Home News Friday Afternoon News, July 31st

Friday Afternoon News, July 31st

Local Civic Organizations Affected By Not Having County Fair

(Le Mars) — Many of Le Mars’ civic organizations have food booths at the Plymouth County Fair as a means to raise money to be used for charitable donations, scholarships, and other community supported projects. Three of those local civic organizations are the Le Mars Kiwanis with its bakery, and
Le Mars Rotary with its ice cream shop, and the Le Mars Optimists with their brats, turkey filet and rib-eye steak sandwiches. Mike Donlin serves as the president of the Le Mars Kiwanis club. He says although the organization
will miss the revenue that would have been raised this year had the fair occurred, Donlin says the Kiwanis are fortunate to have past revenue that has been set aside in order to still make financial contributions.

Donlin says the focus for the Le Mars Kiwanis is to support programs that benefit children, and he talks about some of the many local projects that are funded through the Le Mars Kiwanis organization.

Donlin says with most years, the Kiwanis bakery with its donuts and funnel cake sales can usually raise more than $10,000. Another civic organization with a big presence at the Pioneer Village as part of the Plymouth County Fair is the Le Mars Rotary organization. John Schneider is a past president of the local rotary, and serves as the manager of the Rotary ice cream shop.
Schneider says like the Kiwanis, the Rotary has been able to save some money to be used for this next year for scholarships.

Schneider says the local Rotary Club has been able to continue holding their meetings despite the spread of the COVID-19 virus. Schneider says the group have met at the O’Toole Park during the lunch hour with everyone bringing a brown bag lunch. He says the money that has been saved from not hiring a
caterer has been devoted to local food pantries and food banks.

The Le Mars Optimist Club, with its nearly 30 members, operates the filling station food stand located at Pioneer Village at the Plymouth County Fair.
The Optimist raises money through its sales of bratwurst, turkey breast filet, and recently rib-eye steak sandwiches, and the kettle cooked popcorn.
Todd Ellensohn is the president of the local Optimist chapter. He says the fair’s food stand is the only means of raising funds.

Ellensohn says the Optimists are hoping to be at the fair again next year, otherwise it will be difficult to sustain the organization and perform the many projects associated with the local Optimist club.

 

 

 

Drought Monitor Shows Dry Conditions Spreading

(Des Moines, IA) — The new report from the U-S Drought Monitor shows more counties now showing dry conditions. The Iowa D-N-R’s Tim Hall says the driest area continues to be in western Iowa centered around Carroll, Greene, Guthrie, and Audubon County. And in parts of other surrounding counties. Hall
says there’s also a little bit of drought in Plymouth County up in northwest Iowa. Hall says the good news for the western areas that are dry is the impact right now isn’t hitting water supplies — and right now it’s primarily an agricultural surface water issue.

 

 

 

Fishing License Sales Top Last Year

(Des Moines, IA) — State records show one out of every 10 Iowans now has a fishing license. The D-N-R’s Jeff Kopaska says the sales data goes back to 2003 and 2020 has had the highest number of license sales through the end of June for any year. The state’s fiscal years run from July 1st through June
30th. More than 312-thousand Iowans bought a fishing license during that time. He says that tops the 2019 license total of 230-thousand fishing licenses. There was a surge in fishing license purchases in 2012 when Kopaska says there was really nice spring weather. There was also a spike in fishing license sales back 2008 and 2009, during the last recession, but not as much
as this year.

 

 

 

Tyson Announces Plan To Monitor COVID Cases

(Waterloo, IA)-– Arkansas-based Tyson Foods says it is launching a new monitoring program to protect workers from COVID-19. The company says it is also hiring a new chief medical officer and additional nurses to help with the program. There were coronavirus outbreaks at Tyson Iowa plants in
Waterloo, Columbus Junction, Perry, and Tama. The company says it worked with outside medical experts to develop the plan that includes COVID testing of workers without symptoms, as well as those who exhibit certain symptoms or have been in close contact with someone who has the virus.

 

 

 

Man Sentenced To Prison For Council Bluffs Bank Robbery

(Council Bluffs, IA) — On Omaha man will spend six years in prison for robbing a Council Bluffs bank. Court documents show 41-year-old Brandon Bird walked into a U-S Bank in Council Bluffs in October of 2019 and gave the teller a note demanding money. Bird left the bank on foot and was stopped by police. All the stolen money was recovered.