(Radio Iowa) – Newly-elected Iowa Democratic Party chair Rita Hart says there’s still a chance national party leaders will relent and let the Iowa Democratic Party’s Caucuses go first in the 2024 presidential election. This weekend, the Democratic National Committee is scheduled to vote on a 2024 presidential campaign schedule that would prohibit Iowa Democrats from having Caucuses before any other state holds a Democratic primary. Hart says that is certainly not a done deal and national party leaders need to sure their decisions are practical.

Hart, who was elected state party chair on Saturday, says the Caucuses are a tradition worth preserving and she’s talking with people who’ve been working for the past two years to try to keep the Democrats’ Caucuses first. The Republican National Committee ratified a plan this summer that keeps the Iowa G-O-P’s Caucuses first as Republicans nominate a presidential candidate in 2024.

(Radio Iowa) – A bill in the Iowa Senate would prevent the collection of up to 127 million dollars in property taxes and force local officials to make cuts in city and county budget plans. Last fall, Iowa Department of Revenue officials discovered a mistake in a 2021 state law caused the miscalculation of residential property taxes — but local officials were only recently notified of the discrepancy and have been drafting local budgets based on the higher numbers.

Pleasant Hill Mayor Sara Kurovski and other city officials have held four public meetings as they developed Pleasant Hill’s next budget and will have to cut out about 200-thousand dollars due to the mistake. “All of us know that in these inflationary times, it is very difficult to keep up the costs while providing these services,” she said. “…Give us a year to prepare correctly.”

Leaders from Iowa’s larger cities say they’ll be forced to quickly cut millions from budget plans that must be released for public input and finalized by March 31st. Republican Senator Dan Dawson supports giving local officials two more weeks to make those decisions, but Dawson says the residential property tax formula is going to be fixed this spring.  “We’re always advocating on behalf of the taxpayers,” Dawson says. “A delay would be a tax increase to the residential property taxpayers.”

The bill to fix the miscalculation of residential property taxes has cleared a Senate subcommittee and is eligible for debate in the Senate Ways and Means Committee.

(Radio Iowa) – A Sioux City Fire Department spokesman says it could take some time before they can determine the exact cause of a fire that destroyed a restaurant in a strip mall Sunday. Captain Ryan Collins says the aftermath of fighting the fire in below-zero temperatures will keep them out of the site for a while. “So much water was applied, everything is now covered in ice. It’s just a matter of working with all the partners to make sure that everything is done safely and make sure that no evidence is damaged in the process,” Collins says.

He says the subzero temperatures create all sorts of concerns when fighting a fire. “Hose lines freezing, you can get frozen hydrants, we can have our apparatus, the pumps, they don’t like the freezing temperatures any more than we do,” he says. “So we do manage that. And there’s also the additional hazards of the weight of the ice that’s formed. The ice sits on the ground, we get a lot of slips, trips, and falls. And so there’s just a different set of precautions that we have in the wintertime.”

Fire destroyed the Oppa Time Restaurant in Sioux City Sunday. (SCFD photo)

The roof of the Opa Time restaurant collapsed, so Collins says they had to pour water on from the outside to fight the fire. He says they believe something in the ceiling may’ve started the fire. An H&R Block office next door was damaged, but Collins says firewalls prevented more damage to other businesses in the mall. Nobody was in the building at the time of the fire.

DES MOINES — Six Iowa care facilities were placed in receivership after the owner informed the Iowa Department of Inspections and Appeals (DIA) that it would be unable to continue operating those facilities.

On Monday, Jan. 23, the owner of Blue Care Homes, LLC, notified DIA that they were unable and/or unwilling to continue operations and would not be able to meet the needs of its residents at four nursing facilities and two assisted living facilities.

On Wednesday, Jan.25, pursuant to Iowa Code chapters 135C and 231C, DIA filed for receivership of the six facilities. Receivership ensures that residents are safe and that they have the ability to move to a location of their choosing.

On Thursday, Jan. 26, the courts appointed Michael F. Flanagan—who has significant experience in receiverships—in conjunction with Mission Health, as the temporary manager of these facilities. Mr. Flanagan and Mission Health immediately assumed control of the operations and will remain in control until all 263 residents are safely relocated to a facility of their choice.

Affected nursing/skilled nursing facilities

• Webster Post Acute Rehabilitation a.k.a. Fort Dodge Villa Care Center, 2721 Tenth Avenue North, Fort Dodge 50501 (61 current residents)
• Humboldt Wellness and Rehabilitation a.k.a. Humboldt Care Center, 1111 11th Avenue North, Humboldt 50548 (45 current residents)
• Timber City Wellness and Rehabilitation a.k.a. Crestridge Care Center, 1015 Wesley Drive, Maquoketa 52060 (58 current residents)
• Madison Wellness and Rehabilitation a.k.a. Winterset Care Center North, 411 East Lane Street, Winterset 50273 (52 current residents)

Affected assisted living facilities

• Villa Cottages, 925 Martin Luther King Drive, Fort Dodge 50501 (14 current residents)
• Madison Square ALP/D, 209 West Jefferson, Winterset 50273 (33 current residents)

“DIA’s most important duty is to ensure that every resident is safe,” said DIA Director Larry Johnson, Jr. “Facilities must abide by all regulations to ensure a safe and orderly closure and the State stepped in to ensure this happens.” The department, the temporary manager, managed care organizations, and the Office of the Long Term Care ombudsman will assist residents in determining where they would like to move, and DIA surveyors continue to monitor each of these facilities throughout the transition period.

Residents, staff, and families have been notified of the receivership and closures and additional meetings will occur in the coming days. Federal and state regulations require facilities to remain open while residents are being safely placed at a facility of their choice (60 days for nursing and skilled nursing facilities and 90 days for assisted living facilities).

This is the second time the department has filed for receivership. The first time was in July 2022 for a facility in Sioux City.The department will release additional information as it becomes available.