CHEROKEE COUNTY FATAL
One person died and another was injured in a two vehicle crash late last night in Cherokee County.
The Iowa State Patrol says the victim, 48 year old Jerad Ebert of Washta, was a passenger in a car driven by Marilyn Ebert, 69, of Washta. Ebert was driving east on County Road C-66, when it collided with a pickup pulling a flatbed trailer. The pickup was driven by 40 year old Shane Beeson of rurtal Pierson. He was facing west in the east-bound lane, attempting to back his rig into a residential driveway. Ebert swerved her vehicle off the road, but it struck the pickup and entered a ditch, went over a farm drive, and rolled. Marilyn Ebert was taken by air ambulance to Mercyone Siouxland in Sioux City. The accident occurred around 10-30 pm, six miles west of Washta, .
CARBON CAPTURE
The Iowa company that’s proposing to pipe carbon dioxide from Midwest ethanol plants and store it underground in North Dakota says it’s secured the rights to more than half of the land it needs for its route through Iowa.
Summit Carbon Solutions says it’s partnered with 800 Iowa landowners to sign 14-hundred easement agreements.
But Jessica Mazour with the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club says she’s not convinced Summit has the backing it says it does.
Environmentalists and many farmers and landowners worry about the safety of the pipelines and impacts to farmland. Don Johansson farms in Cherokee County and is one of the landowners affected by the summit pipeline. He spoke at Tuesday’s Iowa Utilities Board meeting.
He opposes the pipelines because of what he says is the potential danger with a rupture.
The ethanol industry says pipelines will help them lower their emissions and reach more fuel markets. Summit says it’s on track to start constructing the pipeline in late 2023.
MISTAKEN VOTING DISTRICT
Mason City, along with Cerro Gordo, Worth, Floyd, Mitchell, and Butler counties are now in Iowa’s Second Congressional District. Democrat Liz Mathis of Hiawatha discovered this week while knocking on doors in Mason City that some people don’t know who the candidates are in their new district. She says the people she talked to thought they were still in the Fourth District and that Randy Feenstra of Hull was going to be on the ballot. Mathis’ campaign is airing television ads as a first step and are working to be sure people know who’s running. Mathis is running against incumbent Republican Ashley Hinson from Marion, who is currently representing Iowa’s First District.
GAS PRICES RISE
After months of falling, gas prices are rising again in Iowa. According to Triple-A, the average price for regular-unleaded Wednesday is three dollars, 46 cents a gallon, that’s four cents higher than it was a week ago. Iowa’s average price is still lower than the national average of three-70 a gallon. According to gasbuddy.com, Plymouth County’s average gas price was three-47 a gallon. Woodbury County is at three-41, and Sioux County is at three-47. The cheapest average gas price in Iowa can be found in Henry County at three-15 a gallon. The most expensive is in Bremer County in northeastern Iowa at three-69 a gallon.
CRASH VICTIM IDENTIFIED
Authorities have identied a Canton, South Dakota man killed in a motorcycle crash west of Hudson. The South Dakota Department of Public Safety says 57-year-old Donald Farnsworth the Third lost control of his motorcycle at a curve a mile west of Hudson, and went into a ditch. He and his passenger were thrown from the motorcycle. Farnsworth was pronounced dead at the scene. No word on the passenger’s condition. The crash remains under investigation.
KNIGHTS OF COLUMBUS PHONATHON
The Knights of Columbus Phonathon for persons of various abilities was on the threshold of its goal Wednesday. Shelly Thompson says their Plymouth Countywide effort was a great success.
Thompson says donations to the cause came in unusual ways.
Followup contacts will probably send the fundraising total over their challenge goal.
Thompson is grateful for the support of the Knights of Columbus effort Wednesday, including businesses which donated food to the volunteers who made the telephone contacts.
Thompson issued an invitation for people to see the work that the Life Skills Training Center does.
The Knights of Columbus effort seeks to contact everyone in Plymouth County on behalf of Life Skills. It’s the major fundraiser for their organization every year. Funds were also raised for Special Olympics.
STATE GRANTS
Wednesday, Gov. Reynolds announced $40 million in grant funding for 24 projects through the Nonprofit Innovation Fund. The program, announced as a $20 million grant program in May, doubles the original investment in shovel-ready infrastructure projects that will enable Iowa nonprofits to expand services or help more Iowans. A grant award of 515-thousand dollars will help the Centers Against Abuse and Sexual Assault in Cherokee. Their project is to renovate the New Leaf Thrift Store Building in Cherokee, which is owned by CAASA. The Jackson Recovery Centers, Inc. Campus Expansion Project in Sioux City will receive an award of 2.35 million dollars. The relocation of the Boys and Girls Home Residential Treatment Centers in Sioux City will receive an award of 2.7 million dollars. Funding for these grants are made available through the federal American Rescue Plan Act.
RAIL PROJECTS
The Department of Transportation is recommending several awards for rail projects to be voted on for approval by the Transportation Commission next month. Rail director, Amanda Martin, says one recommendation is for a Buena Vista County business.
She says the recommendation is for a loan and a grant.
A Woodbury County project, an extension of track for Floyd Valley Railroad, is also recommended for state help. This recommendation is also for a loan and grant.
The state Transportation Commission will vote on approval of the recommendations at its next meeting.
CLEAN UP IRS
U-S Senator Joni Ernst says the Internal Revenue Service should clean up its own organization before hiring thousands of agents for audits. The Iowa Republican says the I-R-S should rethink its plans. Ernst says hundreds of I-R-S employees may have willfully failed to pay their own tax bills. She says more than 300 were repeat offenders yet the federal agency did little to discipline the tax evaders on its own payroll. Ernst says the Inspector General has agreed to her request for an audit of the I-R-S to make sure that the tax collectors themselves are paying the taxes they owe.
