(LE MARS)–The budget tops the Plymouth County Board of Supervisors agenda once again. The board will review the 2009-2010 fiscal year budget amendment and set a public hearing date at their regular Tuesday morning meeting. Approval of two minor subdivisions in Remsen Township for Miller Farms and R&S Miller addition is being sought by attorney Dennis Brady. County Engineer Tom Rohe will update the board on the Secondary Road Department. The Board of Supervisors meets tomorrow morning at 9:30 in the lower level of the Plymouth County Courthouse. (News report by Dave Ruden)
Agenda:
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
9:30 AM Jim Henrich, Plymouth County Board Chairman
1. Call meeting to order
2. Approve this agenda (Action)
3. Approval of prior Board meeting minutes (Action)
4. Approval of claims and payroll (Signatures)
5. Committee Reports (Discussion)
6. Old Business
7. New Business
A. Open and review mail/correspondence (Discussion)
B. Open public forum (Informational)
10:00 AM Board of Supervisors – Review FY 09-10 budget amendment and set
public hearing date (Action)
10:30 AM Dennis Brady, Attorney – Seeking approval for Miller Farms, minor
subdivision in Section 16
Remsen Township and R & S Miller Addition, minor subdivision in Section
17 of Remsen Township
(Action)
10:45 AM Tom Rohe, Plymouth County Engineer
(Action Items)
1. Tile Permit-Sec 2 Johnson/Sec 35 Preston Twp
2. Waterline Permit-Sec 24 Washington Twp on Key Ave
Questions/Discussion of the Secondary Road Department
(Informational Items)
Update on construction projects
1:00 PM Courthouse Fire Safety Meeting with Wayne Schipper, Le Mars Fire
Chief
(LE MARS)–An upcoming vacancy on the Floyd Valley Hospital Board of Trustees will be discussed by the hospital board tonight.
Jim Ryan plans to resign from the board on Friday because he and his wife plan to move to Yankton. Ryan has served on the board since 1999.
Hospital trustees are to discuss the appointment during a public meeting tonight at six in the hospital board room.
The city council last week passed a motion establishing their intent to fill the vacancy on the hospital board by making an appointment next Tuesday, May 18th.
City attorney Joe Flannery advised the council they’d be approving whoever was appointed by the hospital board for the unexpired term through December of next year.
(UNDATED)–Health officials in Iowa and Nebraska are investigating what appears to be two separate outbreaks of mumps.
The outbreaks are cause for concern in both states as they were reported almost simultaneously and in relatively close proximity. There are eight cases confirmed or suspected in northwest Iowa and 20 cases in eastern Nebraska. The Iowa cases are all in young adults associated with Dordt College in Sioux Center while the Nebraska cases are all connected to a high school alumni event in Columbus, about 90 miles west of Omaha. Mumps symptoms may include : fever, headache and swollen glands but it can cause deafness, sterility in men and in some cases death. (News report by Radio Iowa)
(ORANGE CITY)–An Orange City man has been ordered to serve prison time for a conviction in Sioux County District Court.
According to county attorney Coleman McAllister, 32-year-old Paul Johnson Senior was sentenced Monday for felony theft and a misdemeanor conviction of reckless use of fire.
Johnson was charged after he went into an Orange City business on April 9th to look for his wife. He was stopped for driving a vehicle that had been stolen earlier in the day in Le Mars. The fire charge followed a fire in his apartment in August of 2008.
Johnson was ordered to serve up to five years in prison for theft and one year in jail for the fire conviction, with the sentences to run at the same time. The prison term is to begin immediately. He was also ordered to make restitution to two victims.
DALLAS (AP) Dean Foods Co. says its net income fell 43 percent in the first quarter and is suspendeding its full-year earnings forecast.
Dean Foods has a milk plant in Le Mars.
According to an Associated Press report, the food and beverage company is also cutting 350 to 400 jobs from its Fresh Dairy Direct-Morningstar unit in an attempt to lower costs.
