Remsen Chamber of Commerce To Hold Annual Awards Banquet This Evening
(Remsen) — Remsen Chamber of Commerce will announce its “Citizen/Employee of the Year” along with the “Business of the Year” during tonight’s annual banquet and awards program. The event will be held at the Golden Pheasant restaurant and will begin at 6:00 p.m.
Education Association To Submit Salary Requests To School Board
(Le Mars) — The Le Mars Community Education Association are scheduled to present their initial salary requests to the Le Mars Community Board of Education this evening at 5:00 p.m. at the Education Service Center Administration Building.
City Council To Officially Approve New Ambulance Director
(Le Mars) — When the Le Mars city council meets tomorrow, they will act on the recommendation by the Public Safety Committee to hire the new Le Mars Ambulance Services Director. You may recall Bill Rosacker retired from the position last month after serving as the director for 12 years. The Public Safety Committee has submitted the name of Mike Wise, the current assistant fire chief of the Le Mars Fire and Rescue Department. Wise has been the Assistant Fire Chief for the Le Mars Fire and Rescue Department for the last nine years.
Historic Warrior Hotel Scheduled To Open This Summer
(Sioux City) — Developers leading the restoration of a long-empty, historic hotel in downtown Sioux City say it’s on track to reopen this summer. The Warrior Hotel was built in 1930 and closed in 1976. Restoration St. Louis is renovating the hotel and the adjacent Davidson Building into a nearly-150 room Marriott Hotel with 22 luxury apartments. Restoration’s Alex Cherubin
says the pace of the project is really picking up.
Cherubin says crews are putting in elevators this month, while they’re keeping the hotel’s original properties and decor. Cherubin says the 73-million-dollar project is on schedule to hold its grand reopening in about six months.
Cherubin says they’ve already hired a general manager, director of sales and a sales manager, while they’ll hire housekeeping staff, cooks and the rest of the crew closer to opening day. The Warrior and Davidson are on the National Register of Historic Places.
Marion School District Settles Sexual Abuse Lawsuit
MARION, Iowa (AP) – The Marion school district has settled the final lawsuit involving student sex abuse by a teenage classroom volunteer. The lawsuit was filed by parents who said their 5-year-old daughter was molested at Starry Elementary in January 2016. The boy was 15 when he was accused, and he was convicted in January 2017. The Gazette reported that the
settlement was for $2 million. Two of the girls who testified at the boy’s trial said they told their parents and a teacher, Diane Graham, about the abuse. Graham later was charged with not reporting the abuse. She was acquitted in January 2018.
Fatal Accident Reported Over The Weekend In Central Iowa
DE SOTO, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa State Patrol says a passenger who was standing outside a car that had crashed into a guardrail was killed when another car hit her. Television station KCCI reports the incident happened early Saturday morning along I-80 near De Soto in central Iowa after a vehicle lost control due to slippery road conditions and hit a guardrail.
Investigators say a passenger in the car, 51-year-old Carmen Benitez, was standing outside the wrecked vehicle when a second car hit her. Officials say Benitez died at the scene. The 26-year-old driver of the second car was treated for injuries at a nearby hospital.
Nebraska Judge Awards Iowa Company Settlement
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) – A federal judge in Nebraska has awarded more than $610,000 to an Iowa company that sued after it said it wasn’t fully paid for masonry work at a national veterans cemetery in Omaha that opened in 2016.
The Lincoln Journal Star reports that Seedorff Masonry, of Strawberry Point, Iowa, sued Archer Western Construction, of Chicago, and its insurer in 2018, saying it hadn’t been paid nearly $610,000 for labor and limestone it supplied for the Omaha National Cemetery. On Thursday, a judge in Omaha
awarded that amount, plus $138,000 in interest and costs, to Seedorff.
Train De-railment Now Cleared
LECLAIRE, Iowa (AP) – Officials in eastern Iowa say train traffic has resumed in downtown LeClaire a day after a derailment sent more than a dozen freight cars and tankers off the tracks just yards from the Mississippi River. The LeClaire Fire Department said in a news release Saturday that all derailed cars had been moved away from the main track and would be hauled away by tractor-trailers throughout the day. Officials say Canadian Pacific
Railroad had found no significant air or water contamination from the Friday morning derailment. No one was injured and no buildings were damaged in the derailment, although some vehicle in a nearby parking lot were damaged.
Municipal Assurance Group Trying To Prevent State Auditor From Investigating Finances
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A group that insures local governments across Iowa is going to court to try to block the state auditor from reviewing its spending, including travel to out-of-state vacation destinations. The Iowa Communities Assurance Pool, which is owned by cities, counties and other governments, argues in a legal petition that it is not a “governmental
subdivision” and that State Auditor Rob Sand has no authority to examine its finances. Sand’s office began reviewing the pool’s spending in October after The Associated Press reported that its directors have routinely held public meetings at vacation resorts in Florida every February and Michigan every August.
