Van’s Sanitation Offers Additional Clarification On New Recycling Rules
(Le Mars) — On Thursday, we informed you of the changes to occur with the Le Mars recycling program. As we had learned, plastic bags from retail shopping businesses will no longer be accepted as they are no longer recyclable. One reason for the new rules is because as Scott Vandersleis of Van’s Sanitation
says, the market for plastic products has dried up.
The sanitation waste collector says many cities are doing away with the plastic shopping bags.
Vandersluis says the same is true with glass recycling.
The Van’s Sanitation official says paper products can still be recycled, and he reviews the other products that can be tossed into those blue-colored totes.
People with questions can contact either the city offices, the Plymouth County Landfill, or Van’s Sanitation.
United Flight 232 Plane Crash Was 30 Years Ago
(Sioux City) — It was 30 years ago today, that the world knew about Sioux City, Iowa, when a United 232 DC-10 jet airliner was traveling between Denver to Chicago and encountered both engine and hydraulic failure forcing the airplane to make a crash landing at the Sioux Gateway Airport. Television news video and photographs showed the plane tumbling down the runway.
Several EMTs and ambulance services from communities stretching across Siouxland all converged on the Sioux City airport to assist with the rescue.
Many people can still recall the traumatic events, and they remember where they were on that date. Unfortunately, 111 people lost their lives during that plane crash, but 185 others had survived.
Butter Sculpture To Be Featured At Plymouth County Fair
(Le Mars) — Plymouth County Fair will share something in common with the Iowa State Fair… a butter sculpture. While the Iowa State Fair promotes the famous “butter cow,” sculptor Sarah Pratt of West Des Moines tells what she has created for the Plymouth County Fair.
This is the first time Plymouth County Fair will feature a butter sculpture.
Pratt says the butter replica of the round barn’s diminsions will be about 18 inches in diameter and nearly 18 inches in height, and she needed more than 15 pounds of butter. Pratt says she prefers to use butter containing low moisture.
In addition to creating works of art from butter at the Iowa State Fair, Pratt says she has followed in the footsteps of her mentor, Norma “Duffy” Lyons, and has been asked to create butter sculptures at the Illinois State Fair, as well as as the Kansas State Fair.
Although Pratt has performed other butter sculptures that have greater detail than Plymouth County’s famous Tonsfeldt round barn, she admits the round barn does present some unique challenges.
The famous butter cow at the Iowa State Fair will be joined by Big Bird, Oscar the Grouch, and Cookie Monster as well as other characters from Sesame Street.
Pratt says she hopes to be able to create several of the popular children’s television show characters.
The “Butter Lady” talks about the amount of butter to be used for this year’s butter sculpture at the Iowa State Fair.
Through the years, Pratt has created butter figures of the American Gothic, singer Garth Brooks, the Peanuts cartoon characters, as well as a host of other figures. However, she says last year’s Waterloo Boy tractor may have been her most difficult piece.
What has been the people’s choice or favorite butter sculpture?
The butter sculpture of the round barn can be viewed inside the round barn as part of the agriculture education exhibit for the Plymouth County Fair.
(photographs contributed.)
Des Moines Police Release Additional Information On Triple Murder Involving Immigrant
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A police spokesman says a woman killed along with her two young children this week had come to Des Moines to work with the man charged in their deaths.
A Guatemala national, 31-year-old Marvin Oswaldo Escobar-Orellana,
has been charged with three counts of first-degree murder in the shooting deaths of 29-year-old Rossibeth Flores-Rodriguez, her 11-year-old daughter and her and 5-year-old son. Police say their bodies were found Tuesday night at the home they shared with Escobar-Orellana.
Des Moines Police Sgt. Paul Parizek said Thursday that investigators have been told Flores-Rodriguez came to Iowa to work with Escobar-Orellana, who was a self-employed roofer. Police have also been told she met the suspect in her home country of Honduras.
Parizek says he has no information on the slain family’s immigration status. A U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement spokesman said Thursday that the agency doesn’t release such information about victims of violent crimes.
Man Killed In Logging Accident
EDGEWOOD, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a man was killed by a logging accident in northeast Iowa.
First responders were sent around 12:25 p.m. Tuesday to the worksite about 2 miles (3.2 kilometers) from the Mississippi River in the southeast corner of Clayton County.
The Clayton County Sheriff’s Office says 38-year-old Jason Steger, of Greeley, was struck by a falling tree that had been knocked over by a log that was being moved. Steger was pronounced dead at the scene. He worked for Kendrick Forest Products, which is based in Edgewood.
Work safety authorities have been notified.
Bankers Say Tariffs Are Hurting Midwest Economy
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – More bankers surveyed in parts of 10 Plains and Western states say President Donald Trump’s trade skirmishes are having a negative effect on their local economies.
The Rural Mainstreet survey released Thursday shows the survey’s overall index falling from 53.2 in June to 50.2 this month. Any score above 50 suggests a growing economy, while a score below 50 indicates a shrinking economy.
Creighton University economist Ernie Goss, who oversees the survey, says higher agriculture commodity prices and rebuilding from recent floods helped prop up the region’s economy last month. But he added that nearly 9 of 10 bankers surveyed noted the tariffs’ negative impact on the economy. That’s up from 8 in 10 who said the same thing in September.
Bankers from Colorado, Illinois, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming were surveyed.
New Bishop Selected For Des Moines Diocese
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Pope Francis has selected a priest from the Dubuque Archdiocese to become bishop of the Des Moines Diocese.
The selection of the Rev. William Joensen was announced Thursday. His ordination and installation is scheduled for Sept. 27.
Joensen replaces Bishop Richard Pates, who turned 75 last year and, as required by the church, submitted his resignation. He’s held the post since 2008.
Joensen grew up in Ames and attended Iowa State University. He was ordained in 1989 and served in parish ministry for six years before beginning graduate studies in philosophy. He’s been a philosophy professor at Loras College in Dubuque and assisted at parishes in and around Dubuque.
The Diocese of Des Moines includes 80 parishes in 23 counties in
central and southwest Iowa.
Missouri River To Remain High Through Out Entire Summer
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – The lower Missouri River is likely to remain high throughout the summer because of the large amount of water being released from dams upstream.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it needs to keep the releases high to clear out space in all the dams along the river. So it will continue releasing more than double the average amount of water from Gavins Point Dam on the Nebraska-South Dakota border at least into August.
National Weather Service meteorologist Scott Dergan says the Missouri River isn’t likely to go down much until the releases from the dams are reduced.
The significant releases may worsen flooding downstream – in Iowa, Nebraska, Missouri and Kansas – where many levees were damaged during severe March flooding.
