(LE MARS)–Housing starts slowed in Le Mars in July. There weren’t any permits for new houses.
Code enforcement officer Jason Vacura issued eight permits for just more one-point-one million dollars of estimated construction costs.
The largest construction project is the Plymouth County Courthouse Annex office and storage building. The permit is for 637-thousand dollars for the building at 225 Fourth Avenue Southeast. Groundbreaking is set for Tuesday.
Le Mars Agri-Center received a permit for new grain storage and drying at 224 Second Avenue Northeast. The project cost is about 490-thousand dollars.
There were two permits for home remodeling projects totalling just over seven-thousand dollars.
The city’s building permit report for last month also listed one permit for a sign and two accessory buildings.
Since January there have been 62 permits for construction of just over six-million dollars.
Railroad work will close area on Otter Avenue
(LE MARS)–A portion of a Plymouth County road will be closed for a railroad crossing repair west of Oyens tomorrow (Thursday).
According to engineer Tom Rohe, the C-N-N Railroad has replaced a bridge just east of Otter Avenue and needs to resurface and realign the tracks through Otter Avenue.
The work will be on Otter Avenue, from Highway Three to 160th Street, beginning at 7:30 Thursday morning and ending at noon.
Today there’s crossing work at James on county road C-70, between Highway 75 and Imperial Road. Due to a change in a project completion, Plymouth County Road C-70 at James, between Highway 75 and Imperial Road, will not reopen today and will be closed Thursday.
King hosts Town Hall meeting Tuesday
(SIOUX CITY)–Congressman Steve King will be in Sioux City Tuesday to host a Town Hall meeting.
King announced the meeting to hear from his constituents at the Siouxland . The meeting is Tuesday afternoon from 1:30-2:30 at the Siouxland center for Active Generations .
Sweet corn vendors won’t lose their spots near Moville
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) Farmers can keep selling sweet corn and other produce at a busy interchange near Sioux City after the Woodbury County Board of Supervisors rejected a proposal to abolish parking along a highway.
County Engineer Mark Nahra had proposed prohibiting parking near an intersection with U.S. Highway 20 on the edge of Moville. That would have stopped farmers from selling produce there as they’ve done for more than a decade.
Nahra argued the vendors obstructed motorists’ visibility.
But supervisors voted unanimously Tuesday against the plan, noting no one had been injured at the intersection.
Two produce sellers had presented a petition signed by 558 people who didn’t want the makeshift market closed.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Person of interest sought by federal and local authorities
(SOUTH SIOUX CITY)–South Sioux City Police say they want to find a man who is a person of interest in their investigation of a bank robbery.
The Dakota County Bank in South Sioux City was robbed Monday afternoon.
Information was released today (Wednesday) by South Sioux City Police listing 57-year-old Edward Harold Corey as a person of interest. Authorities say he was operating a white van which was also listed as the type of vehicle the suspect in the South Sioux City bank drove away in. The van was recovered in Sioux City Tuesday.
Anyone with information about Corey, a six-foot-one-inch tall man who weighs 180 pounds and has a mole on his left cheek, is asked to contact their local law enforcement, the South Sioux City Police Department or the U-S Marshall’s office.
The Marshall’s office is trying to locate Corey to arrest him for a charge of escape.
Reward offered for Dickinson County shooting
(SPIRIT LAKE)-The Dickinson County Sheriff’s office is looking for information about a shooting near Milford.
Authorities received a report Monday that a horse and cat had been shot in the 24-hundred block of 202nd Street.
Authorities report the horse was treated by a veterinarian, but the cat was found dead. The shooting may have occurred between 11:15 and 11:45 Monday morning.
Anyone with information is asked to contact the Dickinson County Sheriff’s department or the county’s Crimestoppers program which is offering a $200 reward for information that leads to an arrest. A reward of one-thousand dollars has been posted by the Tom Ritzer family for information leading to the arrest of the person or persons involved.
Judgment is next step in prosecution of teen for church fire
YANKTON, S.D. (AP) The trial has concluded for a teenage boy accused of setting a Yankton church on fire last year.
The judge is expected to issue a judgment after a two-week period for lawyers to file briefs.
The boy was 14 at the time of the fire at St. John’s Lutheran Church and has not been identified. If he is found to be a delinquent child, he could be imprisoned until he is 21, be fined or lose his driver’s license.
The closed trial started last week but was delayed after a subpoenaed witness failed to show. The person appeared in court Tuesday.
