Le Mars Receives Good Marks For Financial Audit
(Le Mars) — The city of Le Mars was given high marks with its recent financial audit. The audit was performed by Williams and Company of Le Mars, with Graham Forbes presenting the audit comments before the city council during its recent meeting.
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Forbes was complimentary of the city staff for their handling of the financials.
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According to the audit report, the city has enough cash reserves in its Unassigned General Fund to carry through with expenses for a period of 113 days. Forbes suggested to the city leaders that a nice range is between 85 and 130 days of cash reserves.
Attorney General Called To Help With Police Shooting Investigation
SIOUX CITY, Iowa (AP) – The Office of the Iowa Attorney General has been called in to review an investigation of the Jan. 28 shooting of a homicide suspect by a Sioux City police officer.
Twenty-nine-year-old Felix Navarrete was shot as he tried to flee out a second-floor window from officers who were trying to arrest him. Officials haven’t said whether he died from the gunshot or injuries from the fall.
Woodbury County Attorney Patrick Jennings says that he asked the state to step in. Jennings says he has two conflicts of interest, including his friendship with the officer who is believed to have fired at Navarrete. The officer’s name hasn’t been released.
A spokesman for the attorney general’s office, Geoff Greenwood, says an independent review of officer-involved shootings isn’t unusual.
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Wind Farm To Be Built In Carroll County
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – A New Jersey company has announced plans to invest $42 million in a west-central Iowa wind farm.
The project will go up in Carroll County and have a capacity of 20 megawatts.
The company, NJR Clean Energy Ventures, is a subsidiary of Wall, N.J.-based New Jersey Resources. It has made a 25-year power purchase agreement with Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy.
Fatal Snowmobile Accident Near Fonda
FONDA, Iowa (AP) – A northern Iowa teenager died while snowmobiling on a creek in Pocahontas County.
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources says 13-year-old Raymond Gatzemeyer, of Fonda, died Wednesday from injuries he suffered while operating a snowmobile southwest of Fonda.
Gatzemeyer struck a rope that was suspended between two pillars of a bridge. He was taken to a hospital in Sac City, where he was pronounced dead.
Gatzemeyer, who was wearing a helmet, was out with a group that included two other snowmobiles and an all-terrain vehicle.
Fonda is about 30 miles west of Fort Dodge.
Woman Wanted For Snow Shovel Assault On Roommate
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Police are looking for a woman accused of hitting her roommate with a shovel after a dispute over clearing their driveway of snow.
The assault happened Wednesday evening after a woman drove over snow in her driveway.
Police say the 55-year-old woman was sitting in her living room when her 46-year-old roommate hit her four times in the head and shoulder with a shovel. After the woman fell to the floor, the suspect beat the roommate with her fists and then tried to drag her outside and demand she shovel the driveway.
The victim got away and drove to a hospital, where she was treated for a shoulder fracture.
A warrant was issued for the woman, who wasn’t identified in police reports.
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Mural Restoration Nearly Complete
IOWA CITY, Iowa (AP) – A 19-month effort to study and restore Jackson Pollock’s painting, “Mural,” is nearly finished.
The 1943 painting has been in the conservation department of the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles since 2012. Restoration has included stabilizing the piece’s physical structure and removing a varnish added in the 1970s.
The 8-foot by 20-foot painting will go on display at the Getty in March before a 10-month display in Sioux City.
The piece was removed from the University of Iowa Museum of Art before the building was damaged by flooding in 2008. Officials hope to take the painting on an international tour with other Pollock works. It would return to Iowa City once a new space is built for UI’s 14,000-piece art collection.
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