HINTON FATAL
A Sioux City man is identified as the person killed in a multi vehicle accident at Hinton Saturday. The Plymouth County Sheriffs Office says 26 year old Ryan S.Maier of Sioux City was the driver of a gold Nissan Sentra that was traveling at a high rate of speed through Hinton. The vehicle sideswiped one vehicle, crashed into a stopped car, then colided with two others. This happened at the stoplight intersection of U.S> 75 and County Road C60 at Hinton around 1-30 pm Saturday. Maier was taken to Mercyone, where he was pronounced dead. Five other injuries were reported, all in one of the vehicles involved in the crash. One of those passengers was taken to Orange City Health Sytems for treatment of minor injury. The other four passengers were treated at the scene. The sheriffs office says Maier was driving a car that was stolen from Sioux City, and sped into the intersection. Assisting with the identification were the Plymouth and Woodbury County Sheriff’s offices and the Sioux City Police Department.
LE MARS SCHOOL BOARD
The Le Mars Community School District Board of Directors holds their September meeting tonight. Their agenda includes a review of the 2022-23 Annual Progress Report, and information on a professional development framework which meets state requirements. Action items include a protocol for making up school days lost due to winter weather. Later, the board will go into closed session to discuss an Emergency Operations Plan.
MMCRU OPEN HOUSE
New facilities are in use at MMCRU High School in Marcus. Superintendent Dan Barkel says an open house at the facility is planned for tomorrow (Tuesday).
The open house will coincide with an event at the high school in Marcus
It will be a self-guided tour
Extensive renovations began at the MMCRU High School building during the second semester this spring. The contractor was able to finish most of their work by the start of school last month.
HINTON SCHOOL PETITION
The Hinton Community School District says a petition is circulating which requests a general obligation bond and building project be included on the November school ballot. The question on the petition is to direct the Hinton school board to consider approval of a bond issue of up to 16.1 million dollars for additions to the Hinton Elementary, Middle School and High School. Elementary expansion would include additional classrooms. Middle school and high school improvements would include a main office, a secure entry, a greenhouse, and a gymnasium. There would also be window replacements and site improvements.
STREET CLOSING
The Le Mars Street department will close 24th Street later this afternoon, in order to make a sewer line connection from a new warehouse on the north side of the street. This location is just west of the railroad spur on 24th. The work will take ten days to complete.
MICROSURFACING
There are three microsurfacing projects which take place in Plymouth County this week. County Engineer Tom Rohe says the projects include C12, four miles north and four miles south of Remsen, and 3 miles of C38, east of US Highway 75. Microsurfacing is a sealing process where a thin coat of asphalt is laid on the roadway. It’s a durable material which extends the life of the roadway, and costs less than the typical asphalt surface. A Minnesota firm has bid 628-thousand dollars for the work. The microsurfacing should be done next week.
RURAL IOWANS CONSIDERED SUICIDE RISKS
This Sunday is World Suicide Prevention Day and Iowa health officials are working to raise awareness about the free, confidential, round-the-clock help that’s available through the 9-8-8 Suicide and Crisis Lifeline. Julie Maas , Iowa’s 9-8-8 project director, says they’re focusing not just on the state’s larger cities, but also remote areas. Iowa is a very rural state and Maas says farmers are “one of our vulnerable populations for mental health struggles.” She says rural suicide deaths are two times higher than in Iowa’s metro areas. The Lifeline was launched in July of last year and has since had contacts with more than 40-thousand people across Iowa, most of them through phone calls but some via text or chat. Suicide is the ninth leading cause of death in Iowa, but it’s number-two for those between the ages of ten and 35.
ACCEPT AUTOMATIC SOFTWARE UPDATES
Iowans are being reminded that a recent critical security patch for Windows computers and cellphones is a good reminder to keep those software updates automatic. Information security expert Mike Masino says it’s the easiest way to ensure your computer or phone is secure, noting, your machine is only as good as the last update. Without them, Masino says, you’re leaving yourself open to security problems. Masino says the patch fixes a security bug that came as a surprise to Microsoft, so you’d be wise to run an update. He says patches help to keep hackers from getting into your computer and stealing files — and your identity. It’s best to set your system to automatically install updates, he says, and when your phone or computer says a restart is required to fix something, you should do it right away to ward off attacks.
