ARCHITECTS CONTRACT
The Plymouth County Board of Supervisors decided to hire an architect to design two Road Department buildings at Merrill. One is a 2-thousand square foot maintenance building that was constructed in the 1970s, but is in need of bracing and insulation. The other building is a salt storage structure, which includes a 10 foot tall frame roof. CMBA Architects of Sioux City submitted a quote of 19,500 dollars to carry out design work. The Supervisors were wary of the cost of the service. Board member Craig Anderson moved to approve the contract, to see what the architect has in mind. The Board voted 4 to 1 in favor of moving ahead with the design phase of the project, with Supervisor John Meis opposed to the motion.
FEENSTRA GMO CORN
There’s been no movement on changing Mexico’s stance concerning corn imports from the U.S.
Congressman Randy Feenstra of Hull says he recently met with the U.S. Trade Representative to Mexico, in hopes of an indication of progress on the issue.
Rep. Feenstra says the window of opportunity is slowly closing around engeagement with Mexico.
Mexico’s president Obrador announced his country will no longer accept GMO corn imports. Feenstra says that’s in violation of the US – Canada – Mexico Free Trade Agreement.
DERECHO ANNIVERSARY
The tree-planting program called Re-Leaf held a ceremony in Cedar Rapids (Thursday) morning, marking the devastating derecho that swept across Iowa three years ago today. Winds peaked at 140 miles an hour and it was the most costly storm in U-S history. Cedar Rapids was especially hard hit, losing two-thirds of its canopy — or some 670-thousand trees. In this interview from August of 2020, state climatologist Justin Glisan said the storm started in southern South Dakota.
Many Iowans had never even heard the term “derecho” before the powerful storm blasted across the state’s midsection, wiping out trees, power lines and crops. Three Iowans were killed, many were hurt. To be designated as a derecho, a storm must have a width of at least 60 miles and travel at least 400 miles. In this file interview, Dennis Todey (TOD-ee), director of the U-S-D-A’s Midwest Climate Hub in Ames, said derechos are hard to predict.
More than a half-million Iowa homes and businesses lost power during the storm, easily among the worst weather disasters for the state’s electric utilities. The governor declared 20 counties disaster areas. Todey says a derecho is very atypical to the storms Iowans are used to seeing during the summer months.
Derecho is a Spanish word that can be translated as direct or straight ahead. It was first coined by Dr. Gustavus Hinrichs at the University of Iowa in the late 1800s. Hinrichs, who started the first state weather service, is also among the researchers credited with the discovery of the atom and the Periodic Table of Elements.
BARN RAISING AT THE STATE FAIR
The Iowa Barn Foundation has hosted a barn raising on the Iowa State Fairgrounds, in hopes of raising fairgoers’ awareness of what it takes to preserve barns. A 16 foot tall barn now stands in the center of the Ag Building on the fairgrounds. Iowa Barn Foundation board member Dwight Hughes says the State Fair project has several goals, including raising grant money to help people restore Iowa barns. In the past 25 years, the foundation has raised two million dollars to help preserve nearly 300 Iowa barns, but Hughes says the number of grant applications far exceeds their current capacity to help. In 1920, there were about 300-thousand barns in Iowa, but fewer than a third are still standing.
K9 TRIALS
Entries from the Plymouth County Sheriffs Office and Le Mars Police Department won top awards at the USPCA dog trials. Deputy Kyle Petersen and K9 Zeke were second place overall, and won first place in the team competition. Also on the first place team were officer Bob Rohmiller of Le Mars Police, and his K9 Ace, the Sheldon Police Department and the Allamakee County Sheriffs Office. Officer Rohmiller and K9 Ace also placed third in the Box Search trial. The three day K9 and handler trials were hosted by Le Mars Police and the Plymouth County Sheriffs Office.
REFUGEES FUNDRAISER
There was a celebration in Maurice last night, involving some 100 refugees from Ukraine who now live in Sioux County. The event was a fundraiser to help the Ukrainians adjust to living here. The refugees are here through the efforts of a missionary to Ukraine, Miranda Heytsi, and her sister, Martha Hulshof of Ireton. The event featured Ukrainian foods, crafts and art, and a silent auction.
PRESIDENTIAL CANDIDATES TO VISIT IOWA STATE FAIR
The Iowa State Fair starts today. On Saturday seven presidential candidates plan to compete for the attention of tens of thousands of fairgoers and throngs of media. On Saturday morning, four G-O-P candidates plan to have a “Fair Side Chat” with Governor Reynolds on the fairgrounds. Florida Governor Ron DeSantis, who’s considered former President Donald Trump’s chief rival, is among them. Trump has not accepted the governor’s invitation to appear with her, but Trump just announced he intends to visit the Fair early Saturday afternoon. Two Democrats who’re running for president and two Republican presidential hopefuls will be speaking at the Des Moines Register’s Political Soapbox Saturday afternoon as well. It may be a bit like the day in 2015 when Hillary Clinton and Bernie Sanders were at the state fair and Trump flew his helicopter over the fairgrounds. Trump later wandered through the fairgrounds, sampled a funnel cake and a turkey leg and spoke with fairgoers. Sixteen presidential candidates intend to make the same kind of trek through the Iowa State Fair this year.
WALLACE BUILDING TO BE VACATED
The State of Iowa is using 21 million dollars in pandemic relief money to buy a fully furnished office building and move all 540 employees out of the Wallace State Office Building that sits across from the state capitol. The 45 year old Wallace State Office Building has been in dire condition for decades. The windows leak. The roof is in rough shape. The parking gargage has been closed for years due to falling chunks of concrete. The state Executive Council has approved buying a two-story office building on the west side of Des Moines and moving staff from two state agencies into the facility. It will be up to legislators to decide what’s done with the deteriorating Wallace Building.
ONLINE TESTS STILL EFFECTIVE ASSESSMENTS
When the pandemic forced Iowa State University to switch from in-person to remote learning in the spring of 2020, I-S-U psychology professor Jason Chan feared unsupervised online exams would unleash rampant cheating. Chan figured students would be at home where they could look up anything in the textbook or online. When scores came back, Chan was surprised to see they were very close to the scores students got before moving online. It led to an I-S-U study of the scores of nearly two-thousand students in 18 classes. Chan says students who were receiving Bs before the lockdown were still pulling in Bs when the tests were moved online and unsupervised. While the study results indicate online exams still provide a reliable assessment of student learning, Chan warns there are potential weak spots, especially with the emergence of Chat-G-P-T and A-I writing tools.
