Home News KLEM News for Friday, September 30

KLEM News for Friday, September 30

SUMMIT EASEMENTS

Summit Carbon Solutions announced Thursday that they have signed easement agreements with 63% of the landowners along their proposed route in Plymouth County.
Summit is building a carbon capture pipeline across Iowa, connecting ethanol plants in the state.
In Plymouth County, the lines runs across the center of the county, from north to south, on a line west of Le Mars.
Summit says the investment in Plymouth County will be some 42 million dollars for construction. An accounting firm says the infrastructure will generate 1.6 million dollars in property taxes each year, once completed.
The CO2 captured from the ethanol distilling process is planned to be piped to oil fields in North Dakota, where it will be injected underground for storage. This process would meet Environmental Protection Agency standards for controlling carbon emissions from these plants.
Opponents of the pipeline are pushing back against the potential use of eminent domain in order to obtain more easements for the pipelines. The Plymouth County Board of Supervisors supports the pipeline, but not the use of eminent domain.
Summit says 57% of Iowa’s corn is purchased by ethanol facilities, and is a driver of corn prices and land values. They say 53% of the proposed Iowa route has easements secured.
There is a second carbon capture pipeline proposed for Plymouth County. The Navigator Pipeline is proposed to run through eastern Plymouth County, on it’s way to connection with another line in O’Brien County.

 

BURN BANS

A field fire in Sibley in Osceola County this week caused more than half a million dollars in damage and, in southeast Iowa, three area fire departments were dispatched to battle a blaze in a field being harvested. State Fire Marshal Dan Wood says five northwest Iowa counties currently have burn bans in place: Plymouth, Sioux, O’Brien, Cherokee, and Crawford.

The latest Iowa Drought Monitor report shows 80 percent of Iowa is considered abnormally dry or experiencing some level of drought. The state fire marshal is urging Iowans to think about fire safety outdoors.

And Wood says corn and soybean fields at harvest time can unfortunately be a source of kindling for a fire.

A combine and up to 50 acres of soybeans were destroyed in a field fire near Sibley on Sunday and a Tuesday afternoon fire swept across a field near Packwood. In both cases, fire officials credited local farmers for using their discs to cut fire breaks in the soil that contained the fires.

 

LOVE’S OPENS

Love’s Travel Stops is now open in Le Mars. The store opened Thursday off US Highway 75, bringing 70 jobs to Plymouth County.
This is the company’s tenth location in Iowa. The Love’s Travel Stop is open 24/7, and contains 13-thousand square feet of space for a convenience store, an Arby’s Restaurant, which will open October 3; parking for cars and trucks, servcies for truck drivers, including a CAT scale, and a dog park. Their motto is “Clean Places, Friendly Faces.”
In honor of the opening, Love’s will donate 2-thousand dollars, split between the Le Mars Community Schools and the Le Mars Police Department.
Love’s has travel stops at 590 locations in 41 states.

 

SELF BAN

The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission is planning to raise the penalty for underage gambling and violations of the self-ban. During their meeting Thursday they discussed raising the minimum penalty from one- to three-thousand dollars. Commission members agreed to look at some parameters so that the fines are based on the severity of the violation. There will be a period of public comment and the rules package will go in front of a Legislative Administrative Rules Review Committee, and then go back to the Commission for final adoption.

 

TAX REPEAL

South Dakota shoppers are reacting positively to a possible grocery tax repeal. Governor Kristi Noem made a campaign promise this week to eliminate the state sales tax on grocery items if she is re-elected. Lawmakers have previously made efforts to repeal the tax but have failed. Some shoppers say they cross the border into states like Iowa and Minnesota that don’t have a grocery tax. South Dakotans say the elimination of the food tax could create money in their budgets for other necessities like clothing and gas.

 

REMSEN WOMAN PLEADS

A northwest Iowa woman originally charged with felony theft and forgery charges is pleading guilty to stealing from a dependent adult. According to a criminal complaint filed with the Sioux County Clerk of Court, 43-year-old Samantha Hagemann of Remsen is accused of obtaining money in the form of ATM withdrawals, transactions at merchants, digital transactions for entertainment, and checks from the victim who was living at a Hull nursing home. The Sioux County Deputy Sheriff’s statement says that at first, the theft was via debit card, but eventually Hagemann began going to the nursing home to collect checks from the victim. It says the checks were made out by someone other than the victim, but were all written out to Hagemann. In all, the deputy says the amount withdrawn exceeded $10,000. Court records indicate Hagemann pleaded not guilty in March, but changed her plea as part of a plea agreement this week. She has not yet been sentenced.

 

HABITAT FOR HUMANITY

Siouxland Habitat for Humanity has a number of projects on the drawing board.  A couple of them, in Woodbury and Sioux Counties, are open for applications.   This is Executive Director Ann Holmes.

Holmes is seeking a spot in Plymouth County to build a Habitat for Humanity home.

Holmes says Habitat for Humanity has several projects on the drawing board for the next 18 months.  That’s despite a slowing economy and supply chain issues.

 

CAPITOL RIOT

A man from Sioux City who pleaded guilty to being in the U.S. Capitol on January 6th has been sentenced to 90 days in federal prison. Fifty-four-year-old Kenneth Rader must also serve three years of probation. The federal judge who sentenced Rader said January 6th was a stain on our republic. The prosecutor said Rader recently said he believes Donald Trump is still president and, while Rader pleaded guilty to parading, demonstrating or picketing in the U.S. Capitol, he hasn’t shown remorse. Rader told the judge he recognizes the event was wrong, but can’t say much more. ANNOUNCER OUT: The judge noted Rader had 23 prior convictions and, if Rader violates the terms of his parole by failing a drug test, he’ll be sent back to prison.

 

BODY RECOVERED

Authorities in Crawford County say a woman’s body and her car have been recovered from a pond in Deloit.  Deputies responded to a call Wednesday morning just after 7:30 a-m.  They determined a car had driven into Riggleman’s Pond behind a house.  When the car was pulled out of the water the body of 26-year-old Randi Lynn Heiman was found inside.  An autopsy will be conducted by the Iowa State Medical Examiner’s Office.