(Radio Iowa) – The Mason City School Board last (Monday) night unanimously approved a policy that mandates mask usage inside a school building when the illness rate inside that building reaches seven percent or more, with the requirement being lifted once the illness rate drops below five percent. That would include all illnesses, not just COVID-19. Superintendent Dave Versteeg says nurses would report the information daily with parents being immediately notified if a building went over seven percent.  Versteeg says, “We do that at the end of every day and that nurse can report to us, and we can send out a notice to those parents that evening, saying ‘Building X’ hit the threshold, so tomorrow people will wear a mask.”

Board member Jodi Draper says the compromise tries to address the best policies for staff and students while at the same time hearing from people who don’t want to see any mandate put in place.  “Our job is to represent people and look at both of those views, and though can we meet them and greet them together into a middle of the road, and I think we can,” Draper says. “I think we can keep our teachers safe, our students safe, our children safe that come in and out of the buildings with special needs. How do we do that? That’s what people elected us to find out, and to research, and to do.”

Board member Alan Steckman went along with the compromise after wanting to see a full-time mask mandate in the schools, saying that masks worked well in the schools last year.  “I’ve had somebody send me a post and said ‘Masks do not prevent COVID, it says so on the box.’ What the hell box was that? What the hell box?” Steckman says. “My thinking on it is that seat belts do not prevent death. You can die with a seat belt. You can die with a mask, but generally they prevent death, generally masks prevent death. So I’m voting masks.”

Currently, a school district is required to report to the county department of public health when a building reaches a 10% absentee or illness rate so that local public health officials can determine if any further action needs to be taken. The board voted to start the seven-percent policy next Monday to allow Versteeg to draw up further guidelines for students and staff to follow when a mandate is in place.

The Adair County Sheriff’s Office reports four arrests took place over the past week:

• 63-year-old Michael Allen Bloom, of Greenfield, was arrested Sept. 14th in Bridgewater, on a Taylor County warrant. He was transported directly to meet with Taylor County Deputies.
• 55-year-old Michelle Renee Evans, of Bridgewater, was arrested in Greenfield Sept. 15th, on an Adair County warrant for six counts of Animal Neglect with serious injury or death. She remains in the Adair County Jail on a $12,000 cash or surety bond.
• 36-year-old Derik Wayne Bud Pickrell, of West Des Moines, was arrested Sept. 16th, on two separate Adair County warrants for Violation of Probation. He was being held on a $2,000 cash or surety bond.
• And, 45-year-old Scott William Richard Funke, of Grimes, was arrested Sept. 16th in Greenfield, on a Polk County felony warrant for Dominion/Control of a firearm by a domestic abuse offender, and Possession of a Controlled Substance/1st offense. His cash/surety bond was set at $4,500.

(8-a.m. News) (Griswold, Iowa) – While other school districts in Iowa (predominantly the larger cities) are enacting mask mandates as a means to prevent the spread of COVID-19, Griswold School District Superintendent Dave Henrichs says that’s not the case in his District.

(There will be no mask mandate, but the school will implement its COVID Tracker again this year on the District’s website, indicating how many students and staff have tested positive. To date, he says, there have been 8 students [2 elementary &, 6 MS/HS students] that have tested positive. No teachers have tested positive. All have recovered with the exception of one HS student.)

Last year at this same time, there were 10 positive cases. With regard to District Enrollment, Mr. Henrichs said there were 79 students who open enrolled-out, and 22 who open enrolled-in. The out numbers sustained, meaning they actually gained three overall-in students. Henrichs said also, a group working on a daycare facility spoke with the Board Monday evening.

The Board Monday, approved district personnel changes/hires and resignations.

And, the Griswold School Board approved Lifetime Activity passes, with certain criteria in mind, for former Griswold educators, staff and certain volunteers.

The News at 8:05-a.m., with Ric Hanson.

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A man from Osceola was arrested Monday night, in Creston. Authorities say 25-year-old Adrian Ramos Maciel was taken into custody at around 8:45-p.m., in the 300 block of N. Pine Street in Creston, for OWI/1st offense. He was later released on a $1,000 cash or surety bond.

The 7:07-a.m. Newscast from Ric Hanson.

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(Des Moines, Iowa) – The Iowa Department of Public Health released new COVID-19 data on Monday. The health department said 11,138 additional positive virus tests in the last 7 days, down from 11,439 the previous seven-day period. That brings the total positive tests to 472,681 since the start of the pandemic. Iowa’s 14-day positivity rate is up from 9.2% to 9.4%. Those 18 and under account for 29% of positive cases, by far the largest group. However, that age group accounts for only 7% of those hospitalized with COVID-19.

