FIRE GRANTS
A new grant program from an organization promoting inclusive education will benefit Gehlen Catholic Schools.
The FIRE Foundation of Northwest Iowa awarded a 20-thousand dollars grant to Gehlen Catholic, and another 20-thousand dollars to Bishop Heelan Catholic High School in Sioux City.
A news release from the FIRE Foundation of Northwest Iowa says Gehlen’s grant will be used to hire two paraprofessionals, one for students in the elementary school, and one for students in grades 7 through 12. Both paras will serve students with special needs.
The FIRE Foundation of Northwest Iowa was formed in 2020 to help with the education of special needs students in Catholic Schools in northwest Iowa.
IOWA RESTAURANTS
First it was covid. Now, higher labor costs and inflation are hitting Iowa’s restaurant industry. Jessica Dunker, CEO and president of the Iowa Restaurant Association, says finding reliable workers is just one of the major hurdles they’re now trying to cope with.
While revenues for some restaurants are up, Dunker says in many cases, profits are down. The association is addressing the issues with its members, trying to help them ride the waves.
She also recommends restaurant owners brainstorm to find ways to make due with smaller staffs, while being prepared to raise wages. While one in three Iowans of a certain age will say their first job was in the restaurant industry, Dunker says it’s no longer the case for the new generation. The industry is struggling to find younger workers, droves of whom are now being lured by a host of other entry-level jobs in areas where restaurants never before had to compete.
She implores Iowans to, “Be patient, be kind, and still come out to appreciate and enjoy all the hospitality scene has to offer.
INJURY ACCIDENT
Sioux County authorities say one person received minor injury in a two-vehicle accident Saturday, five miles south of Inwood. 28 year old Dillon Altena, of Fairview, SD, was driving a pickup northbound on Highway 18. Katherine Crumrine, age 24, of Sioux Center, IA, was driving an SUV southbound on 18. Altena attempted a left turn onto 290th Street and the two struck.
A passenger in the Crumrine vehicle was transported by the Rock Valley Ambulance to Hegg Health Center for treatment of minor injuries. Altena was cited for an illegal turn.
SOUTH DAKOTA STORM DAMAGE
South Dakota officials say damage from the storm that ripped through their state last week spread across 28 counties. Governor Kristi Noem said that two storm-related deaths had been confirmed in Minnehaha County. One tornado was reported, and wind speeds in some of the storms topped 100 miles per hour. Injuries from the storm were also reported, but totals haven’t been released.
ECONOMIST – NO RECORD GAS PRICES
It won’t likely make you feel any better, but those record high gasoline prices aren’t really so high, nor are they records. That’s according to Herman Quirmbach, a retired economics professor at Iowa State University. He says gasoline prices are indeed more expensive than the previous highest-ever prices dating back to July of 2008, but he says it’s not an apples to apples comparison.
Triple-A-Iowa says the statewide average for gas as of Friday is four-13 a gallon. Earlier in the week, the high prices wiped out the previous high price from 2008 of four-02 a gallon. In today’s dollars, Quirmbach says that four-02 would actually be more like five-28 a gallon.
Quirmbach, a state senator from Ames and a Democrat, says multiple factors go into the price of gas, even though it’s often reduced to being a political football.
Quirmbach agrees with a statement issued by a Triple-A spokesman which said, “There are very few things that a president can do to help lower the cost of oil, and this administration tried to do pretty much everything that it can.” In a Radio Iowa interview last Tuesday, Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley, a Republican, placed the blame of high gas prices on the Democrat in the White House.
USS SULLIVAN BROTHERS
Starting Memorial Day weekend, visitors will be allowed back on the deck of the retired Navy vessel named for the five Waterloo brothers who died together in World War II. The U-S-S The Sullivans — a floating museum in Buffalo, New York’s harbor — began sinking in April. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown says the ship was listing at 22 degrees.
Crews pumped more than half a million gallons of water out of the ship, removed contaminants and began steam cleaning the ship last week. Buffalo’s Naval and Military Park will reopen Memorial Day weekend. Buffalo’s mayor says the emergency response is complete and the U.S.S. The Sullivans is now upright.
The five Sullivan brothers enlisted in the Navy in early 1942 and asked to serve together. They were killed about 11 months later when a Japanese torpedo struck their ship. The U-S-S The Sullivans was launched in April of 1943 and decommissioned in 1965. The ship was donated to Buffalo’s Naval Park in 1977.
SIOUX CITY SCULPTURES
A group of “Scraposaurs” has been posted outside Sioux City’s Lewis and Clark Center. Dale Lewis — a sculptor who works with scrap metal — created the traveling display of 14 prehistoric creatures, including a sculpture that looks like one of the most famous of all dinosaurs — the T-Rex. He says one of the “coolest things” about the T-Rex sculpture is the “stubby arm claws, which were “part of a seven-47 cargo bay door latch.” Lewis finds the raw materials for his sculptures from a variety of sources, and most of the beasts he built for the outdoor exhibit came together in two to three months. The 14 sculptures will be on display at the center in Sioux City, near the Missouri River, until April of next year.
