(BRUNSVILLE)–You’ll need to leave the town to help a Plymouth County community raise money for its 100th birthday.
The Brunsville 5K Fun Run is Saturday June 4th leaving from Main Street in downtown Brunsville at nine in the morning.
The race is organized by Iowa Prairie Bank and Anytime Fitness with nearly 20 sponsors.
The 5K course is paved and flat. It starts by the west end of the Corner Bar and heads north of Brunsville on Plymouth County Road K-42. The first 150 entries for the Fun Run-Walk will receive a specially designed shirt to commemorate the run-walk.
Overall 5K male and female winners will be awarded. The top place winners will receive an award in the 13 and under; 14-20; 21-35; 36-50; and 51 and up categories.
Registration forms are at Iowa Prairie Bank and Anytime Fitness with a five dollar discount for forms postmarked by today (May 28th).
All proceeds collected at the run-walk will benefit the town’s centennial celebration
Jail Medication cost comparisons requested
(LE MARS)–Nursing hours in a contract for medical care for Plymouth County Jail inmates will be increased to reflect an increase in inmates.
Advanced Health Care Incorporated provides twice a week nursing care, once a week physician care and medication for the jail inmates.
Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo asked Supervisors to increase nursing hours by one hour a week at a cost of 36 dollars an hour or about 19-hundred dollars a year.
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The sheriff estimated the medication savings at 10-thousand to 15-thousand dollars a year from the switch to Advanced Health Care which uses Diamond Pharmacy.
Unless it’s an emergency, prescriptions are filled by overnight mail delivery. Supervisor Jack Guenthner asked the sheriff to have the company get prices again to pursue the possibility of have the prescriptions filled locally.
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The change in additional nursing hours was approved by Supervisors this week. Inmates pay $5 for a nurse visit.
Convention Center heating, cooling, ventilation system work is completed
(LE MARS)–A project to improve the comfort of guests at Le Mars Convention Center events is done.
State funds from the Iowa Office of Energy Policy covered some of the costs to upgrade the heating, air conditioning and ventillation for the former Westmar University Commons.
City administrator Scott Langel says Convention and Visitors Bureau Manager Jessica Lingren is one of two city employees who control the indoor climate
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The building’s roof has also been repaired with follow up fixes for some additional leaks.
Prosecutors announce conspiracy conviction
(SIOUX CITY)–A Siouxland business will pay a fine for price-fixing and bid-rigging conspiracy convictions.
The Department of Justice announced the guilty pleas by G-C-C Alliance Concrete of Orange City to three felony charges in federal court in Sioux City.
The ready-mix concrete producer was accused of being part of separate conspiracies with three different companies. The conspiracy involved agreements to fix prices and or to rig bids for ready-mix concrete sold to companies in Iowa and elsewhere.
In written information, the Justice Department stated the conspiracies took place between January of 2006 and August of 2009.
Under the terms of a plea agreement, G-C-C Alliance Concrete has agreed to pay a criminal fine as determined by a federal court judge.
The Justice Department’s Chicago field office, the F-B-I in SIoux City and the Department of Transportation’s Office of Inspector General and the U-S Attorney’s Office in Sioux City conducted the investigation.
Former G-C-C sales manager Steven Vande Brake of Orange City and two former ready-mix concrete presidents, Kent Robert Stewart and Chad Van Zee, have been convicted of conspiracies in federal court.
Van Zee is scheduled to be sentenced next month. Vande Brake was fined more than 800-thousand dollars and ordered to serve four years in prison. Stewart was sentenced to more than a year in prison and fined more than 83-thousand dollars for conspiring with Vande Brake.
Allen sentenced to 30 years in prison
(SIOUX CITY)–A Sioux City man will serve 30 years in prison for a crack cocaine conspiracy.
Fifty-five-year-old Allen Williams was convicted by a jury in federal court in Sioux City.
Williams and others were accused of getting crack cocaine in Omaha and distributing the drug in Sioux City between January and August of last year.
A federal jury in February convicted Williams of selling crack cocaine four times. The buyer was cooperating with law enforcement.
2 airmen killed in Afghanistan after IED attack
OTTUMWA, Iowa (AP) The Pentagon says a 28-year-old staff sergeant from Iowa was among two airmen killed in the Shorabak district of Kandahar province, Afghanistan.
The Defense Department said in a release Friday that Staff Sgt. Joseph J. Hamski of Ottumwa and 32-year-old Tech. Sgt. Kristoffer M. Solesbee of Citrus Heights, California, were killed.
Both died on May 26 of wounds suffered when enemy forces attacked their unit with an improvised explosive device.
