Car Hits Goodwill Industries Building
(Le Mars) — At about 5:50 p.m. Thursday evening, the Le Mars Police Department and the Le Mars Fire and Rescue Department responded to a call from Goodwill Industries located on Horton Drive when apparently a car had hit the side of the building, causing some blocks of the wall to fall. There were no injuries with the driver, and the car sustained some front-end damage.
County Secondary Roads Department To Install Box Culvert On Quartz Avenue
(Le Mars) — The Plymouth County Secondary Roads Department has closed Quartz Avenue between 220th Street and 240th Street. Construction crews will be replacing a wooden bridge with a box culvert. The road will remain closed for three weeks. It is expected the project will be completed on
October 25th.
Wise I Brewing Company Holds Ribbon Cutting Ceremony
(Le Mars) — Wise I Brewing Company of Le Mars, which celebrated being the 100th Craft Brewer in Iowa a couple of weeks ago, had a formal ribbon-cutting ceremony held Thursday late afternoon. Chamber Ambassadors and other community people gathered at the new craft brewery acknowledging the opening of the new business. Owners Ben Sitzmann and Matt Lancaster used over sized scissors to cut the ribbon.
Loren Johnson Honored By Chamber of Commerce
(Le Mars) — The Le Mars Chamber of Commerce honored a long-time Wells and Dean Foods employee as its 4th Quarter Boss of the Quarter during a presentation held Thursday morning. After 42 years, Loren Johnson is retiring from his position as the Quality Assurance Manager. Loren Johnson
was nominated by Kathy Albert. She states in her nomination: Loren Johnson started his career as a lab technician in the Wells Dairy milk plant. He was promoted to Quality Assurance Supervisor and then to Quality Assurance manager. Loren has managed quality standards, government regulatory compliance, food safety standards and trained our employees in good
manufacturing practices with the highest level of proficiency and
professionalism. These are just a few of his many responsibilities to our plant. We are very grateful and appreciative of his many years of dedicated service to our company. Our congratulations go to Loren Johnson for being named the Chamber of Commerce’s “Boss of the Quarter.”
Kevin Eekhoff, (left) extends congratulations to Loren Johnson (right) as the “Boss of the Quarter.”
Le Mars Community High School Student Council Accepting Teddy Bears For Children
(Le Mars) — The Le Mars Community High School Student Council is asking when you attend this evening’s football game against Sergeant Bluff, that you bring along a teddy bear. Caleb Slattery serves as the vice president of the Le Mars Community High School student council. He says the teddy bears will be donated to the Le Mars Ambulance Services, Le Mars Police
Department, and to the Council on Domestic Violence and Sexual Assault.
Slattery is studying to become an E-M-T and he spoke to his fellow members of the Le Mars Ambulance which prompted the idea.
Slattery says the donated teddy bears can be of any size, but for sanitary purposes, the donated teddy bears need to be new. The Le Mars Community High School student council hopes to receive at least 500 teddy bears.
Slattery says the student council also applied for a grant from Wal-mart to help with the cause. Slattery says the Le Mars Community High School student council sent a challenge to Sergeant Bluff student council to see if they would be willing to join in on the teddy bear donation project.
The student council vice president says two large boxes will be on hand to collect the teddy bears. He says members of the student council will also be collecting monetary donations in order to purchase additional teddy bears.
Le Mars Fire and Rescue Department To Hold Pancake Breakfast In Recognition Of Fire Prevention Week
(Le Mars) — Next week is Fire Prevention Week and the Le Mars Fire and Rescue Department will kick off the week with their annual pancake and sausage breakfast scheduled for Sunday, October 6th to be held at Fire House #1 which is across from the Eagles Club, and diagonally across from the Le Mars Public Library. Fire Chief Dave Schipper says serving will begin at
8:00 a.m. He says it will be a free will offering, with proceeds to help with the purchase of new equipment.
In addition to purchasing needed equipment, some of the money raised through the breakfast also helps finance additional training and educational opportunities for firefighters. The fire prevention breakfast usually attracts around 500 people. This year, a raffle for a quilt, created by Geri Dreckman, will also take place during the pancake breakfast.
This year’s theme for Fire Prevention Week is “Not every hero wears a cape, practice and plan your escape.”
The breakfast will begin at 8:00 a.m. and will continue through 12:00 noon.
Army Corps Of Engineers Estimate Record Amounts Of Water Flowing Downstream Of The Missouri River
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – After an unusually rainy September in the region, the amount of water flowing down the lower Missouri River this year is likely to match the 2011 record.
The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers says it now expects 61 million acre feet of water to flow down the Missouri River this year. That would equal the record set during the prolonged 2011 flooding.
So the Corps will continue releasing massive amounts of water from the dams along the river.
The amount of water currently being released from the Gavins Point dam on the South Dakota-Nebraska border – 80,000 cubic feet per second – is more than twice what is typical for this time of year.
Seaboard Triumph Foods Respond To Employee Allegations
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – An Iowa pork processing plant is working to address concerns the island nation of Micronesia raised about how some of its citizens working at the plant are being treated.
Seaboard Triumph Foods says it follows all employment laws and it is working with its local union and officials to resolve the matter.
Micronesia sent a formal letter to the U.S. State Department Friday asking U.S. officials to investigate possible misconduct at the plant, including whether false Social Security numbers are used.
Seaboard says workers are assigned a temporary tax ID number until their permanent Social Security card arrives a couple months after they start work.
Seaboard officials say the Micronesians at the plant have the same rights to vacation and time off as other workers at the plant.
University of Iowa To Investigate Racial Graffiti
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – The University of Iowa is investigating after racist graffiti was found scrawled on a library wall at the school.
The graffiti included a crude outline of the state of Iowa inside a
rough outline of Africa. The word “Nigeria” – misspelled to include a racial slur – was written above the drawing. Someone posted a photo of it Wednesday
on Twitter, and the university responded with its own tweet.
The university called it a “hateful message” and said it “does not
reflect the values of our institution.” It said anyone with information about the graffiti should contact university police.
University police on Thursday referred questions to the university’s media relations department, which replied with an email containing the same comment from the school’s tweet.
Record Store Owner Convicted Of Video Recording In Woman’s Restroom
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A man has been convicted of video recording girls in the bathroom of his West Des Moines record store.
Polk County court records say 50-year-old Robert Kuhn was found guilty Wednesday of three counts of sexual exploitation of a minor and three counts of invasion of privacy. His sentencing is scheduled for Nov. 14.
Kuhn was arrested in 2017 after a girl who had worked for him told police she found a video camera hidden on a shelf in the bathroom after Kuhn had asked her to try on dresses.
Federal prosecutors also had filed a child pornography charge but later dropped it.
New Efforts Proposed To Develop Former Greyhound Racing Park
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) – A company has taken another step toward redeveloping the former Waterloo Greyhound Park.
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier reports that the Waterloo planning and zoning commission voted Tuesday to endorse a special permit that would let Deer Creek Development fill 7 acres (2.8 hectares) on the site to get it out of the 100-year flood plain. Deer Creek President Harold Youngblut says
doing so will make the site more appealing to companies because they wouldn’t have to pay for costly flood insurance.
He bought the property in 2018 and demolished the dilapidated
buildings. The track opened in 1986 but later fell into disrepair.
The special permit to bring in an estimated 16,500 cubic yards
(12,615.1 cubic meters) of clean fill now heads to the city’s board of adjustment for final approval.
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