COUNCIL BLUFFS, Iowa (AP) – Sioux City Entertainment will build a Hard Rock Casino in northwest Iowa’s Sioux City.  The Iowa Racing and Gaming Commission awarded the license Thursday at the end of a meeting held in Council Bluffs, choosing from four proposals for land-based casinos in Sioux City.  Last month, the commission toured proposed sites and met with developers.

Penn National Gaming Co. submitted two proposals for a casino, and Ho-Chunk Inc. and Sioux City Entertainment also each bid for the rights to build a casino, which would replace the Argosy Sioux City riverboat casino.

The Hard Rock Hotel & Casino has a $118.5 million price tag and would be at the site of the historic Battery Building in downtown Sioux City.

No injuries were reported after a full-sized pickup went into a ditch and rolled over Wednesday afternoon, in Montgomery County. According to the Iowa DOT investigative officer’s report, 42-year old Edie Chadwick McClintock, of Essex, was driving a 2001 Ford F-250 Super Duty, crew cab pickup westbound on 250th Street just off of B Avenue, when the truck caught the edge of the road after traveling about 75-feet. The pickup slid into the north ditch and rolled once, coming to rest on the driver’s side, against some trees.

The accident, which happened at around 3:50-p.m. about seven-miles southwest of Red Oak, caused approximately $12,000 damage. No citations were issued.

An Atlantic resident has bequeathed a valuable art collection, mostly sculptures and glass pieces,  to the Atlantic Public Library. During the City Council meeting Wednesday evening, Councilman Dana Halder reported on the donation from Richard Hellman, who took over a successful metalworking business that his father founded in 1919. When Richard Hellman retired, he sold the business and settled in Oceanside, California.  

Halder said Hellman, who passed away, left 51-pieces of artwork to the Atlantic Public Library and five-pieces to the Danish Immigrant Museum. The works of art are currently in California, and the library has the right to do dispense the pieces as they see fit. Officials with the Atlantic Public Library plan to sell the art, and reap the proceeds.

The appraised value of the works, which includes pieces by Oregon artist/sculptor Bill Kasper, and Georgia sculptor Jim Karg, is approximately $175,000. Halder say it’s hoped the library will receive 60-percent of the appraised value when the items are sold. Library Director Meredith Scherb told KJAN News the plan is to sell the collection to an art dealer. Halder said that’s because of the liability issue involved with storing and displaying the works.

The Shelby County Community Foundation (SCCF) has announced grants totaling $104,076 were awarded to Shelby County nonprofit agencies. The largest grant was to the Elk Horn Fire and Rescue, $30,000, for the construction of a meeting room and bathroom in their fire station. Douglas Township Fire Protection will replace 20 year old gear for firefighters with their grant of $12,180.

The Defiance Fire Department received $11,000 for an Auto Pulse CPR unit for their ambulance. $10,000 was awarded to the City of Irwin, Shelby County Historical Society and the Danish Immigrant Museum. Other nonprofit organizations receiving grant moneys from the Shelby County Community Foundation were Country Care Center, Panama Fire Department, Shelby County Community Outreach, Shelby County Fair Corporation and West Central Community Action.

All grantees met the criteria as Shelby County nonprofit agencies or organizations with charitable missions in the areas of civic, cultural, health, education and social services. Chairman of the SCCF Robert Burton said, “The Shelby County Community Foundation is one of nine counties that are collectively known as the Community Foundations of Southwest Iowa and meets or exceeds the Standards for Community Foundations as established by the Council on Foundations in Washington D.C.”

The Shelby County Community Foundation will be giving out another round of grant money in the fall.

(Joel McCall/KNOD)

The Atlantic Area Chamber of Commerce reports the Chambers’ “Image Builders” have taken on the task of retrofitting the 174 strands of garland used each holiday season on the light poles in downtown Atlantic.

Members of the Atlantic Chamber’s “Image Builders” work to retrofit Christmas season garlands. (Chamber photo)

Chamber Executive Director Megan Roberts says the same committee originally purchased the necessary parts and assembled them into lighted garland to be used on each light pole on Chestnut Street, side streets and in City Park.

After nearly 20 years of use, volunteers are removing the old C-9 bulbs and sockets and replacing them with three strings of LED lights as well as re-painting the red bows used on top of each strand of garland. The LED’s are the same as those installed in the trees along Chestnut. The volunteers are working each day from 1- to 4-p.m. in the upper level of City Hall.

Volunteers that have helped include Marv Behrends, Joan & Roger Barbero, Ken & Mary Ann Moorman, Bob Boots, Ron Peerbolte, Dick Cassady, Gene Fischer, and Randall Breckerbaumer. Anyone interested in volunteering can just show up at the prescribed time each day Monday through Friday.

A new survey on the gender wage gap finds Iowa is right at the national average of women earning 77-cents for every dollar earned by men. That ranks Iowa 31st among the 50 states. Kate Gallagher Robbins, senior policy analyst with the National Women’s Law Center, says the gap is much wider for minority women in Iowa. Gallagher Robbins says, “When we look at the gap for race and ethnicity, we compare women of color to white non-Hispanic men and for those groups, in Iowa, black women are making about 60% of what white men are earning, while Hispanic women are making about 56%, so it’s fairly striking economic disparities there.”

This June will mark 50 years since President Kennedy signed the Equal Pay Act into law, yet little progress has been made in narrowing the wage gap. She says some businesses have restrictive policies that make it easy to keep salary data under wraps. “Basically, if you tried to discuss your salary with anyone, you could be punished, and in fact, that’s true in many states across the country,” Gallagher Robbins says. “You can be punished for discussing your salary. That business practice is not illegal and it makes it very difficult for women to know that they even are being underpaid.”

Last week, April 9th, marked Equal Pay Day. That’s the day in 2013 that women have to work through in order to make what men made in all of 2012. “If women are earning nationally 23% less than what men are earning, they have quite a ways to go into the following year to try and make up that amount of money,” Gallagher Robbins says. “What that translates to in actual earnings is about $11,000 nationally.”

While women in Iowa and nationwide make 77-cents to every dollar made by men, the worst state on the list was Wyoming, where the rate was 66-cents. The list was topped by Washington D-C where women make 90-cents to every man’s dollar.

(Radio Iowa)