Hamski was assigned to the 52nd Civil Engineer Squadron at Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany.
Solesbee was assigned to the 775th Civil Engineer Squadron at Hill Air Force Base in Utah.
No further details were released.
Iowa Dem leader Gronstal blames GOP for deadlock
JOHNSTON, Iowa (AP) Senate Majority Leader Michael Gronstal is blaming Republicans for a budget deadlock, saying GOP leaders won’t compromise with Democrats.
Speaking Friday on the public television program, “Iowa Press,” Gronstal noted he had offered four or five compromises during budget negotiations. He says Republicans rejected his overtures.
Republicans on Thursday accused Democrats of walking away from negotiations, but Gronstal argued that GOP leaders weren’t willing to seek a middle ground.
House Speaker Kraig Paulsen responded that Republicans are willing to bargain but Democrats are seeking a political gain by drawing out negotiations.
More budget talks are planned next week.
Dubuque man turns himself in on crash charges
DUBUQUE, Iowa (AP) A Dubuque man has turned himself in on a warrant charging him with two counts of vehicular homicide from a fatal car accident last fall.
Stuart Brown was arrested early Thursday on charges of vehicular homicide, drunken driving second offense, and homicide by vehicle-reckless driving.
Dubuque police say Brown was driving on Oct. 22 when he failed to navigate a curve in a street and hit a tree and then struck a house.
A passenger in the car, 48-year-old Randy Scott of Dubuque, died at the scene.
Brown appeared in court Thursday and was released on $25,000 bond.
Iowa man sentenced for sending threatening letter
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) A Winterset man who prosecutors say sent a written death threat in a letter containing a white powder has been sentenced to prison.
The U.S. attorney’s office says William Langford was sentenced Friday to one year and one day in federal prison.
Langford pleaded guilty in February to sending threatening communications to individuals and organizations in Winterset in February 2010.
Prosecutors say he admitted to mailing an envelope with a death threat and a white powder with the intent to falsely convey the transfer of a harmful biological agent or toxin. He also admitted to separately mailing letters threatening to injure a named person to nine different individuals and organizations.
Langford also was ordered to pay more than $5,900 restitution and serve two years supervised probation after his release.
Cedar Rapids investigate report of officer at bar
CEDAR RAPIDS, Iowa (AP) Cedar Rapids police have launched an internal investigation after an officer allegedly drove his patrol car to a bar in Marion.
Cedar Rapids police Sgt. Cristy Hamblin says Friday that officer does not face criminal charges but has been assigned administrative duties.
The Gazette is reporting the bartender at the VIP Lounge indicated the officer was intoxicated when he entered the bar on May 5.
Someone in the bar took the officer’s picture and took it to police.
Hamblin declined to identify the officer but says he’s a K-9 unit officer who is allowed to take his car home.
Trial set in Ottumwa real estate agent assault
OTTUMWA, Iowa (AP) Trial is set for Sept. 20 for a man charged in the attack of a real estate agent in Ottumwa.
Matthew Howard is charged with robbery and burglary in the February incident in which the real estate agent was assaulted at knifepoint and tied up.
Police say the 24-year-old Howard and another man, 40-year-old Carl Lennie, lured the woman to a house under the guise of showing it and then assaulted her. Police say the woman got free and hid in the house while her attackers fled with cash and a cell phone. The woman was treated at a hospital and released.
Lennie pleaded guilty and was sentenced to two 10-year sentences that will run consecutively.
Dryer named new judge in 1st district
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) An assistant public defender has been named the new district court judge for Iowa’s First Judicial District.
Gov. Terry Branstad announced the appointment of 44-year-old Andrea Dryer to the bench on Friday.
Dryer currently serves as an assistant public defender in Waterloo office. She received her law degree from the University of Iowa.
She fills a spot left open by the appointment of District Court Judge Bruce Zager to the Iowa Supreme Court earlier this year.
No injuries as train, truck collide near Le Grand
LE GRAND, Iowa (AP) No injuries have been reported after a Union Pacific train and one of the company’s maintenance trucks collided near Le Grand, blocking a crossing there.
The Time-Republican in Marshalltown is reporting that the accident happened early Thursday afternoon. The train was carrying cargo from North Platte, Neb. to Chicago when it hit the truck.
Union Pacific spokesman Mark Davis says the truck was severely damaged. The locomotive also was damaged but no one was hurt.
Traffic was diverted around the crossing east of Marshalltown and other trains were able to get around the accident.
No cars from the train were derailed.
(Copyright 2011 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
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