Home News Monday Afternoon News, December 5th

Monday Afternoon News, December 5th

Le Mars YMCA Conducting A Community Needs Assessment Survey

(Le Mars) — The Le Mars YMCA is interested in knowing your opinion about your community.  Todd Lancaster is the executive director for the Le Mars YMCA, and he says the local Y is participating in a community’s needs assessment survey.

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Lancaster says he hopes to have several hundred people take five minutes of their time to complete the survey. He says surveys can be completed by going online to the Le Mars YMCA website.

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The YMCA executive says many people may not know all of the programs available. He says the YMCA can be much more than just a gym and swim destination.

One of the goals listed in the Le Mars Community Betterment Project is to possibly expand the existing facilities of the YMCA. Lancaster says some of the popular youth-directed programs will require the additional space.

Again, the deadline for participating in the community assessment needs survey is December 9th.

 

Le Mars Police Investigating Hit-And-Run Accident

(Le Mars) — The Le Mars Police Department is asking for the public’s assistance with a hit and run accident that occurred on Friday, December 2nd. A witness stated an elder male subject backed his vehicle from a parking stall in the 10 block of 1st Street northwest. The male subject was possibly driving a maroon passenger car. Upon backing up, the subject made contact with a parked vehicle to the right side, or the blind side of the vehicle. Approximately $285 in damages was sustained by the victim’s vehicle. Anyone with knowledge of this incident is asked to contact the Le Mars Police Department.

 

Police Chief Tells Residents To Lock Their Doors

(Le Mars) — Numerous burglaries that have occurred within Le Mars in recent weeks has prompted the Le Mars Police Department to remind people to lock their doors to their vehicles, and to their homes, during this holiday season. Le
Mars Police Chief Stewart Dekkenga says during the holidays is a prime time when more burglaries and robberies often occur. He says objects of value left in a vehicle are attractive to thieves.

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Dekkenga says there have also been incidents where burglars would enter a garage of a home and steal valuables.

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The Le Mars Police Chief says the thieves are grabbing items that can be easily converted into cash. He says the best way to prevent possible car burglaries is to simply lock your doors.

Dekkenga says the police department does have some leads to the recent burglaries, but he doesn’t want people to become complacent.

Dekkenga says if anyone notices some suspicious activity, they need to inform the police immediately, and not to wait.

The top cop has this advice for people.

 

Le Mars Community Theater To Hold Auditions For “Boys Next Door”

(Le Mars) — Auditions for the next play, “The Boys Next Door” by the Le Mars Community Theater at the Postal Playhouse are scheduled for Monday, December 19th and Tuesday, December 20th, beginning at 7:00 p.m. The cast includes seven men and two women. The place is a communal residence in a New England city, where four mentally handicapped men live under the supervision of an earnest, but increasingly “burned out” young social worker named Jack. Norman, who works
in a doughnut shop and is unable to resist the lure of the sweet pastries, takes great pride in the huge bundle of keys that dangles from his waist; Lucien P. Smith has the mind of a five-year-old but imagines that he is able to read and comprehend the weighty books he lugs about; Arnold, the ringleader of the group, is a hyperactive, compulsive chatterer, who suffers from deep-seated insecurities and a persecution complex; while Barry, a brilliant schizophrenic who is devastated by the unfeeling rejection of his brutal father, fantasizes
that he is a golf pro. Mingled with scenes from the daily lives of these four, where “little things” sometimes become momentous (and often very funny), are moments of great poignancy when, with touching effectiveness, we are reminded that the handicapped, like the rest of us, want only to love and laugh and find some meaning and purpose in the brief time that they, like their more fortunate brothers, are allotted on this earth.
Scripts are available for check-out. The Le Mars Community Theater does not charge for them, but they must be returned. For additional information, contact the director, Danna Schuster via email at dannarhs@aol.com or by phone at 712- 540-2532.

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FBI Obtains Documents Relating To Sioux City Waste Water Treatment Facility

SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – The FBI has seized computer data that may be connected to a federal investigation into Sioux City’s emitting improperly treated sewage with high levels of harmful bacteria into the Missouri River.
Agents served a warrant Thursday at the city-county Information Technology Department.
Tony Morfitt is a spokesman for the U.S. attorney in northern Iowa, and he said Monday he couldn’t comment on what the agents were seeking. Attorney Guy Cook represents the city in the wastewater matter, and he says the city is cooperating with the U.S. attorney’s office and the FBI.
The wastewater treatment practices have been under state and federal scrutiny since Iowa officials learned last year that two plant supervisors were manipulating chemical levels used to treat sewage.

 

Branstad To Meet With Trump While Visiting New York

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Gov. Terry Branstad will meet with President-elect Donald Trump this week amid speculation the Iowa governor could become the next U.S. ambassador to China.
Branstad told reporters Monday he has a tentative appointment to meet with Trump while the Republican governor is in New York for an economic development trip scheduled between Tuesday and Thursday.
At a rally in Sioux City before the election, Trump had praised Branstad’s knowledge of trade and called him a “prime candidate to take care of China.”
Branstad said Monday that Trump hasn’t offered him a position. Although Branstad didn’t directly reference becoming U.S. ambassador to China, he told reporters he’s had discussions recently with his family about possibly moving to
China.
Trump won Iowa and will hold a rally Thursday in Des Moines.

 

Bike Group Wants To Set Up Trail

ASBURY, Iowa (AP) – A mountain bike group is leading the effort to build more than two miles of dirt trails through wooded land in the eastern Iowa city of Asbury.
The Telegraph Herald reports (https://bit.ly/2gHw7of ) the Tri-State
Mountain Bike Riders have raised about $50,000 through grants and local contributions for the 2.3-mile trail that will weave through 20 acres of land next to a city park.
Work has started on the trail, which bike group member Randy Vannorsdel says will “be like a roller coaster through the woods.”
The trail is expected to open next summer.
The bike group’s president, Brett Errthum, says members hope to develop more than 50 miles of mountain bike trails in Dubuque County in the next decade.