(AKRON)–A southeast South Dakota man who was clearing brush seven miles east of Akron died Monday when a tree fell on him.
The Plymouth County Sheriff’s office identified the man as 63-year-old James “Jim” Netley of Dakota Dunes, South Dakota.
The Sheriff’s Office and Plymouth County Coroner’s Office responded to the report of someone being injured around 7:30 Monday night. The location was on Highway Three at Ruble, a ghost town between Akron and Brunsville.
The sheriff’s office said Netley’s death was being handled as an accident and no further investigation was anticipated.
(LE MARS)–An egg recall drew comments from Republican candidate for governor Terry Branstad in Le Mars this afternoon.
Branstad spoke at the Wells’ Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor on his plans to keep and create jobs.
Branstad said the whole state of Iowa is getting a black eye for Jack DeCoster of DeCoster Farms. Branstad described DeCoster as a habitual violator. The former governor said his administration was on course to have DeCoster put out of business before he left office.
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Branstad talked of other GOP state office seekers, including attorney general candidate Brenna Findley, who Branstad said would enforce the habitual violator law.
Music setting, performers attract Festival audience to event
(LE MARS) When asked why they keep coming back year after year to the Old-Time Country Music and Blue Grass Festival, the response was nearly unanimous.
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It’s about the music… played by kind, generous, fun loving people. It’s also about the fans who come out to hear the classic country music steeped in tradition.
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Don from Saint Joseph, Missouri spends the winter in Texas and heard about the festival there. This years music brought him to Le Mars for the first time.
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As music fans sit and talk with each other at the Old Time Music Festival, some of their favorite performers will often stroll by and stop to say hello. Bobby Awe is one of the artist you’ll see around the grounds. He and his band, “The Country AWE-stars,” have been playing together since 1960. He has been playing festivals for about 10 years. His love for music began when he was a boy growing up on an Iowa farm.
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There are 10 stages with over 600 performers at the 35th Annual Old-Time Country Music and Blue Grass Festival, presented by Bob and Sheila Everhart and the Pioneer Ag Expo. The festival is going on now through Sunday at the Plymouth County Fair Grounds in Le Mars. (News Report by Angela Drake, KLEM News)
Judge rules on zoning appeal
(ORANGE CITY)–A judge has ordered a Sioux County business to meet zoning requirements and cleanup a lagoon.
The 10-page ruling from Judge John Ackerman was issued after Sioux Pharm appealed of civil penalties for county zoning violations.
The case involves Carol Kramer as trustee of Carol Kramer Revocable Trust, Allan Kramer individually and Sioux Pharm.
Odor was one complaint filed about property in western Sioux County that Sioux Pharm used to dispose of its industrial waste.
Sioux Pharm was fined 114-thousand dollars by Judge James Scott, with all but 50-thousand dollars suspended on the condition the lagoon be cleaned up by the end of June.
The decision was appealed.
Judge Ackerman ordered a 50-thousand dollar civil penalty to be paid by September 10th and required that no wastewater be added to the lagoon after the end of September.
The lagoon is to be emptied no later than the end of October.
If if is not emptied by November first, Sioux County is authorized to act to abate the nuisance and tax the costs to the defendants personally as well as against the real estate.
More environmental problems for Lake Delhi
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Environmental problems are growing at Lake Delhi, where a flood-related dam failure drained the lake in northeast Iowa in July.
Department of Natural Resources Director Richard Leopold says the Maquoketa (muh-KO’-kuh-tuh) River is washing away 80 years of silt on the bottom of the lake.
Leopold told The Des Moines Register on Monday that a stop-gap solution would be to spread a cover crop, such as oats, on the lake bed to help stabilize the sediment.
Leopold also says there are divisions within the agency over whether the lake should be restored. Last week, the Federal Emergency Management Agency said the privately owned dam is not eligible for federal public assistance money.
Leopold is leaving the department for the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service in Minnesota.
Dynamite found in Iowa garage
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) A Waterloo resident working on her garage says she didn’t expect to find a stick of dynamite.
The bomb squad was called in and nearby residents were evacuated on Monday after Kelly Shock found the dynamite above the rafters. She says it was red and marked “TNT Dynamite” in black letters.
Shock says she and a friend found the explosive while they were scraping the garage and getting it ready to be painted.
Shock says she put it a garbage can but then decided to call authorities.
A member of the bomb squad placed the stick in a container filled with diesel fuel to stabilize it.
Small chlorine leak at General Mills plant in Iowa
CARLISLE, Iowa (AP) Officials are looking for the source of a small chlorine leak at a General Mills Inc. plant near Carlisle in central Iowa.
Capt. Steve Brown of the Des Moines Fire Department says alarms in a chlorine storage room went off around 4 a.m. on Tuesday.
A haz-mat team from Des Moines was sent to the plant. Brown says there was an odor of chlorine and the team’s instruments got a “slight hit,” but emergency crews couldn’t pinpoint the source and the odor then dissipated.
Brown says a vent may have released a small amount of chlorine. There were no injuries and no evacuation was ordered.
Carlisle is about 12 miles southeast of Des Moines.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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