(Atlantic, Iowa) – Mark Your Calendars! Winter Conservation Day Camps are coming up in February and March, you won’t want to miss the fun as Cass County Extension and Cass County Conservation partner to offer these fun, hands-on camps for youth in K-5th grade.

February Snow Camp sessions are for youth in 3-5th grade. Learn about all things snow at this fun, day-long winter day camp. This camp will be offered free of charge, but pre-registration required. Snacks will be provided, but please bring a sack lunch. Don’t forget to bring your winter coats and boots, as we will be outside for a hike in the snow if weather allows!

• February 17th – Snow Day Camp @ Atlantic Community Center 9:00am-4:00pm for 3^rd -5^th graders. Please RSVP by 2/13
• February 20th – Snow Day Camp @ Anita Community Center 9:00am-4:00pm for 3^rd -5^th graders.  Please RSVP by 2/13
• February 24th – Snow Day Camp @ Griswold Community Center 9:00am-4:00pm for 3^rd -5^th graders. Please RSVP by 2/20

March Penguin Camps are for youth in K-2nd grade. Learn about the life of a penguin while having fun with hands-on activities. Free to attend, pre-registration required. Snack will be provided. These half-day camps offer plenty of fun and learning through play and crafts!

• March 15th, Penguin Day Camp @ Griswold Community Center 9:00am-Noon for K-2^nd graders. Please RSVP by 3/9.
• March 24th, Penguin Day Camp @ Atlantic Community Center 9:00am-Noon or 1:00pm-4:00pm for K-2^nd graders. Please RSVP by 3/20

Call the extension office at 712-243-1132 to RSVP or to get more information.

(Griswold, Iowa) — Officials with the Noble Initiatives Foundation in Griswold have announced the organization working to build a new childhood development center in Griswold, has received large grant to further their goal. According to NIF Board Member Steve Baier, the Foundation received a $500,000 grant through the Charles E. Lakin Foundation for their ongoing effort to raise nearly $2.6 million for a proposed 8,800-square-foot facility.

The funds will ensure completion of the facility, Baier said, which will be named the Charles E. Lakin Child Development Center of Griswold. Crews have been hard at work pouring the concrete for the foundation. When complete, the Lakin Child Development Center should be able to house nearly 100 children throughout the day, including those aged six weeks to four years old, and a separate area for before and after school care for elementary-age kids. The facility would also include four classrooms and a gym.

The childcare center will provide year-round child care, including full-time, drop-in, and before/after school care. It will be located south of the Griswold Elementary School.  Fundraising efforts for the center went public in July, 2022.

If construction goes smoothly, Baier says the hope is to have the facility up and running by the fall of 2023. An official groundbreaking is scheduled for March 25th. More information is available on the organization’s website and Facebook page.

(Red Oak, Iowa) – A man from Nebraska was arrested at around 10-p.m. Friday, in Montgomery County. The Sheriff’s Office reports deputies arrested 49-year-old Rafael Hernando, of Omaha, on an active Montgomery County warrant for driving while license suspended. Hernando was being held in the Montgomery County jail on a $1,000 bond.

(Radio Iowa) – Governor Kim Reynolds has set a goal of getting rid of the state income tax by the end of 2026, but Reynolds decided not to push for an interim step this year. “We would have probably taken a look at it this year, bringing it down just a little bit more, but I wanted to kind of take a look, just watch what was happening with the environment, with inflation and recession,” Reynolds said. “We would have, I think, been OK, but I just focused on education reform this year and then really taking a look at government and how we provide services to Iowans.”

Reynolds and the rest of the nation’s governors are meeting in Washington, D.C. this weekend and the governor made her comments at a forum today sponsored by the Cato Institute, a libertarian think tank. Reynolds, who is chair of the Republican Governors Association, said 15 of her fellow Republican governors are proposing tax reductions in their states this year. “The great thing about Republican governors is we’re very competitive,” Reynolds said, “…which means I’m going to have to continue to cut taxes for Iowans.”

Reynolds has signed three tax cut packages since taking office in mid-2017. The one she signed a year ago has ended state taxes on retirement income and will reduce Iowa’s individual income tax to a single rate of three-point-nine percent in 2026. “But it’s not just cutting taxes and I think we’ve had some states that have had some difficulty with that,” Reynolds said. “They cut taxes, but they didn’t keep state spending in check and therefore ran into some issues down the line.”

The state budget plan Reynolds presented the legislature in January would spend just 82% of the tax revenue the state is projected to collect in the next fiscal year.

House Democratic Leader Jennifer Konfrst says the governor is in Washington, D.C. doing “a victory lap” for enacting policies that benefit corporations and wealthy Iowans.