Two Vehicle Collision Occurs At Intersection Of C-38 And Hwy 75
(Le Mars) — Two vehicles collided at the intersection of Highway 75 and county road C-38 Friday afternoon. Although there were no injuries from the accident, both vehicles sustained major damage. The accident happened at about 2:30 p.m. The Le Mars Fire and Rescue Department along with the Le Mars Ambulance Services responded to the accident. The accident remains under investigation.
Fire Department Respond To Smoke-Filled Home
(Le Mars) — The Le Mars Fire and Rescue Department responded to a fire at 45 3rd Avenue southeast Friday afternoon. The fire was reported shortly before 4:00 p.m. Apparently, the family had recently installed a gas oven.
Unfortunately, oven mitts and hot pads were inside the oven when the oven was turned on, causing them to catch on fire. As a result, smoke had filled the house. Firefighters used pressure ventilation fans to help remove the smoke from the home. Firefighters were on the scene for approximately a half and
hour. There were no injuries, and damage was limited primarily to the oven and to the smoke damage.
Project K Fundraiser Planned For Today
(Le Mars) — Last November, tragedy struck this community when four people from the Le Mars area had died as a result of a plane crash in Guthrie county. This Saturday, August 3rd, a fund raising activity will be held at the Kellen Ponderosa, located two miles south of Le Mars at county road K-49 and C-38. Mckenzie Brady, says the day will be filled with activities at the swimming beach facility to raise money for the first responders of Guthrie
Center. She talks about how Project K first got started.
Brady says the day’s events will begin at 11:00 a.m. and continue through the evening.
Brady says proceeds from the Project K event will be directed to Guthrie Center emergency personnel.
Admission to Project K is ten dollars a person.
Iowa D-O-T To Close Highway 75 For Asphalt Overlay Repairs
(Le Mars) — Beginning on Monday, August 12th at 7:00 p.m. the Iowa Department of Transportation will close Highway 75 between Hinton and Sioux City for an overlay project. Dakin Schultz, the Iowa D-O-T’s District 3 Transportation Planner says the asphalt overlay project is needed because of the rough conditions created when construction began on the north bound
lanes of travel, shifting all traffic to the southbound lanes, which are used for north and southbound travel.
Schultz says the work is expected to last all week with Highway 75 being closed between Hinton and Sioux City each evening.
During the overnight hours while Highway 75 is shut down and being repaired, the Iowa D-O-T official offers a suggestion for the detours.
Schultz says construction on the northbound lanes of Highway 75 continues.
He says there is no truth to the rumor the existing construction project had exhausted its funding.
Schultz says to shut down the existing stretch of highway is not a normal procedure, but he says the road condition dictates it to be repaired.
The cost for the overlay resurfacing construction project is budgeted at $660 thousand dollars.
Saturday Is Tax Free Holiday
(Des Moines) — Whether you’re shopping for clothes for yourself or for your kids heading back to school, Iowans can save a nice chunk of change with this weekend’s annual Sales Tax Holiday. John Fuller, a spokesman for the Iowa Department of Revenue, says the taxes will be eliminated on qualifying
purchases all day today.
Fuller says there are a few restrictions.
The tax-free “weekend” is only Friday and Saturday and does not apply on Sunday. Fuller says many people ask why Sunday isn’t included.
The two-day sales tax holiday has been held in Iowa the first Friday and Saturday of August each year for nearly 20 years.
Fatal Grain Bin Accident
LYNNVILLE, Iowa (AP) – Authorities in central Iowa have confirmed the death of a 19-year-old man in a grain bin.
Television station KCCI reports that Mahaska County Sheriff’s
deputies were called to the grain bin in Lynnville before 8 a.m. Friday.
Officials say Benjamin Raymond Van Wyk died at the scene after becoming entangled in the grain bin’s auger.
An autopsy has been ordered. The death remains under investigation.
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Fired Employee To Be Reinstated
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A board has ordered the reinstatement of an Iowa employee who was fired in 2017 after sending sexual text messages, including a photo of a penis, to a saleswoman for a state vendor.
The decision puts taxpayers on the hook for nearly two years of back pay and benefits for Nicholas Carnes, a power plant engineer at the Glenwood Resource Center, an institution for the disabled in southwest Iowa.
The cost hasn’t been calculated but could top $100,000, given that Carnes earned $60,000 in his final year of state employment.
In its July 19 decision, the Public Employment Relations Board
agreed with an administrative law judge that Carnes’ misconduct did not warrant termination but a 10-day suspension instead.
The decision said Carnes had been an otherwise excellent employee for 13 years and that his inappropriate texts began one minute after his shift ended, not during the work day as investigators had alleged.
Rare Stamp Turns Out To Be Fake
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – Representatives of a small aviation museum in southwestern Iowa hoped they had stumbled upon a rare postage stamp potentially worth a fortune. But experts at a national stamp convention in Omaha have delivered the sad truth: it isn’t the real thing, after all.
The Iowa Aviation Museum in Greenfield, Iowa, has had what it
thought was an “Inverted Jenny” stamp on display for some 20 years and brought it to the Omaha gathering.
Ken Martin is with the American Philatelic Society that’s holding
its national convention in Omaha. He said Friday that experts knew immediately the stamp wasn’t authentic because “it wasn’t the right size.”
Had it been real, Martin says it would be worth between $300,000 and $400,000. There were only 100 of the stamps printed in 1918, with the image of a JN-4-H “Jenny” biplane accidentally displayed upside down on a 24-cent stamp.