St. John’s Lutheran Church sustained $2 million in damage in the April 2009 blaze. Rebuilding took a year.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Dam could be power producer when re-built
LAKE DELHI, Iowa (AP) The president of a group that owns the failed Lake Delhi dam says the structure will be rebuilt and might again produce hydroelectric power.
Lake Delhi Recreation Association President Jim Willey says an engineering company is working on plans to rebuild the dam, originally constructed in 1927. The eastern Iowa dam failed July 24 after floodwaters broke through earthen sections, draining a nine-mile lake.
The dam generated power until the 1970s, and Willey says a rebuilt dam could do so again. That could help finance reconstruction.
Aides plan to offer Gov. Chet Culver options for state aid by Friday.
Truck carrying chemical overturns in Cedar Rapids
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) A tanker-truck carrying sodium hydroxide has overturned on an interstate on-ramp in Cedar Rapids, releasing a small amount of the chemical and forcing closure of an overpass.
Cedar Rapids Fire Department spokesman Greg Buelow says the tanker overturned on the Interstate 380 northbound on-ramp about 6 a.m. Wednesday, prompting firefighters to establish a 150 feet “safe zone” around the truck. The Wright Brothers Boulevard overpass between the freeway exits was included in the closure area.
Sodium hydroxide is an irritant to the eyes, skin and mucous membranes.
The driver of the truck, 39-year-old Joe Short of Colona, Ill., was taken to a hospital with non-life threatening injuries. He was driving the chemical from Muscatine to Red Star Yeast in Cedar Rapids.
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Crews apparently have succeeded in ridding a Des Moines municipal building of bedbugs by turning up the heat to 140 degrees.
A company hired by the city used special equipment to pump hot air into the Armory Building in downtown Des Moines. The move, which cost about $4,750, was used after previous extermination efforts failed.
City officials think someone intentionally infested the building with bedbugs, which live in the crevices and folds of mattresses, sofas and sheets. They emerge to feed on human blood.
Police say they continue to investigate the matter.
The Armory Building houses Des Moines’ Community Development department, which issues building permits, handles property inspections and oversees various development and strategic planning efforts.
Scott County pork producer seeks expansion
DAVENPORT, Iowa (AP) A Scott County pork producer wants to nearly double its operation, but some residents are arguing that the planned expansion is too large.
Grandview Farms in Eldridge wants to increase its number of hogs from 3,000 to more than 5,000. Operator Tom Dittmer told Scott County commissioners on Tuesday that the increased manure could be handled properly and not harm the environment.
But some residents oppose the plans.
Molly Regan argues the expansion would produce too much manure to spread over farmland, threatening the air, soil and water.
A public hearing will be held on the matter Thursday night in Davenport.
Cedar Rapids succeeding in parking ticket effort
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) An effort to collect unpaid parking tickets in Cedar Rapids is paying off with a contractor reporting about $230,000 in receipts.
When Republic Parking won a contract to oversee the city’s downtown parking, one of its goals was to collect the unpaid tickets, which stood at about $600,000.
General Manager Jon Rouse says a new effort has helped in collection efforts. If a car has five or more unpaid tickets, workers can tow it after the next ticket.
Rouse estimates there still are about 20,000 unpaid parking tickets.
To make parking easier, Rouse says credit card machines will be installed in parking ramps in the next few months. They could be installed along streets by next spring.
Wet weather leaves Waukee road a muddy mess
WAUKEE, Iowa (AP) Soggy weather is complicating efforts to build a road to a new Waukee elementary school.
Superintendent Duane Van Gorp says the new Shuler Elementary School will be ready on time but that repeated rain has stopped workers from completing a road widening project, leaving a muddy mess.
Van Gorp says whenever crews would prepare to pave the road leading to the school, heavy rain would fall and stop their plans for days.
He says school will begin on time, but school officials will have to figure out how to get people to the building until the road can be finished.
Flood ravaged bridge being replaced
CHARLES CITY, Iowa (AP) Crews in Charles City will soon begin piecing together prefabricated parts of a pedestrian bridge, replacing a 102-year-old suspension bridge that was destroyed by flooding in 2008.
City Administrator Tom Brownlow says all six prefabricated pieces of the bridge have arrived and that workers should have them connected across the Cedar River within a couple weeks.
Federal money is largely paying for the $3 million project.
Brownlow says after the bridge is built, crews still need to finish approaches and other site work.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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