(LE MARS)–Funding for a new health care service in Le Mars will be discussed by the Plymouth County Board of Supervisors this morning.
The board’s agenda includes the Le Mars Area Dialysis Services discussion of county funding. Supervisor Gordon Greene last week requested the agenda item. The project had been discussed at a meeting of the Le Mars Business Initiative Corporation (LBIC) that Greene had attended. The discussion is at 9:45 this morning.
At nine this morning, the board will review and discuss bids for the Plymouth County Courthouse Annex building opened last week. The office and storage building is to be located on the Courthouse block.
The board begins today’s public meeting at 8:30 in the lower level meeting room at the Plymouth County Courthouse.
AGENDA:
Tuesday, June 22, 2010
8:30 AMJim 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)
9:00 AMBoard of Supervisors – Review and discuss bids for Plymouth County Courthouse Annex building
(Discussion and Action)
9:45 AMBoard of Supervisors – Discuss the Le Mars Dialysis county funding (Discussion)
10:00 AMTom Rohe, Plymouth County Engineer
(Action Items)
1. Hungry Canyons Agreements – LC-141340(HC10-8)LC-142650(HC10-9)
2.Permit-Southern Sioux Rural Water – Sec 30/31 Fredonia Twp
3.Permit-Long Lines Limited-Sec 12 Plymouth Twp
4.Permit-Qwest Communications-CT Communications Sec 27/28/33/34 Perry Twp
5.Permit-Lundell Construction
a.Sec 29/32 Remsen Twp
b. Sec 13/24 Garfield Twp
c. Sec 7 Plymouth Twp/Sec 12 Liberty Twp
d. Sec 3/10 Preston Twp
e. Sec 22/27 Fredonia Twp
f. Sec 2/3 Lincoln Twp
(Discussion Items)
Questions/Discussion of the Secondary Road Department
(Informational Items)
Update on construction projects
SOURCE: www.co.plymouth.ia.us
DES MOINES–Two northwest Iowa family members are the latest Powerball prize winners.
Rollie Zellers of Sioux City and his father-in-law, Keith Olson of Whiting, claimed their one-million dollar Powerball prize Monday.
Rollie Zellers who is 51, bought two tickets at a Casey’s in Onawa Saturday while visiting his mother-in-law in the hospital. His 85-year-old father-in-law asked him to get the second ticket as Zellers was leaving the hospital.
Olson is splitting the prize with Zellers. Olson missed hearing some of the winning numbers when they were announced Saturday night. Bu he saw them in a newspaper Sunday and called his son-in-law. Olson couldn’t believe the winning amount.
Olson plans to use his winnings to help his family–he has three sons and a daughter, nine grandchildren and 14 great-grandchildren.
Zellers has paying off his house and a new car for his wife in mind for his half of the one-million dollar prize.
(LE MARS) A 14-year tradition continues this summer at the Plymouth County Fair. A quilt auction to benefit Life Skills Training center will be held Saturday, July 31st at 2 pm in Century Hall. This year’s auction will feature a quilt made to honor longtime Life Skills employee Dennis Kessenich. The Kessenich family wanted to honor Dennis with a quilt, and a chance conversation between Dennis’ sister-in-law, Dawn Kessenich and fellow scrap-book enthusiast and quilter Virginia Freyermuth led to this year’s entry. Life Skills public relations coordinator Becky Scheitler says the quilt Freyermuth made to honor Dennis is quite unique.
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Dennis, the 49-year-old son of Stan and Roselene Kessenich of Le Mars, has been at Life Skills Training Center since 1980. In 2004, Dennis received the Life Skills Client Achievement Award. This year’s Life Skills Training Center Foundation auction will feature between 60 and 70 quilts. The quilts will be on display at First National Bank’s main downtown location about two weeks before the Plymouth County Fair. The 2010 fair is July 28 through August 1st. (News report by Dave Ruden)
(LE MARS)–An insect is the latest source of calls to the Iowa State University Extension office in Plymouth County.
Earwigs are the reason for the calls. The insects are about 5/8 of an inch long and are dark brown with a reddish head and pale yellow-brown legs. They have a prominent pincers or forceps.
According to information from the Plymouth County I-S-U Extension office, earwigs live outdoors and hide during the day in damp areas or in flowers and plants.
Laura Jesse of the Extension Plant and Insect Diagnostic Clinic compares earwigs to boxelder bugs, crickets and lady beetles who are a household pest as an accidental invader. If they are found inside the house they can be swept or picked up and discarded. Jesse also suggests eliminating damp, moist conditions near the house as much as possible.
