PLYMOUTH COUNTY BOARD ORGANIZES FOR THE NEW YEAR
The Plymouth County Board of Supervisors adjourned the 2024 Board and organized the board for 2025.
Judge Daniel Vakulskas gave the oath of office to newly-elected Supervisor Doug Manley. He is from Akron and represents District 5.
Re-elected county officials were also sworn in. They include Supervisor Mike Van Otterloo, Sheriff Jeff TeBrink, and Auditor Stacey Feldman.
The new board then appointed Don Kass as chair for 2025, and Craig Anderson as Vice-Chair.
Other re-appointments made by the Supervisors today:
Wayne Schipper to the county Veteran Affairs Board – 3 year term
Steve Meis and Deb Ahlers to the County Board of Health – 3 year term
Gregg Roepke to the county Zoning Board – 5 year term
Greg Jeneary to the county Conservation Board – 5 year term
Don Matthers and Robert Pridie Jr. to the county Board of Adjustment – 5 year terms.
The Board also appointed new township trustees.
They include Daneil Albert, Renee Minar and Alex Popken as Elgin Township Trustees.
Melissa Galles was appointed Elgin Township Clerk
LCSD BOARD MEETS TODAY
There’s a special meeting of the Le Mars Community School Board today. The Board will enter into closed session to discuss the purchase of real estate. The meeting takes place at noon today at the Superintendent’s office.
DNR BRING PADDLEFISH BACK TO LAKES
Going after the paddlefish on the Missouri and Big Sioux rivers was once banned, but the populations came back enough to restart the paddlefish season. The D-N-R is hoping for similar success in bringing the paddlefish back at two popular lake areas. D-N-R Western Regional Fisheries Supervisor Chris Larson says West Okoboji is one area they have targeted.
Two years ago they were stocked at Rathbun Lake as Larson says the paddlefish were native to the Cherokee River.
He says it takes come time for the paddlefish to grow to a size that can be caught.
The fish have a big paddle that sticks out in front of their face called a rostrum and they use it to help them navigate and find the plankton they eat. Larson says they are hoping to have the same success with paddlefish that other states have had.
Larson says the paddlefish like deeper areas of water that have some movement to them, and don’t like stagnant backwater.
IOWAN WHITSON TO LEAD HISTORIC 5TH SPACE MISSION
Iowa-born astronaut Peggy Whitson is scheduled to command another two-week mission to the International Space Station in the new year ahead, though the launch date hasn’t yet been released. Whitson will turn 65 in February. The Beaconsfield native flew on three NASA long-duration space flights and the Axiom 2 Mission in 2023. Whitson’s spent a total of 675 days in space, more than any other U-S astronaut or woman astronaut in the world. The next Axiom mission, AX-4, will use a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket and a Dragon spacecraft, launching from Florida. Whitson’s commanding an international crew of four, with the other three astronauts hailing from India, Poland and Hungary. Axiom says the mission will emphasize scientific research, technology demonstrations, and the commercialization of space.
CALHOUN COUNTY SHOOTING
State and local authorities say two men have been wounded in a shooting in a small northwest Iowa town. According to a news release from the Calhoun County Sheriff’s Office, a fight Tuesday morning inside an apartment in Pomeroy escalated into an exchange of gunfire involving several individuals. A special agent with the Iowa Division of Criminal Investigation says five men who knew one another were involved in the fight. The condition of the two injured men is unknown according to the Calhoun County Sheriff. K-C-C-I and W-H-O T-V report a standoff in Manson, which is about 11 miles from Pomeroy, was related to the shooting and law enforcement deployed an armored vehicle before taking two men into custody. The Calhoun County Sheriff says there’s no danger to the public and all those believed to be involved in the fight and the shooting have been identified and accounted for.
SENATE GOP LEADER RANKS PROPERTY TAX AS TOP TARGET IN 2025
A spokesman for the top Republican in the Iowa Senate says there are signs of progress as Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver continues treatment for a brain tumor.
Whitver turned 44 in September. He was first elected to the Iowa Senate in 2010 and has been majority leader since 2018. Last month, Whitver’s Republican colleagues voted to keep him in the role and he says the party’s top priority for 2025 is addressing concerns about Iowa’s property tax system.
Legislators will also be crafting a 12-month budget for the state for the next fiscal year with a lower amount of tax revenue than is being spent in the current year.
Last year, Governor Reynolds signed a law shrinking the number of state agencies from 37 to 17 and Reynolds has said she has more plans for streaminging state government operations. Whitver says Senate Republicans are eager to have those discussions.
STATE AGENCIES REVIEW ALL RULES
State agencies will continue going over their administrative rules this year to comply with an executive order from the governor as part of the effort to streamline government. Iowa Department of Transportation spokesman Stuart Anderson says the process involves each agency doing an evaluation of the public benefits of each rule chapter, and then doing an assessment of whether the benefits justify the cost of that rule. Anderson says they got through about half of the rules this year, and will start on the other half in this new year. He says the process involves not only analysis, but also getting input from the public. There have been hundreds of rules to go through and Anderson says administrative rules only implement what Iowa law already says, and the laws aren’t changing, so it’s just a matter of how they define those processes to implement the law. The process is similar for other agencies across the state government as they review hundreds of rules.
