Home News KLEM News for Saturday, November 12

KLEM News for Saturday, November 12

VETERANS DAY OBSERVANCE

Gehlen Catholic Schools held their annual Veterans Day Prayer Program to honor all of the veterans of our communities.  This was opened with the flag presentation and singing of our National Anthem, followed by prayer, and a comedy skit about Veterans Day.  Deacon Paul Gengler stated that we need to make sure to thank a Veteran not just today but everyday for the freedoms that we have here in this great nation. A special guest was honored with the Distinguished Alumna Award. Colonel Kimberly Kuhn graduated from Gehlen in 1985 and she spent 25-years in the United States Army.

 

TYSON JOBS

The Siouxland Chamber of Commerce is looking to help keep displaced Tyson foods employees in the Sioux City area workforce and in the community. Tyson announced plans last month  to close down their corporate facility in neighboring Dakota Dunes, South Dakota to transfer those jobs to their main headquarters in Springdale, Arkansas.    Chamber president Chris McGowan says he and other local leaders have reached out to Tyson about their decision to close the facility.

Tyson still operates a beef processing plant in Dakota City, Nebraska. He’s hopeful Tyson will keep some of the Dunes workers here because of the 21 year relationship with the city, that includes their sponsorship of Sioux City’s Tyson events center arena:

In the meantime, the chamber is communicating with other companies in the tri-state area who may have need of employees with the skill set from the Tyson corporate positions.

The website is Siouxland Chamber dot com.

 

TRAVEL INCREASES

The drop in travel on Iowa’s highways brought on by higher gas prices appears to have eased in September as fuel prices went down. The D-O-T’s Stuart Anderson tracks the numbers.

Anderson says the increase put travel numbers back to pre-pandemic levels.

He says the early look at last month’s numbers shows the trend continuing.

Anderson made his comment in an update this week to the Transportation Commission.

 

IOWA HHS OVERHAUL

 Iowa Health and Human Services officials are starting the process of significantly updating the state’s child welfare system. The state’s contracted with the Change and Innovation Agency to extensively review and update the state’s policy and procedures along with working to completely replace the I-T system. Janee (jah-NAY) Harvey, an administrator with Iowa H-H-S, says the current I-T system is so outdated, it’s causing workforce retention issues. Harvey says they’re updating everything to best serve Iowa children and families. The system overhaul comes as Iowa has seen several high-profile child abuse cases highlighting failures in its current system.