(LE MARS)–Dedicated service is being recognized by a Le Mars business which nominated an employee for the newest Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce honor.
Connie Arnold of Le Mars Insurance Company received the Chamber’s October “Employee of the Month award today.
Arnold began working at what was then Le Mars Mutual Insurance Company as a clerk shortly after she graduated from Le Mars High School.
Forty years later, a nomination for Arnold says she holds the position of Claims Processing Supervisor and is a strong leader in the department. Arnold is credited with excellent customer service when responding to those with claims as well as adjusters, service providers, agents and other.
She is described as a very dedicated, hard working and dependable employee.
Designers for 25th anniversary logo needed
(LE MARS)–A contest for the silver anniversary design for Ice Cream Days in Le Mars is underway.
The logo contest is part of planning for the 2011 Ice Cream Days events June 15-18th.
Students have designed the winning image for Ice Cream Days for the past decade.
Because 2011 is the 25th year of the summer celebration, the Le Mars Area Chamber of Commere is opening the logo competition to adults. The deadline to enter is December 2nd. The design for the contest may be drawn free-hand or may be comptuer generated.
The entry has a color scheme limited to three colors, the words Le Mars and 25th anniversary need to be in the drawing and the drawing should use ice cream related colors to promote celebration activities.
Details about the contest are available from the Chamer.
Former employee claims suit is a result of misunderstanding
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) A woman accused of stealing trade secrets from Sioux Falls-based ethanol producer Poet says the lawsuit filed against her is the result of a misunderstanding.
Jodi Heath tells The Argus Leader newspaper that she has quit working for another company since learning of the suit. She also denies taking any confidential or proprietary information from Poet and says the lawsuit damages her reputation and ability to make a living.
Heath was commodities manager for Poet’s plant in North Manchester, Ind., from 2008 through August, when she went to work for Interstate Commodities Inc.
Poet accuses her of stealing trade secrets and breaking a promise to not work for a competitor within two years of leaving Poet.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
Polk County inmate death was homicide
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The Iowa State Medical Examiner’s office has classified the death of a Polk County jail inmate as a homicide.
Associate State Medical Examiner Dr. Michele Catellier (cat-A’-leer) says Thursday that 27-year-old Nicholas Beasley, of Des Moines, died May 30 while being restrained. She also noted a seizure disorder and inflammation of the heart muscle as factors in the death.
She says the death was a homicide.
Beasley had been booked into the county jail the day before on a domestic assault charge.
Polk County Attorney John Sarcone says his office is investigating Beasley’s death. He says homicide doesn’t mean there’s foul play. He declined to comment on the circumstances surrounding Beasley’s death.
A telephone call to the sheriff’s office wasn’t immediately returned.
Iowa trucker gets 24 years for sex with child
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) A trucker has been sentenced to more than 24 years in prison after pleading guilty to driving a 13-year-old girl from Iowa to Kansas to have sex with her.
U.S. District Court Judge Linda Reade sentenced 28-year-old Brandin Christian Hagen of Fredericksburg, Iowa, on Wednesday to 24 years and five month after he pleaded guilty in April to one count of transporting a child in interstate commerce with intent to engage in unlawful sexual activity. There is no parole in the federal system.
In a plea agreement, Hagen admitted that in fall 2009 he drove the girl from Iowa to Bonner Springs, Kansas, and had sex with her in the truck’s sleeper compartment.
Iowa man arrested for bringing gun to courthouse
OELWEIN, Iowa (AP) Authorities say a 42-year-old northeast Iowa man has been arrested for allegedly bringing a weapon to the Fayette County Courthouse.
Officers with the Fayette County Sheriff’s Office were conducting a security check at the courthouse on Wednesday when they allegedly found Dean Benter of Protivin in possession of a stun gun.
Authorities say he doesn’t have a permit to carry it.
Benter was in court for a civil proceeding.
He faces a charge of carrying dangerous weapon and was taken into custody.
It was immediately unclear if he had an attorney. A working phone number for Benter could not be located Thursday.
Amtrak backers hope for funding announcement soon
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Backers of an Amtrak route from Chicago to Iowa City are optimistic word on funding will come soon.
Tammy Nicholson of Iowa’s office of rail transportation told The Gazette that it’s “leaning in that direction.”
Illinois will spend $45 million on a passenger route from Chicago to the Quad Cities. Once Amtrak reaches the Quad Cities, it’s 65 miles to Iowa City.
Nicholson says she expects an announcement soon on a joint application by Iowa and Illinois for a $62.9 million federal grant to get the passenger trains rolling over the route by 2012.
Iowa received a $1 million grant to study extending the service to Des Moines and eventually Omaha, Neb.
Iowa water district vows to resolve debt
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The executive director of a troubled water district in central Iowa is vowing to resolve $140 million in debt.
The Des Moines Register says Marc DeLong on Wednesday says the Xenia Rural Water District will put together a proposal before Thanksgiving. That includes increasing rates for residential users and ethanol plants and refinancing debt.
The district has about 9,000 customers in 11 counties. Xenia said it was going broke last year because of aggressive expansion that never arrived.
One of Xenia’ primary lenders is the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
USDA State Director Bill Menner says he supports investigating raising rates on ethanol plants, because they are Xenia’s biggest water users.
Lock and dam in Iowa to be closed for maintenance
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers plans to close a lock and dam on the Mississippi River in northeast Iowa this winter for maintenance.
The Telegraph Herald in Dubuque says Lock and Dam No. 10 in Guttenberg will be closed from Dec. 6 to March 15 weather and river conditions permitting. The lock will be drained of all water.
The maintenance work is scheduled about every 20 years on each lock and dam under the corps’ St. Paul District. The last time Lock and Dam No. 10 was drained was in 1990.
Trumpeter swan found dead in northern Iowa
FOREST CITY, Iowa (AP) An 11-year-old male trumpeter swan has been found dead near a nesting site in Thorpe Park near Forest City.
The Globe Gazette reports the swan was found in a pasture on Monday. The Winnebago County Conservation Board says the swan’s death is being investigated, but a veterinarian doesn’t believe it was shot.
The swan, No. H88, hatched in 1999 and was released at a wildlife refuge in Kossuth County in May 2000.
For the last 10 years, he had nested with his mate, No. F92, at Thorpe Park.
She and another male were among the original swans in the state’s restoration program. They nested at Thorpe Park in 2000.
The original male was killed that winter when he flew into a power line.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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