City To Close 2nd Street Southeast
(Le Mars) –– City officials will be closing 2nd Street southeast between 1st Avenue southeast and 2nd Avenue southeast, beginning today. The street will remain closed through Friday, March 13th. Wells Enterprises North Ice Cream Plant will be conducting work on their storage silos.
Horton Files Nomination Petition Papers For Re-election
(Le Mars) — Plymouth County Supervisor Gary Horton of Akron has submitted his petition papers to the county auditor’s office seeking re-election. Horton’s name will appear on the ballot for the primary election scheduled for June 2nd, 2020. As of today’s date, no one else has filed any nomination petition papers challenging Horton, although according to Plymouth County Auditor Stacy Feldman, candidates have until Wednesday, March 25th to turn in their petitions and file with the county. Horton represents county district five.
Van Otterloo Submits Petition Papers Seeking Supervisor Position
(Le Mars) — Plymouth County Sheriff Mike Van Otterloo has filed nomination papers with the Plymouth County Auditor to be placed on the ballot for the June 2nd, 2020 primary election. Van Otterloo, earlier in the year announced he would be resigning his position as sheriff effective December 31st, 2020.
Van Otterloo will be seeking the District 2 seat with the Plymouth County Board of Supervisors, a position currently held by Supervisor Mark Loutsch. Loutsch has announced he will retire from the county governing board at the conclusion of his term, which is December 31st. Van Otterloo brings 30 years of county leadership experience as the Plymouth County Sheriff in hopes of
continuing his public service career. Van Otterloo says he is excited to hopefully have the opportunity to continue to serve Plymouth County, and to work with some of the same elected officials and county constituents. Van Otterloo and his wife, Elaine, have lived in Le Mars for 45 years. Elaine
teaches at the Le Mars Community Middle School.
County Secondary Road Department Getting Prepared For Road Construction Projects
(Le Mars) — With spring around the corner it marks the start of road construction season with orange cones and barrells and barricade signs closing roads and bridges. Plymouth County Engineer Tom Rohe says efforts are underway to get ready for the upcoming season of road construction projects. Rohe says the first project will be to finish the bridge construction project located on county road C-44, just a half mile east of
Merrill.
Rohe says the timetable for the completion of the bridge repair project is set for a month to six weeks with the bridge to be closed to traffic. Another road construction project slated for this summer, and probably will be the most expensive, will be the over-laying of concrete on nine miles of county road C-38 between county roads K-22 and K-13.
Rohe submitted a proposed bid letting schedule to the county supervisors during their Tuesday meeting. On March 31st, Rohe hopes to accept the bids from contractors on three culvert replacement projects and on bridge replacement project. Two weeks later on April 14th, Rohe will open the bids for three additional culvert replacement projects. The Iowa Department of
Transportation will again be closing two lanes of Highway 75 between Hinton and Sioux City as construction will continue on the southbound lanes. It is not known when the project will begin, but it is expected the construction will last all summer and through the autumn months.
Officials Discuss Possible RAGBRAI Routes From Le Mars To Cherokee
(Le Mars) — Ever since RAGBRAI officials announced in late January that Le Mars would serve as the over-night starting point for the 2020 RAGBRAI route, with Storm Lake being the second overnight destination, local organization officials, along with law enforcement and public safety and transportation officials have been studying the maps trying to decide what would work best
as the best possible route joining the two communities. Initially, the proposed route had the estimated 20,000 bicycle riders leaving Le Mars on county road C-30 heading east, then south on county road K-64 and joining county road C-38 going east into Cherokee. However, according to Plymouth County Engineer, Tom Rohe, the proposed route has been placed on hold due to
the possibility of a bridge to be closed for repairs on C-30. Rohe says the route may now have the RAGBRAI participants leave Le Mars on State Highway 3 until they hit Cleghorn, then go south and join C-38 and head east again to Cherokee.
Even though Highway 3 has more traffic than the county roads, especially semi-truck traffic, Rohe says one reason why RAGBRAI officials have suggested Highway 3 is to join additional communities, such as Oyens, Remsen, and Marcus. If bikers were to go south from Le Mars following county road K-49
for two miles to county road C-38, and then turn left and go east to Cherokee, there are no small towns along that route, which leaves bikers little opportunity for rest breaks, and little chance for any town to host the event and gain economic revenue. Rohe says his office wasn’t contacted by either RAGBRAI officials, or local officials when Le Mars was first announced they would be hosting the cross-state bicycle ride sponsored by the
Des Moines Register newspaper. Rohe says the last time RAGBRAI came through Plymouth County and passed through Kingsley, his crews worked for two weeks on the route to get it ready for the bicycles.
22 Iowans Being Quarantined For Possible Coronavirus
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Officials say 22 Iowans are among the thousands of passengers and crew who were quarantined on a cruise ship docked in Northern California, and most of them are preparing to return home. Gov. Kim Reynolds said Tuesday that 18 of the Iowans will be flown home on a government-chartered plane and kept in isolation in their homes. None of them have shown symptoms of the COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus, but they will be screened before and after the flight. At least 21 of the roughly 3,500 passengers and crew on the Grand Princess cruise have tested positive for the disease.
Additional Iowans Now Testing Positive With Coronavirus
DES MOINES, Iowa (AP) – Health officials say five more residents in eastern Iowa’s Johnson County have tested positive for new coronavirus. Officials said in a news release Tuesday evening that all of the new cases are people who had recently traveled on an Egyptian cruise. The new cases bring the
total number of Iowa infections to 13. The release says 14 other tests have come back negative. Officials announced Iowa’s first COVID-19 cases on Sunday, as three individuals from Johnson County who had been on the cruise tested positive .For most people, the new coronavirus causes only mild or moderate symptoms, such as fever and cough. For some, especially older adults and people with existing health problems, it can cause more severe illness.
Grinnell College Students To Finish Classes From Home
GRINNELL, Iowa (AP) – The president of Grinnell College has told students they must leave the east-central Iowa campus by March 23 to help halt the spread of the new coronavirus disease. Classes will continue to meet through Friday, the last day before spring break. A Tuesday letter from President Raynard Kington says that after March 30 the college will shift to online classes for the rest of the semester. The college will cancel all athletic events, including practices, for the rest of the semester. Kington also says the college might cancel May’s commencement ceremony and other large events.
Hy Vee To Close Fulfillment Center At Urbandale
URBANDALE, Iowa (AP) – Hy-Vee has notified hundreds of Urbandale fulfillment center workers that they could be laid off in early May. The eight-state grocery chain is closing all four of the fulfillment centers for its Aisles Online delivery service. The Urbandale center was the only one in Iowa. A company spokeswoman says the centers were unable to provide a full assortment of products, personalized shoppers and same-day pickup at the stores. Fulfillment center operations will be transferred to stores. The layoff notifications went to nearly 370 employees, and the company plans to transfer several dozen to stores. An estimated 300 workers won’t be transferred.
Man Accused Of Setting Fire That Killed Two People Has Been Sentenced To Prison
INDEPENDENCE, Iowa (AP) – A man who was found guilty earlier this year of setting a fire that injured two people at his eastern Iowa home has been sentenced to 50 years in prison. Prosecutors say 45-year-old Shane Heins was sentenced Tuesday in Buchannan County District Court. A jury convicted him in
January of arson and two counts of attempted murder. He’d pleaded guilty before the trial to domestic abuse assault for shoving his stepdaughter.
Investigators say Heins set the fire March 2, 2019, in Independence in an effort to kill his wife, Christina Heins, and her uncle, Nick Necker. Both were taken for treatment to University of Iowa Hospitals & Clinics in Iowa City.
