LE MARS SELLS PARK PLACE ESTATES
The Le Mars city council today authorized the sale of Park Place Estates, an assisted living facility administered by Floyd Valley Healthcare. The facility was put up for sale earlier this year, and the lone bidder was Accura Healthcare of West Des Moines. The firm specializes in managing assisted living facilities. They currently operate over 30 of these facilities in Iowa, and three other midwest states. The purchase price for the facility was 250-thousand dollars. The sale was made with the conditions that the property remain an assisted living facility, that the new owners maintain a high standard of care,
LE MARS FIRE RESCUE PROMOTIONS
Tuesday morning, a promotion ceremony took place before the city council meeting. Two members of Le Mars Fire Rescue were promoted.
Colby Hannansch was promoted to Lieutenant. He joined Le Mars Fire Rescue in 2017. He was awarded Firefighter of the Year in 2021. Colby is a paid on-call volunteer. He works as a project manager for MidAmerican Energy.
Kevin Bolton was promoted to Captain, the highest rank among the volunteers at Le Mars Fire Rescue. He joined the department in 2004, and recently received a 20-year membership certificate. He has served as a Lieutenant for the past decade, and also serves as the Secretary/Treasurer for the department. Kevin is also a paid on-call volunteer. He works for the 185th Air Guard Fire Department in Sioux City.
COUNTY BUDGET AMENDMENT
A public hearing will be held May 28 to consider an amendment to the current Plymouth County Budget.
The amendment includes no new revenues, and some 435-thousand dollars in expenditures. The expenses include 420-thousand dollars to the secondary road fund for concrete work and construction of a salt shed at the Le Mars road department. Another 15-thousand dollars in expenses include dirt work at Hinton for a shed at the Conservation Department.
DENISON DEATH
A Denison man died Monday while in custody in the Crawford County Jail. Sunday night, Denison Police arrested 61-year-old Abraham Gatwech Ngor for public intoxication. He was placed into a lone jail cell. The next morning, while conducting a scheduled welfare check, Crawford County jail staff discovered Ngor had become unresponsive. Jail staff, deputies and EMS performed CPR on the subject and transported him to the Crawford County Memorial Hospital in Denison where he was later pronounced deceased. A forensic autopsy has been scheduled for Wednesday, at the Iowa Office of the State Medical Examiner in Ankeny. The Crawford County Sheriff’s Office requested the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation (DCI) to investigate the death of Ngor.
FEENSTRA OFFICE HOURS
Tomorrow, the office of U.S. Rep. Randy Feenstra will host traveling office hours in Plymouth County. A representative of Rep. Feenstra’s office will be at the Le Mars Public Library from 9 to 10 a.m. This is an opportunity for the public to bring forward issues they have doing business with Social Security, the Veterans Administration, or any other federal government agency.
PLANTING SLOWED BY RAIN
The U-S-D-A Crop Report says there were less than two suitable days for field work last week due to wet fields. Corn planting advance just eight percent to 47 percent now completed, and the progress is now two days behind last year and the five-year average. Soybean planting progress is now also behind two days as well, with farmers only progressing by five percent for a total crop planted at 30 percent. Statewide seven percent of the corn crop that’s in the ground has emerged — which is three days ahead of last year and one day ahead of the average. Four percent of the soybean crop has emerged.
SPIRIT LAKE MAN CHARGED WITH ATTEMPTED MURDER
A 20-year-old northwest Iowa man who was the subject of a police search on Sunday has been charged with attempted murder. K-U-O-O Radio reports a person was seriously injured in a shooting at a home in the small unincorporated town of Montgomery on Sunday. Residents in the area were urged to keep their vehicles secured as police searched for Caleb Crosby of Spirit Lake. He was arrested in Osceola County a few hours after the shooting. In addition to the attempted murder charge, Crosby has been charged with stealing a pick-up from a home in Lake Park and with stealing a truck from the home in Montgomery where the shooting occurred.
IOWA GOP PLATFORM ENCOURAGES REPEAL OF LAWS RECOGNIZING SAME-SEX MARRIAGE
Delegates at the Iowa Republican Party’s state convention voted to include a policy statement on marriage in the party’s 2024 platform. A 2022 law requires the federal government to recognize marriages as long as they were valid in the state where the marriage took place. Three Iowa Republicans — U.S. Senator Joni Ernst and Congresswomen Ashley Hinson and Mariannette Miller-Meeks — voted for it. A majority of delegates at this weekend’s Iowa G-O-P state convention voted to encourage repeal of any law allowing marriage that’s not between one man and one woman. A similar statement was included in the state party’s 2022 platform. Delegates at the Iowa Republican Party’s state convention voted to include a policy statement on marriage in the party’s 2024 platform.
REGENTS PROPOSING TUITION INCREASE AT STATE SCHOOLS
The Board of Regents will hear the first reading of proposed tuition increases at the three state schools during their meeting Friday. The proposal would increase in-state tuition by three percent at the University of Iowa and Iowa State University, and a two-and-half percent at the University of Northern Iowa. That amounts to a 270 dollar increase at the U-I and I-S-U, and a 168 dollars at U-N-I. They are also requesting a three-percent increase in mandatory fees at U-N-I, a two-point-five percent increase at I-S-U, and one-point-three percent increase at the U-I. The tuition increase comes after the Regents requested 14-point-eight million more dollars in state funding and the Legislature approved a 12-point-three million dollar increase.
