A FREEZE IS POSSIBLE BY WEEK’S END
Colder air is drawing into the midwest. The National Weather Service in Sioux Falls has issued a Freeze Watch for late Friday into early Saturday. Eight Iowa counties are included in the watch: Plymouth, Woodbury, Sioux, Lyon, Osceola, OBrien, Cherokee and Ida. The watch includes a small part of southwest Minnesota and large areas of South Dakota and Nebraska. People are urged to cover their plants tomorrow night, as the cold could damage vegetation.
LE MARS RAIL PROJECT
Le Mars Rail is expanding service, as rail traffic into the industrial park expands. The city council this week approved the hire of a consulting firm to carry out a rail interchange expansion. The new interchange will be located just west of an existing one located north of 18th Street. Design Nine Engineering specializes in rail projects. They propose making a site survey and developing plans for rail construction. Their fee is 21-thousand dollars, under the contract approved by the city council.
FLOYD VALLEY HEALTH CARE EXPANSION
The Le Mars City council this week gave approval to an expansion of two areas at Floyd Valley Healthcare. CEO Dustin Wright says this is an 8.2 million dollar expansion of facilities at the hospital.
The second part of the expansion addresses laboratory space.
This is a separate project from the current facilities expansion.
The estimated cost of the project will be paid for through hospital reserve funds
Construction will begin next year.
EQUIPMENT FIRES
Farmers are great asset to help fight field fires. Le Mars Fire Rescue Chief Dave Schipper says there have been a number of equipment fires this harvest season, and the winds can spread flames across fields quickly. That’s where farmers step in to help firefighters.
Chief Schipper says even the best-kept equipment is vulnerable to fire.
The largest fires Monday occurred near Westfield and west of Hinton, in southwest Plymouth County.
DESANTIS VISITS LE MARS MONDAY
Republican Presidential candidate Ron DeSantis will make a campaign stop in Le Mars next week. The Florida governor, who is one of the front-runners for the GOP nomination, will be at the Wells Blue Bunny Ice Cream Parlor Monday at 10 a.m. DeSantis has trailed only former President Donald Trump in most polls during this campaign. This will be his third campaign trip to Iowa. DeSantis has pledged to campaign in every Iowa County leading up to the precinct caucuses early next year, and estimates he should reach that goal by the end of this month. The DeSantis campaign also announced that they raised 15 million dollars in the 3rd quarter of fundraising leading up to the caucuses.
TULIP FESTIVAL COURT
Orange City residents chose their 2024 Tulip Festival Court, in a city-wide vote Wednesday. The Court includes:
Rebecca Boersma, daughter of Joel and Angela Boersma
Mia Calsbeek, daughter of Dean and Tina Calsbeek
Avery Ketch, daughter of Reese and Cristi Ketch,
Kylie Kurtz, daughter of Vince and Laurie Kurtz
And Ella Poppema, daughter of Joe and Gena Poppema
A Queen’s Tea and Pageant will take place next month to crown the 2024 Tulip Festival Queen. The Queen and Court will serve as ambassadors for the 83rd annual Tulip Festival in May, 2024.
EMERGENCY TESTS
Federal agencies sent out a message to all radios, T-Vs and cellular phones Wednesday afternoon as a test of the nation’s emergency alert systems. Tracey Bearden, 9-1-1 coordinator for the Polk County Emergency Management Agency, says at 1:20 P-M, all devices were sent the alert as a test of the National Wireless Emergency Alert System by the F-C-C and FEMA. Bearden says the key takeaway should be that it’s a good drill to make sure that this nationwide system works and to practice for an actual incident. While some of us may have been annoyed by the distraction, Bearden hopes they consider the virtues of this unprecedented test as a way to be prepared.
