Le Mars Police To Host Town Hall Meeting This Evening
(Le Mars) — The Le Mars Police Department will hold a town hall meeting, this evening, Wednesday, February 5th. The town hall meeting is open to the public, and will be held at the Le Mars Convention Center upper level and is scheduled to begin at 6:00 p.m. Le Mars Police Chief Kevin Vande Vegte says the focus of the public meeting is to discuss among other things, scams.
Vande Vegte says the Le Mars Police Department is notified of scams nearly on a daily basis, and unfortunately, senior citizens are those most likely to be victims of scams.
Another area of focus during the town hall meeting will be on active shooter situations. Assistant Police Chief Justin Daale along with Senior Officer Jeff Kramer will talk about what to do during an active shooter situation.
Daale says creating a distraction against an active shooter may help save your life. He says the police officers encourage the attendees of the Wednesday evening’s program to ask questions.
Chief Vande Vegte says the town hall meeting will likely run for two hours, and he encourages people to attend this informational seminar.
Ice Cream Days Committee Request Funding From City Council
(Le Mars) — The Le Mars city council approved funding a request by the Ice Cream Days committee during its meeting held this (Tuesday) afternoon. Brad Pick and Mitch Christoffel, members of the Ice Cream Days committee, spoke before the city council and informed the city leaders the requested money
would be used to finance a concert to be held Saturday evening of Ice Cream Days.
Pick continued to provide information to the city council regarding the band which will perform at the Olson Cultural Events Center.
Mitch Christoffel then informed the city council of the Ice Cream Days committee plans, and made the financial request of the city council.
Christoffel further explained the program surrounding the “Ice Cream Days Bash”
The city council approved funding $7,500 with the understanding the Ice Cream Days committee would find the other $17,500 from private sponsorship.
City Council Agrees To Increase City Employee Salaries
(Le Mars) — In other action taken by the city council, the council approved a two-year contract with the city employees under the collective bargaining unit. The council agreed to a salary increase of three percent for the first year of the contract which will begin on July 1st. Then for the second year, the council approved to a two-and-a-half percent increase for
city employees. The council also approved 15 contracts for the general contractor and sub-contractors for the renovation work scheduled for the Community Wellness Center or YMCA. The estimated total for the renovation project is estimated at $2,260,111.50. It is hoped the remodeling project at the YMCA can be completed by December of 2020.
Kirchoff Reads Proclamation Honoring The Honey Bee Business
(Le Mars) — Prior to the start of the Le Mars City Council meeting, Mayor Dick Kirchoff read a proclamation honoring the honey bee business. Three local bee keepers and producers of honey, were on hand in the council chambers when Kirchoff read the proclamation. It was mentioned about the economic and important value that honey bees have on the agricultural industry. Honey bees are responsible for pollinating up to a third of the food we consume, helping over 90 different crops.
Kirchoff informed the gathering at the city council chambers that traditionally bee keeping had been found primarily in rural areas, now many urban areas have bee hives. Kirchoff says Thursday, February 13th has been declared as “Iowa Honey Bee Day” as proclaimed by Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds.
Library and Water Department Submit Annual Reports
(Le Mars) — Both the Le Mars Public Library and the Le Mars Water Department submitted their annual reports to the city council on Tuesday.
Library Director Shirley Taylor reported the circulation trend at Le Mars has been opposite of the state and national trends. Taylor says, nationally, public libraries have seen a downward trend in circulation per capita, a drop of more than 11 percent since fiscal year 2012. However, at the Le Mars Public Library circulation has been trending up. Taylor says circulation at Le Mars was up 12 percent for the last fiscal year. Taylor says the local library had nearly 65,000 people visit during the past fiscal
year. As for the annual water report, City Water Director, Rich Sudtelgte says the city pumped 1,012,072,000 gallons of water last year. He says the average gallons pumped per day for 2019 was at 2,608,000 gallons, down 86,833 gallons per day from 2018.
Buttigieg Wins Iowa Caucus, Sanders Is Second
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Democratic Party has released additional results of its kickoff presidential caucus after a long day of delay. The early results show former Midwestern Mayor Pete Buttigieg with a slight lead over progressive Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders in the opening contest in the party’s 2020 primary season. The results late Tuesday followed 24 hours of
chaos as technical issues marred the contest, forcing state officials to apologize and raising questions about Iowa’s traditional place atop the presidential primary calendar. It’s still too early to call a winner, but the results so far are not good news for former Vice President Joe Biden, who’s shown in fourth place behind Sen. Elizabeth Warren.
Iowa May Lose Its “First-in-the-Nation” Status Due To The Delay
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Iowa’s coveted position as the first-in-the-nation presidential nominating contest faces its most daunting challenge in light of problems that prevented the state Democratic Party from reporting results Monday night. The caucuses were already facing plenty of headwinds amid
criticism that the overwhelmingly white state isn’t representative of the country’s diversity. The Iowa Democratic Party said Monday night that results were indefinitely delayed because of “quality checks” and “inconsistencies” in some reporting. It’s an embarrassing complication that added a new layer of doubt in the caucus process that has come under increasing criticism.
Iowa Supreme Court Will Not Review Evidence In Mollie Tibbetts Murder Case
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The Iowa Supreme Court says it will not review evidence in the case of a man charged with killing University of Iowa student Mollie Tibbetts in 2018. The lawyers for Cristhian Bahena Rivera have argued that much of the evidence prosecutors plan to use at trial should be suppressed because his cooperation was coerced and he wasn’t initially read his legal rights. The Des Moines Register reports that Justice Edward Mansfield denied the review Tuesday. A district court judge had ruled the evidence was admissible. Rivera’s lawyers appealed the decision, leading to a delay of Rivera’s first-degree murder trial.
Hy-Vee Stores To Close During Overnight Hours
(Des Moines) — Iowans who get a hankering for a midnight snack will soon have to head for a convenience store and not the nearest Hy-Vee. Starting next Monday, the West Des Moines-based grocery chain will stop keeping its stores open around the clock. Hy-Vee spokeswoman Tina Potthoff
says few customers do their shopping between midnight and six A-M, so all current 24-hour stores will be scaling back their hours.
Some stores will close from 11 P-M to 6 A-M, for others, it may be midnight to 5 A-M. Despite the downsizing of store hours, Potthoff says there will be no downsizing of staff.
The chain has about 83-thousand employees and is Iowa’s largest grocer.
Potthoff says plenty of other types of businesses are dumping ’round-the-clock hours.
Hy-Vee has 265 stores. About half of them are in Iowa. The rest are in seven other Midwestern states. The Le Mars Hy Vee store had already changed its hours last month.
———–
