Home News Thursday Afternoon News, January 9th

Thursday Afternoon News, January 9th

Roll-over Vehicle Accident Results In Fatality

(Le Mars) — The Plymouth County Communications Center received a call Wednesday evening at approximately 10:00 p.m. of a motor vehicle accident near the intersection of county roads C-60 and K-18 South. The caller stated that there was a vehicle in a small creek bed, near his residence, and it looked as if there were injuries.

Plymouth County Sheriff’s Deputies, Iowa State Patrol, Akron Fire and Ambulance were dispatched to the scene. Once first responders arrived at the scene it was apparent that the driver of the vehicle was deceased.

The preliminary investigation is indicating that a 1999 Chevrolet pickup truck was heading northbound on county road K-18 South, when the driver lost control and started sliding sideways off the roadway, down a steep embankment and into a creek bed. No other vehicles or persons were involved. The Iowa State Patrol is conducting a technical investigation into the crash.

The deceased was taken to the Floyd Valley Healthcare in Le Mars, where Plymouth County Medical Examiner, Dr. Sheila Holcomb conducted her examination. The accident remains under investigation and the name of the deceased is pending the notification of next of kin. The Iowa State Patrol will handle any additional news release information.

 

 

Chamber Coffee Honors Harrington As He Prepares For Retirement

(Le Mars) — The Chamber of Commerce weekly coffee event was held at Wireless World Wednesday morning.  Several of the community’s business leaders attended the coffee to congratulate Steve Harrington on his future retirement.  Harrington had been employed with the cellular phone company in Le Mars for the past 16 years.  The Wireless World cellular telephone employee is set to retire next week.

Steve Harrington is shown center-left, wearing the tan sports coat.  He will be retiring from Wireless World next week. 

 

 

 

State Fair To Raise Admission Ticket Prices

DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – It will cost you more to attend the Iowa State Fair this year. The fair announced Wednesday that gate prices for adults will rise to $14 from $12 last year, and tickets for children ages 6 to 11 will increase to $8 from $6. Advance purchase prices are going up a dollar: to $9
for adults and $5 for children ages 6 to 11. Children 5 and under still will get in free. There will be ticket discounts on some days for certain groups, including Older Iowans Day on Aug. 19.
Dave Hoffman of Le Mars is the president of the Iowa State Fair. He says despite the increase in price, the Iowa State Fair still remains a good value.

The Iowa State Fair has done a lot of renovation to their facilities during the last several years, and this year, according to Hoffman, the 4-H Exhibit Hall is getting a make-over.

Hoffman says recently, the Iowa State Fair acquired a popular cookie business, and the State Fair is adding facilities to sell more chocolate chip cookies that are fresh from the oven and are warm, soft, and chewy.

The fair runs Aug. 13-23 this year.

 

 

Sprawling River Port

DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) – Several Iowa and Illinois counties hope to form a sprawling port district along the Mississippi River. Bakers say the plan would improve access to federal funding and aid business development. The Quad-City Times reports that organizers are working on getting governing boards in all 15 counties that share river access to join what would be designated a port statistical area. An application then would be submitted to the Corps of Engineers. If it were approved, the 222-mile-long area would rank 68th in tonnage in the country. The 15 counties have 70 river terminals. Both states are significant exporters of soybeans and corn.

 

 

Felon Voting Rights

IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – Iowa election officials have stopped using a long-flawed database of felons who are ineligible to vote as they rebuild it from scratch. Iowa Secretary of State Paul Pate’s office removed the database, which contained more than 100,000 entries, from the statewide voter registration system last week. Workers are recreating the list by reviewing each entry and adding back those that are verified felony convictions. They hope to complete the review before the November election. Pate spokesman Kevin Hall says newly registered voters, who must attest that they aren’t felons, will be compared against only the verified entries to check their eligibility.

 

 

Fatal Quarry Accident

GARRISON, Iowa (AP) – Authorities say a worker was killed in an accident at an eastern Iowa rock quarry. First responders were sent around 1:15 p.m. Wednesday to Wendling Quarries, just southeast of Garrison. They found the man had been trapped in a rock bin and had already died. His name and details about what happened haven’t been released.