TRACTOR INJURY
A 2-year-old boy was injured in a tractor accident near Craig, in Plymouth County, Monday afternoon.
The Plymouth County Sheriff says the 2-year-old was riding on a tractor with his father, who was the driver. The driver became distracted and the child fell to the ground. The child was partially run over by the back wheel of the tractor.
The child was trasnported to Floyd Valley Health Care by Ireton Ambulance, and was later flown to a hospital in Sioux Falls by Mercy One with non-life threatening injuries.
The incident remains under investigation.
SUPERVISORS
The Plymouth County Board of Supervisors this morning grappeled with budgeting for non-elected, full-time county employees. These include Clekrs, Cooks, legal assitants, park rangers, maintenance workers and
jailers. The difficult part was creating a pay structure where those at the top of that pay scale see raises far above those at the lower end of the scale. What the Supervisors eventually agreed to was a motion to increase these employees salaries by 6.5%, then add a 40-cents per hour adjustment. The board is concerned keeping their pay competitive with other businesses, while maintaining equity between the employees.
The Supervisors also passed a resolution to with draw from the Iowa Workforce Development Consortium. This 18-county group was formed to administer federal job training funds. But the group has been plagued by a loss of funding, lower unemployment and a loss of local control brought on by federal regulations. 11 of the 18 counties have voted to withdraw from the group and the Plymouth County Supervisors joined them with their vote this morning. All 18 counties must approved before the consortium is disbanded. If approved, they will disband on June 30.
LE MARS COUNCIL
The Le Mars City council this afternoon adopted a resolution awarding a contract for a storm sewer improvement project. This will extend from between 12th and Prospect SW. The initial project carries an estimated cost of some 335-thousand dollars, but they included an option that would complete the project for an additional 270-thousnd dollars. American Rescue Plan Act funds could be used for construction.
The council also approved the sale of the old Public Works property located at 331 1st Street NE in Le Mars. Six bids were received for the project. The high bid came from Red Shed Enterprises, LLC, at 305-thousand dollars. The won the bid for the property.
FEENSTRA GUEST
US Rep Randy Feenstra of Hull announced that his guest for the State of the Union Address tonight is Mr Chad Tentinger, the developer of Cattlemen’s Heritage Beef Company.
The firm is building a $450-million beef processing plant on 132 acres in Mills County, Iowa. The facility, which is expected to open in late 2024, will process approximately 2-thousand cattle daily.
Rep Feenstra and Iowa US Senator Chuck Grassley introduced a bill which would enhance cattle price discovery and transparency in the livestock marketplace. This act would reduce price-fixing of cattle and give independent livestock producers better access to the marketplace.
PIPELINE REGULATION
A state senator who’s proposed five different bills in response to proposed carbon pipelines says the current regulatory process is unfair to landowners. Senator Jeff Taylor says the bill most likely to pass would require that developers get voluntary access to 90 percent of the land along the pipeline route before state regulators could grant permission to seize the rest through eminent domain.
Taylor is a Republican from Sioux Center — in Sioux County — where the proposed Summit pipeline would pass through. Taylor says since Summit is owned by major G-O-P donor Bruce Rastetter and former Governor Terry Branstad has been an advisor to the project, it’s been political uncomfortable to raise concerns.
Taylor says there’s no guarantee the legislature will take any action on the issue.
Dan Tronchetti lives near Paton in Greene County. The Summit pipeline would pass through one of his fields and be within 12-hundred feet west of his front door. He’s frequently at the Iowa Capitol, outlining his objections to having his
HINTON ELECTION
There will be a special election in the Hinton School District next month on a new revenue purpose statement for the use of SAVE – the Secure an Advanced Vision for Education fund. It was formerly known as the Local Option Sales Tax. The revenue statement directs where the funds raised by SAVE proceeds. The new statement will direct funds to school infrastructure and property tax relief. The Iowa legislature passed, and Governor Reynolds signed, legislation to extend this one-cent sales tax through 2051. As part of the extension, school districts are required to renew their purpose statements.
The Plymouth County Auditor’s office is now accepting requests for absentee ballots in the Hinton School District. The ballots will be mailed to voters between February 15 and February 20. In-person absentee voting will take place at the Plymouth County Auditor’s Office beginning February 15, until Monday, March 6. The election will be Tuesday, March 7, from 7 am to 8 pm at the Hinton Community Center.
KINGSLEY ARREST
The Plymouth County Sheriffs Office says they assisted Kinsgley police in the arrest of a Kingsley man on a weapons charge. The incident occurred on January 28. Randal Eldridge, 44, was arrested by police at his home on charges of domestic assault and obstructing emergency communications. During an investigation, deputies discovered the suspect was in possession of firearms. A search warrant was served, and deputies seized weapons and ammunition. Eldridge was charged with additional counts of convicted felon-domestic offender in possession of a firearm and ammunition.
DEMOCRATIC PARTY CAUCUSES
The Democratic National Committee has voted to eliminate Iowa from the list of states that will start the party’s 2024 presidential campaign.
Scott Brennan, a former Iowa Democratic Party chairman, is a member of the Democratic National Committee. He warned the committee that two of the states selected to be in the early group cannot hold their primaries on the dates national party leaders have set.
Iowa Democratic Party chairwoman Rita Hart says the party will move ahead with its new vote-by-mail plan for the 2024 Iowa Caucuses.
South Carolina will replace Iowa as the lead-off state, followed by New Hampshire and Nevada, then Georgia and finally Michigan — a sequence President Biden recommended in December.
Last weekend, prominent Iowa Republicans began blasting that message via Twitter. Governor Kim Reynolds said President Biden was too afraid to face Iowa voters. The chairman of the Iowa Republican Party said Biden upended the 2024 campaign schedule for Democrats because of his poor showing in the Caucuses in 2008 and 2020.
