The Iowa Department of Transportation and the Nebraska Department of Roads are working with the Burt County Bridge Commission to transfer jurisdiction of the Decatur-Onawa toll bridge connecting Nebraska 51 and Iowa 175 from the commission to the states.

Once the transfer is complete, the NDOR will maintain Nebraska 51 and be the lead state on issues related to the bridge, including maintenance and snow removal. The Iowa DOT will have control of Iowa 175. The agreement paves the way for the removal of tolls from the bridge beginning Nov. 30th.

The agreement was approved Nov. 12th by the Iowa Transportation Commission and a recommendation to proceed has been received from the Nebraska Highway Commission.

CEDAR RAPIDS — Iowans looking for an alternative to throwing away unwanted items and materials now have an easy way to find places that will take them: the DNR’s Iowa Greenlist. Available at www.iagreenlist.com, the Iowa Greenlist is a web-based directory of locations that accept items to be recycled, reused or repurposed instead of ending up in a landfill.

“Iowans now have a one-stop shop to find other options to throwing away their items,” said Scott Flagg, Iowa Greenlist directory manager. “The Iowa Greenlist is the most comprehensive statewide resource currently available – Iowa’s ultimate recycling directory.”

The website allows the user to search by material, location or organization and displays contact information, a list of materials accepted and hours for all registered locations. The database currently has 506 registered locations available across Iowa that accept products ranging from electronics to used oil filters. New retailers are able to register on the website at any time.

The U-S Agriculture Department’s Farm to School Census finds Iowa’s school districts spent six percent of their food budgets buying from local farms in the 2011-2012 school year. Across the Midwest, most states report 25 to 50 percent of their school districts are buying from local farms, growing edible gardens or teaching nutrition –all parts of U-S-D-A’s Farm to School effort. Corry Bregendahl, of the Leopold Center for Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University, says increasingly she hears from districts that want to get more local foods on the table.

“They’re eager to be a part of this, but there’s still some significant challenges associated with their participation,” Bregendahl says. The challenges include regulations, such as the competitive bidding process, and school kitchen logistics. “The food service needs a lot of support because a lot of them don’t even have slicing equipment,” Bregendahl explains. “They’ve evolved to be warmers, not food preparers.” Bregendahl says the survey confirms some of the things farmers have been telling them about the use of local foods.

“We’ve been hearing anecdotal evidence for years that farmers were expanding their operations because they were getting access to new markets and they were ramping up their production,” according to Bregendahl. Bregendahl says, when local food sourcing does succeed it can have ripple effects on the local economy.

(Radio Iowa)

Fewer than 12 dozen Iowans acquired private health insurance through the federal healthcare-dot-gov website during its first troubled month of operation. A report from the Obama Administration indicates that during October applications were submitted through the federal website for coverage of nearly 11-thousand individual Iowans. Almost 45-hundred of those Iowans have incomes low enough that they qualify for coverage through Medicaid.

Another two-thousand of them qualified for government subsidies to buy private insurance. However, only 136 were able to complete the application process and buy a private insurance policy during the month of October.

Government subsidies for buying private insurance are only available to those who use the website to buy insurance. According to the Obama Administration report, over 255-thousand Iowans are either eligible for the subsidy to buy private insurance or are eligible for Medicaid. Almost 200-thousand of those are either working full-time, or someone in their household has a full-time job. The application deadline through health-care-dot-gov is December 15th, but the policies do not take effect until January 1st.

(Radio Iowa)

The Shelby County Emergency Management Agency reports the bridge over Mosquito Creek, just east of the intersection of 1800th Street and Highway 191, is now permanently closed. The bridge is located between Washington Township Sections 1 and 12. And, 2000th Street, just west of Hazel Road will be closed three weeks for a culvert pipe replacement project, beginning Mon., Nov. 18th. The culvert is located between Union Township Sections 29 & 32.

Residents and emergency responders should plan to take alternate routes. If you have any questions, call the Shelby County Engineer’s Office at 712-755-5954.