AIRPLANE LANDS SAFELY
A small plane made a safe landing at the Sioux County Regional Airport this morning, after declaring an emergency.
Sioux County Emergency services says the single engine airplane had three occupants, and reported trouble with its landing gear.
The plane circled the airport near Maurice, to burn off fuel, and eventually landed without incident.
The three in the airplane were not hurt.
Three area fire and rescue crews responded as a precaution.
UNEMPLOYMENT UP FOR FIRST TIME IN FOUR MONTHS
Iowa’s unemployment rate went up for the first time in four months in August — moving from two-point-eight to two-point-nine percent. Workforce Development director Beth Townsend says the state is doing well despite several manufacturing lay-offs.
Townsend says concerns about the national economy are part of the issue with manufacturing layoffs.
Townsend says those who get laid off still have many options.
Townsend says Iowa’s economy continues to weather the problems at the national level.
The state’s labor force participation rate fell one tenth of a percent to 66-point-three, which Townsend says was driven by retirements.
SERVICE AGREEMENTS FOR TREATMENT PLANT PROJECTS
The Le Mars city council this week approved service agreements worth over 1.4 million dollars for two industrial waste projects. Both agreements are with Bolton & Menk, Inc. The first provides design and bidding phase services for an Industrial Wastewater Forcemain project. This project will isolate all industrial waste from Wells’ ice cream plants and Kemps, to an industrial Pretreatment Facility. This facility is to be completed in May of 2027. The cost of this service, not to exceed 556-thousand dollars, is to be repaid by Wells through a proposed Wastewater Services Agreement.
The second agreement is to provide design and bid services for construction of an Industrial Pretreatment Facility. This facility will pretreat all wastewater from Wells and Kemps. The cost of this Professional Services contract – not to exceed 874-thousand dollars – will be shared between the city of Le Mars, Wells, and Kemps.
The Forcemain and Pretreatment facility are phases one and two of waste treatment improvements planned for Le Mars. The third phase will be a new residential waste treatment facility.
SIOUX CITY WARMING SHELTER TO CLOSE
Attempts to keep Sioux City’s warming shelter open have failed and the shelter will close on October 1st. Shelter board treasurer, Joe Tidewell, says they are making the announcement now to give other local agencies time to prepare to deal with the homeless.
He says the shelter has a half million dollar shortfall in funding for this year, and says the Siouxland Community in general has not supported the shelter.
Tidewell says the shelter has been hurt by misinformation spread in the community — including the idea that the shelter is a magnet for homeless from other areas of the tri-state regions.
City leaders say they have spent four million dollars this year trying to address a complicated issue.
FINAL SUMMITT CARBON PIPELINE MEETING IS TODAY
The final public meeting on the expansion of the Summit Carbon Solutions carbon capture pipeline expansion project is today. Farmer Dave Balder plans to attend the meeting in Buena Vista County and opposes the project.
Balder, who lives a mile north of the Valero Renewable Fuels plant in Albert City already granted easements on his property for two natural gas pipelines. He says those pipelines are projects that benefit the public, but the carbon pipeline does not.
Summit Carbon Solutions scheduled public meetings in 23 counties as required by the Iowa Utilities Commission as it seeks to increase its nearly 700-mile carbon capture pipeline by 340 miles. Several property owners, lawmakers, and the Sierra Club have filed lawsuits opposing the use of eminent domain to build the pipeline connecting about 60 ethanol plants across five states.
MODERATE DROUGHT REPORTED IN SIX IOWA COUNTIES
The latest Iowa Drought Monitor shows moderate drought conditions have returned to about four and a half percent of the state, with the rest of Iowa rated as abnormally dry. Just over half of Fremont County in southwest Iowa is considered to be in moderate drought, along with five counties in the northeast corner of the state. All of Clayton County and most of Fayette County is in moderate drought, along with the northern tip of Dubuque County and southern areas of Winneshiek and Allamakee Counties. Through Wednesday, rainfall in Iowa was about four percent of what’s normal for September.
MAJORITY OF IOWA PARENTS TAKE KIDS OUT OF CAR SEATS TOO SOON
A study finds many Iowa parents stop using child seats and booster seats as their children grow, despite those seats being an important safety measure — plus, it’s the law. In Iowa, kids between one and six years old must be secured in a child restraint system — a safety seat or booster seat, not a seat belt — or the driver faces fines. Brian Ortner, spokesman for Triple-A-Iowa, says the study is based on five years of government crash data and it reveals a concerning trend. Ortner says it found 93-percent of Iowa parents transition their children to an adult seat belt too soon, while 24-percent transition their kids to a booster seat too soon. The study also found almost three-quarters of car seats that were inspected were not being used correctly or were improperly installed.
