(LE MARS)–Plymouth County will meet a new federal requirement for sign reflection several months ahead of the deadline.
2012 is the year County Engineer Tom Rohe says the federal government set for establishing a plan to look at and replace signs that don’t meet light reflection requirements.
According to Rohe, all but seven of the county’s townships are on a computerized sign inventory system updating a paper card record system in place since 1978.
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Testing the visibility of signs at night is an annual project for the Road Department.
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Record keeping for signs also includes G-P-S locations.
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Signs costs are 50-60 dollars a sign for stop signs and 70-75 dollars a sign for the larger,36 by 36 stop ahead signs
Fire destroys hay at Struble dairy
(STRUBLE) A large amount of hay was destroyed by fire at a rural Struble farm Friday.
Fire fighters from Le Mars and Maurice battled the blaze at Dykstra Dairy, 34450 C-12, beginning around three Friday afternoon.
Le Mars Fire Rescue Chief David Schipper reports hay in a building at Dykstra Dairy was ignited during the grinding process.
The fire smoldered in the building with a large hay pile spreading to a second large pile and to a third.
More than 10-thousand gallons of water and four hand lines were used to bring the fire under control. There weren’t any injuries to fire fighters or dairy staff who used payloaders and skid loaders to remove the burning hay.
Damage to the building was minor but a large amount of hay was lost. No one was in the building when the fire started. Fire fighters were called just after three Friday afternoon and had help with fire fighters and water from the Maurice department. The Le Mars department was at the rural Struble dairy for about three hours.
Digital 3-D and silver screens planned in Le Mars
(SIOUX CITY)–A Sioux City businessman who will remodel and reopen the Royal T III Theatre in Le Mars thinks digital 3-D will revolutionize the movie industry.
Eric Hilsabeck will have the Digital 3-D technology at the remodeled Le Mars theatre. Hilsabeck owns the Riviera in downtown Sioux City and explains things appear to come right out at the movie viewer.
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Hilsabeck says it’s the future of the industry.
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The screens at the Le Mars theatre, which was closed about a year ago, will be replaced with silver screens which he says are mandatory for the digital 3D.
Hilsabeck is planning a Christmas holiday opening in Le Mars.
Palin promotes new book in Siouxland
(UNDATED) A prominent Republican is bringing her new book tour to northwest Iowa.
Former G-O-P Vice Presidential candidate Sarah Palin will sign her book at the Spirit Lake WalMart next Thursday. The former Alaska governor will sign books from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.
Palin is on a bus tour to promote her latest book, “America by Heart” released Tuesday.
She’s in Norfolk and Des Moines today (Saturday).
The former Alaska governor is considered a potential Republican candidate for President in 2012.
Sheriff honors child who helps save mom’s life
(STORM LAKE) –A young Storm Lake girl was honored at the Buena Vista County Sheriff’s Department this week for helping to save her mother’s life earlier this month.
Five year old Josie Hernandez called 9-1-1 on the morning of November 14th to tell the operator that she was unable to awaken her unresponsive mother. The call came in on a cell phone, which made it difficult to pinpoint the location of the call. Josie was able to provide enough information that led authorities to the address, where they discovered that Josie’s mother, Dawn Weiland, was unconscious due to a severe medical condition. Weiland was treated at Buena Vista Regional Medical Center. Weiland’s life was saved thanks to her having trained her daughter to call 911 in an emergency situation, and Weiland reminds other parents to do the same.
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(as he says) She says she is a severe diabetic and taught her daughter to call 9-1-1 in an emergency, and says all parents should do the same. Buena Vista County Sheriff Gary Launderville also credited Belinda Johnson, the dispatcher who took Josie’s call.
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(as he says) Launderville says these type of things don’t happen very often, but he says when they do, everyone needs to be recognized. He says a team effort among the dispatcher and paramedics and Josie helped save a life. Josie was given several gifts for her effort, including a badge, junior deputy sheriff t-shirt, and a junior lifesaver award. (News report by Radio Iowa)
Tax cut extension deadline nears
(WASHINGTON, D-C)–Virtually all Americans face the threat of a tax federal increase in January, if Congress doesn’t act in the next few weeks to reinstate the so-called Bush-era tax cuts. Iowa Congressman Steve King, a Republican, says there is a growing consensus among members of his party on the extension of the tax cuts.
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(As above) “We’re determined that we not split out any brackets, that all brackets get treated the same,” King says. “If anybody gets a tax increase, everybody gets a tax increase. That’s the thing we’re going to stand on. Whether we’re able to hold that or not, I don’t know.” Democrats and Republicans are bickering over how the wealthiest Americans will be taxed. King says President Obama’s stance on the issue is becoming more difficult to read.
