet the girl.

Marshalltown looking for new police chief


MARSHALLTOWN, Iowa (AP) The Marshalltown police chief will be retiring from the force before he returns from active military duty.

Interim Chief Jack McAllister says Lon Walker has submitted his resignation, effective July 1.

Walker is expected to remain on active duty with the U.S. Army at least until September next year.

McAllister told the Marshalltown Times-Republican that he won’t apply for the job, because he intends to retire in October.

Walker joined the Marshalltown police force as chief in 1995. He had been in the military police before trying civilian law enforcement. When he responded to the voluntary Army recall program in 2008, he’d been with the Marshalltown force for 13 years as chief.

He has been in charge of military police units in Europe.

Audit says Ottumwa transit overstate ridership

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A state audit has found that the Ottumwa Transit Authority has significantly overstated passenger counts, which the Iowa Department of Transportation uses to determine its funding.

The report released Wednesday says the transit authority overstated passenger counts by an estimated 50 percent during the fiscal year that ended last June.

The audit also reported instances of public records that weren’t properly retained and stated concerns over public use of private property and questionable expenditures.

City Attorney Joni L. Keith says the authority and the city are working to compile documentation to support its passenger counts. In a letter to the state auditor, Keith also acknowledges the city needs to take a more direct role in the operation of the transit authority.

Fuel costs leave CyRide with budget shortfall

AMES, Iowa (AP) The CyRide bus system in Ames may consider increasing fares and reducing service to offset high fuel costs.

The Tribune in Ames is reporting that CyRide has scheduled a public hearing for June 2 in the CyRide offices.

CyRide’s director of transit says skyrocketing costs of diesel have translated into big shortfalls for the bus agency’s fuel budget for the current fiscal year. The shortfall is estimated at $55,000.

Even with prices locked in for the first eight months of next year, she says the shortfall next year could amount to $150,000.

She says the board that governs the bus service will gather public input from the June meeting and from another one in August to help determine its next step.

(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)

Submit your news release, photo, confidential news tip or news idea by email klemnews@lemarscomm or by calling 712.546.4121 or 712.546.9672 fax.