(LE MARS)–An employee who began work with a new industry is being honored. LaCroix Packaging moved to Iowa in 2006 and hired Debbie Gibson as the Administrative Assistant. Gibson was recognized today as the Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce Employee of the Month.
Working at I-M-L, a specialized plastic container maker in the Le Mars Industrial Park, Gibson is described as an employee who has shown great determination and dedication to her position.
She’s credited with being a strong asset and major component to the start, growth and success of I-M-L. The nomination for Gibson says her strong organizational skills and firm conviction to achieve are very apparent in her daily work. After four years, she continues to manage all the office duties on her own.
(LE MARS)–Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras students and chaperone returned safely after what the co-director describes as a successful 10-day trip to Honduras.
Twenty high school students from Gehlen Catholic, Le Mars Community, Bishop Heelan in Sioux City, and St. Thomas More in Rapid City and nine chaperones made the trip which took them into Honduras during Holy Week.
While working on a water project funded by Le Mars and International Rotary, students and chaperones labored in temperatures of more than 110 degrees.
The project to bring fresh, clean, drinkable water to a village of about 140 people will take an estimated 25 days to complete.
Gehlen Catholic Mission Honduras co-director Richard Seivert provided a written report on the trip which was also blogged on the Mission Honduras web site .
A second group of high school students from Springfield Catholic High in Springfield, Missouri will be welcomed by three of the chaperones from the Gehlen trip. The Springfield students will continue the water project.
(LE MARS)–Le Mars Police are investigating two reports of theft from a Le Mars business.
According to written information from police, The Super Wash on Business Highway 75 South reported that during the evening hours of March 21 and 22nd and March 28th and 29th, someone entered a wash bay and broke into the coin machine.
An undetermined amount of money was taken each time.
(DES MOINES)–The director of the Iowa Department of Human Services is continuing the reorganization of the department with the announcement that the agency will convert 23 county offices to part-time status.
The D-H-S has offices in all 99 counties and had converted 34 of those offices to part-time hours in 2002. D-H-S director Charlie Krogmeier (KROHG-my-er) says more people are seeking assistance on-line and those who don’t will have to adjust to new office hours.
Krogmeier says: “Instead of having a full time office in their county to go into and apply for food stamps or Medicaid or other programs, that office may only be open one day a week and there will be an office in a neighboring county that is full time. That can work. It’s not as convenient but it can work.” Krogmeier also announced the department will consolidate child abuse reporting centers into one single call center in Des Moines. He says that will lead to greater efficiency and also more consistency in how reports of abuse are handled.
“While we do have the same rules, the same law, the same training everybody goes through, you can get some inconsistancies,” Krogmeier says, “and so we would hope that you’re going to have the same the set of supervisors managing that group of people –the same individuals all the time — you’re going to get some better consistency.”
The call center in Des Moines will employee 34 people which is ten fewer than currently required to staff eight call centers. D-H-S is facing more than 100 layoffs and as many as 450 retirements this year.
These counties will see their offices go from full to part-time: Plymouth, Cherokee, Crawford, Boone, Mills, Page, Madison, Decatur, Marion, Monroe, Appanoose, Keokuk, Washington, Tama, Poweshiek, Jackson, Jones, Delaware, Bremer, Hardin, Wright, Kossuth, Winnebago. (News report by Radio Iowa)
WASHINGTON (AP) Sen. Chuck Grassley says the U.S. Department of Education has awarded $517,078 in grants to two Iowa school districts.
According to Grassley, the money is coming from the Education Department’s foreign language assistance program.
The Bondurant Farrar Community School District will receive $214,102 for a project offering international courses to elementary students.
The Mid-Prairie Community Schools in Wellman will receive $149,538 for a project that teaches students about China and its language, and $153,438 for a project that teaches Spanish culture and language.
The Education Department says the intent of the grants is to help establish, improve, or expand innovative foreign language programs that show the promise of being continued for an extended period.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Des Moines police say they have charged a 25-year-old man with first-degree murder in the fatal shooting of his wife.
Police Sgt. Chris Scott says officers responding to a call of a domestic dispute Monday afternoon found 23-year-old Randi Gilmore dead of a gunshot wound in the rental home she shared with her husband and three children.
