PROPERTY DELETED FROM URBAN RENEWAL AREA
The Le Mars city council took action to remove property from the city’s Le Mars Highway Bypass Urban Renewal Area. The current Urban Renewal Area will expire in 2026. With potential development in the city’s industrial parks, they want to extend the time in which the city can assist in development of these areas. Eventually, the city will add these areas to a new Le Mars Business Corridor Urban Renewal Area that was created in December, 2023. These areas include two projects in the city’s Industrial Park and Southview Industrial Park. A public hearing to include these projects in the new Le Mars Business Corridor Urban Renewal Area will take place on October 15.
TWO ROAD PROJECTS
Monday, There will be two road closures for road and rail improvements. One will take place in Le Mars, another near Remsen. The Le Mars Street Department says 11th St. S.E. will be closed between Central Ave and 1st Ave. S.E. for street repairs. It will be closed for 2 weeks.
The Plymouth County Road Department says a new railroad crossing will be installed on L-14, north of Highway 3 on the east side of Remsen. The railroad will remove the crossing. The pavement replacement is scheduled for Friday, Sept 27. A detour will be marked from Highway 3/L14 intersection east of L22, north on L22 to C16, west on C16 to L14. The project should be completed by Friday, Sept 27.
STORM LAKE OFFICIALS DEBATE LIMITS ON HOMING PIGEONS
After pushback from residents who raise and race homing pigeons, the Storm Lake City Council has paused a proposal that would have allowed no more than 10 pigeons to be kept at a single property. At a city council meeting this week, a woman told the council her family sometimes has up to 80 pigeons.
The family’s racing pigeons are banded and she said the birds spend most of their day in the coop.
Storm Lake officials say they’ve fielded complaints about the family’s pigeons flying around the neighborhood. Storm Lake’s mayor says the council may convene a working group to make changes in the proposed ordinance that’s been tabled.
The policy would have set time limits on when pigeons could be released in Storm Lake for exercise or for racing. The sport of pigeon racing started in Belgium in the 19th century and became popular in Great Britain and other parts of Europe. The American Pigeon Racing Union says there are 700 clubs around the country, with races for the birds that are between 100 and 600 miles.
MILLIONS OF TINY BITING MITES MAY HAVE IOWA IN THEIR SIGHTS
Iowa’s bumper crop of buzzing cicadas this year may lead to a population boom in another, much-smaller insect known as the oak leaf itch mite. St. Louis-area entomologist Tad Yankoski says the mites are tiny, but there are many millions of them emerging in Missouri, and Iowa could be next. The mites feast on cicada eggs and Yankoski says if you’re working under an oak tree, you might get nipped by the mite, which can leave an annoying welt that might persist for days or even weeks. He says the mites are very small and may just resemble a speck of dust. Iowa saw emergences of both the 13- and 17-year cicada broods this spring, with large populations in northeast and southeast Iowa.
PROJECT TO RID COMMON CARP FROM NW IOWA LAKE
The Iowa Department of Natural Resources is nearly ready to start a project to get rid of an invasive species of fish in an 830 acre lake in northwest Iowa. Mike Hawkins, a fisheries biologist with the D-N-R, says weather over the past two years delayed the effort to rid West Swan Lake in Emmet County of common carp.
Common carp feed on the bottom of lakes, make the water murky and cause problems for other species of fish.
West Swan Lake levels were elevated by this year’s flooding.
Hawkins says one side of the lake has dropped enough and they’re waiting for the water level on the other side to fall and match it. West Swan Lake is the last in a small chain of natural lakes and marshes that eventually flows into the west fork of the Des Moines River. Hawkins says regardless of the outcome of the carp eradication effort, West Swan Lake will be restocked in the spring with Northern Pike, Yellow Perch, Blue Gills and Largemouth Bass.
