Home News Thursday News, June 9

Thursday News, June 9

LE MARS SCHOOL BOARD
The Le Mars Community School has committed to sanctioning a girls wrestling team for 2022-23. The board approved hiring two coaches for the new program. Le Mars Community Athletic Director Karlton Hector says they began work to get the sport sanctioned at Le Mars well before the Iowa Girls High School Athletic Association sanctioned it early this year.  The season is slated to begin with the first practice date on October 31st and the first competition date on November 14th. A schedule of competitions has not yet been determined.

 

ORANGE CITY RESIDENTIAL DEVELOPMENT
The Orange City Council this week approved resolutions of support to several housing projects.  One of the projects is an expansion of the Orange City Apartments on Iowa Avenue SW.  12 to 16 units are planned there.  The council  also gave support for plans to develop a series of tiny houses on property in the Puddle Jumper #10 addition.  The developers have identified four housing lots on which they plan to build 24 to 36 tiny houses as rental properties.  A third project would expand the Bluestem 8-plex apartment with a second structure like the first.  In each case, the developers will apply for Iowa Workforce Housing tax credits.  In passing resolutions of support for these projects, the city also identifies a local financial match for these applications.  In all three projects, a ten year property tax abatement will be the local financial match.

 

GAS PRICES

The C-E-O of the Ankeny-based Casey’s convenience store chain talked today (Wednesday) about gas prices during the quarterly conference call for investors.  Darren Rebelez (Reb-bell-lez) says it is constantly changing.

The company reported that the number of gallons of gas sold in the fourth quarter was up one-point-five percent and the margin was 36-point-two cents a gallon despite the volatility of the gas pricing.  Rebelez was asked if we might see gas prices at or above six dollars a gallon.

He says their stores in the Greater Chicago suburbs have prices well north of five dollars a gallon, while at the other end of the spectrum there are some that are just slightly above four dollars a gallon. Tiple-A Iowa reports the average cost of a gallon of gas here is four dollars, 68 cents a gallon. Rebelez says people are backing off on purchases in the areas where the gas price is the highest.

He says overall customers haven’t cut back on their visits.

He says customers are also shifting over to higher blends of ethanol.

Rebelez says six dollars a gallon is uncharted water for everybody and he imagines people might cut back on their purchases at that point. The overall financial report for the quarter showed the company generated a record 340 million dollars in net income and gross profits were up 14 percent.

 

MOST-WATCHED RACE

Cindy Axne of West Des Moines — the only Democrat in Iowa’s congressional delegation — will face Republican Primary winner Zach Nunn in the General Election. The new third congressional district includes Des Moines and covers 21 counties. It has been considered one of the G-O-P’s pick-up opportunities as Republicans campaign to gain majority control of the U.S. House.

The new district covers nine counties not included in the area Axne currently represents. Axne says in-person campaigning has been and will be critical.

Axne was first elected in 2018, defeating Republican Congressman David Young and she won a 2020 rematch with Young. The 2022 election is shaping up as a referendum on President Biden. Axne says she intends to defend the administration’s record on the pandemic and a host of other issues.

Nunn says people in Iowa and across the country are ready for change from Democratic control of congress and the White House. Axne was unopposed in Tuesday’s Primary. Axne points out she received 14-hundred more votes than the three Republicans who were competing for the chance to run against her in the General Election.

 

 DNR WEBSITE UPDATES

Just in time for the summer fishing season, the state Department of Natural Resources is adding more than two-thousand fish structure locations to the maps of lakes on its website. John Lorenzen, a fisheries research technician at the D-N-R, says it’s valuable information because the structures also function as habitats “that congregate fish and allow anglers to have a better success rate.” In addition to the various underwater structures, another 215 lake contour maps have also been added to the website. The new maps can be found by Googling “Iowa fishing maps” or through the website: Iowa-D-N-R-dot-gov.