Floyd Valley Healthcare Board sets two public hearings
The Floyd Valley Healthcare Board of Trustees will hold public hearings on two separate renovation projects. In their meeting last week, the board set October 13th at 6 p.m. for hearing public comment on a kitchen and dining renovation and for the expansion of the ambulance and garage area.
Hospital CEO Dustin Wright described the addition to the ambulance bay.
Wright told KLEM about the kitchen and dining renovation plans.
He says the estimated cost for the ambulance bay project is in the 400-thousand-dollar range while the dietary department estimate is in the four-point- five-million-dollar range. Both projects would be paid for from Floyd Valley Healthcare internal cash.
The hospital infusion area and emergency department renovation has been completed and opened last month.
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Local colleges release Fall 2026 enrollment numbers
Iowa colleges have released their enrollment numbers for the Fall of 2026, which include record numbers across the board.
Northwestern College’s fall enrollment features the highest number of traditional undergraduate students since 2015, with 1,092. This is the third year in a row that Northwestern has exceeded its goal for new student recruitment by more than 10%.
Fall 2026 figures show a total of 317 full-time freshmen, the same as last year, and 41 transfer students, the highest number of transfers in 10 years. Northwestern’s total fall enrollment is 1,627, the fifth largest in school history. In addition to a strong year for recruiting new students, Northwestern recorded a retention rate of 83%, the highest in at least 20 years.
Dordt University is celebrating record enrollment for the sixth year in a row, welcoming 2,159 total students for the fall 2026 semester. This includes a record number of 1,689 full-time undergraduates. Dordt’s graduate programs increased in size by more than 17% this year, with 290 total graduate students enrolled this fall—another university record.
Dordt has also been named to Money magazine’s Best Colleges 2026 list, joining more than 700 four-year colleges evaluated nationwide on 25 metrics spanning educational quality, affordability, and student outcomes.
Northwest Iowa Community College (NCC) has reached a new milestone with a fall 2026 enrollment of 2,068 students—the largest fall enrollment in the College’s history and only the second to surpass 2,000 students. Over the past decade, NCC’s fall enrollment has grown from 1,634 students in 2016 to a record 2,068 students in 2026—a 26.6% increase and an average annual growth rate of approximately 2.4%.
