(Radio Iowa) – Winnebago Industries reports record revenue for its just-completed fiscal year. The outdoor lifestyle products manufacturer with Iowa factories in Forest City, Lake Mills, Charles City and Waverly reports revenues of five-billion dollars for Fiscal Year 2022, rising almost 37-percent from three-point-six billion in Fiscal ’21. C-E-O Michael Happe  says that was driven by the recently-acquired Barletta boats, pricing actions, and strong consumer demand for the company’s products.

“Over the past seven fiscal years, we have been laser focused on enhancing and strengthening our enterprise portfolio,” Happe says. “The success that those initiatives has created a more diversified, resilient, competitive, and profitable Winnebago Industries. This was never more evident than in Fiscal Year 2022 when our company achieved record revenue, profitability, and overall outdoor market share.”

The outdoor lifestyle product market boomed beginning with the start of the pandemic as more people turned to the outdoors, and Happe says the company continues to benefit from that increased demand for the Winnebago, Grand Design and Newmar recreational vehicle brands as well as Chris-Craft and Barletta boats.  “It is no secret that demand for outdoor products exploded in the last two years, and that new consumer trends have emerged which will impact our industries forever,” he says. “Thanks to the relentless focus, commitment and heart of our world-class team here, we’ve delivered on unprecedented levels of demand for our premium products as new and existing consumers embrace the outdoor lifestyle.”

Happe says the results for the fourth quarter and the fiscal year overall show the company’s flexibility and ability to deliver in a volatile economic climate.  “Winnebago Industries’ fourth quarter results were a strong finish to an outstanding year in which we delivered record revenue and profitability,” Happe says. “We recorded fourth quarter net revenues of $1.2 billion, which represent a 14% increase over the same period last year.”

Winnebago Industries’ net income for the fourth quarter was $82.6 million, and for the year, the company reported a profit of $390.6 million.

(Radio Iowa) – As some of her fellow Republicans call for deep cuts or an end to U-S aid for Ukraine, Iowa Senator Joni Ernst suggests that would be a dangerous step. “Do we want to live in a world where countries are free and can maintain their own sovereignty and their own borders or do we want to live in a world where Putin and President Xi and other authoritarians can just roll over whatever country they want without repercussions?” Ernst asks.

The Republican poised to be House Speaker if the G-O-P gains control of congress next year says the G-O-P will no longer give the Biden Administration a blank check for the war in Ukraine — and will insist on a plan for ending the conflict. While Ernst agrees unlimited spending on the war effort is unwise, she says the U.S. needs to keep supporting Ukraine. “But make sure that there’s absolute transparency with how we’re doing that,” Ernst says. “…People want to know how the dollars are being spent. They want to know what is being delivered to Ukraine.”

However, Ernst says that doesn’t mean congress should specify exactly what weapons and military equipment is shipped there. “Everything is so fluid on the ground,” Ernst says, “and we need to be able to provide them with what they need when they need it.” The U-S Defense Department is coordinating all the military aid the United States and its allies are providing Ukraine in its fight against Putin’s military.

“I think as long as they are willing to do that and stop this horrible, horrible man who also wants to do the U.S. harm, I think then we allow the Ukrainians to do that,” Ernst says.

In 2014, Ernst became the first female combat veteran elected to the U.S. Senate. In late 2015, she retired from the Iowa National Guard as a lieutenant colonel. She is now part of Senate G-O-P leadership as the vice chairman of the Senate Republican Conference.

(Atlantic, Iowa) – The Atlantic City Council, Wednesday evening, bid farewell to the City’s Parks and Recreation Department Director. Bryant Rasmussen tendered his resignation earlier this month. Friday is his last day. He been with the Parks and Rec Department since Nov., 2018. Rasmussen has accepted a position with the USDA’s Soil and Water Conservation District, in Mills County.

