(Radio Iowa) Officials with Prestage Foods of Iowa are announcing a joint venture that’s being called Prestage Wholestone. The collaboration is with Wholestone Farms of Nebraska which is a farmer-owned pork processing facility based in Fremont, Nebraska. Prestage Wholestone will operate the two plant locations in Eagle Grove and Fremont with a daily single shift harvest capacity of approximately 21,000 head per day. In a press release, the Eagle Grove facility will remain managed by the Prestage family. Prestage Wholestone is expected to start joint operations within the next 12 months. Wholestone Farms was founded as a cooperative of 200 Midwest family farms in 2018. The Eagle Grove Prestage Foods of Iowa opened its $350 million pork plant in 2019.

The Exira-EHK School board met on Tuesday evening in the conference room in Elk Horn for a regular meeting. During the meeting Superintendent Trevor Miller presented a tentative agreement with the Exira-EHK Education Association that proposes a 5.45% salary increase for Certified Staff members. That was unanimously approved as presented by the board.

The Board also approved resignations, hires, and transfers. Resignations included: Cody Parmley, Spartan Media Sponsor; Julie Rasmussen, Art Teacher; Andrea Schwery, Science Teacher and Softball Coach (after 2023 season); and Heather Sprague, Title Teacher. Hires included Cory Bartz as high school girls track coach and Doug Newton as junior high boys track coach.

A public hearing was also held on the proposed 2023-24 District Calendar with no comments received from the public.

The Exira-EHK School Board will next meet on March 21st at 5:30 p.m. in the Exira-EHK Conference Room in Elk Horn.

The Creston Police Department reports the arrest on Wednesday at 3:23 p.m. of 45-year-old Travis Quinn Wambold of Creston at 302 Pine Street. Wambold was charged with Violation of Probation and taken to the Union County Jail and held on no bond until seen by a Magistrate.

The Red Oak Police Department reports the arrest on Wednesday of 21-year-old Sebastian Kage Meek of Red Oak on a charge of Theft 2nd Degree, a Class D felony. Meek was arrested at 8:04 p.m. in the 100 block of E Street and taken to the Montgomery County Jail. He was being held on $5,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) The Iowa Supreme Court heard arguments in a request by the state to dismiss a lawsuit against the governor over the release of public records during the COVID pandemic. The records were released 18 months after the request when the lawsuit was filed by the Iowa A-C-L-U on behalf of journalists seeking the records. The attorney for the governor, Eric Wessan, says the administration followed the law because it never denied the request.

Chief Justice Susan Christensen says this approach could require anyone who requested open records to eventually hire a lawyer to get an agency to comply. She says that could be expensive and some people could not afford to do that.

The attorney for the A-C-L-U, Thomas Story, says the state should not be allowed to stall and force a lawsuit.

Wessan says it’s an important part of democracy. Wessan says the governor’s office gave very little response to the records request other than to acknowledged they received the request. He says there should be some reason given for not producing the records.

He says the strategy was to delay and force a lawsuit.

The Supreme Court will issue its ruling at a later date.