AUXILIARY SCHOLARSHIPS
The Floyd Valley Auxiliary has announced the award of two 2-thousand dollars scholarships to a pair of Le Mars students. One scholarship will be awarded to Addison Arens, a senior at Gehlen Catholic High School. She is the daughter of Jeff and Jackie Arens. She plans to attend the University of Iowa after graduation, and pursue a degree in pharmacy. Another scholarship will be awarded to Savanah Manley, a senior at Le Mars Community High School. She is the daughter of Mike and Shellie Manley. She plans to attend Wayne State College of Nursing in . The auxiliary will also contributre one thousnad dollars to the Floyd Valley Educaiton Department to be used for staff and community training. This includes basic and advanced cardiac life support, neonatal resuscitation, and trauma nursing courses. THe Floyd Valley Auxiliary awards scholarships every year to students form Plymouth County who are pursuing a health related career.
THEN FEED JUST ONE
Then Feed Just One, the food packing program of Gehlen and Spalding Catholic Schools, wrapped up today in Le Mars. Their goal is to pack 190-thousand meals for distribution in Honduras. Caroline Bickford and Richard Sievert organized the work. Each class of students, from K through 12, participate.
Groups of younger students work with groups of older students.
Sometimes it works smoothly, sometimes it doesn’t
The meals were packaged, boxed, and loaded into trucks for shipment.
CAUCUSES
The Iowa Democratic Party’s plan calls for using a mail-in system to determine which presidential candidate gets the most backing from Iowa Democrats. The proposal does not indicate when the results would be announced, though. It could be a way for Iowa Democrats to avoid sanctions from the Democratic National Committee for holding Caucuses on the same night as Iowa Republicans. In early February, national Democratic Party leaders decided five other states would go first in voting for the 2024 Democratic presidential nomination. Meanwhile, Republicans in the Iowa legislature have a bill that would require in-person participation in both parties’ Caucuses. Senator Jason Schultz, a Republican from Schleswig, says New Hampshire may schedule its presidential primary before Iowa’s Caucuses if the Caucuses aren’t conducted in person.
The bill was approved by the Iowa House this week and is likely to be debated in the Iowa Senate Thursday. Senator Herman Quirmbach (KWIRM-bawk), a Democrat from Ames, says the First Amendment guarantees political parties the right to hold meetings and determine their own rules.
Iowa Democrats have held call-in and virtual Caucus gatherings in the past, and are proposing a mail-in system for 2024 as a way to address complaints that the Caucuses are inaccessible to workers who can’t get time off and others who cannot attend on Caucus night.
JUDGES’ PAY RAISE REJECTED
A plan to hire more district court judges has been put on hold. Representative Brian Lohse of Bondurant says during state budget negotiations, Governor Kim Reynolds rejected the legislature’s plan to provide three percent pay raises to judges. Year three of a five year plan to hire four more district court judges has been put on hold, too. Lohse says the backlog of cases in the state court system a crisis and he hopes the 2024 legislature is able to find a way to resume the hiring program.
LEGISLATURE ADJOURNMENT
Legislative leaders expect the 2023 session of the Iowa General Assembly to conclude today. Lawmakers took final votes Wednesday on more than a dozen bills.
Democrats say Republicans have not set aside enough money for the state’s Area Education Agencies that provide a variety of services to Iowa schools. Senator Jeff Taylor, a Republican from Sioux Center, says the A-E-As will get a small budget increase.
The legislature has also voted to have Iowa join 36 other states and set up a state licensing process for midwives, to approve a plan to let older teens work later hours and apply for state waivers for jobs 16 and 17 year olds cannot take today.
NATIONAL DAY OF PRAYER
The annual National Day of Prayer takes place today. Le Mars’ observance takes place at the Olson Cultural Events Center. The schedule includes lunch served at 11:30 a.m. Ceremony begins at noon, including a time of worship, public prayer and small group prayer. The event concludes at 1 p.m.
LIBRARY BYLAWS
There will be a public hearing before the Le Mars city council this month concerning changes in the bylaws of the public library. A review of those bylaws showed that there were discrepancies over the makeup of the Library Board, their terms of office, and when annual reports are to be brought to the city council. The changes will bring the Le Mars Code of Ordinances in line with the Iowa code. A public hearing on these changes will take place at the council meeting of May 16.
BRIDGE REPLACEMENTS
There were more right of way purchases by the Plymouth County Engineer this week. The Board of Supervisors approved property purchases to make way for three bridge replacement projects. County Engineer Tom Rohe said the bridges are along rural roads in Washington, Henry and Lincoln Counties. The bridges will be replaced with box culverts. The costs of the right of ways are around 55-hundred dollars.
STREET CLOSINGS
A series of downtown street closings have been approved for Le Mars Ice Cream Days next month. These involve closing streets around the Olson Center, the Postal Playhouse and west of Fareway. One other closing is for an Ice Cream Social Thursday, June 15, on 1st Ave. in front of Prime Bank. Ice Cream Days are Wednesday, June 14, through Saturday, June 17.
AVERAGE TEMPERATURES FOR APRIL
To many Iowans, it seems like winter ran long this year, with plenty of springtime snowstorms and frigid wind chills, but it turns out that our temperatures were right on target during April. State climatologist Justin Glisan says there were extremes on both ends of the thermometer, but it all averaged out to be normal for the month at 49-degrees for the statewide average. Overall, Iowa was lacking for rainfall during April, recording a little over two inches, or about an inch and a half below average. Some parts of southeastern Iowa were as much as three inches below average for rainfall. Computer models are pointing to a continued dry spell for the month ahead, though forecasters anticipate an El Nino weather pattern will develop over the region within the next few months, which typically means moderate temperatures and better chances for precipitation.