The company says its private label milk business was hurt by lower-priced competitors appealing to budget-conscious shoppers.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
(DES MOINES)–Three Siouxland peace officers will be honored at the state’s Peace Officer Memorial Ceremony Friday morning.
State Public Safety Commissioner Eugene Meyer announced the 2010 Iowa Peace Officer Memorial additions.
According to Meyer, they include Corporal Jon Eric Hermann of the Woodbury County Sheriff’s office. Hermann and a sheriff’s deputy died when a plane transporting a prisoner crashed while taking off from the Fort Madison airport in June of 1993.
Another addition is Patrolman Sylvan Dykstra of the Sioux City Police Department. Dykstra was accidentally shot and killed when another officer’s gun accidentally discharged in July of 1953.
The third is former Onawa Police Chief Cole Shatswell who died in October of 1989. He had a heart attack and died while trying to get a suspect in a shoplifting out of a vehicle. He was 37.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Federal, county and local authorities knocked on the doors of hundreds of convicted sex offenders to determine if they were in compliance with registration laws.
The sex offender tracking and registration effort was made in 52 counties that make up the federal Northern District, an area of Iowa north of Interstate 80. Authorities on Monday announced the results of the effort.
The effort with sheriff’s offices in Plymouth, Sioux, Cherokee, Woodbury, Lyon, and other northern Iowa counties and Sioux City Police is known as Operation Northern S.T.A.R.
Authorities say the majority of offenders were living where there were supposed to be. Of the 1,745 total, only 155 gave a false address. So far, state or federal charges have been filed against 63 of the violators.
U.S. Marshal Tim Junker said once offenders realized federal agents were involved, they got the message officers are serious about keeping track of people.
Although sheriff’s departments usually track sex offenders, Junker said U.S. marshals may do it again.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
TABOR, S.D. (AP) A two-vehicle crash on South Dakota Highway 50 just west of Tabor has killed a woman from Avon.
The Highway Patrol says 80-year-old Bettie Pudwill died when the car she was driving collided with a car driven by a Tabor man shortly before 2:30 p.m. Sunday afternoon.
Authorities say the car driven by 52-year-old James Kloucek crossed the center line. He was injured and taken to a Sioux Falls hospital.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) The Roberts Dairy in Iowa City says it will reduce its workforce by more than 25 percent, cutting about 25 of its 90 employees.
Workers at the plant say they found out about the layoffs on Friday.
Roberts Dairy spokeswoman Sarah Lake issued a statement Monday saying the layoffs were due to what she called “business transitions.”
Lake said the dates of the layoffs were still being determined, and noted that they would be staggered.
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) Two former underage workers say they worked 12 hours a day, six days a week and were exposed to harsh chemicals at a kosher slaughterhouse in Iowa.
The teens testified Monday during the trial of former Agriprocessors manager Sholom Rubashkin on 83 counts of child labor violations.
Rony Ordonez Capir and Yesenia Cordero Mendoza acknowledged using false documents to get jobs at the slaughterhouse. Capir was 16 and Mendoza was 15 when hired.
Ordonez says he cut meat and washed down conveyor belts with bleach and chlorine.
Mendoza says she measured the temperature of meat packaged with dry ice.
Both say they suffered burning eyes and throats from the chemicals.
Mendoza cried while testifying about a raid at the plant.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Officials have approved a request for a special counsel to be hired to investigate $25,000 in contributions given by Fort Dodge gambling interests to Gov. Chet Culver’s campaign committee.
A panel of elected statewide officials approved Attorney General Tom Miller’s request. The Executive Council has voted to hire former Attorney General Lawrence Scalise to conduct the investigation.
Donn Stanley, Culver’s campaign manager, is also a top official in Miller’s office. Julie Pottorff of the Iowa Attorney General’s office says Miller requested outside counsel because Stanley’s presence could give the appearance of a conflict of interest.