The state reports 579 patients hospitalized with the virus, down from 581 from the last report. IDPH reports 78% of those hospitalized with COVID-19 are not fully vaccinated, while 90% of those in ICU for COVID-19 are not vaccinated. There are now COVID-19 outbreaks reported in 29 long-term care facilities.

The number of Iowans vaccinated against the virus continues to tick upward. The health department reports 3,395,253 vaccine doses administered in the state, with 65.2% of those 18 and older fully vaccinated and 67.8% of those 12 and older with at least one dose.

(Radio Iowa) – Staff and students in pre-kindergarten through sixth grade in the Decorah school district will have to mask up starting next Monday after the school board voted for a universal mask mandate at a special meeting last (Monday) night. Superintendent Mark Lane says the mandate will be in effect until four week after a vaccine for five to eleven year olds is readily available locally. The board made the decision in light of the news that Fizer will seek FDA approval to provide COVID-19 vaccines to children ages 5-11.

A federal judge recently halted enforcement of a state law which was passed in May which prohibited school districts from enacting mask mandates. Governor Reynolds has said the state will appeal that ruling. Decorah becomes the 11th school district in the state to enact some sort of mask mandate since the federal court ruling. Decorah and Linn-Mar have enacted PK through sixth grade mask mandates. Ames, Cedar Rapids, Council Bluffs, Davenport, Des Moines, Iowa City, Urbandale, West Burlington and West Des Moines all enacted PK-12th grade mask mandates.

(Radio Iowa) – The unemployment rate for August held steady at four-point-one percent and a spokesperson for Iowa Workforce Development says they anticipate the rate falling in the next couple of months. I-W-D Deputy Director, Ryan West, says things usually pick up in October and November as companies try to get things done before winter. “Iowa’s tied for 17th with Indiana as far as the unemployment rate — but we are seeing a lot of good things. The rate staying the same is obviously better than it going up, and we are excited where we are going to be in the next few months,” West says.

The number of people entering the workforce again had been steadily increasing — but made a slight drop in August. West says that can be attributed to one group in particular. “We had 13-hundred people who left the workforce this last month. A large group of those folks appeared to be male — and a lot of them look to have retired over the age of 65,” according to West. He says a lot of them are Baby Boomers who have retired — and there are still questions about why they’ve left the workforce now. “We weren’t really sure if a lot of them decided to retire, perhaps could have retired pre-COVID, but after COVID hit decided to say “You know what, I’m done for now,” West says. “Again, we still need a few more months to see where that ends up.”

He says there is a chance some of them may reconsider. “That Baby Boomer group makes up such a big part of the workforce, a lot of experience. Hopefully we can attract some of those individuals back into the workforce at some point,” West says. The labor force participation rate declined from by a tenth of a percent to 66-point-eight percent in August.

(Radio Iowa) – The non-profit that provides blood and blood products to 120 hospitals in Iowa, Nebraska and South Dakota is urging people to schedule appointments to give blood as soon as possible. Claire DeRoin, spokeswoman for LifeServe Blood Center, says supplies took a heavy hit in recent days after multiple hospitals in central Iowa performed transfusions on several patients. “Those people can receive 30 to 60 units of blood,” DeRoin says. “To put that in perspective, the average blood drive collects about 30 units, so to have one single patient receiving two entire blood drives worth of blood, that’s the reality and it puts us in a pretty scary place.”

A five-day supply of any given blood type is considered ideal, but DeRoin says it’s uncommon to have that much in stock. Supplies are now dangerously low. “A couple of our blood types are less than a two-day supply and that means it’s critical and sometimes it can even dip down to a one-day supply,” DeRoin says. “That’s when we reach out to the community and say, ‘This is an emergency, we are asking for your help, this is a critical appeal,’ so please, donate if you can.”

Blood of all types is welcome. “Really, any donor can help us out right now,” DeRoin says. “We are particularly low on O-negative and O-positive blood as well as platelets, in case there are any platelets donors. Platelets are just another component of the blood, in addition to red blood cells.”

Under a new program called “Thank The Donor,” some blood donors may later receive notes from the patients whose lives they helped to save. LifeServe has donor centers in Ames, Des Moines, Fort Dodge, Mason City, Marshalltown, Sioux City, and Urbandale. Call 800-287-4903 or visit www.lifeservebloodcenter.org.