(REMSEN)–A Remsen native is touring the state to promote his book about his long canoe trip across Canada more than 30 years ago with three other “greenhorns” from the Iowa cornfields. Dennis Weidemann penned “This Water Goes North” about his unusual experiences on the 14-hundred mile, three-month journey. They started in northern Minnesota, paddling for three weeks along the Red River into Canada.
They eventually reached the 300-mile long “tempermental beast” of Lake Winnipeg, which is pretty much the end of civilization, he says. The tale, Weidemann says, is one of near-disasters, spendid sunsets and the indomitable spirit of youth. After getting across Lake Winnipeg, he says the real adventure into desolation began.
From there, it was 400 more miles of pure wilderness before reaching an old fur trading post on Hudson Bay, where they met bootleggers, Mounties and even polar bears. Weideman, who now lives in Wisconsin, says he likely wouldn’t try to take another canoe trip of this sort, not because he’s “old and brittle” now, but because you just can’t attempt to repeat an experience like this. Still, he says Iowans who wanted to take their own adventure across Canada could pull it off.
“You could still do the trip and come away with a lot of the same experiences,” Weideman says, though a few fly-in fishing lodges are along the way now, but northern Manitoba is still very much an unspoiled region of the world, mostly unchanged since he was there in the summer of 1979. For more information, visit: www.thiswatergoesnorth.com. (NEWS REPORT FROM RADIO IOWA)
(LE MARS)–Plymouth County Jurors do not need to report today. Jurors are asked to call next Monday, June 28 after 3pm to find out whether to report on Tuesday, June 29th.
SEATTLE (AP) Police in the Midwest are investigating whether an infamous teen burglar from Washington state is behind a string of break-ins and car thefts.
Police say that late last week, a family in Yankton, S.D., found a tall man in their home. He left, and a trail of stolen vehicles led to Norfolk, Neb., and Pella, Iowa, where a stolen Cadillac Escalade was found on Monday.
Yankton Assistant Police Chief Jerry Hisek (HIGH’-sek) says his department is forwarding DNA evidence to a state crime lab to see if the suspect might have been the 6-foot-5, 19-year-old Colton Harris-Moore. Harris-Moore is suspected of having committed dozens of burglaries and stolen boats, cars and even small airplanes since he escaped from a halfway house in 2008.
Hisek says the family didn’t get a good look at the man because their house was dark.
(Copyright 2010 by Associated Press. All rights reserved)
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FREMONT, Neb. (AP) Voters in the eastern Nebraska city of Fremont have approved a ban on hiring or renting property to illegal immigrants.
The special election in Fremont on Monday was the latest proposal in a series of immigration regulations taken up by communities around the country. About 57 percent of voters supported the measure, which is expected to be challenged in court.
Supporters say the measure is needed to make up for what they see as lax federal law enforcement. Opponents fear it could fuel discrimination.
Fremont’s Hispanic population has surged in the past two decades, largely due to jobs at two nearby meatpacking plants.
(COPYRIGHT 2010 BY ASSOCIATED PRESS ALL RIGHTS RESERVED)
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Gubernatorial rivals Chet Culver and Terry Branstad are getting an early and aggressive jump on the November election campaign as they take anti-incumbent jabs at each other and seek to persuade voters what a lousy governor the other has been.
In his television ads, Culver accuses Branstad of doubling state spending during his tenure, raising the gas tax and sales tax and trying to tax Social Security.
Branstad says in his ad that people are out of work because of the mess Culver has created and that Culver either can’t or won’t fix the state’s problems.
Branstad, a Republican, served 16 years as Iowa governor before leaving office after the 1998 election. Culver, the Democratic incumbent, is seeking his second term.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A former manager of an Iowa kosher slaughterhouse will be sentenced to 27 years in prison and ordered to pay nearly $31 million restitution when he’s sentenced Tuesday in U.S. District Court.
Chief U.S. District Court Judge Linda Reade issued a sentencing memorandum Monday outlining the sentence she will impose on Sholom Rubashkin during Tuesday’s hearing in Cedar Rapids. Reade indicated in the document she would not impose a fine.
A jury found Rubashkin guilty on 86 federal financial fraud charges last fall.
Rubashkin’s attorney Guy Cook says the sentence is unfair and excessive and that Rubashkin’s conviction and sentencing will be appealed.
