(LE MARS)–The first baby of the New Year at Floyd Valley Hospital is a boy.
Nohlyn James Lara was born at 7:55 this (Wednesday) morning. The baby boy, weighed five pounds, 14 ounces. He was 18-and-a-half inches long. He is the son of April Koopman and R-J Lara of Le Mars.
The physician for the delivery at Floyd Valley Hospital was Dr. Paul Parmelee of Family Medicine Clinic-Le Mars.
The Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce will welcome the first baby of 2011 with a gift basket. Thirteen businesses and organizations have provided gifts for the baby and the newborn’s parents.
Recycling passes 800-thousand pounds in 2010
(LE MARS)–More than 400 tons of trash from Le Mars residents didn’t get buried last year.
Assistant City Administrator Bill Cole reports the recycling total is up more than 100 tons of recycling compared to 2009. Cole also compared recycling five years ago when the program started to 2010.
The first year of recycling totalled 174-thousand pounds and the numbers had soared to 813-thousand pounds in five years.
According to Cole, garbage that is put in grey totes costs citizens $43.50 per ton. The city is not charged for garbage that is recycled through blue totes or blue bags.
Based on the 2010 numbers, Cole says the city and its citizens saved 18-thousand dollars by recycling.
Due to reycling, the monthly trash collection charge was reduced two dollars per household last July.
Christmas time topped recycling in Le Mars in 2010. Le Mars residents kept nearly 108-thousand pounds of items from garbage totes and a landfill in the month of December (last month). November was the second busiest month for recycling with 86-thousand pounds. January of last year was the slowest month with 46-thousand pounds of recycling.
Councilmember Delana Ihrke has been asked if a household may have more than one of the free, blue recycling totes.
Listen here
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Van’s Sanitation collects recycling in Le Mars. As of this month, trash and recycling collections rotate every other week. Next week is a recycling week.
Kolker is ‘Employ of the Month’
(LE MARS)–A longtime employee of a Le Mars law firm is being honored as the Le Mars Area Chamber of Commerce “Employee of the Month.”
Diann Kolker received the recognition during the chamber coffee hosted by the Trotzig and Bauerly law firm today (Wednesday).
Kolker’s work for more than 25 years was described as faithful and dependable service. She retired at the end of the December and will work a few hours a week during tax season.
Kolker is credited with transforming her duties as a legal secretary into a paralegal and performing complex financing accounting in estates, trusts and conservatorships. She also worked closely with tax clients, organized the filing system and kept computer systems up to date.
Kolker began her job when computers were first being introduced for use in a law office and has transitioned with the law firm to the latest innovation–paperless court filing by the Internet.
Trout stocking planned in Sioux City this weekend
(DES MOINES)–An urban fishing experience in northwest Iowa will be enhanced starting Saturday.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources will release 16-hundred trout in Bacon Creek Lake in Sioux City, weather permitting.
Anglers who want to fish for the trout are required to pay the trout fee in addition to an Iowa fishing license. The 2010 Iowa fishing licenses and stamps expire Monday (January 10).
The daily limit for trout is five and the possession limit is ten.
Young people who are under the age of 16 may fish without a trout fee as long as they’re supervised by an adult with a license who has paid the trout fee. Younger anglers may also pay their own trout fee.
SD bank robbery suspect identified
SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) Authorities have identified the suspect in a southeast South Dakota bank robbery Tuesday afternoon as a northwest Iowa man.
Thirty-two-year-old Jeremy Bullock of Inwood is being held in the Minnehaha County Jail.
Authorities say Bullock was arrested after a vehicle chase that ended several miles northwest of Centerville at Turkey Ridge. The chase followed the reported robbery at First Midwest Bank in Centerville about 1 p.m. Tuesday. Investigators have not said how much money was taken.
No one was hurt. The Centerville, South Dakota school was locked down Tuesday afternoon as a precaution.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
109-year-old Mason City, Iowa, woman dies
MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) A 109-year-old woman died at a Mason City nursing home.
