Iowa has a labor shortage at the same time there’s an influx of refugees, so Iowa Workforce Development is now partnering with resettlement groups to place Iowa’s newest residents in jobs. Stephanie Moris, director of the Refugee Alliance of Central Iowa, says before a business hires a refugee, resources should be in place, as more businesses are open to hiring non-English speakers.

Moris says employers need to be innovative when it comes to addressing barriers like language and transportation for refugees. That’s why IowaWorks developed the three-part series on how to tackle such issues. They’re now available online for businesses across Iowa to access. Edgar Ramirez helped lead the webinar series and says he sometimes sees businesses hire refugees without forethought.

Ramirez says he wants the state to focus on building more infrastructure for refugees. He’s helping to organize job fairs across Iowa that will specifically spotlight the refugee community in the coming months.

Lakes and rivers were busy during the Independence Day holiday and that is expected to continue throughout the summer — with many people trying their hand at kayaking. D-N-R river programs outreach coordinator, Todd Robertson, says you shouldn’t head out onto rivers without doing a little preparation.

He said learning and working on some basic paddling strokes can be very beneficial.

He says you have to be prepared for both ends of the spectrum from swollen lakes, to ones that are down.

Robertson says kayaks have been flying off the shelves the last couple of years.

Robertson says. He says the D-N-R has a kayak and canoe school you can access on their website on how to paddle. They also offer classes and Robertson says some retailers that sell boats that actually give short lessons. Robertson recommends before you buy a kayak or canoe that you rent one and they’ll give you some quick instruction. He says there are also a lot of online videos that can be helpful in learning about paddling.

The Cass County Conservation Board has partnered with the Atlantic Public Library for a Cass County #PlantWildflowers BioBlitz Informational Presentation. Lora Kanning, the Cass County Conservation Naturalist will be explaining how to participate in the upcoming Cass County #PlantWildflowers BioBlitz. Learn how to participate in this day long biological census. A BioBlitz aims to promote and improve local natural spaces by empowering citizens to better understand and protect biodiversity. It is a Citizen Science program similar to tagging Monarch butterflies and the Backyard Bird Count. This presentation will focus on how to use the applications from a smartphone or tablet and submit the users’ observations. The presentation will be held at the Atlantic Public Library Community Room on Wednesday July 13th 6 PM. Kanning will also be available for troubleshooting during the BioBlitz at the Atlantic Public Library Community Room Saturday July 16th 12 PM-2PM. We hope you will join us for this great public program.

#PlantWildflowers BioBlitz is a daylong biological census. The public can use an application called iNaturalist to submit their Cass County Observations anytime throughout the day on July 16th. A BioBlitz aims to promote and improve local natural spaces by empowering citizens to better understand and protect biodiversity.

These programs are made possible through a grant from the #Plantwildflowers Initiative with PBS Nature and HHMI Tangled Studios that the Atlantic Public Library applied for.

Cass County Extension is set to host Food Preservation 101. which is a two-hour overview of general food preservation principles. The class includes current recommendations for canning, freezing and drying, display of equipment and utensils and sources for safe and tested food preservation information.  The program will be held on Thursday, July 14 from 6 to 8 pm at the Cass County Extension office, 805 W. 10^th Street in Atlantic. There is a $10 fee for the program, but scholarships are available upon request. To ensure adequate materials are available for all participants, pre-registration is required by Wednesday July 13^th.

Call 712-243-1132 for more information and to register for the class, or visit https://go.iastate.edu/5NFQDZ to register online. A full list of all food preservation resources and upcoming classes can also be found online at the Preserve the Taste of Summer Home Page- https://www.extension.iastate.edu/humansciences/preserve-taste-summer.

ISU Extension offers a library of publications with recipes and instructions for preserving a wide variety of foods, from fruits and vegetables to pickles and meats. These publications are available as free downloads on the ISU Extension Store at https://store.extension.iastate.edu/, or can be picked up at your local ISU Extension Office.

Information will also be shared at this program about ISU Extension’s more in-depth food preservation workshop series; Preserve the Taste of Summer. This series of hands-on food preservation workshops is a great opportunity for those who want to go beyond the basics, according to Fuller. The cost of each workshop is $40 and Cass County Extension is planning to host a session Salsa Making on Saturday, August 13^th – Scholarships are also available for this class upon request.  Additional topics, including jams, pickles, and dehydrating will be offered at locations around Iowa throughout the summer.

In addition to learning the basics of food safety, Extension staff remind home canners that dial gauge pressure canners should be tested annually for accuracy. Dial gauges will be tested at the end of the program on July 14 free of charge, or lids can be dropped off at the Cass County Extension office at any time for free testing.

Home food preserves can also get answers to food preservation questions by calling ISU Extension and Outreach’s toll-free AnswerLine. Experts answer questions Monday through Friday, 9 a.m. to noon and from 1– 4 p.m. In Iowa: 1-800-262-3804; Relay Iowa phone linkage for deaf/hard-of-hearing individuals, 1-800-735-2942

Questions can also be emailed to answer@iastate.edu .  Frequently asked questions and other resources are available at the AnswerLine website, www.extension.iastate.edu/humansciences/answerline.

All of these resources and more will be showcased at the Food Preservation 101 Workshop July 14th, so be sure to call or go online to pre-register today!

