COUNTY DETOURS
The Plymouth County Road Department announces a second detour for a road resurfacing project near Hinton. On Monday, May 1, a repaving project along C60 will begin, extending from east of the Hinton city limits to just east of Juniper Avenue. Traffic will be detoured south along US 75, east along C70, and north along K49. The detour will be in place through June 30.
Today, a resurfacing project along K30, west of Le Mars, is underway. That detour encircles the construction site, which extends 5 miles between C44 and Iowa Highway 3. To see maps of the detours, go to the KLEM web page. Click on the following links to find the maps.
MEXICO CORN DISPUTE
US Senator Chuck Grassley says the dispute with Mexico over Genetically Modified corn is dragging on for too long.
Senator Grassley told reporters today that Mexico several years ago decided to refuse to accept corn from the US,
The dispute didn’t have to take this long.
Grassley says this dispute is important to Iowa corn growers, in that Mexico is one of Iowa’s biggest markets.
PROCESSING ERRORS
Several area banks are informing their customers about what they call a “processing issue” that’s affecting them. American Bank, Iowa State Bank, Midstates Bank, and Northwest Bank posted notices that “debits and credits from 2015 are attempting to process through some customer bank accounts.” The posts say this appears to be affecting banks across the country. The banks are working through Shazam Payments, their national vendor, to reverse the errors.
Meanwhile, banking customers from at least three Sioux City banks reported unauthorized withdrawals and deposits from their accounts Tuesday. An official from a Sioux City bank says a large nationwide payment processor mistakenly sent out an outdated file batch that had transactions from as far back as 2015. That ended up causing the false withdrawals and deposits from accounts. The process to cancel the old transactions is underway.
WIND GENERATOR SETBACKS
The Plymouth County Supervisors have approved an amendment to the county’s zoning ordinance which sets greater setback distances for wind towers. The Supervisors passed a motion to create a setback 3.5 times the height of the wind tower and blades, and includes a waiver to shorten the distance to no closer than 16-hundred feet. The amendment takes effect immediately. Prior to this, the setback was 12-hundred feet from a neighbor’s home. A wind power company, Invenergy, is working on a second phase of a wind farm in Plymouth County, and had been placing towers at a setback of 15-hundred feet. The new standard would require setbacks between 16-hundred and 21-hundred feet, depending on the height of the towers. Invenergy says broader setbacks would make it increasingly more difficult to place wind towers in Plymouth County. Invenergy has signed up 22-thousand acres of land, across an area covering several townships south and east of Le Mars.
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT OPEN HOUSE
Le Mars residents will have their chance to comment on plans for future development in the city. An open house will be held today from 5 to 7 pm at the Le Mars Community Middle School Old Gymnasium. City Development Director Mark Gaul says the city is developing plans for what Le Mars will look like twenty years from now. The open house today will display the ideas that have been gathered so far, and citizens will have opportunity to include what they think Le Mars needs in the future. Gaul says there is no program or formal presentation. You can come and go as you please. Representatives of the city’s consultant on this project will be available discuss the plan.
FOUNDATION BANQUET
The Le Mars Community Schools Foundation banquet tonight honors students, faculty, and staff who have stood out in the past year, and in their careers. The event will honor their Teacher of the Year, Mrs. Janet Van Boven, the district’s employees of the month for 2022-23. Employees who have served for 25 years will be honored, as will the top 5% of students in the class of 2023. The recipient of this year’s Distinguished Alumni, Dave Lorenzen, will also be honored. The event is at the Le Mars Convention Center, lower level.
TRAFFIC CAMERAS
A bill has emerged in the state legislature that would regulate traffic enforcement cameras that catch vehicles speeding and running red lights. For the past 12 years, attempts to ban the cameras have failed, but Republican Senator Mike Klimesh of Spillville says it appears the House may accept a state permitting process for operating traffic cameras.
Cities would have to prove a traffic camera’s location is related to improving safety in the area to get a permit from the Iowa D-O-T. Klimesh says the bill will establish what fines may be charged on traffic cam tickets. The bill outlines a way for vehicle owners to make someone else pay the fine.
Klimesh says. Senator Adrian Dickey, a Republican from Packwood, is a relutant supporter of the developing compromise. He’d like to ban traffic cameras in Iowa.
Dickey says. Senator Cindy Winckler, a Democrat from Davenport, is a reluctant supporter of the bill. She’s concerned about restricting the use of mobile traffic cameras in Iowa’s smaller communities.
The bill has cleared a Senate subcommittee, but lawmakers are discussing some changes to the plan before it would be debated by the full Senate. The first attempt to ban traffic cameras stalled in a senate subcommittee in 2011. In 2015, the Iowa D-O-T ordered several Iowa cities to turn off traffic cameras along primary highways and interstates, but in 2018 the Iowa Supreme Court ruled the legislature had not given the agency authority to regulate traffic cameras.