The state Department of Aging had listed Ida Evans as the state’s third-oldest resident.
Good Shepherd Health Center administrator Mike Svejda said Wednesday that Evans “just slowed down” the last four or five days and died on Tuesday.
Nurse Robin Ralls told the Mason City Globe Gazette that Evans “really was a very sweet, sweet lady.”
Department of Aging spokeswoman Machelle Shaffer says the second-oldest person in Iowa is Meta “Acka” Ilten, of Cedar Rapids, and the oldest is Dina Manfredini, 113, of Johnston.
Reynolds’ Iowa Senate seat remains in GOP hands
RED OAK, Iowa (AP) Iowa’s Senate District 48 seat will remain in Republican hands.
Joni Ernst beat Democrat Ruth Smith on Tuesday in a special election to replace Kim Reynolds, who was elected lieutenant governor.
The Iowa Secretary of State’s Office says Ernst won 67 percent of the vote in unofficial returns.
Ernst, of Red Oak, is Montgomery County auditor. Smith, of Lamoni, is a physical therapist and coach.
The district includes seven counties in southern Iowa.
Reynolds, a Republican from Osceola, was elected along with Gov.-elect Terry Branstad.
Democrats hold 26 of 50 seats in the state Senate.
Principal accused of theft in West Des Moines
WINDSOR HEIGHTS, Iowa (AP) A school principal has been charged with theft from a West Des Moines grocery store.
According to The Des Moines Register, 36-year-old Amy Moore, of Urbandale, was arrested at a Hy-Vee store on Dec. 29.
The store manager told police that Moore filled a bag with several items and left without paying.
Moore told police she forgot to pay and would pay extra for the items.
She is principal at Cowles Montessori School in Windsor Heights.
Her husband, Jeff Moore, said Wednesday that she would not comment. But Jeff Moore said the incident “was a complete and total accident and misunderstanding.”
Hearing set for former Iowa dental office manager
MASON CITY, Iowa (AP) A woman who police say stole more than $80,000 from the dental office where she worked is scheduled to appear in court on next week.
Thirty-four-year-old Kiki Sue Jutting, of Mason City, is charged with first-degree theft. The Globe Gazette says she is scheduled to appear in Cerro Gordo County District Court on Jan. 11.
She is accused of stealing money from Central Park Dentistry, where she worked as an office manager. She no longer is employed at the office.
Police say the thefts occurred over several years.
A telephone listing for Jutting is no longer in service.
If convicted, Jutting could face up to 10 years in prison.
Details sketchy about standoff in Marion, Iowa
MARION, Iowa (AP) Authorities say Linn County sheriff’s deputies negotiated for about two hours with a patient at a Marion residential facility before the man shot himself.
Cedar Rapids television station KCRG says the man shot himself early Wednesday morning and was taken to a Cedar Rapids hospital.
His name was not released.
The standoff began about 11 p.m. Tuesday after officials at Abbe Center for Community Care called to report an armed patient.
Col. John Stuelke of the sheriff’s department says the man went outside around 1:30 a.m. and shot himself.
The facility provides services to people who are unable to live on their own because of age, illnesses or developmental problems. Other patients had been moved to a safe area of the building.
Abbe CEO Dan Strellner declined to comment.
Iowa woman gives birth in truck on way to hospital
NEVADA, Iowa (AP) An Iowa woman and her boyfriend are celebrating the New Year with a new baby boy and she delivered him in a Dodge pickup on the way to the hospital.
Heather Bell and Jeff Fredregill, of Collins, were on their way to a hospital in Ames on Jan. 1. Bell’s contractions were just minutes apart, and before she knew it she had delivered her son in the front passenger seat.
Bell told KCCI-TV that the Story County Medical Center in Nevada was just up the road, and paramedics were waiting when they arrived. Bell and her baby then got an ambulance ride to the hospital in Ames.
Bell says they named the baby Nico Dodge Fredregill, with his middle name in honor of where he was born.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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