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(As above) “The president seemed to be, a month or so ago, determined to increase the taxes on the highest bracket,” King says. “Now he seems to have come to a position where there’s a higher bracket than the highest bracket that he would want to hold out to increase the taxes on. The discussion becomes, will it be permanent and will it be all brackets?” King says the fight over the tax cuts is centered in the Senate. He says the House version of the legislation will still depend on outgoing Speaker Nancy Pelosi, a Democrat from California.
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(As above) “Nancy Pelosi could probably still, with the votes she has, pass most anything she decides to pass over here.” Congress is in recess this week for the Thanksgiving holiday.
(News report by Radio Iowa)
Cedar Rapids buys hotel for convention complex
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) The City Council has begrudgingly voted to buy the Crown Plaza Five Seasons Hotel for $3.2 million as part of a plan to rebuild a downtown convention complex.
Council members say they don’t like the idea but understand the hotel is critical to the $75 million plan to build the attached U.S. Cellular Center into a new convention complex.
The city is expected to take ownership of the hotel in March. The hotel is set to close in February, which will put 140 people out of work.
Council members say they don’t like the idea of being in the hotel business and that buying the hotel was necessary to make the convention complex project work.
The Gazette reports that the hotel and convention center should reopen by the fall of 2012.
Des Moines approves program to help homeless
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) The Des Moines City Council has approved a program to help move people living in homeless camps off the streets and reunite them with their families.
The council voted this week to approve a $305,000 pilot program that will house 42 people and provide transportation and assistance to dozens of others.
It was about two years ago that a fire in a homeless camp prompted city officials to evacuate the camp. Officials say two homeless people died on the city’s streets last year.
Councilman Chris Coleman says people are going to be invited to participate in the program within the next few weeks. About 200 people live in homeless camps in the Des Moines area. Officials say that is only a small percentage homeless in the city.
Iowa GOP: Focus on spending, jobs in Legislature
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) Iowa Republicans say state spending and jobs will take precedence over social issues such as gay marriage at the upcoming legislative session.
Although many Republicans have been strongly opposed to the legalization of gay marriage in Iowa, House Speaker-elect Kraig Paulsen says he thinks voters are most concerned about reducing the size of government and creating jobs.
Tim Albrecht, a spokesman for Gov.-elect Terry Branstad agrees, saying the Republican stressed jobs in his campaign because that’s what people care about most.
When the Legislature convenes in January, Republican leaders say they will take up the issue of a constitutional amendment that would ban gay marriage, but they don’t expect extended discussions about the matter. Senate Democratic leader Michael Gronstal says he’ll work to block the referral of such an amendment to voters.
Guatemalans will join relatives in Postville
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) An immigration lawyer says 28 Guatemalans are expected to arrive next week in Postville to join relatives who have stayed in the community after helping in the prosecution of officials at a meatpacking plant.
Sonia Parras Konrad tells The Des Moines Register that most of those coming Dec. 4 are children whose mothers previously worked at the northeast Iowa plant, then known as Agriprocessors. After cooperating with investigators following a huge immigration raid at the plant in 2008, the former workers were allowed to remain in the United States through temporary visas.
Churches in the area helped raise money for airfare from Guatemala to Chicago. They also arranged for a bus from Chicago to Postville.
Parras Konrad, who represents many of the immigrants, says most hope to remain in the U.S.
Mifflin Meteorite gets permanent home at UW museum
MADISON, Wis. (AP) Fragments of the meteorite that brightened the skies of Wisconsin and parts of Iowa on April 14 have become part of the permanent collection of the University of Wisconsin-Madison’s Geology Museum.
The meteorite was named after Mifflin Township by the Meteoritical Society in August after the group classified it as an ordinary chondrite meteorite. Scientists believe was originally part of an asteroid fragment that separated 470 million years ago between Mars and Jupiter.
Eight pieces of the Mifflin Meteorite are on display at the UW Geology Museum. Five are on loan and three are part of the museum’s permanent collection. Six of the 14 meteorites known to have landed in Wisconsin are on display as part of the exhibit.
Truck wheel hits home; pickup roars away
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Thanksgiving started off with a bang for a Cedar Rapids woman who says a pickup truck wheel slammed into the side of her home.
The Gazette newspaper reports that the pickup lost control about 2:15 a.m. Thursday. It hit two trees and a utility pole before its right rear wheel flew off and hit Judy Baldwin’s condominium.
The wheel just missed a window but damaged siding, a gutter and drywall inside the home.
Baldwin says the pickup was seen driving away on three wheels. Sparks were flying from the rear of the vehicle.
Police have the wheel and others parts of the pickup.
(Copyright 2010 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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