Supervisors To Tour Communications Center
(Le Mars) — Plymouth County Board of Supervisors will meet this morning and will
have a short agenda. The supervisors will discuss and possibly approve a motion
for support of Le Mars to obtain a Vision Iowa grant. The supervisors will hear a
quarterly report from County Recorder JoLynn Goodchild, and they will hear a
presentation offered by Doug Tonnemacher and Shawn Olson. The supervisors will
then leave the courthouse and are scheduled to tour the Plymouth County Law
Enforcement Center and look at the Communications Center an E-911 equipment.
School Officials Release Preliminary Student Enrollment Numbers
(Le Mars) — At last evening’s Le Mars Community Board of Education meeting,
Assistant Superintendent Dr. Steve Webner offered the board a preliminary
enrollment statistics. According to Webner, the process to certify enrollment involves more than just counting the number of students.
Webner explains the process and the numbers.
Webner informed the school board that this school year has 75 students
attending Le Mars Community through the open enrollment option, while 106 resident
students have chosen to attend another school district. Webner says the figures
show 20 more students are attending Le Mars Community through the open enrollment
than last year, while the number of students with open enrollment to other schools
increased by only two students from last year’s numbers. The Assistant Superintendent says this year has 49 more students attending the Le Mars Community school district than last year.
Investigators Determine Prairie City Incident Was Murder-Suicide
PRAIRIE CITY, Iowa (AP) – Authorities have identified the man who investigators
say fatally shot another man before taking his own life in Prairie City.
On Monday police identified the gunman as 32-year-old Chris Tetrick and the
man he shot as 30-year-old Harmon “Wes” Wright III.
A Prairie City news release says Tetrick called 911 early Sunday morning to
say he’d just killed a man. Officers later found Wright’s body in the basement and
Tetrick’s in a detached garage at the residence. Police say no one else was in the
house when the shooting occurred.
Authorities have ruled the case a murder-suicide.
Osage Man Sentenced To 35 Years In Prison
OSAGE, Iowa (AP) – An Osage man accused of sexually abusing a young man and then
attempting to kill him to keep him from testifying has been sentenced to up to 35
years in prison.
Mark Retterath, who is 52, was found guilty by a jury in August of felony attempted murder, solicitation to commit murder and third-degree sexual abuse.
He was sentenced Monday.
Investigators say he planned to kill the victim, who was first abused as a
teenager, with the poison ricin after the man reported sexual abuse to
authorities.
Prosecutors say Retterath got the ricin idea from a friend, who’d seen it on
the television show “Breaking Bad.”
Police say the plot fell apart when two men Retterath recruited to help him
went to authorities.
Branstad And Reynolds Campaigning For State Law Makers
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa Gov. Terry Branstad and Lt. Gov. Kim Reynolds are
hitting the campaign trail in hopes of giving Republican legislative candidates a
boost.
Branstad and Reynolds are campaigning on Tuesday and Thursday. Stops include
a retirement home in Cedar Falls and pizza restaurants in Manchester and
Washington. They’ll also visit a coffee shop and a bug repellant manufacturer in
Columbus Junction.
Branstad said Monday the GOP could win control of the Iowa Senate and
maintaining a House majority.
The Senate has 26 Democrats, 23 Republicans and one independent after David
Johnson left the GOP in June because of its support for Donald Trump who made
disparaging remarks about a federal judge with Mexican roots.
Branstad says Iowa Republicans are unified although two abandoned support for
Trump over the weekend.
Iowa Experiences Third Wettest Year
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – This year will go down in the Iowa history books as the
third wettest among 144 years of records.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources in its monthly Water Summary Update
says the statewide average precipitation in Iowa was 45 inches, nearly 10 inches
more than normal for the 2016 water year, which is measured from Oct. 1, 2015,
through Sept. 30, 2016.
Excessive rain in September over north-central and northeast Iowa resulted in
flooding and a record crest on the Shell Rock River and the second highest crest
on record on the Cedar River.
September rain totals varied from just under an inch at Fairfield to over 17
inches near Nora Springs.
The statewide average for the month was 6.29 inches making it the wettest
September since 1986.