Bryant Rasmussen

Mayor Grace Garrett said “Bryant’s accomplishments over the past over the past four-years are too numerous to mention in detail,” but she went on to mention a few. She called one of his greatest accomplishments the spearheading of the Bull Creek Restoration Project, which had been in discussion for decades because the financial resources could not meet the regulatory requirements. The Mayor said “Bryant’s vision and expertise in earth science resulted in the project finally getting done. And I must say, it looks great,” she said. Garrett said Bryant will “be greatly missed.” She recognized him for “his contributions in making our parks and recreation opportunities a point of pride for the community.”

In other business, the Council:

• Passed (6-0, with Councilman Pat McCurdy abstaining) a Resolution “Releasing the remainder of the Insurance Proceeds due to property located at 611 Locust Street, to the property owners.” The step was necessitated by the insurance carrier so that retainage of funds intended for the demolition and removal of burned and severely damaged structures, can be released by the City to the property owner. The rental home at 611 Locust was destroyed by a fire on May 10, 2022.
• The Council passed – by a vote of six-to-one – a Resolution authorizing and approving a loan agreement and providing for the issuance of $500,000 in taxable general obligation land acquisition bonds and the levy of taxes. This is with regard to the purchase of land for housing development in the City. Councilman H. Lee Sisco was the loan “Nay” vote.
• They passed (7-0) the first reading of an Ordinance amending the City Code, by changing the zoning classification of certain real property from R-3 (High Density Single Family Residential) to C-1 (Highway Commercial District), and changing the zoning map to reflect the change. They then proceeded to waive the second reading and pass the ordinance on the third and final reading.
• And, the Council passed (7-0) the first reading of an Ordinance that calls for Vacating that portion of Country Oaks Right-of-Way, between 2703 Country Oaks and 2605 Country Oaks.

City Administrator John Lund was unable to attend the Council meeting Wednesday evening, but Mayor Garrett spoke on his behalf. She mentioned Lund wanted the Council to know that the City of Atlantic Animal Shelter was given a State Inspection score of A++. Garrett said “I think we can be very proud of our City Animal Shelter.” She congratulated Shelter Director Kris Erickson for her work in making the score as high as it was.

The Mayor said citizens of the community, that with the changing of seasons, comes a reminder of the Snow Ordinance, the proper places to park your vehicles during appreciable accumulation of snow, and, that residents must clear snow and ice from your entire sidewalk within 24-hours of the cessation of snow/ice fall.  If you are unsure of what your responsibilities are, please call the Atlantic City Hall.

(Radio Iowa) – Iowans in almost every county can now get instant messages about threatening weather, missing persons, and other emergency situations unfolding nearby. Tracey Bearden, the 9-1-1 coordinator for the Polk County Emergency Management Agency, says Iowa’s most populous county is upgrading from Code Red to the new Alert Iowa system starting today (Wednesday).

“We are going to be using it for weather alerts, for warnings to include severe thunderstorm warnings, tornado warnings, flood warnings, blizzard warnings, flash flood warnings, and extremely high wind warnings,” Bearden says. “Citizens can go to our website and an opt in for that.” Iowans can pick how they’d like to be notified, whether it’s by voice on a landline phone, by text to a cell phone, or by email. Bearden says it’s important to stay connected, especially if there’s a missing child or adult, dangerous storms, search-and-rescue, or an active crime scene. 

“We’ve had in the past where citizens have called and wondered why they didn’t receive information,” Bearden says. “One case was, they had to shelter in place because of an armed suspect inside a home and they didn’t know what was going on.” There’s no charge for the service and if you don’t opt-in, she says you could miss important safety information.

“So if you go to the Iowa Emergency Management Homeland Security website, you can see which counties have opted in and which have not,” Bearden says, “but the majority, I think there’s only four to six that have not opted into the Alert Iowa system. So that’s a good thing. You need to opt in for each individual county.”

The alerts will tell users what’s happening, what local officials are doing to protect the community, and what users need to do to remain safe. Bearden says a follow-up alert will be sent to inform users when the emergency is over.