Culver didn’t comment on the decision Monday, though he voted in favor of hiring Scalise.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A Des Moines man facing trial in the hit-and-run death of Iowa Air National Guardsman Bruce Mundy has pleaded guilty to vehicular homicide.
In exchange for his guilty plea Monday, prosecutors agreed to drop other charges against 24-year-old Orlando Rodriguez, including DUI vehicular homicide and involuntary manslaughter.
The 49-year-old Mundy, who lived in Adel, was hit while riding his motorcycle on Des Moines’ south side last Sept. 23. Police said he was hit by two brothers who were speeding away from a service station without paying for the gas they pumped.
Police said 26-year-old Santos Rodriguez was driving and his brother Orlando was a passenger. Both were charged with vehicular homicide.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) A Sixth Judicial District Judge has denied a request to reconsider a ruling that may let an alleged robber go free on a lower court judge’s error.
District Court Judge Marsha Bergan ruled last month Ahkinea Cox, who is a suspect in several 2008 strong arm robberies, would not go to trial on several charges of first-degree robbery because he did not receive a trial within one year. The right to a speedy trial is constitutionally protected.
In Monday’s hearing, Bergan denied Assistant Johnson County Attorney Anne Lahey’s request to reconsider that ruling.
Cox will remain in jail for the time being on an offense he allegedly committed while incarcerated.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Former President Bill Clinton has eulogized veteran Iowa Democratic strategist Edward Campbell during funeral services in Des Moines.
During a 90-minute service Monday at St. Anthony’s Catholic Church, Clinton said Campbell had a gentle, good, caring side, but was brilliant at hiding it. Clinton added Campbell suited up every day and “he played the game just the way you’re supposed to.”
Campbell was state Democratic Party chairman from 1977 to 1982. He died Thursday from complications of cancer. The 75-year-old was the husband of former Iowa Attorney General Bonnie Campbell.
Campbell endorsed Clinton in 1992 when other Iowa Democrats were backing Sen. Tom Harkin for the presidential nomination. Harkin, Lt. Gov. Patty Judge and Iowa first lady Mari Culver attended the service.
Gov. Chet Culver did not attend the funeral because he was attending a previously planned campaign fundraiser outside Iowa.
PERRY, Iowa (AP) Funeral services are pending for a U.S. Marine from Iowa who was killed in combat in Afghanistan.
The military said Monday that 19-year-old Lance Cpl. Joshua Davis of Perry died Friday while fighting in the Helmand province in southern Afghanistan with the 1st Battalion, 2nd Marine Division.
Davis joined the Marines after graduating from Perry High School in 2009.
He was assigned to Camp Lejeune, North Carolina.
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Local authorities say former Secretary of State Colin Powell will speak in Cedar Rapids next month to help dedicate a new monument honoring the more than 700 Iowa natives who died in the Korean War.
Powell is also a retired general, national security adviser and chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. He will make his appearance on June 1.
Cedar Rapids’ Veterans Memorial director Mike Jager says the granite memorial will be about 6.5 feet tall and will have the names of the Iowa dead from Korea engraved on its four faces.
The monument will be placed in the Veterans Memorial Park outside the Veterans Memorial Stadium.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Authorities at Iowa Methodist Medical Center in Des Moines are blaming Legionnaires’ disease bacteria for the recent death of one patient and an illness in another.
Hospital spokeswoman Jennifer Perry said Monday that hospital authorities are not sure whether the patients were infected with the bacteria at Methodist or elsewhere. Tests found the bacteria in a few spots in the facility’s water system so authorities have installed special filters and flushed the system with scalding water.
Legionnaires’ disease is a form of pneumonia caused by inhalation of a fairly common type of waterborne bacteria. The disease can be treated with antibiotics, but it can be deadly especially in people with breathing problems or immune-system weaknesses. Iowa recorded 21 cases last year and 19 in 2008, with one death each year.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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