County Supervisors To Hear Road Construction Update
(Le Mars) — Plymouth County Board of Supervisors will meet this morning at the County Courthouse Board Room beginning at 9:30. The county governing board has a light agenda. They will hear from surveyor Dave Wilberding as he will discuss two sub-divisions: Yasmin’s addition and Hells Bells addition. County engineer Tom Rohe will share a report with the county supervisors that will summarize this year’s road construction projects. Rohe will also visit with the county supervisors regarding the right of way on Frelon Drive.
School Board Adopts Wellness Policy
(Le Mars) — The Le Mars Community School Board approved a revised version of the code 504.10 dealing with the Wellness policy for the school district. The school board approved the second reading, then proceeded to adopt the new policy. In that revised policy, the school district has established some goals.
They include: a.) The Le Mars Community school district will provide nutritional education and engage in nutrition promotion that helps students develop lifelong healthy eating behaviors. The goals may include providing students with the
knowledge and skills necessary to promote and protect their health, and promote fruits, vegetables, whole-grain products, low-fat and fat-free dairy products and healthy foods.
Superintendent of schools, Dr. Todd Wendt informed the
school board that the district could incorporate the nutritional information as part of the Health class that is a required curriculum for Freshmen. A second goal deals with physical activity. Le Mars schools will provide students and staff with age and grade appropriate opportunities to engage in physical
activity that meet federal and state guidelines, including the Iowa Healthy Kids Act. The school district will promote the benefits of physically active lifestyles and help students develop skills to engage in lifelong healthy habits. The school will also engage students in moderate to vigorous activity during at least 50 percent of physical education class time. The school will
also try to avoid extended periods of inactivity consisting of two or more hours or periods. Superintendent Wendt shared with the school board this could be accomplished by asking the class to stand up and stretch for a brief moment.
The school district will also share information about the nutritional content of meals with parents and students, permit students to bring and carry water bottles filled with water, and make drinking water available where school meals
are served during mealtimes. Dr. Wendt told the school board that the building principals will monitor and report the activity with the newly adopted policy.
In other action, the Le Mars Community School Board passed a resolution of support entitled the Promise of Iowa Public Education campaign. In that resolution the Le Mars Community Board of Education pledges to join and support the efforts of “The Promise of Iowa” campaign to ensure that Iowa lawmakers
continue to prioritize investments to improve the community schools that create opportunities for more than 480,000 public school Iowa students.
The school board also accepted the resignation of Katie Pick as the 7th grade volleyball coaching position.
Hinton Woman To Oversee Operations At Promise Health Center
(Sioux Center) — The Promise Community Health Center of Sioux Center has hired a Hinton woman to serve as its Director of Operations. Brenda Miller worked with families who struggled to obtain the medical and mental health care that
they need in her previous job.
Therefore, she was interested in going into a field where she could help ensure that people receive accessible and high-quality care.
In a release, Miller says she “was interested because Promise provides access to essential services for uninsured and underinsured families,” she said. “This position will allow me to use my passion, education and background to ensure
that families have a place to go that provides the quality care they need.”
Miller grew up in Ponca, NE, where she graduated from high school. Her career background includes working in insurance, business management and personnel
management and owning and operating family businesses. She also served six years in the Army Reserves, including active duty overseas during Operation Desert Storm.
She received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Briar Cliff University in Sioux City in 2006. She earned a master’s degree in management, with an emphasis in human resources management and health-care administration,
from Briar Cliff in 2014.
Miller served for the past 10 years as a housing analyst for the Sioux City Housing Authority prior to taking on her new role at Promise Community Health Center.
KCAU-TV To Move To Different Location
(Sioux City) — KCAU-TV, Sioux City, Iowa, announced today that the television station will be moving from 625 Douglas Street in Downtown Sioux City to a new state of the art broadcasting facility at 5993 Gordon Drive. The anticipated move to the new facility will take place in the first quarter of 2017.
In 2014, Nexstar Broadcasting Group, Inc. purchased KCAU-TV from longtime owners, Citadel Communications. Soon after the acquisition, it was determined that the current location no longer met the needs of KCAU. In April 2016, a new location was identified and on October 1st, construction began on the $2.5 million project.
For the past 63 years, KCAU-TV has made Downtown Sioux City its home. In 1953, then KVTV transformed the historic Tomba Ballroom into the very first television station in Sioux City Iowa. In 1967, the station joined the ABC television network and changed its call letters to KCAU-TV. KCAU quickly became one of the highest rated ABC affiliates in the country and the dominant news station in Siouxland for over two decades. KCAU was the first television station in Sioux City to broadcast in color and the first station to offer full high definition programming.
Northey Requests $500,000 To Fight Livestock Diseases
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The head of Iowa’s agriculture department is once again asking state leaders for financial help to better prepare for potential animal diseases like bird flu.
Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Bill Northey says his request Monday for $500,000 would be used to train livestock farmers to increase biosecurity efforts when responding to outbreaks involving foreign diseases like bird flu, which hit the state in 2015. The disease killed 48 million birds nationwide,
including 24 million Iowa laying hens.
The request, made during an annual budget hearing with Gov. Terry Branstad, mirrors Northey’s request one year ago to combat the same issue. Branstad didn’t include it his budget recommendations last January, citing limitations to the
state budget.
A Branstad spokesman says the governor will evaluate the latest request.
Traffic Accidents Up Over Long Thanksgiving Weekend
(Des Moines) — More motorists were on the state’s roadways over the long Thanksgiving holiday weekend than possibly any time in history.
Iowa State Patrol Sergeant Nate Ludwig says there were several factors that led to congestion on Iowa’s roads, led by people headed home to see family.
The patrol covered over a-hundred crashes and made more than two dozen OWI arrests.
Five people were killed in those crashes. There have now been 359 traffic fatalities in Iowa this year. That is an increase of 72 deaths over 2015, with a little over a month to go in 2016.
University Of Iowa Receives $45 Million Donation
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The University of Iowa says a $45 million donation will
fund a center to research diseases that affect the brain and nervous system.
The Iowa Neuroscience Institute will investigate causes, preventions, treatments and cures. It’ll be led by Ted Abel, a University of Pennsylvania professor who joins Iowa’s faculty in January.
The gift comes from the university’s largest donor, the Roy J. Carver Charitable Trust. It was founded after the 1981 death of Carver, a Muscatine businessman and philanthropist. UI gifts from the trust and family exceed $195 million.
The center will bring together researchers from across campus, including biologists, computer scientists and engineers. The donation will support laboratories, research projects and faculty salaries.
Medical school dean Jean Robillard says the gift will foster “a new era of scientific innovation.”
