(LE MARS)–A temporary travel change for traffic in Le Mars will end soon.
This afternoon, city officials notified KLEM News that the crossing will remain CLOSED until Saturday. City officials set a goal of having the crossing completed in time for the Plymouth County Fair.
Letter of support gathered for storm shelter in Plymouth County Annex building
(LE MARS)–Support is being sought for a project that provides another safe place in Le Mars when there’s severe weather.
A storm shelter is planned in the lower level of the new Plymouth County Courthouse annex building on the Courthouse block.
Supervisor Craig Anderson is working with a staff member from the Siouxland Interstate Metropolitan Planning Council (SIMPCO) and Emergency Management Director Gary Junge to get letters of support. The letters would be submitted with a request for state funds to pay a large portion of the storm shelter costs. Anderson explains he and Junge are making contacts for letters, including support from the administrator of the court system in Northwest Iowa.
Highway 3 Detour will end soon
(LE MARS)–A temporary travel change for traffic in Le Mars will end soon.
City administrator Scott Langel has this update on the Union Pacific railroad crossing project on Highway Three east of the downtown.
Listen here
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City officials set a goal of having the crossing completed in time for the Plymouth County Fair.
Anderson says the grant request for state I-JOBS II funds is due August 2nd
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Thirty-one counties in Iowa affected by recent flooding and severe weather will have access to state assistance for another 30 days after disaster proclamations were extended.
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver issued the extensions on Friday, giving the counties until Aug. 21 to apply for the State Individual Assistance Grant Program. The program provides financial reimbursements for individuals and families who have income less than 200 percent above poverty levels.
Eligible counties include : Sioux, Cherokee, O’Brien and Buena Vista.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Tools, dog taken from rural Kingsley residence
(KINGSLEY)–A rural Kingsley theft is being investigated by the Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office.
Gary Felts of 38383 C-60 reported the theft of hand and power tools from a building on his rural Kingsley property. Felts also had a Chihuahua dog and a push lawn mower taken.
The estimated value of the loss between 4 p-m on Wednesday and 2 a-m on Thursday is 25-hundred dollars.
Anyone with information is asked to call the sheriff’s office.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Thirty-one counties in Iowa affected by recent flooding and severe weather will have access to state assistance for another 30 days after disaster proclamations were extended.
Iowa Gov. Chet Culver issued the extensions on Friday, giving the counties until Aug. 21 to apply for the State Individual Assistance Grant Program. The program provides financial reimbursements for individuals and families who have income less than 200 percent above poverty levels.
Eligible counties include : Sioux, Cherokee, O’Brien and Buena Vista.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Mississippi River bridge reopens after hit by tow
LANSING, Iowa (AP) A bridge over the Mississippi River that links Iowa with Wisconsin has reopened after it was struck by a 15-barge tow.
The tow struck the Blackhawk Bridge on Thursday afternoon at about 4 p.m. The Wisconsin State Patrol says the bridge reopened just after midnight on Friday. The Highway 82 bridge connects Lansing, Iowa, with De Soto, Wis. The bridge is the only crossing over the Mississippi River for 56 miles.
Lansing police say the front of the barge was up against a steel cell that is filled with sand and topped with concrete. The cell is meant to protect bridge supports. IOWA-TAX REVENUE
Iowa tax revenue up for June
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The Iowa Legislative Services Agency says the state brought in $564.1 million in tax receipts last month, a boost of $44.3 million compared with June last year.
But the agency says net revenue from all taxes for the 12 months ending this June fell to $6.146 billion. That’s a decline of $195.8 million compared with the previous 12 months.
Gambling tax revenues were up 1.7 percent at Iowa’s 17 state-regulated casinos compared to June 2009. It was the first jump in gambling tax revenues in nearly a year and a half.
Iowa women request delay in embezzlement trial
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) An Iowa couple has requested a delay in their trial on money laundering charges.
Phyllis Stevens is accused in a 20-count indictment of embezzling nearly $6 million from West Des Moines insurer Aviva USA. Her partner, Marla Stevens, also is charged. Court document files Thursday show the women requested the delay.
Trever Hook is Marla Stevens’ attorney. Hook says the delay is necessary because Marla Stevens is recovering from radiation treatments for thyroid cancer.
A July 30 hearing is set on the delay request. The trial was to begin Aug. 16 in U.S. District Court.
Earlier this month a federal judge ruled that Phyllis Stevens was competent to stand trial despite a claim that she could display a child’s personality at any time.
Grain elevator operator cited by IOSHA
NASHUA, Iowa (AP) A grain elevator operator in northeast Iowa is facing possible fines for safety violations discovered after a teenager fell 60 feet from a silo last year.
Seventeen-year-old Keegan Henry of Nashua fell from the top of the tallest silo at The Mill Incorporated last May.
Iowa’s Occupational Safety and Health Bureau is citing The Mill for six serious safety violations. The agency says the silo did not have proper safety railings for stairway and ladderway floor openings and a platform was without swinging gates.
Henry suffered severe brain trauma when he fell. A friend says he is in a partial coma at a special care center in Ankeny.
The Mill owner Clair Rottinghaus says he still doesn’t know why Henry was at the silo.
Iowa universities raise record amounts
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Iowa’s public universities say they raised record amounts of funding last year.
The University of Iowa raised $466 million in the fiscal year 2010, a nine percent increase from 2009.
Iowa State increased external funding by 27 percent, and its largest donors came from the federal government. It brought in $388.2 million from grants, contracts, gifts and other sources, shattering the previous mark of $305.2 million in 2009.
Northern Iowa raised $55.6 million, a five percent increase from the previous year.
Former Alegent president brought back permanently
OMAHA, Neb. (AP) The former president of Alegent Health has been reappointed to the position he left last year.
Richard Hachten II had been serving as interim leader of Nebraska’s largest health care company since president and CEO Wayne Sensor resigned in October. Alegent announced this week that Hachten’s been brought on permanently.
Hachten was president of Alegent from its founding in 1996 until his retirement in April 2009.
Alegent has given no reason for Sensor’s sudden departure last fall. It came soon after votes of no confidence in Alegent management from doctors at two of its Omaha hospitals.
Alegent says it is the largest not-for-profit, faith-based health care system in Nebraska and southwest Iowa and employs about 9,000 people.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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