Home News KLEM News for Tuesday, October 4

KLEM News for Tuesday, October 4

NIGHT OUT

National Night out will be celebrated by the Le Mars Police Department tonight.
The event is underway at this hour at the Police Department, and continues until 7 pm.
It’s an open house, where you can enjoy a free meal, tour the police facilities, including their new training center, and get to know the officers, and your neighbors. First responders will also be there, along with some of their vehicles.

 

LE MARS COUNCIL

The Le Mars City Council passed a resolution in favor of rules at the city’s Memorial and Resthaven Cemeteries.
A public hearing will take place October 18, to amend the city’s Code of Ordinances concerning cemeteries. Wayne Schipper has headed efforts to formally establish a veterans section at Memorial Cemetery. Schipper told the council that the military has precise rules to do so. He’s formed a committee of veterans who are familiar with this process, and have met criteria to officially establish this section of the cemetery in the city code. The new rules are available online at the city’s website.

The Le Mars city council has approved a new concept for development of the Le Mars Industrial Park South. The Park was platted in 2009 with nine large lots. Two years ago, the subdivsion was replatted to add right of way for two city streets. City Development Director Mark Gaul came forward with another replat, this time creating smaller lots between one-half and one acre in size. Gaul says his experience with this concept is that the smaller lots can be sold for significantly more than lots of several acres. The council, by concensus, agreed with the concept. City staff will now move forward with the actual replatting of the Industrial Park South

 

PLYMOUTH COUNTY SUPERVISORS

The Plymouth County Board of Supervisors today (Tuesday) gave approval to establishing a county Wind Urban Renewal Area, and an Urban Renewal Plan. They also passed first reading of an amendment to the county code of ordinances which makes this official. Three readings are required before adoption of the amendment. In this Wind Urban Renewal Area, 76 properties in Fredonia, Meadow, Remsen, and Henry township, and the city of Remsen are designated as part of the Urban Renewal Area. Property taxes from these parcels can be captured by the county for future county projects. These funds can be captured only when a designated project is approved.

 

ORANGE CITY COUNCIL

A 28E agreement for overseeing development of a recreation trail between Orange City and Sioux Center continues. The city council of Orange City discussed the agreement Monday, and there were still some questions remaining before a final agreement can be reached. The city attorneys for the two communities will work out these issues before the council meets again on October 17. Orange City, Sioux Center, and Sioux County are forming the 28E Trails group. Once the group is formed, they will work on submitting a grant to Vision Iowa to support development of the trail.

The Orange City Council has approved an annexation moratorium with Alton. The two communities now have a common border, just east of the new elementary school that is now under construction. Under this agreement, Orange City will deed 4.5 acres of property southeast of the Gelderland addition to the city of Alton. Also, Alton will have access to a parcel within the Orange City limits. This will be an area where 14th street will extend to Alton Fair View Meadows residential development. Under this agreement, Alton will agree to the move of the city’s annexation border north of Iowa Highway 10 a quarter mile east.

 

AREA AGRONOMIST

The new area agronomist is settling into her new position, based at the Plymouth County Extension and Outreach office in Le Mars.  Leah Ten Napel was an agronomist at a Hinton elevator, but is now becoming familiar with her nine county territory.

Ten Napel was asked about the similarities between her former job and her new position.

Her predecessor, Joel De Jong has been helpful in acclimating her to the new post.

Now she will also work on broadening her education.

In her first harvest assessment, Ten Napel says yields are variable across the district this fall.

Ten Napel is a Le Mars native, and lives on a rural acreage with her husband, Derek.

 

WATER RESTRICTIONS

As dry conditions persist, particularly in northwest Iowa, many city water systems have asked customers to voluntarily conserve water. Todd Uhl, the public works director in Sheldon, says there’s no emergency yet, but things are going slowly in the wrong direction and mandatory water restrictions may be on the horizon.

There’s plenty of water in both of Sheldon’s deep wells, but Uhl says those deep wells have lower quality water. The community’s supply of high quality water comes from a series of shallow wells along the Floyd River and northwest of Sheldon and Uhl says the water levels in THOSE wells are dropping.

If the water situation doesn’t improve, Uhl describes what “mandatory restrictions” would look like.

Voluntary restrictions are now in place in Sheldon. The Lewis & Clark Regional Water System is due to connect in Sheldon by 2024 or, perhaps, at the end of 2023 and Uhl says that would also help the situation.

 

CREDIT CARD GAMBLING

The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission has approved three more fines for the illegal use of credit cards by sports betting operations.  Administrator Brian Ohorilko says the fines are all part of one case involving the company processing payments for the sports betting companies.  Bet M-G-M and Elite Hospitality were each fined 60-thousand dollars, while S-C-E Partners was fined 20-thousand last week.  Ohorilko says the large fines send the message that this is not acceptable.