City council approves Highway 3 speed limit changes
The Le Mars city council formally approved lowering speed limits on Highway 3 west during the council’s regular meeting yesterday afternoon, following a public hearing held two weeks ago.
The Iowa Department of Transportation offered recommended changes to the city’s Public Safety Committee upon request, with discussion centered around reducing the speed past the baseball fields and Parkview Terrace. The changes include reducing the limit past Parkview Terrace from 55 mph going west and 50 mph going east to 45 mph both ways, and then the limit past the ballfields from 50 mph going west and 40 mph going east to 45 mph going west and 35 mph going east. The speed limit on 5th Ave NW would similarly be reduced by 5 mph, while leaving limits past 3rd Ave NE unchanged.
The proposed ordinance passed unanimously, with the limits set to take effect when the Iowa Department of Transportation installs new signs.
++++++++++
Plymouth County Sheriff’s Office presents quarterly report
During yesterday’s Plymouth County Board of Supervisors meeting, Sheriff Jeff TeBrink presented quarterly reports to the Board from January through March of this year.
The Treasurer’s Report found that the Sheriff’s Office was up roughly $12,500 from the previous quarter, with an increase in service fees collected cited by TeBrink as the main reason. 1,430 911 calls and 1,644 complaints were made to the Sheriff’s Office, and 597 ambulance calls and 210 fire calls were made throughout Plymouth County during the quarter. TeBrink told the Board these figures were “not unusual” for the winter months, with a slight reduction in 911 calls and complaints from the previous quarter.
The Plymouth County Jail booked 284 inmates and released 271 inmates; the US Marshals housed 26 federal inmates and the Bureau of Prisons housed 5 inmates at the Jail from January through March. The Jail was up by nearly $24,300 during the quarter.
++++++++++
Sand hopes to legalize marijuana if elected governor
Rob Sand, the only Democrat running for governor of Iowa, says he will propose to legalize the sale and use of marijuana in the state if he’s elected. Sand says many Iowans are driving across state lines and buying marijuana in neighboring Missouri, Illinois and Minnesota where it’s legal.
Sand says only those who are 21 or older should be able to buy marijuana products; however he’d ban public consumption in parks, on sidewalks, in moving vehicles or in other public places.
He says the state should license businesses to sell cannabis products, and a state tax on cannabis would offset the state’s structural budget deficit. Sand would seek limits on THC content — the chemical in marijuana that creates the psychoactive effect — and require cannabis product packaging that’s child resistant.
(Story via Radio Iowa)
++++++++++