U.S. attorney spokesman Bob Teig declined comment until the sentence is imposed.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Autopsy results show the bassist for heavy metal band Slipknot died of an accidental overdose of morphine and fentanyl, a synthetic morphine substitute.
Paul Gray was found dead in a suburban Des Moines hotel room on May 25. A hotel worker told a 911 dispatcher that a hypodermic needle was found near Gray’s body and that pills also were found in the room.
On Monday, Urbandale police issued a news release saying the final autopsy report shows Gray died of a drug overdose. It also shows signs of significant heart disease.
Police spokesman Sgt. Dave Disney says no evidence has been found showing a doctor prescribed either of the drugs and that officers are investigating where they came from.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) Police in Iowa City say a local teenager turned violent when they tried to stop him from dancing with the locally famous Black Angel statue in Oakland Cemetery.
Officers went to the cemetery late Friday night on a report that someone was dancing on the pedestal of the 8.5-foot-tall statue at the Feldevert family grave site. The officers say 18-year-old Brian Holst Jr. refused to leave, and they used a Taser on him after he began pushing and fighting against them.
Holst was charged with interference with officials acts and assault on a peace officer. It was not known Monday whether he had an attorney.
The Black Angel is made of bronze, but it has slowly turned black since its installation in 1912. It is the subject of many local superstitions and has been vandalized several times.
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) The Dubuque Community School District and the city of Dubuque have agreed to settle a lawsuit filed by the family of a student who died in a traffic accident.
Lauren Schmidt and another 15-year-old student were struck by a vehicle driven by 16-year-old classmate Codi Rega as they walked across the street near Dubuque Hempstead High School in September 2007.
Schmidt passed in front of a school bus partially pulled on to Pennsylvania Avenue. She later died at University Hospitals in Iowa City.
Gregory and Beth Ann Schmidt sued the school district, the bus driver, the city and an insurance company. In April, the school district agreed to pay a settlement of $115,000 and the city agreed to pay $55,000.
Others details of the settlement remain confidential.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Iowa Citizens’ Aide Ombudsman Bill Angrick is calling “indefensible” the actions of a Walker City Council member who voted in favor of his own appointment as fire chief and later refused to abstain from votes on fire department matters.
Angrick on Monday detailed 10 instances Bill Smith voted on matters directly related to the volunteer fire department on which he serves.
In a response to Angrick’s findings, Smith said he acted in accordance with advice given by the city attorney. Smith said he cast the votes because of the need to get things done, not because of personal gain.
Angrick calls Smith’s response unacceptable.
Iowa law allows a city council member to simultaneously serve as a city volunteer fire chief if the fire department serves 2,000 citizens or fewer. However, council members must obey conflict-of-interest prohibitions.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A recent spate of motorcycle accidents have prompted renewed calls for an Iowa helmet law.
The Insurance Institute for Highway Safety reports Iowa, Illinois and New Hampshire are the only states without helmet laws, even to protect their youngest residents. According to the Iowa Department of Transportation, at least one child under 14 and another 17 under the age of 24 have died in motorcycle crashes in the state since 2007.
Now some Iowa legislators, including Waterloo Democrat Rep. Doris Kelley, are pushing for a helmet law.
Kelley has introduced a bill prohibiting children under six from being allowed to ride on motorcycles. Cedar Falls Democratic Sen. Jeff Danielson wants to prohibit anyone under 18 from riding without a helmet.
Motorcycle riders such as Keith Boylan of Des Moines say helmets should not be required for any rider.
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley says the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services has awarded a competitive grant of $225,000 to the University of Iowa.
The Iowa Republican says the university will use the funds to conduct research on diabetes, endocrinology and metabolic processes.
Each year, thousands of local Iowa organizations, colleges and universities, individuals and state agencies apply for competitive grants from the federal government. The funding is then awarded based on each local organization or individual’s ability to meet criteria set by the federal agency involved.
CHEYENNE, Wyo. (AP) The federal government has declared a cease-fire in its biological war against saltcedar, a nonnative tree that has taken over riparian areas across the West.
The U.S. Department of Agriculture last week formally ended a program of releasing saltcedar leaf beetles to control saltcedar. Beetles no longer will be released in 13 states: Colorado, Idaho, Iowa, Kansas, Missouri, Nebraska, Nevada, North Dakota, Oregon, South Dakota, Montana, Washington and Wyoming.
The agency scrapped the beetle program because saltcedar provides important habitat for bird species, including the endangered southwestern willow flycatcher.
Alan Dowdy with the USDA says the beetles have been effective too effective for the good of birds that have come to rely on saltcedar.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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