January is national blood donor month. Stacy Sime — the manager of a center that supplies blood to more than 90 hospitals in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota — says every two seconds someone in the U.S. needs blood. “Donors of LifeServe Blood Center in 2013 impacted over half a million lives,” she says. “We feel like we’re a vital part of the health care community and creating a healthy state of Iowa.”

The LifeServe Blood Center is located in Des Moines, but holds blood drives throughout the three-state region. It is one of the 15 largest blood centers in the country and Iowa Governor Terry Branstad toured the facility Thursday after signing a proclamation about blood donor month. “Every day approximately 38,000 pints of blood are needed to maintain a safe and adequate blood supply,” Branstad says. “Yet only 10 percent of the population eligible to give blood do so annually.”

Branstad says his wife, Chris, is a “real regular blood donor” who used to co-chair blood drives when they lived in Lake Mills. The governor describes himself as an “occasional” blood donor.

(Radio Iowa)

Sheriff’s officials in Mills County report the arrest Thursday morning, of 41-year old Christopher Robert Reents, of Omaha. Reents was taken into custody at around 8:17-a.m. on a charge of Attempted burglary in the 3rd degree. His bond was set at $2,000.

The Shelby County Supervisors have elected board member Steve Kenkel as the new chairman for the 2014 meetings. In a regular meeting Thursday, the board voted to move Kenkel into the chairman position and Charlie Parkhurst to Vice-Chairman.

In other business, the board awarded Commercial Construction Inc. for the North Linden Road Bridge. The bid for the project was $510,832.09. The final motion before adjourning the meeting was to purchase a new tandem axle truck for the Shelby County Engineer’s Office. The Supervisors received three bids for the semi-tractor capable of converting into a dump truck for snow removal purposes.

The bids ranged from $151,898 from Omaha Truck Center, $110,250 from Cornhusker International and the lowest bid from Wise-Mack Inc. $109,921. The Supervisors approved the bid from Wise-Mack for the 2014 Mack tandem axle truck.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)