The Adams County Fair gets rolling today in Corning. The fair kicked off with the Horse Show that started at 9:00 a.m. The Shooting Sports Exhibition is schedule at 3:00 p.m. at the Gun Club at Lake Binder. Then at 5:00 p.m. they will have the Extension Kick-Off BBQ followed by the Adams County Queen Coronation and Little Mr. and Miss crowning. The first day will wrap up with a concert by Logan Mize with special guest Steven Bankey and the Flatlanders at 7:00 p.m.

The Adams County Fair runs through July 12th. We’ll have live video coverage on KJANTV of the Swine Show on Monday and the Beef Show on Tuesday.

UPDATE 7/10/22: Both bridges/roads are now open.

Travel in the Atlantic area will be a little easier starting today. Iowa DOT District Planner Scott Suhr says the two bridge repair projects on Highway 83 and Highway 6 in Cass County are set to open back up today, weather permitting. He said they are working on painting markings on both roadways and if the weather cooperates long enough the plan is to open both roadways back up later today.

The Highway 6 bridge over Indian Creek near Lewis has been closed since March 14th and residents have been using Lewis Road as a detour around the closure.

The bridge over the East Nishnabotna River on Highway 83 (2nd Street), northwest of Atlantic has been closed since March 28th. That detour has sent residents around past the Elite Octane ethanol plant.

Both bridges were closed for overlay replacements and some minor repairs.

(Radio Iowa) The U-S Department of Transportation has announced five Iowa airports are splitting 27 million dollars in grants to improve passenger terminals. The Eastern Iowa Airport is getting nearly 20-and-a-half million to expand its passenger terminal. The funding will complete the project to modernize parts of the Cedar Rapids airport that serve commercial passengers.

The Des Moines Airport is getting five million dollars toward construction of a new passenger terminal. The Des Moines Airport Authority began making plans for a new terminal as annual passenger traffic crossed the three million mark and a lack of gates for passenger boarding limits new flight options.

The Dubuque Regional Airport is getting one-point-three million dollars and that will help pay for improvements to its terminal for passengers.

The Washington Municipal Airport is getting nearly 130-thousand dollars for work on its general aviation terminal, which sees an average of about 12-thousand flights a year.

The Council Bluffs Municipal Airport, which opened in 1967, is getting 112-thousand-500 dollars to improve accessibility at the airport.

The money comes from the bipartisan infrastructure bill Democratic Congresswoman Cindy Axne and Republican Senator Chuck Grassley supported. Congresswoman Axne, a Democrat from West Des Moines, says this investment in Iowa’s airports will help ensure safety and efficiency for pilots, passengers, and cargo and bring more good paying jobs to Iowa. Republican Senator Grassley says it’s critical that airport infrastructure be kept up to date to maintain a resilient supply chain and a healthy economy. The other Republicans in Iowa’s congressional delegation — Joni Ernst, Randy Feenstra, Mariannette Miller-Meeks and Ashley Hinson — opposed the infrastcture package.

(Radio Iowa) Iowa State University Extension is hosting a series of seminars across the state about renting or owning farmland. The first two will be held in Mitchell and Mahaska Counties on July 26th. Gary Wright is a farm management specialist with I-S-U Extension who’s based in Spirit Lake.

More than half of Iowa cropland is rented. Under state law, September 1st is the date by which a tenant or landlord has to notify the other party if they want to terminate a lease or rental agreement. Wright says at each seminar I-S-U Extension staff review market prices and the factors influencing 2023 cash rental rates for farmland.

Many farmland rental agreements have a flat, per acre rate. Flexible leases calculate the rental rate based on the costs of inputs like seeds, diesel and fertilizer as well as yields and the actual price for the crop once it’s sold.

Find a link at www.radioiowa.com for the seminar in your county. Registration is required. A survey of farmers, landowners, realtors, bankers and professional farm managers found cash RENT for high quality corn and soybean ground in Iowa averaged in the range of 250 dollars per acre for the CURRENT growing season. An average acre of Iowa farmland was valued at about 98-hundred dollars last fall. In May, a farm in Plymouth County sold for 25-thousand dollars an acre.

(Radio Iowa) The Iowa Lottery is looking for the holders of two Powerball tickets worth a combined 100-thousand dollars which will expire soon. Spokesperson Mary Neubauer says the tickets were purchased at a Casey’s in Council Bluffs and a Kum & Go in Stuart.

The Council Bluffs ticket was purchased for the drawing on July 21st, 2021.

The person who bought the winning ticket in Stuart has more time to claim the prize.

Neubauer says it is a little unusual to have two prizes of this size go unclaimed.

Neubauer says they’ve done some analysis on the amount of time it takes for someone to bring in a winning ticket.

You have one year from the drawing to collect any prizes from Iowa Lottery tickets. The prizes that expire without being claimed go back into the prize pools for future games and promotions.

(Radio Iowa) From Iowa’s biggest cities to the smallest towns, the recently-red hot housing market is cooling off considerably as the heat of summer arrives. Julie Hurt, a realtor with Century 21 Pro Link in Le Mars, says that community of ten-thousand residents has remarkably few homes for sale.

Hurt says there’s been a dip in home sales in the Le Mars area and she points to the short inventory list of available homes, plus, a longer list of buyers.

Hurt says homes aren’t on the market very long, just two weeks on average. While home prices are rising, she says buyers are still motivated, but they are more selective.