FEW HISTORIC ROUND BARNS REMAIN IN IOWA
There’s been a dramatic decline in the total number of barns in Iowa over the past century and it’s estimated fewer than 75 in the extremely rare round design remain. Wayne Frost of the Iowa Barn Foundation says most of the round barns in the country were built between 1900 and 1920.
By 1925, though, Iowa State Extension warned against round barn construction due to the expense of materials and how difficult it was to find carpenters with the skills needed to complete the complicated designs.
Round barns are so rare now that dozens are listed on the National Register of Historic Places. There’s a 94-year-old round barn on the Plymouth County Fairgrounds in Le Mars. At this month’s State Fair, the Iowa Barn Foundation is building a small barn inside the Agriculture Building on the fairgrounds to promote their work. The group raises money and awards grants to people who are working to preserve barns on their property.
ARREST NEAR SIOUX CENTER
A Las Vegas woman was arrested in Sioux County Thursday morning. The Sioux County Sheriff’s Office arrested 25 year old Jocelyn Penado, after she crashed her vehicle on a gravel road two miles southeast of Sioux Center.
Penado was transported by the Sioux Center Ambulance to Sioux Center Health for treatment of minor injuries. Upon further investigation, deputies discovered that Penado had taken the vehicle from a South Dakota resident without their permission.
Penado was charged with operating a motor vehicle without the owner’s consent, operating a motor vehicle without a valid driver’s license, no proof of insurance, and failure to maintain control of a motor vehicle.
Alcohol is also believed to be a factor and the case remains under investigation.
A BUS FIRE DELAY FOR SIOUX CITY EXPLORER’S BASEBALL TEAM
The bus carrying Sioux City’s minor league baseball team caught fire early this (Friday) morning on its way to a game in a Chicago suburb. J.D. Scholten (SHOAL-ten) is a 44-year-old who’s been a replacement pitcher for the Sioux City Explorers since July. He says the team was awakened at 3 a.m.
Scholten says everyone on the bus got off safely, but some of the players’ gloves were left behind and got torched. The bus was near Earlham, just west of Des Moines, when it caught fire and Scholten says the town’s fire crews were on the scene quickly.
The Sioux City Explorers won a game in Lincoln, Nebraska Thursday night and were about a third of the way to Geneva, Illinois, when the bus caught fire on Interstate-80. Another bus picked up the team at about 5:30 and they made it to their destination before lunch. The Explorers played the Kane County Cougars Friday evening.
IOWA SEES DROP IN ALCOHOL AND DRUG DEATHS, BUT A RISE IN SUICIDES
Iowa mirrors a national trend with a slight drop in deaths due to alcohol, drugs, and suicide, according to a report from a non-partisan public health policy group. Nadine Gracia (GRAH-see-uh), president and C-E-O of Trust for America’s Health, says figures for 2022 show the first drop in those deaths in five years, though there’s still much work to be done. She says the long-term trend is still alarmingly high. The report says 16-hundred Iowans died from alcohol, drugs and suicide that year, down one-percent overall from the previous year. While Iowa deaths due to alcohol and drugs fell, the study says suicides rose by six-percent. Gracia says rural residents appear to be especially at risk and she points to a lack of access to treatment options. The report finds 59-percent of Iowans live in an area that has a mental health care shortage.
JULY KEEPS UP WET TREND
D-N-R Hydrologist Tim Hall says it looks like July will end up slightly wetter than normal once the final numbers are in. He says it continues the string of wetter months, but for July around a month’s worth of rain came in a couple of weeks, creating challenges. The drought had cities putting water use restrictions in place and Osceola has been looking at a plan to recycle wastewater. Hall says we’d be wise to not stop thinking about water use plans because drought conditions will eventually come back. Maybe not this year, maybe not next year, maybe not for several years, but he says the drought will come back sometime and it’s best to be prepared and take steps that can help minimize the impact when it does.
UNION LEADER RAISES CONCERNS ABOUT IOWA PRISON WORKERS’ PAY
The leader of the union that represents state prison employees says higher pay for new prison workers is a good start, but the state should offer incentives to keep veteran prison staff from leaving. Todd Copley (COPE-lee) — president of AFSCME (AFFS-mee) Council 61 — says while the union is all for raising pay for newly hired staff, employees who’ve worked in the state prisons for 10, 15 or 20 years should be getting paid more. Copley says starting pay for new workers should be the new base wage or salary for employees who work in similar positions. He says SIGNING bonuses for new prison employees should include a requirement that they stay in the job for several years and RETENTION bonuses should be go to correctional officers with years of experience, so they don’t leave for a better paying job or choose to retire early.