Scott says the husband, Donte Gilmore, was arrested in the yard and was being held Monday night at the Polk County Jail. Scott did not know if Donte Gilmore had an attorney.
Scott says the three children were home at the time of the shooting, and have been sent to live with relatives.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Linn County authorities say a 44-year-old Cedar Rapids-area man wanted on prostitution, pornography, and other charges has turned himself in.
Randal Mauderer turned himself in on Monday morning. He was booked into the Linn County Jail on charges of dissemination or exhibition of obscene materials to a minor, prostitution, and distribution of a controlled substance to persons under 18. He remains jailed on $24,300 cash bail.
Cedar Rapids Police Sgt. Christy Hamblin says Mauderer was found to have shown photographs of nude males in sex acts on his computer to a 15-year-old male, offered a 15-year-old male money in exchange for a sex act, and provided marijuana to a 15-year-old male on numerous occasions.
Linn County authorities say they do not know if Mauderer has an attorney.
NORTH LIBERTY, Iowa (AP) Authorities in the Iowa City area say they arrested a Chicago man for eluding deputies at speeds of 120 miles per hour and attempting to strike one of them with his car.
An off-duty Johnson County Deputy reported a vehicle driving recklessly on Interstate 380 Sunday evening. An on-duty deputy located the vehicle, driven by 38-year-old Ronnelle Thurman, and attempted to pull him over.
Police said Thurman initially complied, but then drove off, reaching speeds more than 120 miles per hour. The chase ended when Thurman crashed his car, but he allegedly attempted to hit one deputy with the disabled vehicle.
Thurman was charged with drunken driving, reckless driving, eluding, assaulting police officers with a weapon, interference with official acts and possession of drug paraphernalia.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) An Iowa man who possessed child pornography on his computer has entered a guilty plea in federal court at Cedar Rapids.
Thirty-year-old Kyle Conry of Dyersville entered the plea Monday to one count of possessing child pornography.
When he is sentenced by U.S. District Court Chief Judge Linda Reade, Conry faces a possible maximum sentence of 10 years imprisonment and a fine of $250,000.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) Johnson County authorities say the trial for a 17-year-old transient charged with first-degree murder in the shooting death of an Iowa City landlord has been reset for September 20.
Court officials set the new court date Monday for defendant Charles William Curtis Thompson.
Thompson, who has no permanent address, was charged following a nearly four-month investigation after 64-year-old John Versypt, of Cordova, Ill, was found dead from a gunshot wound to the head last Oct. 8 in the hallway of a building he owned.
Iowa City police Sgt. Denise Brotherton says several witnesses identified Thompson as being involved in the homicide. Brotherton also says Thompson’s clothing matched that of one of the people seen fleeing the area after Versypt was shot.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) An autopsy has confirmed that a body found at Coralville Reservoir is that of missing snowmobiler Martin Davis of rural Cedar Rapids.
The State Medical Examiner’s office used dental records Monday to identify the body of the 52-year-old Davis. The test shows that he died from drowning and that Davis’ death was accidental.
A kayaker found the body in the Coralville Lake early Friday afternoon.
Davis was last seen by his girlfriend on Jan. 3, 2010 when he had told her that he was going out for a ride on his snowmobile. Area law enforcement, plus dozens of volunteers, spent days searching the fields and ditches in the Coralville Lake area, but found nothing.
Authorities and family had worried that Davis’ snowmobile had fallen through the ice.
CHARLES CITY, Iowa (AP) Floyd County has a new county attorney.
The Floyd County Board of Supervisors on Monday appointed Normand Klemesrud to succeed Jesse Marzen, whose law license has been suspended.
Klemesrud was named a special prosecutor by the board in March following Marzen’s suspension. He has filed papers to run for county attorney this year.
Marzen’s law license was suspended by the Iowa Supreme Court after it ruled he broke the rules when he engaged in a sexual relationship with a client before his election in 2006.
The court’s ruling cited a January 2006 child custody case filed by Victoria Nehls, who initiated the ethics complaint against Marzen, who has denied the charges.
Without a valid license, Marzen is not eligible to serve as county attorney under Iowa law.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Submit your news release, confidential news tip or news idea by email klemnews@lemarscomm.net, by calling 712.546.4121 or 712.546.9672 fax.
