Le Mars Rotary Plants Trees At O’Toole Park
(Le Mars) — The Le Mars Rotary organization is looked upon as one of the community’s more active civic organizations, and recently planted trees at the O’Toole Park on the north end of Central Avenue in Le Mars. John Schneider serves as president of the local chapter and says the Rotary has a long history associated with O’Toole Park.
Jumping ahead to today, and the Le Mars Rotary Club again has assisted with the planting of 15 trees for the park.
Schneider says the trees were planted on the north-side of the skateboard park, and are a type of evergreen tree. He says in addition to the planting of the trees, the Rotary organization will be donating two benches near the skateboard park. Schneider says Ruhland Tree Service and Nursery assisted with the project. Schneider says the Rotary club enjoys contributing to the
community. He says one of the major projects funded each year by the Le Mars Rotary are their scholarships to graduating high school seniors.
Much of the funds raised by the Le Mars Rotary comes from their ice cream cone, sundaes, and root-beer float sales from their building at the Plymouth County Fair. Schneider talks about some of the other community contributions by the Le Mars Rotary.
A new project identified by Le Mars Rotary will be to assist with providing clean water to regions of Africa. Schneider says incoming president, Bob Lee is behind that initiative.
Currently, the Le Mars Rotary has 23 members that meet weekly on Tuesday at noon at the basement of the American Bank. Schneider says since COVID-19 virus, the club has still been able to hold its meetings through video conferencing.
Tulip Festival Theater Production Of Cinderella Will He Held Over To Next Year
ORANGE CITY, Iowa – The Orange City Tulip Festival Night Show production of Rodgers + Hammerstein’s CINDERELLA will be postponed to next year. The scheduled dates will be May 11, 12, 13, 14, and 15, of 2021.
The performances will coincide with the annual Tulip Festival, scheduled for May 13-15, 2021, and the show will take place
on the same days and times as were planned for May 2020. Tuesday and Wednesday performances will be at 6:30 PM and the Thursday, Friday and Saturday performances will be at 8:00 PM at the Unity Christian High School Knight Center.
All tickets paid for the 2020 production will be deferred to the 2021 performances. Purchased tickets will apply to the same
performance dates in 2021 as the 2020 Tulip Festival tickets; however, when ticket sales open in January 2021, festival staff
will work with all ticket holders to find a performance event date that best meets their schedule. No refunds will be given at
this time, and ticket holders will receive additional communication as ticket sales open in 2021.
Farmers See A Good Start To This Year’s Crop, Meanwhile Ethanol Industry Is Facing Uncertainty
(Le Mars) — Farmers are off to a great start with regards to this year’s spring planting, with both corn and soybean planting nearly completed, and running at least a month ahead of last year’s pace. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture Mike Naig says it is good to see farmers finally have a decent year in which to get their crops planted.
Naig says farmers were certainly benefited from having good weather conditions, but he also credits the fact there were no interruptions with delivering the farmer’s inputs, such as seed, fertilizer, and fuel.
The Iowa Agriculture Secretary says since people were urged to stay at home because of the COVID-19 virus, fuel was widely available, and prices fell, and distributors were able to deliver the fuel needs to farmers without many problems. However, Naig says the lack of driving has also negatively impacted Iowa’s renewable fuels industry, with many ethanol plants, including
Plymouth Energy at Merrill having to shut down, at least temporarily.
Naig says the loss of demand for ethanol has also affected the livestock industry, as distilled dried grains, a by-product of ethanol production, and a feed component for poultry, hogs, and cattle is becoming in short supply. Naig believes the ethanol industry will be able to return, however, he says they will need some assistance.
Naig reminds people that much of Iowa’s corn production goes into ethanol production, and he is concerned about losing a significant market for our corn growers.
Reynolds Announces 4 New Test Iowa Sites Opening Next Week
(Des Moines, IA) — Governor Kim Reynolds is encouraging Iowans who have unsuccessfully tried to schedule a “Test Iowa” appointment for a COVID-19 screening to try again. The Test Iowa site in Sioux City closes this evening (Friday). Woodbury County has been a coronavirus hot spot, but Reynolds says
by now one out of 11 residents of the county had been tested. She said, “a majority of their tests are already being done by a local health care provider, so they are still going to have access to testing. This just gives us an opportunity to take that Test Iowa site and actually move it up to Sioux Center.” New Test Iowa sites will also open next week in Marshalltown,
Council Bluffs and Burlington.
COVID-19 Cases in Iowa Top 16K, 18 More Deaths
(Des Moines, IA) — The Iowa Department of Public Health is reporting 454 new cases of COVID-19, increasing the state total to 16-thousand-408. Iowa’s death toll rose to 418 after 18 more patients died from coronavirus. State health officials say 376 Iowans are hospitalized with COVID-19, 125 patients are in intensive care units and 80 are on ventilators. More than 89-hundred Iowans are no longer in isolation. Four-thousand-552 people have been tested in the last 24 hours. There are now 36 coronavirus outbreaks in Iowa’s long-term care facilities.
John Deere Reports 18-Percent Drop in Sales and 41-Percent Net Income
(Moline, IL) — Iowa’s largest manufacturing employer is reporting foul financial news. Quad Cities-based John Deere reports net sales for the second quarter fell 18-percent while net income plummeted from one-point-one billion dollars a year ago to nearly 666-million this quarter. That’s a drop of 41-percent. With the pandemic, a Deere news release says the company’s
top priorities are to safeguard the health and well-being of employees while fulfilling obligations to customers. Production is halted at Deere’s factories in Dubuque and Davenport that make construction and forestry equipment.
