(SIOUX CENTER)–Sioux Center voters tomorrow will decide whether visitors and business travelers will pay more to help promote Sioux Center events and tourism.
The hotel-motel tax charged to rent Sioux Center motel rooms is one percent. Sioux Center voters are being asked to boost the revenue by four percent to a new rate of five percent.
A 2.5-million dollar event center is being planned to replace the Community Center demolished after the new Sioux Center Library was built.
The proposed event center would be about 12-thousand square feet and financed with a proposed Vision iowa/Community Attractions and Tourism (CAT) grant, local matching funds from fund raising and tax increment financing or TIF dollars.
According to Sioux County election deputy Lisa Rowenhorst, hours for the hotel-motel local option tax increase election tomorrow are from 7 a-m to 8 p-m.
(Orange City)–The Sioux County sheriff’s office reports a mini-van may be involved in a hit-and-run accident that damaged a police car.
The accident was reported about 11:30 Friday morning at M-O-C Floyd Valley High School.
Officer Bruce Jacobsma of Orange City was driving a patrol car to respond to a call at M-O-C Floyd Valley. When he returned to the vehicle after the call, the Orange City patrol car had been hit and received about 750 dollars in damage.
The vehicle that may have been involved is a red mini-van.
Sheriff Dan Altena asks anyone with information to call the Sioux County Sheriff’s office.
(SPENCER)–Two people were injured on Highway 75 in Dickinson County.
The Clay County Sheriff’s office released a report today about the traffic accident early April 24th.
Authorities report a pickup truck driven by 20-year-old Emily Christenson of Milford was traveling north on Highway 71 and Christenson attempted to pass a pickup driven by 79-year-old Edward Loetsheer of Sibley.
The sheriff’s office report states Loetsheer yielded to a parked vehicle on the highway by moving outward from his lane and caused Christenson to react by driving on the gravel portion of the road. She lost control and the pickup rolled several times before splitting in half.
Christenson and a passenger, Aaron Homer Christenson, were taken to the Spencer Hospital.
(FORT DODGE)–The Fort Dodge Correctional Facility has been placed on lockdown until further notice following assaults on three correctional officers by two Siouxland inmates.
The incident happened late Friday night when inmate Nicholas James hit in the head an officer who was trying to restrain him. When two other officers went to help the injured officer, another inmate Dexter No Ear attacked them. Both inmates have been moved to a higher security area at the Fort Dodge facility. The Iowa Department of Corrections said the guards have been treated for facial cuts and bruises. The names of the guards have not been released.
Charges against both James and No Ear will be determined by the Webster County Attorney’s office in Fort Dodge. James and No Ear are from Woodbury County. James is serving a 20-year sentence for second-degree robbery, willful injury and going armed with intent. No Ear is serving a ten-year sentence for second-degree theft and prohibited acts. (NEWS REPORT BY RADIO IOWA)
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DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Iowa is tapping into $35 million in federal funds for a temporary health-insurance pool for people denied private coverage because of pre-existing conditions.
The money is part of $5 billion being offered to states under the new federal health-reform law. It will subsidize “high-risk insurance pools” until 2014, when private insurers will be banned from denying coverage to people with pre-existing conditions.
Friday was the deadline for states to decide whether to accept the money. Some declined, partly because they feared the money would run out if too many people signed up. People from those states will be able to join federally run pools.
Gov. Chet Culver decided to accept. The Iowa Insurance Division will set up details of the pool, which is to start July 1.
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) A regional business conditions index slipped last month but still suggests a growing economy in the months ahead.
A report on the Midwest Business Conditions survey of supply managers and business leaders in a nine-state region was released Monday morning.
The report says the index slipped to a still-healthy 61.7 from 64.3 in March. It was the fifth straight month that the index remained above growth neutral.
The index ranges from zero to 100. Any score above 50 suggests economic growth in the next three to six months, while a score below 50 suggests a contracting economy in the coming months.
The nine states are Arkansas, Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, Missouri, Nebraska, North Dakota, Oklahoma and South Dakota.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) Authorities have arrested a man wanted in a chase with police in the Iowa City area.
Jesse Davis of Iowa City was arrested on Sunday. He’s accused of leading University Heights and Iowa City police on a chase in a stolen Jeep late Friday. Officials say police tried to pull him over for speeding, but he refused to stop.
Authorities say after leading police out of the city, Davis stopped the Jeep, put it into reverse and rammed a police car before fleeing on foot.
Davis faces six charges, including eluding and assault on a peace officer, and 19 traffic offenses.
Davis was in the Johnson County jail on Monday on bond of $21,000. Jail officials did not know if he had an attorney.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The hunt is on Iowa for wild morel mushrooms, and the state is now making it easier for restaurants and grocery stores to sell the hot commodity.
Iowa adopted strict federal standards in 2008 that forbids morels from being sold unless they’re inspected by a federally certified morel expert. Since Iowa is extremely short of those experts, restaurants and groceries haven’t been able to find stocks of morels.
The Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals has now created a three-hour program to certify those inspectors.
Iowa State University professor Mark Gleason says people don’t want to risk ingesting the wrong kind of mushroom. He says mistakes have been made, and people have ended up in the emergency room.
CLINTON, Iowa (AP) An Illinois man accused of driving to Iowa to have sex with a 13-year-old girl, who was actually an undercover police officer, has pleaded guilty to a sex charge.
Nicholas Ivanovich of Cicero, Ill., pleaded guilty last week in Clinton County District Court to enticing away a minor. He faces up to two years in prison and must register as a sex offender.
Sentencing is June 11.
According to court records, Ivanovich chatted online last July with the person he thought was a girl from Clinton, and he suggested they meet in Clinton.
The “teen” was a Clinton County sheriff’s deputy. Police arrested Ivanovich when he arrived in Clinton.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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