FIRE-RESCUE SALARIES UNCHANGED
The Le Mars city council today approved fiscal 2025 salaries for Le Mars Fire-Rescue personnel. Effective July 1, salaries for Captains, Lieutenants, and secretary/treasurer will increase 100 to 150 dollars per pay period. The schedule also sets hourly pay for on-call personnel. This is the same salary scale as the current fiscal year. Also, the city council approved a second change order in the Airport Runway Reconstruction Project. The change reconciles quantities planned in the project with actual quantities used. The change lowers the contracted price by some 8-thousand dollars.
LE MARS LINEMAN ON GUATEMALA MISSION
A Le Mars lineman for Northwest REC will soon join 13 others from Iowa and Minnesota to lend their expertise to a community in Guatemala. Mike Berkenpas is part of an international project organized by the National Rurual Electric Cooperative Association. The group will bring light and power to the community of Las Penas in Guatemala. Their project includes extending line, wriing homes, building a schoolhouse, and distributing water filters to each home in Las Penas. This is the second time Berkenpas will take part in this international effort.
PRIMARY ELECTION VOTING ENDS AT 8 P.M. TODAY
This is Primary Election Day in Iowa as voters choose the nominees who’ll represent the two major parties in the General Election. Secretary of State Paul Pate — the top election official in Iowa — isn’t making a prediction on turnout.
Pate says participation in the primaries isn’t likely a predictor of General Election turnout.
Two years ago, more than 356-thousand Iowans voted in the 2022 primaries. It was the second-highest voter turnout since 1994. There is no statewide race this year, though. Pate says all the election equipment being used today (Tuesday) was tested in advance — and ballot tabulators are not connected to the internet.
Polling places are open from 7 a.m. to 8 p.m. You have to be a registered Republican or a registered Democrat to vote in that party’s primary. Iowans may register to vote or switch parties at their local polling site by showing a photo I-D. Absentee ballots have to be received by county auditors by 8 p.m. today or they will not be counted. You may check online to see if a ballot that was mailed has been received. The website address is voter-ready-dot-iowa-dot-gov or go to www.radioiowa.com to find a link.
THREE DEMOCRATS ARE UNOPPOSED IN IOWA CONGRESSIONAL PRIMARIES
Polls open at 7 a.m. today for Iowa’s Primary Election. Democrats in three of the state’s four congressional districts have NO opposition in the primary.
In the fourth congressional district, Ryan Melton of Nevada is making a second run for the U-S House.
Fourth district Congressman Randy Feenstra has a primary challenger, Kevin Virgil. A Republican is running against first district Congresswoman Mariannette Miller-Meeks in the primary, too.
FARMERS WHO CAN’T PLANT WET FIELDS MULL OPTIONS
Iowa State University Extension has been hosting meetings for farmers with soggy fields who have to make decisions about delayed planting. Gentry Sorenson is a field agronomist with I-S-U Extension who’s based in northwest Iowa.
Workshops were held in Spencer, Spirit Lake and Emmetsburg last week.
According to the National Weather Service, nearly seven inches of rain fell late last week in the small northwest Iowa community of Cleghorn — just a few days after torrential rains in places like Storm Lake and Aurelia.
INMATE IN NORTHWEST IOWA JAIL BRIEFLY ESCAPES
A jail inmate charged with an attempted murder in early May has been charged with another felony for trying to escape from the county jail. Dickinson County Sheriff Greg Balloun says 19-year-old Caleb Crosby was being escorted to a medical consultation when he pushed through an unlocked door at the courthouse and ran. Spirit Lake Police helped capture Crosby in about a minute. The sheriff says the door should have been locked. Crosby was arrested in Osceola County on May 5th after allegedly shooting another man in Montgomery and stealing two different vehicles trying to elude authorities.
