Preparations Being Made For Annual Gehlen Ball
(Le Mars) — Gehlen Catholic will hold its annual formal ball this coming Saturday at the Le Mars Convention Center. The annual event serves as the major fund raiser for the Catholic school. Dan Lehmann is a co-chair for this year’s event. He says the chosen theme is “A Class Act”, and will begin with a catered meal, along with the silent auction.
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Lehmann explains the rest of the evening’s activities following the banquet and the silent auction.
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As mentioned earlier, the Gehlen Ball serves as the fund raiser for the Catholic school. Lehmann says each year’s committee always has the hope to outperform and raise more money than the previous year’s Friends of Gehlen Ball.
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Lehmann offers a sense as to what the convention center will look like for the big event, which is often referred to as the “adult prom”.
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Lehmann says reservations are still being made, and tickets are available.
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Regents May Increase Tuition Rates For Three State Universities
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – The board that oversees Iowa’s three public universities has indicated it may need to increase tuition for students because the Legislature has proposed limited new dollars for the next budget year.
Bruce Rastetter, president of the Iowa Board of Regents, released a statement Thursday saying the board is disappointed in the proposed funding announced by a legislative budget group. Rastetter says the board will immediately start discussions regarding tuition increases for the upcoming school year.
The legislative group advanced a roughly $1 billion education budget that would give the regents nearly $600 million, including about $6 million in new dollars. Roughly $200 million for community colleges would include over $3 million in new money.
Lawmakers overseeing the bill emphasized they had limited dollars but had prioritized higher education funding.
MidAmerican Energy Looks To Invest In Additional Wind Turbines
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Des Moines-based MidAmerican Energy Company says it plans to spend $3.6 billion on a wind turbine operation that will generate up to 2,000 megawatts of electricity.
Bill Fehrman, the utility’s CEO and president, announced the project Thursday at an event in Des Moines attended by Gov. Terry Branstad and other state officials. Officials say the wind farm will be the largest economic development project in the state’s history.
Fehrman says when the project is completed, the utility will generate wind energy that equals 85 percent of its annual customer sales in Iowa. MidAmerican is the state’s largest utility.
MidAmerican didn’t release where the new turbines would be erected but says the utility will finalize locations while the Iowa Utilities Board considers the project.
