Plymouth County Secondary Roads Department To Close Hedge Avenue
(Le Mars) — Plymouth County Secondary Roads Department has announced they will be closing Hedge Avenue between county road C-16 going south for one mile to 150th Street. The road closure is due to the replacement of a wooden bridge with a box culvert. Construction is expected to be completed on August 28th.
School Board Approves Ball Diamond Renovation Project
(Le Mars) — During Monday evening’s school board meeting, the school board approved the proposal to renovate and upgrade the softball and baseball diamond complexes. Brent Koch, an architect with the CMBA firm, presented some initial drawings to the board, and explains the renovation project will look similar to other surrounding school athletic structures.
Koch says improvements will be made to the surrounding fence and the netting to protect spectators from foul balls.
The project is part of the ten-year facility plan, and therefore would be financed through the PPL sales tax revenue, instead of from the general fund.
Koch says bids will be opened on September 1st with an approval of a hearing scheduled for September 3rd during a special school board meeting. Koch believes construction would begin shortly there after.
The school board has approved funding for the project. Koch informed the school board that early estimates and projections would run around $500,000.
Scholten Campaigns In Plymouth County
(Le Mars) — The Democratic candidate for the 4th District of Iowa Congressional seat held a political campaign rally Tuesday evening at the Plymouth County Fairgrounds. More than 25 vehicles were parked at the fairgrounds to listen to J.D. Scholten of Sioux City. In the interest of social distancing during this era of coronavirus, the gathering of people were able to remain in their vehicles and listen to Scholten as he stood in the back of a pickup truck and shared his message using a low frequency
radio. People would honk their horns every time Scholten would make a comment that they found favorable or agreeable.
Scholten spoke for about a half hour. The Democrat contender appeared at KLEM offices earlier on Tuesday for
an exclusive interview. Scholten ran against Republican Steve King two years ago, and narrowly lost. This time, Scholten faces Republican Randy Feenstra from Hull, as Feenstra defeated King during the June primary election.
Scholten says this time around has been different as more people recognize his name.
Scholten says having a different opponent doesn’t change his campaign strategy since he says he focuses on the items and issues he favors, as opposed to who he is running against.
The Democratic candidate tells of the differences between himself and the Republican candidate Randy Feenstra.
Scholten says he will be traveling in his recreational vehicle “Sioux City Sue” with the plan to visit every community within the Congressional district.
Weather Official Explains Derecho Storm
(Des Moines) — Officials are estimating that approximately 10-million acres of Iowa cropland, or more than one-third of the state’s crops were damaged by the strong winds from Monday’s storm. Iowa Secretary of Agriculture, Mike Naig along with State Climatologist Justin Glisten held a joint news conference and discussed the damage that occurred through central and eastern
Iowa as a result of the passing derecho storm. Glisten offered a reporters a definition of a derecho and how it caused so much damage across the entire state.
Glisten says the term derecho actually was created in the 1800’s. He offers more of an explanation as to how it started.
Glisten says Monday’s storm began at around Carroll, Iowa and traveled across Iowa, into central Illinois and central Indiana, and touching western Ohio before the storm lost its intensity. Glisten says satellite images show the path of the storm, along with the devastation, as the crops were flatten.
During our 10:00 news update, we will hear comments from Iowa Agriculture Secretary Mike Naig as to the extent of damage to agriculture, including crops, barns, and storage structures, both on-farm and commercial grain storage facilities.
Reynolds Talks About Storm Damage Across The State
(Des Moines) — During her news conference this morning, Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds talked about yesterday’s storm that swept across the state and causing wide-spread massive damage to crops, structures, homes, businesses, and utilities. So far, Reynolds has declared an emergency disaster area for 13 central and eastern Iowa counties, but added it is likely that additional counties will be added to the list when more damage assessments are conducted and turned into the state. Reynolds talked about the damage done by Monday’s storm.
Reynolds then told of some of the specific storm damage from across the state.
According to Reynolds, approximately 450,000 households and businesses are without power, and Reynolds says it may be days before power is able to be restored across the state. She indicated many utility companies from other states are sending crews to Iowa to assist in the efforts of restoring power. Reynolds indicated that she and Lt. Governor Adam Gregg will be touring the state both today to see first hand the damage from the storm.
Reynolds Declares 19 Counties As Emergency Disaster Area
(Des Moines, IA) — Iowa Governor Kim Reynolds has issued a disaster declaration from the derecho that passed through the state Monday for 19 counties. The proclamation allows the counties to use state resources to recover from the storm damage. Reynolds told reporters Tuesday that about 450 thousand Iowans were without power and damage to power grids could keep things dark for several days.
[Counties involved: Benton, Cedar, Clinton, Clarke, Dallas, Greene, Hardin, Iowa, Jasper, Johnson, Linn, Marshall, Muscatine, Polk, Poweshiek, Scott, Story, Tama and Washington]
Iowa Agriculture Secretary: Storm Devastated State’s Cropland
(Des Moines, IA) — State Ag Secretary Mike Naig says some of the corn that was flattened by Monday’s storm will bounce back, but it’s anybody’s guess as to what percentage of damaged Iowa crops may be harvested. Naig says tens of millions of bushels of commercial grain storage and millions of on-farm grain storage was impacted, destroyed or severely damaged. Naig warns there will be storage issues for the 2020 crop, so farmers may have to truck their corn and soybeans further or resort to on-the-ground outdoor storage. The governor plans to take an aerial tour of the crop damage today.
No Iowa Hawkeye Football This Autumn
(Iowa City, IA) — Kinnick Stadium will be silent in September as the Big Ten Conference has canceled the fall sports season — including Iowa Hawkeye football games. Head Coach Kirk Ferentz spoke with reporters after the announcement and said the release of the schedule last week had given the players hope they would see the field this fall. Ferentz called it a “tough day,” saying “We’ll get through this.” Nebraska’s coach has indicated the school might play anyway, but Ferentz said he has great respect for the conference and believes they should stick together and said to his knowledge they have had no discussion about doing anything against what the conference decides.
