(Sioux Center)– The Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra…
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They are heard here playing an overture by Glinka. The orchestra, known as NISO (nye-so), kicks off their 25th Anniversary season in mid-November. Music Director Bradley Miedema (me-dem-ma) says they have a 4 great concerts lined up.
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The season opens this month with a fall concert featuring guest conductor Jeffrey Paul and bassoonist John Tompkins. Miedema says 3 pieces will be performed.
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NISO is comprised of musicians from northwest Iowa and southeast South Dakota. The orchestra’s membership includes adults of all ages as well as music students. There are over 35 students from area high schools and the Dordt College Music Department. Even though NISO is it’s own entity, Miedema says the relationship with Dordt is integral to their existance.
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The Northwest Iowa Symphony Orchestra’s Fall Concert launches their 25th Anniversary Season on Tuesday, November 16th at 7:30pm. The concert will be performed at the B.J. Haan Auditorium on the campus of Dordt College in Sioux Center. For more information check the website www.niso.org. (Andrea Drake, KLEM News)
Bureau of Prisons sends prisoners to Plymouth County
(LE MARS)–The number of people behind bars in Plymouth County includes a new type of federal prisoner.
The Plymouth County Jail has held people facing federal charges for the U-S Marshal’s Service at a rate of 75 dollars a day.
Sheriff Van Otterloo was asked by the federal Bureau of Prisons to consider jail housing for those who violate federal parole.
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The sheriff says a jail inspection by the Bureau of Prisons was the next step.
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Van Otterloo says U-S Marshal’s Service prisoners and Bureau of Prisons inmates have raised revenue at the jail to 45-thousand dollars a month.
Van Otterloo expects the number of Bureau of Prisons inmates to go up. The Bureau of Prisons rate is the same as the U-S Marshal’s Service rate/The county had experienced dwindling numbers of prisoners from the Marshal’s Service in the past year due to a decline in people in federal custody.
Pursuit leads to eluding conviction
(ORANGE CITY) An Orange City woman who was accused of leading authorities on a pursuit from Sioux Center to Orange City in July will serve a jail sentence.
A judge today (Friday) sentenced 44-year-old Melissa Jo Netten of Orange City for eluding, and criminal mischief in the third degree.
Netten was charged after Sioux Center police got calls about a woman walking down Highway 75 nearly causing traffic accidents. She then got into a pickup truck and refused to stop for law enforcement.
Information from Sioux County attorney Coleman McAllister indicates she struck a barrier in a parking lot in Orange City and was blocked by three patrol cars. She damaged two of them, including a State Patrol vehicle she was accused of ramming.
A judge sentenced her to three years in prison, but suspended all but seven days. As conditions of two years of probation she was ordered to pay restitution for damage to a law enforcement vehicle, abstain from mood-alerting chemicals, keep a job and pay a fine of more than one-thousand dollars.
McAllister stated Netten’s conviction for eluding will result in her driver’s license being revoked.
Ag Partners gets business recognition
(SHELDON)–A business that offered a work opportunity that’s grown to more locations is being honored for its efforts.
Village Northwest Unlimited named Ag Partners as the “Business Partner of the Year” during the 35th annual meeting.
Village Northwest Unlimited provides training and work experiences for persons with disabilities.
The Village’s relationship with Ag Partners began in April of 2008 when the Village offered custodial services at the Ag Partners truck terminal. A work crew from the Village cleaned the staff room, office and bathrooms.
In September of last year, the main office building for Ag Partners in Sheldon was added. The Matlock Ag Partners office joined the cleaning crew’s locations in July.
Recently a Village crew took over cleaning the Agronomy office and staff lounge in Sheldon. The employment represents an entire afternoon each week at Ag Partners.
Branstad to evaluate state grant program
JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) Republican Gov.-elect Terry Branstad says he’ll evaluate the I-JOBS program to determine if the state grant program for libraries, parks and community centers is worth the taxpayers’ money.
The Gazette says Branstad wants a status check on the current obligations.
Branstad says was “a mistake” for Gov. Chet Culver and the Democratically control Legislature to embark on a $875 million bonding plan. Branstad says he’s hopeful there’s a sizable share of the I-JOBS funds that haven’t been obligated, and he wants to review it.
Culver spokesman Jim Flansburg says more than $665 million of the overall $875 million in bonding proceeds had been awarded as of Aug. 31. The rest had not been awarded.
Branstad spoke on Thursday during the Iowa Public Television program “Iowa Press.”
Adults clubs under consideration in Mason City
MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) Adult clubs could be under consideration in Mason City.
The Globe Gazette newspaper reports that two members of the City Council said Thursday they’re open-minded about changing a city ordinance to allow cabarets downtown. At a meeting on Tuesday the council voted 4-2 to direct staff to amend the ordinance for the next meeting to place adult cabarets in the downtown district.
The amended ordinance was approved 4-2 on a first reading.
Council member Max Weaver says he thinks the adult clubs will bring life back to downtown. While council member Jeff Marsters says he voted against the measure because downtown isn’t the place for adult establishments.
Ordinances must be approved three times to pass. The second reading is Tuesday.
Black Hawk County expands child health services
WATERLOO, Iowa (AP) The Black Hawk County Health Department is reaching out to two more counties with its child health services, which includes a dental program for underinsured children.
The Waterloo-Cedar Falls Courier says the health department will add a full-time nurse after adding Delaware and Chickasaw counties to its services area.
Rhonda Bottke oversees county children’s health programs. She says Black Hawk County decided in September to expand the services, which have been offered to Black Hawk, Bremer, Buchanan and Grundy counties for about 20 years.
Dubuque had been covering Delaware and Chickasaw, but Bottke says that region was too big.
Bottke says every county in Iowa has to be included in a child health project.
Arrest warrant issued in fatal bicycle crash in CR
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Cedar Rapids police say an arrest warrant has been issued for the driver of a pickup truck in a deadly collision with a bicyclist during the summer.
The Gazette says police have charged Robert Fleming with failure to yield and no insurance in the July 29 crash that killed Susan DeSotel, of Cedar Rapids.
Two addresses are listed for Fleming in the police report, in Cedar Rapids and Alburnett, but police have not been able to find him.
Sgt. Mike Wallerstedt says police don’t know if he left town.
Neighbors wary of immigration office in DM suburb
URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) Neighbors are upset with plans for an immigration office with holding cells for illegal immigrants in the Des Moines suburb of Urbandale.
The Des Moines Register says U.S. Immigration and Customers Enforcement has rented space in a warehouse near the Days Run neighborhood. Local operations for the agency are now housed in the federal building in downtown Des Moines.
Susan Larsen, a mother of three who lives in the neighborhood, says the location is inappropriate. She says it’s close to schools and soccer fields.
The warehouse isn’t zoned for the types of work immigration officials have proposed, and federal officials have requested a variance.
Urbandale Mayor Bob Andeweg says officials will weigh the public’s concerns when deciding whether to grant the variance.
Workers report feeling ill at Des Moines building
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Emergency crews say they found no problem with the air at a building in downtown Des Moines after a dozen employees reported feeling ill.
The Des Moines Register says firefighters and MidAmerican Energy crews checked the Nationwide Insurance Co. building Thursday evening after workers reported queasy stomachs and headaches.
Fire department spokesman Capt. Steve Brown says no one was taken to the hospital.
Brown says the workers told medics they had been getting headaches during the last few days and would go outside for fresh air and would feel better.
Brown says new carpet or a cleaning agent could have caused the reaction. He says it’s likely an odor issue, but it’s not a dangerous situation.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
